i got an old kia ladies bike. the shifting on it is wierd. it has a one sprocket and one freewheel. it shifts inside the hub like a transmission. everything works pretty good. how do i tell what year this bike is. also would it be worth getting a new seat,tires, tubes, getting the rims straightened, brake pads, and the left pedal? i've never seen the brand kia????

According to most reports, Kia is the same company (Korean) that makes Kia cars.... or, is related to that company.

It's worth all the effort if you really like it and are going to ride it it.

no i plan on reselling it. i just wanted to know if putting $50 into it is going to get me $100. i already have a bike i ride around on.

it will if someone will buy it for $100

Most of us do this for the fun of it. If you are in it solely to make money, I would suggest you get a job at Wal-mart. It pays a lot better. It is not unusual for me to sell a bike for $100 more than I paid for it. However, I usually have about 20 to 40 hours of labor invested as well.
The starting pay at the local McDonald's is about $9/hr.
If you want to fix up the bike for fun, go for it, you might be able to get a little money out of it.. If you want to fix it for profit, junk it.

i geuss i'll junk it then. thanks for your opinions!

Really?

Yes. At least where I live. Minimum wage is $8/hr, remember? But where I live you need at least $12/hr to be able to eat and still have a place to live.

Please see my location, didn't think minimum wage was so high in the US.You learn something every day.

In my neck of the woods, if you don't offer at least $10/hr for the most menial job you'll get no takers. The marketplace drives wages around here - "minimum wage" laws serve no purpose.

Who put the price tag of $50 for parts on it either?

That said, I'd feel lucky if I got $75 out of a good running Kia. Pretty much usual Taiwanese junk of the '80s sold by cheap bike shops.

-Kurt

dude. i had no idea the what the worth of this bike is. thats why i came here. i estimated $50 because i was going to have the bike shop do most of the work. i geuss i'll put some tubes in it and try to get $20. if not, its off to the junkyard.

Stuff a pair of tubes in it and assess it's reliability. Not too hard to do your own repairs - see www.sheldonbrown.com.

-Kurt

i know how to do repair on bikes. its just that the back rim is really bent and i don't have that thing that helps you get them straight. i think its called a truer. also i don't want to replace the back wheel because i don't want to spend any money i don't have to. i worked on it today. and a pedal is broke off. everything works on it it just needs straight rims, tires, tubes, and a pedal and it would be a very reliable bike. shifter and brakes work surprisingly good. also the sprocket is straight and the shifter works perfect.

You can get a cheap spoke tool at the local shop for a buck or so. Leave the wheel in the frame and use the rear brake as a guide as to how much you have to adjust the spokes. Won't work perfectly, but it will be better then before.

-Kurt

You are pretty much assured of not making any money off the bike if you have to pay shop rates for repairs.

Post a pic here if you can, hard to say much without seeing it.

You might also just post a local craigslist ad for it, include a pic, say what it needs, say $50/offer in the ad and see what happens.

Now, with that said, if I saw that it needs,
I'd think seat = $5-$50, tires = $25-$50/pair, tubes = $10/pair, bent rim = $0-$50, brakes pads = $5-$15, left pedal = $15=$30/pair, giving me a $60-$205 doing my own labor and not counting any spare parts I had laying around and not counting any deal or discount I could get with a relationship to an LBS.

Or, if you are willing to just junk it out then throw the local cycling community a bone and put it on the curb with a free sign on it, if it isn't gone in a day then put up a free craigslist ad with a pic and it will probably be gone within 2 hours if you're in an active area. I did that with an old propane BBQ, sat for a day on the curb with a free sign, still there when I got home from work, posted a quick CL free ad with some pics, it was gone before I went to bed so I put up a "thanks, it's gone" on the CL ad I posted.

Just the reality of stuff, sorry if this sounds gruff, hope whatever you do works out for you.

ps, where in the world are you approximately located? If you're near Milwaukee WI I'll swing by tonight and pick it up from you, I'll even throw in a 20oz bottle of soda.

Just dump it on Craigslist with "fixed gear" in the title and you'll get $100, easy.

Get out your video camera, put the bike on the curb, and wait with 911 dialed in and wait to hit "send" on your cell phone. When the obvious happens, report it stolen, then tell the suspect, "look, I'm a nice guy, $50 and you can buy it, we'll forget the whole thing." The police won't have to write a report, the guy gets the bike, and you get $50.

Everybody wins. Is this a great country, or what?

i live out in the country in california so there isn't a very active bike community up here. usually when people are on their way to the dump they stop by and give me there unwanted bikes. i usually only spend money on tubes and WD-40 and i get 20 bucks. usually my buyers are from the sacramento area, and they only buy if its in almost perfect working condition. thats why this bike seems like too much time and money to get so little. i used to race BMX for a total of about 6 or 7 years but then i started a hobby with engines. but i got a positron mens road bike for free and it works good. i just put some tubes in today and i'm selling it for 20 bucks.

+1 Rarely if ever will you make any money on a flip if you pay a shop to do the work, unless you score a top end, high value bike (very rare find indeed). On regular bikes, there just is not the margin on a flip to pay someone to do the work.

I load up on mail order sale parts ($5 tires, $2 tubes and so on), and then put the minimum into a lower end bike. The one on this thread would probably not be worth even doing that. I bought one similar to this thread, but paid $10 for it. I'll put $5 into new cables (Walmart), one new tube, clean it up a bit, and ask $75 for it. Really bought it at a weaker moment (thrift shop). Thankfully, I bought two that trip, and the other one was better, required no work (other than cleaning), and I sold it for $120.

If you are not going to do the work yourself, in the US, I would just donate the bike and take the tax write-off. Or sell the bike as is, to someone that will do the work. You could probably get $30 to $40 for it as is around here. Kind of shows that fixing it would not likely be a money making exercise....

The sad truth, plainly stated.

And the sadder truth is that if you put much in the way of parts on a flip bike your profit margin can rapidly sink to the "not worth it" level.

Sell it as is for what you can get.

LBS had a Kia Sand Piper 3 Speed bike on display this week. It looks like and feels like a Murray or Huffy grade bike.