Originally Posted by
bikemig
Are you disagreeing that an 80s era road bike from Trek is worth more than an 80s era mtb? Ditto for specialized, miyata, etc? Because if you are, that is contrary to my experience in buying and selling vintage bikes. Both in buying and selling bikes for myself and in seeing the prices for bikes in the C&V valuation forum, road bikes as a rule go for more than equivalent quality mtbs. To use one example, last year I bought two vintage Treks: a 1984 Trek 610 frame and a complete 1992 Trek 950. Roughly comparable quality bikes and I paid exactly the same for both ($125 each). I think that's FMV for both and the road bike was considerably more expensive since it was just a frame.
Or maybe you're saying that top end mtb from a major manufacturer like Trek or Specialized is just run of the mill stuff like the "boom bikes." I've seen Trek 950s/970s and Spec stump jumpers go for not a heck of a lot locally and I think they're really nice made bikes with high quality seamless chrome moly tubing and good quality shimano or sun tour running gear.
I see what you're saying and yes I am essentially saying the later. That unless it has XT or XTR it's akin to a boom bike because it was produced in such large numbers and sold to people who never used them so they have limited value even though the quality is good. I think also Trek and Specilized were quiet large by that time and their earlier road bicycles may carry more "hand built" cache that was gone by the era of the mass produced MTB. In the early 1990s other smaller american brands filled that niche/position that Trek had in the 1970s and that those MTBs are valuable and will continue to be so. I think we'll also see some of the higher end models from big 1990s companies appreciate and indeed some already have.
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1 Super Record bike, 1 Nuovo Record bike, 1 Pista, 1 Road, 1 Cyclocross/Allrounder, 1 MTB, 1 Touring, 1 Fixed gear