Hi all...

I'm new to this community and offer my "Hello" to you. I'm here for advice on my spouse's Austro Daimler Vent Noir which she purchased in 1980 and has been sitting in our storage for 10-15yrs. We don't ride bicycles and have been thinking of selling the bike since it has an incredible pedigree. Knowing little about the value of any classic bicycle, I'm asking about it's current value, how to properly get it ready for market and who might be the appropriate venue for selling it.

The frame is the 53cm type for women or smaller men. When my wife purchased this bike in 1980 she removed the decals because she thought it might get pinched in San Francisco where we live. Nothing else has been changed or damaged since then; as I said it hasn't been on the road for years. It needs a good cleaning/lubricating, brake adjustment, etc. All Campy parts, Cinelli handlebars, etc., etc. It's all original from the date of purchase. We even have the original owners manual(in good shape)and warranty cards.

I'm posting some pics...this is how she looks right now. Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Curtis Schumann
Caren Russell
San Francisco, California Republic

Turn the bars around and lose the rack and it will look more like the no-less-than-$300 bike it is. If you do some cleaning and polishing, you can probably do better than that in San Francisco.

mmmm...smoked chrome! I think there was one of this vintage (larger size, tho) that was posted over-and-over again on the SF CL and the asking price was in the $400 neighborhood. Either it finally sold or the seller gave up. This was back a couple years ago and nowadays all bikes are selling higher than then. But the other lesson is there's not many people (in SF or anywhere) familiar with these bikes so demand may be low. The Gran Sport stuff is slightly less valuable than Nuovo Record components, and if it were mine I'd put a nicer saddle on it before posting pix on CL, that one really brings down the whole tone of what's a much classier frame. You should also mention that it's a Reynolds 531 frame, despite the missing decal that would say it is.