My neighbor found this bike in his attic. He swears he had never seen it before, his wife swears it was his and he moved into the house with it 15 years ago. I dunno, could go either way. There was a tenant in the upstairs of that house who left a lot of stuff behind.

Anyway: 70s era Batavus 'Monte Carlo,' hi ten frame, cottered crank, early Shimano derailleurs ('Lark' and 'Thunderbird,' I guess the stem shifters are 'Albatross' or something). All original except for the seat (probably was an Ideale or Brooks )Weinmann brakes with original pads (scary), dimpled steel wheels each with a nice ding (scarier), even the tires appear to be original, and the tubes hold air (OMG)!

I'm either given this bike as a gift or am selling it on CL and splitting the proceeds with said neighbor. Maybe we'll take our sons out to a meal...though nothing fancy. It's a bit too big for me even if I did want it.

The bike may not be very interesting but for one thing: the frame is nicely lugged and appears to have zero rust. There's even a pantographed B in the seat stays. And with its purple paint, cool headbadge and Sheboygan registration sticker, I thought it might have considerable hipster appeal for fixification.

I assume putting any work into a bike that's going to be taken apart would be wasted effort. For sure no new parts, though if the tires go bad I have a set of old Miyatas off an 80s bike that would be an improvement. If I sell, it'll be with a 30/30 warranty. 30 seconds or 30 feet!

What do you guys think the potential is, money wise or as a building project?

Obviously a lower end bike. With new brake pads, tires, cables, bar tape, bearings overhauled, maybe $125-150 in a hot market like Chicagoland. $100 in my market.

In other words, with $100 in parts and a few hours of work it might be worth $100?

I put up a $100/BO ad Sunday just to see if there was a live one out there, maybe some hipster who'd had one too many PBRs, but no dice.

Maybe better luck next weekend. Like I said, no way is this bike getting anything done to it aside from the bare minimum to make it 1. go and 2 (optional) stop.

As you can tell, this one is pretty much for laughs. Last summer I sold a much worse bike, a Sears 10 speed (no not a Puch built one) that someone had found in their apartment basement and given to my daughter, even though she is 5' 2" and the bike was a 23" frame. It had a cracked stem, cables with electrical tape in lieu of ferrules, and stem shifters fitted onto the top tube. I replaced the stem. I ran a sarcastic (and truthful) ad for it and got several replies, including an offer of a 'G of blonde kief' which did not materialize. Apparently it's some kind of intoxicant.

Finally got $50, watched the buyer wobble away on the bike. I made sure to do that transaction in a neutral location!

The kief offer didn't come thru? Too bad.

You could get those parts for less than $100, too. But you know that.

Good luck with your sale. As my wife said to me when something I sold on eBay didn't garner what I thought it should, "Anything more than $0 is more than what you had."

Looks like I've got a buyer at $80. I listed as also open to trades and was hoping someone would come through with a Brooks, but that would have been too good to be true. So my neighbor and I each get not just a 12 pack but a case...of something good!

Cool!