For many riders they are a good value at $100 (about what they sold for in the early 1970s) when found in very good condition. The wheels are very strong and usually don't need to be trued that often. They are easy bikes for a novice mechanic to disassemble, clean and lube (I successfully first handled the job when I was 10). It probably has the easiest bottom bracket in the world to clean and repack with grease. The paint and chrome are exceptionally durable and long lasting. New tires, however, may be a slight bit of a challenge for some people to find. Tubes, however, aren't. They also invoke some nostalgia. Add a Pleitscher alloy "rat trap" rear carrier, saddle bag, clamp on water bottle cage, and a generator light set and you are ready to go!

I don't want to know what happened to whatever the rider of this baby hit, but it is probably in worse shape than the Schwinn!

Thank you for the save, Cycleheimer. No, the fork was not bent! But it's long gone now, so I can't take another photo of it.

Auchen, I don't know that there isn't a market for these in the Detroit area. This one did sit on CL for a week or two before it sold. Only one man called, but he was a serious buyer. Seems he "had one just like it" when he was a kid that he bought new with three month's earnings; five days after he bought the bike, his mom asked him to go to the corner store. Left the bike chained outside the store, and when he came out, the broken chain was all that was left of it.

And, true -- $100 was the right price. The buyer mentioned seeing a pair of similar Varsitys advertised for $110 each on the east side, but elected to buy mine. Also true -- I paid very little for that bike and replaced only the tires. Everything else was time, Barkeeper's friend, soap, and elbow grease.

Varsities are hard to kill. Other than tires, cables and brake pads, nothing on these bikes wears out.

One of strange things about them is that customers will bring them in all the time for tires, tubes and a tune up which runs about $130.00 nowadays but trying to sell one for $125.00 that's been completely overhauled, tuned, cleaned and has new tires, tubes, brake pads, and cables is very tough unless you're in the heart of a busy urban area like Philly or DC.