Is this even realistic?
 

I just saw this on eBay: LINK and am shocked at the price! Granted, it is still new (somehow), but the bike didn't sell for that new? And there are better steel bikes you can get now for not too much more than this.

I have one of these older Touring 14s in the US, and am currently mulling over the idea of having it shipped over, so here's a question. What would one of these be worth today, used and in good shape? bad shape? (I have no idea what my bike looks like today. It's been sitting in a friend's garage for almost 10 years, and I fear it may have more than surface rust on it--one of the things I will look into--I painted it, and one thing I did was spray the insides with primer using an air system (not rattle-can), so I doubt it's very rusty inside).

So, would anybody here pay this price for this bike on eBay? Or do y'all think it's a bit over the top?

Curious minds...

-Jon

If it were the bike I was looking for, I would pay the price. Nicely equipped. Think about what one might pay for a comparable bike from an LBS.

The Touring 14 was a nice bike. My brother had one in the mid-eighties, and I wish I knew what happened to it. But, in my opinion, it is not worth anything near $700. It's not, as far as I know, especially collectible. Without a triple crank, it's not really a serious touring bike. I suppose a near-perfect example (and the bike in the ad appears to be one) might be worth, say, $200?

Way over the top. And I'd bet the bike isn't new, but just a garage queen.

I dunno. I'm betting this bike is still "new." Look at the grease on the freewheel. That freewheel looks like it's never really been used. The scratches on the top tube are obviously from the bar-end shifters--the only downfall of those kind of shifters, IMO. :-) In fact, when I was putting my own 14 back together after painting it, I scratched the top tube with my shifters. :-) Either way, I am glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks this bike is a tad over priced. :-)

Does anybody know anything about what steel was used in this bike?

-Jon

$700 is a bit steep, especially considering it doesn't have a triple.
$200 would be a steal if it was the bike you are looking for. $500
tops and that only if it really fit your needs. You can get a nice
Trek 520 or a Miyata 1000 with a triple for $700.

Who made it for Raleigh?

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...uring14008.jpg

I don't know, but in the '79 catalog, this bike is called the Rampar Touring 14. So, who ever made the Rampar bikes made this, I would guess.

-Jon

I second that appraisal.

As I recall, Rampar was low end stuff that Raleigh introduced to compete with the Schwinns being imported from Taiwan.

I were selling it on CL here in Chicago, I'd ask $400, and take $350. And, it would definitely sell.

This is based on the assumption that I'd overhaul it from top to bottom. As it is, with 20 year old grease in it, I'd ask $300 and take $250.

But, bear in mind, there are ads on CL every day here asking for road bikes. Of course, a single speed Huffy could fetch $200 here. It's nuts.

I had a nearly NOS Windsor Touring Elite (Columbus tubing, Suntour derailers, sexy chrome lugs) that I sold for $395. It was a bit nicer than this Fuji, I'd say, but not by much. I wondered if I was asking too much but the first guy that came over paid the asking price. He seemed knowledgeable enough, so the answer is that it wasn't too much.

But, $700 is too much anywhere.

Could there be more than one definition of "NOS"?

$700 is way more than what I would pay. Are you interested in it to ride?

The below functionally better equipped RB-T went for $700 last week in this auction.

http://i21.ebayimg.com/05/i/001/05/0c/63d0_1.JPG

Oh, no! My interest is a bit different. I didn't explain myself too clearly in my original post, so I'll rephrase it better now, especially now that I have better info on my own bike.

I have this model--bought it in 1986. My Touring 14, however, is a bit older, I think, because it came with Mavic 40 spoke wheels and an Avocet saddle (the saddle came on the 1979 model year). It's been sitting at a friend's house since 1995 or thereabouts. Since I have found it impossible to find a decent-sized bike here in Krakow, equipped like I like (everything here is either high-end road bike, or low-end mountain bike), I decided I would call my friend, and see what kind of shape it was in. I have long feared that he let it rust out, but he hasn't. So, I was looking on eBay to see how much these things are selling for, to see if it might be worth shipping my bike from Ohio to Krakow, Poland. That was when I found this auction, and just had to know what others thought of the price. :-)

Also, since all of your replies, and further knowledge of the cost of shipping, I have decided to move forward, and ship my bike to me here. It turns out my friend has been selling some bikes on eBay, and has become proficient in packing bikes (I grilled him), and knows the cost ~$35 FedEx. I found a private shipping firm that will do the shipping from the US to Poland for about the same price. So, ~$70 for the entire thing seems to fall well within the value of the bike, and cheaper than buying a comparable bike of the same or even newer vintage. So, we are moving forward. If ever this baby survives the journey, I'll post pics of it. :-)

It won't look like this bike, however! For one, I was forced to repaint it several years ago, due to pervasive rust. I repainted it together with a friend in an auto paint shop, stripping to bare metal, and removing all traces of rust, and also, I painted inside the tubes where i could, hoping that it would permeate to every part. I don't know if that was a good idea or not, but that's what I did. :-) Oh, the bike is a Mediterranian sky blue now, and the only rust seems to be on the chrome forks. That'll be fun to get rid of. I have no desire to ruin that chrome, and hope that I can remove the rust without ruining the chrome. If not, I will probably pay someone local to re-chrome it. (labor is still cheap here). I know it was a so-so bike in its day, and is probably less today, but I have thousands of miles on that bike, and tons of memories.

