Tomorrows classics today

[vibr8shun]

I would say anything built by Electra will the the treasure for the 2100 pickers 8)

Yep... I kinda think that maybe the Electra and Dyno may be perhaps the classic Schwinns of tommorow...and perhaps the Basmans, Firebike, Uncle Stretch, ect... might be the holy grail "Bluebird" in 2100. :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[laguna454]

Anything MADE in U.S.A. or Western Europe.

It's a bygone era for most things, the bicycle included.

The new collectibles will be early road and mountain carbon fiber bikes, early mountain bikes, lugged cro-moly frames, and early full suspension.

John

 

[jwm]

The Basmans!
Yes, and yes. I wish I could afford one.

JWM

 

[c.p.odom]

Once many years ago I had a mentor from the hot rod world that was into collecting and selling many eclectic items. He taught me two rules about collecting:

1. Only collect items that were the most expensive when new.
2. Never collect anything that was made for collecting.

 

[Bigcam59]

"Collectibles usually have some, or all of the following characteristics:
Expensive when new.
High quality
Low production numbers.
Short market life. (fad)
Unique styling, and/or engineering.
And the one that trumps all of the above:
Obsolete. JWM[/quote]

I guess my Fisher Klunker is headed towards being a classic!

 

[motopsyco]

Actually, I may have to dis-agree with some of you on the future collect-ability the "expensive and rare when new" line of thinking. Before I tell you my pick for a future collectible let me give you an example from the automotive world. In the mid 60's Ford took the cheapest car they had (Falcon) and stuffed under some new sheet metal and called it the Mustang. They stacked em deep and sold em cheap. (made em cheap too)Mustangs were as common as belly buttons when I was in high school in the mid 1980's In 1984 in my hometown of Darlington S.C. there were at least a dozen 64.5-68 Mustangs in the parking lot ranging from primered up 6 bangers, a couple of mint originals, to a bunch of clapped out street racers. Even today except for the really special editions like the Shelby's these cars can still be found for much more reasonable prices than other cars of the era.

This brings me to my nominee for a future classic. It is a cheap bike of mediocre quality that makes great raw material for almost anything you want to do with it. My prediction is that even though it will never reach stratospheric prices like some, when the current cruiser craze calms down, the tooling will be stuffed into crates and shipped to whatever country becomes the next China, then a lot of us here will collect every one we can get our hands on. It's popularity on this forum is amazing, there a many builds and it even has its own 5 page thread.
It's not expensive, it's not rare, nor is it top quality, but it is well liked platform for a rat rod or klunker
http://www.ratrodbikes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=32667&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=huffy+cranbrook

The Huffy Cranbrook! :shock: is my pick for a future classic.

After all sometimes old things are rare because no one wants them.

 

[jwm]

Good call, Motopsycho.
The late 60's/ early 70's Honda 350, 450, and 750's fit that bill as well.
And, of course, Volkswagens.

JWM

 

[c.p.odom]

Some poor analogies:
Most Mustangs and VW's now sell for less than their inflation adjusted new price.
This is the result of overproduction and cheap pricing.

 

[motopsyco]

Some poor analogies:
Most Mustangs and VW's now sell for less than their inflation adjusted new price.
This is the result of overproduction and cheap pricing.

That may be true but people snap them up quickly anyway because they really like them, not necessarily for investments. Buying anything with wheels for an investment is risky. But the gamble is half the fun. Just don't bet your retirement fund on it.

 

[deorman]

Hugh quality and/or unusual steel bikes, early non ferrous road bikes. :| Don't much care for hard skinny tires and crouch potato ergo's myself, but we're not 100% of the bike market around here. Some members here are into that stuff as well. 8)

 

[c.p.odom]

Even carbon bikes before production was moved to China.

 

[outskirtscustoms]

Anything made in the USA........ :roll:
Those are getting rare.

 

[NLCTVWguy]

Anything made in the USA........ :roll:
Those are getting rare.

That is exactly what I was gonna say.

If I'm not mistaken, 2011 represents the 20th anniversary of the death of the US bicycle industry.
Schwinn quit making bicycles in the US entirely and entered its first bankruptcy. The Columbias, Murrays, and Huffys were still built here that year, at least the cheap models.

