So I've been watching for a good deal on a bareknuckle in my size on ebay and I come across this. I've never seen the cable anchors before, are they new? On all models?

In no way is it a deal breaker, that frame's too big for me but I'm interested to know what's out there.

my question is why someone would sell a brand new bareknuckle for 380$

i guess they make sense since the frame is drilled for a rear brake... but im glad mine doesnt have any cable guides.

yeah thats a good price for brand new.

hehehe as the seller, I can tell you: I got a GREAT deal on it, lbs was blowing out below cost (! or so they told me), and as it's too big for me, I put it here in the "Wanna Trade" thread as well as eBay.

My friend got his BK on ebay for about $380.

Seems to be the approximate going rate for Ebay buy it now deals. Now if only there were a 54 that was black or green...

I do believe a green 54 is exactly what I friend snagged.

they're not real bareknuckles. The shop that sells them in long beach Jones Bicycles tried to sell me one too in december for like $350 claiming that they just wanted to get rid of them. I was totally stoked to be getting a BK for $350, but decided that I wanted to go home and do some research and try to figure out what size i would need. After lookng at every single bareknuckle frame online and not finding any mention or picture of cable guides on the frames i started to realize that there was no way they really bareknuckle frames.
Jones Bicycles was also the shop that was selling those "area 51" track frames on ebay a while back too. When i was at the shop i saw one of the area 51 frames and asked about them and they said that the owner of the shop knew the guy who made them and that they were just trying to sell them as a favor. I thought it was a little odd that the store carried these area 51 frames that were not drilled for a front brake but had cable guides for a rear brake and the frame that they call a bareknuckle also have the same rear brake cable guides. Seems like maybe the work of the same builder?
It all reaked of bulls*** to me. The frame is probably fine, but i wouldn't but it expecting it to be a bareknuckle. The whole experience at the shop just left a bad taste in my mouth, i mean cmon a fake bareknuckle? What the ****...

For what it's worth, my friend's does not have cable guides.
And that fact that this one does have them does strike me as very odd.

Upon further inspection, real BKs have a little lug at the top of the seat tube that the one in question does not.

+1

former BK owner
just saying. not trying to ruffle any feathers, but it's exactly what i thought.
SAME:
fork
track ends
rear brake bridge

NOT SAME:
seat cluster
cable guides

somebody email business cycles. they will know.

nice eyes on the seatpost lug. I was looking for something else to distinguish the two. I'm still just blown away that the shop actually called them BKs

Hmmmm. I bought mine at Jones... is there any other way to tell? The welding is nice, the frame is LIGHT, so I assumed all is well. I certainly don't want to be selling bogus stuff. It also has a Miche seatpost bolt...anyone?

On the other hand, why would anyone trouble themselves making a copy of something so danged obscure? I mean, it's not like Bare Knuckles are super well-known. Even the same colors? Come on...

BTW, those Area 51 frames are SUPER ugly.

The one's I've seen have Sugino seat post binder bolts.

If I were you, I'd pull the auction. You're risking a lot of trouble. While similar, after handling BK frames as much as I have, it's probably not a real one. There is an outside possibility that maybe it was a first run or something, but it's not what we currently know as a BK.

Be a good dude and pull the auction and take the bike back to the shop and politely ask them what is going on.

+1 to everyone who pointed out BK frames have a seat cluster lug & no cable guides.

The Speculation can end! I e-mailed Euro-Asia Imports and got this response:

"Thank you for your message / inquiry. Yes, this is one of our frames and actually quite rare. This is one of only four Bare Knuckle frames that had cable guides, within this small production there was also a White Bare Knuckle ( only one made ). These four frames were custom made made for EAI's 2004 Interbike show booth. We hope that you enjoy your new frame! Very best regards, Dave Lundegard / Euro-Asia Imports "

So THAT's it, it's an early production prototype. Sweet!

Thanks for asking!

Sweet! Thanks for being a cool dude and actually looking into it. There are so many ******* out there.

I stand corrected, my bad. Sorry to be talkin s*** on your frame joelv. I'm glad euroasia did decide to get rid of the cable guides. Cheers.

Very rad.
Now add "rare" to the title description and add $100 to the BIN.

Haha, way ahead of you

And no offense taken by any of it, if it hadn't been challenged, I wouldn't have known!

still looks better n my black 54 bk that I trashed at ttown! By trashed I mean destroying the fork and criping the downtube against a down rider's back! Lucky he wasn't hurt much. Me I gots the broke back colar bone and needs me a new frame...damnit!

As one of the owners of another of the 4 frames with cable guides, i'm pretty stoked about this.

i'm really sort of wishing i would have picked one up now. Even though i don't dig the cable guides $350 still would have been a pretty good deal for a deda track frame and fork. meh too bad.

i was gonna buy one of these frames because it was my perfect size, but Joelv bought the last one two days before I got paid! oh well. anyway, I was gonna say that these frames are prototypes, but someone gave everyone the answer before me.