So, everybody's feedback has been wonderful, and I greatly appreciate your assessments! This forum "rocks" (imagine a 43 yr old saying that!) ;-)

-Jon

I just finished converting my late 70s Rampar R-1 to a single speed. Rampars were entry level bikes sold at bike shops -- definitely a step above department store quality.

I've never seen a bike dual-branded Raleigh and Rampar. Is this something Raleigh started doing when the Rampar line was being phased out?

I don't know myself, but this bicycle always seems to have been dual-branded. Here's some scans from the '79 catalog. And I don't think the name "Rampar" ever appeared on this bike, even though that weird "R" is on the forks.
http://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies/ralei...igh_79_Larger/

The specs for the bikes are toward the bottom of the web page.

BTW, anybody know what Tange high tension steel is? and how it compares to cro mo? I seem to recall somebody comparing it to "gas pipe" which strikes me as absurd. I owned a genuine gas-pipe bike once--a Huffy, and it was obviously rolled and sealed pipe, not extruded tubing. I know this bike has genuine tubing, as I've stripped it to bare metal. It always rode comfortably, and the frame was light, too... so what is high tensile tange steel?

-Jon

NOS to me means New Old Stock. It had better be in brand new condition with some minor shop wear, otherwise it is gently used, or barely ridden or???

Aaron:)

Jon,
Not positive but I think that the Tange high tension steel is their form of carbon steel tubing, still considered gas pipe by many people. FWIW my Raleigh Superbe is made out of 1020 tubing as is my Moby. The Moby frame isn't all that heavy for what it is, and it is a drawn tubing, not a rolled.

Aaron:)

The bike is a bit of an oddity as a touring bike. It seems that a lot of parts were simply shared between models and it lacks some of the more serious bits one would expect from one type of bike, and might expect on something of a quite different nature - and even on an earlier year of bike. My guess would be that Raleigh was suddenly trying to dabble in the Touring bike arena of the 1980s, and had to scramble a bit. So, some things were just overlooked entirely or were just left on what remained of another model of "stock" frameset in the frenzy to at least toss SOMETHING into the catalogue.

To be more specific:
I could go on and on...

But basically, again, to me it just looks to be a hastily tossed together bike made to fit a specific marketing niche, but with little serious thought invested in what was really needed for the actual type of bike it was presented as.

Excellent condition, to be sure. However the price would be more in line with a much better quality bike than this one actually is. The problem here is that the bike which was preserved in near mint condition for 20 years was really not worth the trouble. Has anyone bothered to save a 1980s Buick Century car in mint new-old-stock condition? Or, what will a typical Tiagra-equipped level of road bike from today be worth in 20 years.

Compare the price of another very nice condition "Real" touring bike, a 1985 Schwinn Voyageur SP with Columbus tubing and ALL the serious touring goodies found on the best of the genre, at auction currently: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=003 This would be worth consideration and also might be worth decent money by someone seeking a touring bike.

I think this Touring 14 is (and was) just a mid-range road bike with a few touring pretenses added. And I suspect the main selling point would have been the 7-speed freewheel... just as 10-speeds may be the way to represent a pretty basic road bike today as something fancy or special. :rolleyes:

I missed out on an RB-T in near new condition for $125 on CL earlier this year. That still stings.

We need to keep in mind that this is not a mid or late 80s bike, but a 1979 bicycle. I don't know where the guy got his date from, but this bike was sold between the years of 1979 and 1981 and maybe 82 or 83. In 1984, Raleigh introduced their touring line, including the Kodiak and the weirdly-named Aleskya. (some place in Alaska). I think this seller bought out a store that closed in 1988 (I've seen other items from him that mentioned a store that closed in 1988), which is probably where he figured the date from. But if you will check the link I gave, to the 1979 catalog, you will definitely recognize this bike. Not to take away from what you said--this was surely a mid-range bicycle, and nothing special spec-wise, but at its age, it was probably a bit less low-end than the impression gives.... Not that I know, of course. :-)

I only know what I experienced personally, namely that mine served me about 10 years of some heavy usage, including a head-on confrontation with a curb that taco-ed my front tire without any visible damage to my fork or frame, and which withstood several more years before being retired for the next 10 years. I'm hoping to put it back into action again shortly. :-)

And no, I'm not at all interested in this particular eBay auction. I was just shocked to see the price! I never would have thought this bike worth even half that --brand new, even! ;-)

-Jon

The problem with zombies is that they aren't really dead. ;-) Thanks for this link. Yet another to add to my collection! Appreciated.

That's been for sale before. I didn't bid then, either.

Well, somebody apparently did--for $685. Wow....

-Jon

Holy cow, yeah the bikes are nice but man that is too much $

No they didn't. It's back for sale now. $255 but not yet at reserve.