Originally Posted by
bikemig
We're talking apples and oranges. The high end production vintage mtbs from companies like specialized and trek aren't worth much. Some of the b'stones are worth a bit more. Take a top end specialized mtb from the most of the 80s and compare it to a similar specialized road bike or do the same calculation with a trek. Very different prices for road and mtb. Like I said, they're not worth much. Thrifty Bill got it right in post no. 26 above.
I respectfully disagree.
High end production bikes roads bikes from Specilized and Trek are not all that crazy valuable either, the top S-works and some of the crazy treks from that period will likely become collectable to some extend, not as much as the pioneers of mountain biking like potts, breezers, ritcheys, bontragers, but then I would argue that those pioneers are a little more akin to the first treks and cannondales (also not particularly valuable). Lots of vintage MTBs are selling for extremely high prices including, Kleins, Yeti, Fat Chance, anything titanium, Kona explosif or hot, rocky mountain thunderbolts and ti-bolts, the list goes on, and components from Paul and precision and other CNC companies are quiet valuable, Tried to buy a first gen syncros stem with noodle lately? The price would make your jaw drop. Got a second gen 29.4 syncros seatpost? $150 no problem. How about any ringle? Some ti holey skewers in 3DV? $100 no problem.
There was a boom in the 1990s of run of the mill mountain bikes and they are relatively worthless but so are all the crap bike boom 10 speeds from the 1970s and mid to low end road bikes from the same period and into the 80s. The phenomenon is no different. In both eras there was high end racing stuff and nice hand built frames and production stuff that was for everyman and doesn't hold the same cache or market value.