roccobike

IMHO, I dont' believe there is a price bubble. My theory is, the supply of used bikes from the 70s and 80s are being consumed. The 1990s will soon start to show up at yard sales, thrift stores and CL. There were two changes that occurred in the 1990s that will influence prices of old steel road bikes 1) aluminum road bikes, and 2) hybrids. As the 1990s moved along, aluminum bikes became the desired bike frames replacing and diminishing the supply of steel bike frames that will be available. Keep in mind, many of these aluminum bikes have vertical drop outs that will be less attractive to the fixie crowd. Personally, I've already noticed a price drop in used, aluminum road bikes that don't have brifters, (with the exception of Cannondale). The second factor, hybrids replaced most of the low end road bikes. While the presence of hybrids will have less of an affect than aluminum, as used bikes, they will only fill a smaller portion of the used bike market. So my opinion is, enjoy cheap steel framed road bikes while you can, that market will change in the near future.
But as far as used bikes go, if you like to mess around with old, rigid fork MTBs, and hybrids, life is good as there are plenty of them to go around.
I've not evaluated the influence of Magna, Roadmaster, Triax and the Wally World Schwinns on the market place. I'm guessing they'll just replace the supply of Murrays and Huffys.
Of course the price of used bikes pales in comparison to what's happened to my retirement fund, but it's fun to speculate while I measure how many more years I'll have to work.