inscope

Hello members. Good to see such an active community. I am cleaning out Dad's basement and have this bicycle my grandfather supposedly imported in pieces and assembled here in US. I havent seen any thing similar on Ebay etc. so I am seeking thoughts..is there a collectable market for this? It has Torpado emblem on chromed frame. Probably built in 1930's or 1940's. Grandfather said it was a board track racer. It has some add-on stuff that isnt original. I drove it around in the 60's when I was a teenager. Thanks for any info.

lostarchitect 

That is really cool, and there is definitely a market for older track frames. I can't estimate price because I don't know enough about this, but I'm sure you'd be able to sell it for a good price. Someone else will come along and give you an idea of value. Thanks for sharing.

Ed.

Where are you located?

inscope

I am 30 miles north of New York City near Tappan Zee Bridge, Nyack, NY

Thumpic

Don't sell it to the first offer; do some significant research. There's probably a reason you didn't see many like it.

mparker326

The stem alone is worth good money.

Giacomo 1 

It's tough to put a price on this one because of it's age and rarity.

I think, like thumpic above, that you should really do a thorough research of this specific bike and then get into other older track bikes, then Italian track bikes and so on. Find out everything you can, because this one can really be worth something. And I agree with mparker that the bar and stem alone is worth some real money.

Also, the components the bike is made up will add or detract from value. Is the headset, BB, pedals, crank set, etc. Campagnolo? If so, that will bring up the value considerably.

The Torpado brand was an important one in Italian bike history, but it doesn't have the panache of say Colnago or Pinarello. But in general, Italian track bikes do bring a lot of money, so do your homework, clean her up and take a lot of pictures! That is important.

Being that it was your granfathers, are you sure you want to sell it? You might regret that sometime in the future. Just saying...

Good luck!

repechage

Little if any of the components appear to be Campagnolo. Which is okay. This bike is before Campagnolo made a full pista group.
Price is treacherous to provide with the limited images. Condition will play a large part.

0.2HP

A couple of other things that affect price:


1. Chrome frame increases price, but not so much if it is not the original factory chrome.
2. Looks like Schrader valves on those tires, therefore the wheels are not original, decreasing price.
3. Looks like wing nuts holding the wheels on. People like them and will pay more for a bike with them, but they were outlawed on real track bikes some time in the 20s? 30s?. So they are not original to the bikes and this lowers the value to a real collector.