I a new too, and I also have a Malvern Star bicycle that my dad bought around 1980, rode from (WA) Scarborough to Bassendean daily for work for a year.
Decals say Malvern Star and the top tube says Evolution, my question is, is this a legitimate Malvern Star model? As I cannot find any reference or picture of it on the internet!? Could it be a fake or maybe no t many photos were taken of it a the time?
It has a flat handle bar, SIS gearing, the steel tube paint work is grey with squiggly lines, kick stand and had a wide style back pannier.
Was in really good condition (kept indoors) and so I took it into a neighbourhood bike store that said they could 'refurbish bikes', I will not name them, and all they simply did was paint the handle bar/stem/fork in black and replace the chain, seat and brakes with generic 'Giant' branded products, suffice to say I was extremely disappointed, as maybe I hadn't explained myself properly that I really wanted it converted to a nice looking road bike. So I paid my $400 and half way home the pedal fell out.
Turns out my dad said 'oh yeah by the way the pedal had rounded of at the joint and it falls out a few minutes after tightening", so that leads me to believe the bike store did not do a full restore as they would have noticed that problem!
So off to a different bike store who fixed this problem immediately with an entirely new crankset and chain ring. The guy remarked that it looked like I had spent way to much money (aka ripped off) on the new bits, but having been burnt by the initial 'rebuild' was reluctant to let them have a go at making it more cool.
Should I strip it to the frame, rebuild it from there and turn it into a nice road bike with chrome Quill, drop bar and more gears? I ask this because I think it might be a hybrid bike but would it still work? Been watching few YouTube videos, so I could give it a go, or should I try a third time to give it to a professional bike restorer?
Maybe I was misunderstood being a gal, but I really want to upgrade it as I don't have a car and I only ride bikes, my current Scott Foil 20 is fast but not handy and I need to get this steel bike going to cart things around (it has eyelets
) the Foil now that I think about it was an impulse (aka badly though out) buy, in reaction to having my Scott CX Comp (best bike I have owned) stolen the previous week, 2 years previous I had my Giant Hybrid stolen as well, hence my desire to get this treasured bike tip top - its really irking me.
Simone