kagemaru_26

a guy offered me some vintage road bikes, i wonder which one is the best!.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/inocenka/15542964327/

oddjob2

Go ride them and pick the one that rides the best and appears to be in the best condition. The Sekine in the foreground looks okay, but the one behind it with the shifters mounted on the downtube maybe the class act. Might be a Motobecane, but hard to tell.

If you don't have a coop nearby where they can teach you and loan you tools to prep your bike, you might take a pass because paying a local bike shop can run into the $200 range to overhaul an old bike. A $50 tuneup is insufficient.

D1andonlyDman

You're not seriously expecting some kind of informed answer from that one photo of which doesn't show the details of any of those bikes, and your post which contains no additional information, are you?

Did he offer them to you for free? Because at first glance, none of those bikes is worth very much money.

Binky

Take them all. The Sekine looks nice: so does the Norco beside it. Ditto the Nishiki. None of them particularly high end but I do see a few alloy rims and some half-chromed forks...

You had better be 5'9 or shorter because they all appear to have 21-inch frames. You will learn a lot.

turky lurkey

Is he selling them, or giving them to you?

kagemaru_26

the one behind the sekine i think is a norco and i really like it but the sekine looks nice too. so i don't know which one is should get.

kagemaru_26

he is selling them for $75 cad each. do you think it's priced reasonably?

D1andonlyDman

I don't think any of those bikes are worth more than $40-50 US or so. I'd say the Norco is the best of the bunch, but I can't really see much detail about the two in the back, and the silver one might be better, but I can't tell.

Binky

Seriously.... since you ask...
$75 for any of them is a good price if the fit is right, or if you have kids who want bikes.

Spin the wheels for wobble and flat spots, check the cranks for loose bearings, check the forks for bend damage, check the frames for fractures in the paint where the top and bottom tubes meet the head tubes, and loosen the seat tube bolts to see if the seat posts are frozen and rusted in the seat tube - ditto the handlebar stem in the forks.

But I would be tempted to ask for a bulk price -- and attempt to buy all 5 of them for $250.

oddjob2

No because they all need to be overhauled with cleaning, new cables, bearings, probably tires, bar tape, hoods. So to get them up to speed, you'll have to invest another $150-$200.

turky lurkey

I don't know specifics about any of those bikes, but they look like they are for the most part basic entry level bikes (probably decent quality entry level, not like Walmart stuff), and look to have been reasonably well taken care of. So $75 doesn't seem awful, but not great either. It depends on your local market and your intentions. If you want a project, a chance to learn how to work on bikes and $75 + another $50-$75 for parts isn't a huge part of your budget then maybe. If one of them fits you well and you like the style/looks of it then I would think you could get it without feeling ripped off. I think if the guy put them on the local Craigslist here in Colorado they would probably eventually sell, but his phone would not be ringing off the hook.

kagemaru_26

i am planning to turn the bike into a single speed/ fixed gear bike. ill probably keep the rest of the stuff, get 700c wheelset with ss/fixed and off i go.

randyjawa 

Have a look at Vintage Bicycle Quality. That should help you understand what features are found on better bikes. Armed with that knowledge, you will be in a much better position to decide what to get. Hope it helps.

Were I choosing, and to be honest, the pictures are of minimal help only, I would go for the Norco or the Sekine. The Sekine offered is very similar, in quality level, to this SHC270...

kagemaru_26

It does look like the one you posted. Upon further research i saw a similar norco bike on the internet. It is a norco magnum gt with a dia compe breaks which is pretty similar with the one on the norco.