I was assembling bikes for a department store in 1991. We started seeing the very popular "freestyle" bikes coming from Taiwan, and maybe just a couple from China. Quality was so poor on these Royce Union and Pinnacle branded bikes that some of them almost couldn't be assembled out of the box.

I guess it's good that the quality of the China-bike has gotten somewhat better- the bad news is that their ultra-cheap pricing has killed virtually every US bicycle manufacturer except Worksman.

There are still small companies bending steel and brazing frames - a lot of one-off bikes being built out there, bless 'em. But the large companies, the commodity bikes, have been completely consigned to China. And only a few of these will ever be considered classic.

The "classics" will come from the bike shops. There will be darn few out there, for the 9 billion of us humans to ogle in 2050....

 

[ozzmonaut]

I think Villy Customs could do something. The prices are high enough to meet the criteria. Also they don't seem to be a super-mass-production sort of thing, as far as complete bikes are concerned. They have so many options as far as colors, rims, wheels, grips. Every bike looks like a one-off even though it isn't. I'm not trying to promote them or anything, and I know nothing of their product quality. I just think the styling and options make it look promising enough that if they ever go out of business people might actually hunt for one.

 

[c.p.odom]

D.P. Brown's Driftwood Bikes could meet the criteria. The Villy Customs are just mass produced frames and components that you can mix and match, I don't see anything unique about them. At least Felt and Electra design their own frames.

 

[Bicycle808]

Speculating about these things is always a crap-shoot, but many ppl have brought up some valid points already. I think motopsyco made an excellent point re: rustangs and vw beetles; these were modestly priced when new, but they have held far more value than many of their contemporaries. I think the feature that others had left out is *historical significAnce*. Sure, a late-60s jag in good repair is worth way more than a mustang of the same vintage, but that's b/c the jag was higher-priced and lower-production, AND many of them had historical significance due to the jag presence in movies of the era. Being rare and expensive helps create some collector value, as does being historically significant. If you can find a bike that combines both, it will likely become an expensive collectible.

Where a bike is manufactured definitely makes a difference, but many folks are surprised by how much money nicer japanese roadies from the 70s and 80s are getting now, so it's not the deciding factor some of us might hope. Even still, for cruisers and their ilk, i think that US-made bikes (like worksman on the low-end and retrotec on the high-end) will someday fetch big money. Drawback to retrotec and other custom builders is that they won't be very well-known.

And the Merlin Ti Newsboy? That's a sure thing, i reckon.

-rob

 

[blacksheep]

The Villy Customs are just mass produced frames and components that you can mix and match, I don't see anything unique about them. At least Felt and Electra design their own frames.

I'm pretty sure those Villy frames are just Firmstrongs. Same frame style and exact same color availability. IMO, not worth the $500-$700 they are asking for them on Ebay. I'd rather get an Electra or Felt and have something that will hold some sort of value.

http://firmstrong.com/Bruiser_Prestige_single_speed.htm

 

[Tailwinds]

Even carbon bikes before production was moved to China.

Definitely.
Every time I spot one of those very early Trek full carbon frames I still drool.

 

[Uncle Stretch]

Ok I think its pistols. The ones I sold for $200 or $300 ...ten years ago are going for $1500 to $2000. You could buy a few and if the country goes kafooie , you can use them to hunt...protect yourself ...or sell at a good profit and buy all the old bikes you want. :lol: Of course that's just me.

 

[axsepul]

I will have to agree with some of you about worksman. They look good and strong, but coming from the background of collecting coins, notes and diecast cars when it comes to value the important factor is the need of the buyer. For example if 80 years from now there is a guy collecting schwinn bikes and he is missing a streamliner to complete is collection he would probably pay for one a whole lot more than a guy that collects old bikes and just wants to have at least one bike from each brand. For example I read somewhere on the web, that a guy collected hotwheels VW vans from the 60's, he was missing one, he found the one he was missing and payed a lucky seller 15,000 dollars. This doesn't mean that all the VW vans out there that have the same color scheme and from that time are worth that much, but for that guy it was worth that much because he need it to complete his collection.