Originally Posted by
wrk101
Around here, if I picked up a Huffy for $10, and put $75 into tires, tubes, cables, chain, freewheel, bearings, grease, brake pads, I might get $40 for the finished bike.
Put $25 into new tires and a few pennies into new grease, and sell it for $50.
Most of the Huffys I've found had barely been used - dry-rotted tires and dried up grease - the rest is usually like new aside from dust and maybe surface rust.
I once picked up a basically NOS 1986 Huffy 10 speed at the thrift shop. The gumwalls weren't even rotted. But the brakes didn't work worth a dam(n) with even the slightest mist in the air, which was a problem since I lived in Seattle at that point. I sold it on for what I had paid with a caution to get better brake pads.
Also I agree, AMF bikes are particularly loathesome. I picked up an essentially unused Western Flyer branded AMF, and the spokes had almost no tension on them. The frames also have a distressing tendency to bend with normal riding. I wouldn't even pick one up for free, except maybe to use as a lawn ornament.