Idiots guide to salvaged 80s roadies

[frailer5]

That fork crown, BRLVR.v2. :faintinthefaceofbeauty:

[whitry]

Hi just wondering if anyone here can give me an opinion on this bike that i found for sale. Anyone have an idea what it might be. Frame is unlabelled but for what i can work out from the poor quality image it has a vintage rolls seat shimano componants. Quick release seat and wheels, downtube shifters

[BRLVR.v2]

Looks ok , but don't pay more than $50

[Thoglette]

Looks ok , but don't pay more than $50

Hmm, areo brake levers and what looks like a 600 groupset. If so, think a bit higher

[Kid_Carbine]

Avoid at all costs and mountain bike with caliper brakes.

Ummmm, does this mean I should have passed up this old MTB?
After all, it has CALIPER brakes


It's a 1983 Quicksilver.
It was garaged all its life & the original tyres have never had a puncture.
The anodised parts have not faded at all & the colour is rich & vibrant.
It has no suspension except for the original seat & it has five friction shifted gears. [Suntour derailleur]
[If you read the brochure below, it mentions six gears but the desgn of the dropouts means that the smallest sprocket is not accessable]
It is the only known intact survivor of a single production batch of what we believe to be somewhere between 25 or 30 bikes.
It is serial No.3
Three other frames or partial bikes are known to exist.
It is totaly 100% original & no, I did not find it on a hard rubbish pile

The downside is the fact that it has those [censored] CALIPER brakes.

I would suggest that not all caliper braked MTB's are just an old pile of junk that is unworthy of our attention, so a second look may just reveal something worthwhile.

Oh yeah, this poor quality image is the best I can do. It's an original brochure page showing the mountain bike & the bike pictured is one of the two prototypes. This accounts for the differences between this picture & the production bike.
The bag under the seat never went onto the production bikes.

[BRLVR.v2]

^That is so many levels of RAD!^ Good score.

[singlespeedscott]

It's funny how the early MTB's developed.

The yanks had their clunkers. Some were just heavy duty touring bikes and others, like the Quicksilver, we're oversized geared BMX's.

If I had my choice back then I probably would of gone the heavy duty touring form. More gears, a better riding position, and most importantly, better brakes.

The Quicksilver does look cool though.

[cray-]

^That is so many levels of RAD!^ Good score.

Couldn't have said it better myself. That bike is seriously cool. The seat looks a bit rubbish, I know it's original but the bike would look better with a hard blue plastic BMX seat even if that made the mtb intentions a bit impractical. Are the rims 26" or 24"? The scale of the whole bike is hard to judge.

Reminds me a bit of my first 20" BMX, Dad got it used from somewhere (side of the road, a workmate's son, not sure) and cleaned it up. It was silver/bare metal as above and I'm not sure if it was actually a Quicksilver or Mongoose frame (had that gusset with a circular hole) but he put holographic Diamondback stickers on it from Marshall's in Geelong. Blue anodised rims and brake levers (maybe a few other bits) and plain yellow pads on the top tube, hangers and stem. It was very rad. Stupidly I sold it to a mate for $50 when I was a teenager and more into mtb's.

[munga]

oh, i've done all kinds of stupid. dad traded my pk ripper on a $200 malvern star renegade mtb, which got stolen 4 days later..

[munga]

left a colnago on the side of the road when the tubular punctured and i didn't have a pump for the fancy valves (found the bike in the garage of a rented house - had no idea it about bikes at the time).

[munga]

sold a mini clubman gt for $500 to pay the rego on my xa gt.
i could go on, but i need to go be by myself for a while.

[BRLVR.v2]

left a colnago on the side of the road when the tubular punctured and i didn't have a pump for the fancy valves (found the bike in the garage of a rented house - had no idea it about bikes at the time).

Oh your going straight to hell buddy!

[ldrcycles]

You realise you're going to have to ride a Le Run at next years L'Eroica to atone for all that right?

[Mulger bill]

That sweet Quicksilver of Kids looks to be a modded cruiser design-24" wheels going by the rear mech and crankset as a scale.

My first MTB was me old Repco 3x dragster with all the guards off, slicks replaced with knobbies, banana seat binned and a low rise motoX bar in place of the apes. Still not sure how I lasted to high school with some of the stupids I tried on her.

That bike is where me hate-loath-detest relationship with bikethieves started Had to walk to school. Urk.

[baysieskip]

Very sorry all, my first attempt at posting pictures tell me if I have done somthing wrong.

I thought I would post some pics of recent road side pick ups- they all need work and don't compare with the pristine restos/ originals I have seen on here, but hey they make me happy.

photo one is a 83 Repco Superlight, photo two is a 1989 Repco Tri A and photo three is a 1993 Repco Tri 700 series.

Cheers

Morgan

[Harnor]

Hi Morgan,

I wouldn't mind finding a few bikes like that myself! They may not be immaculate, but they have "character" (and seem to be in better condition than most bikes I have paid for ).

I have a Superlite like your first one, but with different derailleurs and crank. That must have been a very popular colour scheme - it seems like everyone has one!

I also have a later Superlite (with 700c wheels) made when the people at Repco decided to go a little crazy with their paint. Photos can be seen on my Photobucket page under Harnor666.

Scott

[baysieskip]

Hey Scott

Great photobucket snaps, that Superlite is in awesome nick- I have been trying to find one of those or even better the superlite that is nicknamed the 'rasta' (orange green yellow and blue I think) the problem is they fade so much with the UV that 20 years on there almost white.

I went into this high end bike store at the end of my street recently with the black and purple speckeled Repco pictured above- the guy behind the counter said he got one as a birthday present in his teens- his old man told him it wasn't purple but called black marble...... those crazy 80' marketers sure knew how to put masculine colours on mens bikes

That Malvern Star (third owner) is a beauty, really enjoyed seeing those photos- thanks heaps for sharing.

Cheers

Morgan

[BRLVR.v2]

That fork crown, BRLVR.v2. :faintinthefaceofbeauty:

If you guys do a search of a major auction site this week you just may find a listing.

[find_bruce]

That fork crown, BRLVR.v2. :faintinthefaceofbeauty:

If you guys do a search of a major auction site this week you just may find a listing.

I am awfully glad the frame is too big for me as it will save me from blowing the non-existant budget. Good luck

[cray-]

That fork crown, BRLVR.v2. :faintinthefaceofbeauty:

If you guys do a search of a major auction site this week you just may find a listing.

Very nice, but too rich for my blood.

[Harnor]

Hi Morgan,

The later Superlite is in pretty good nick. I bought it on eBay, minus wheels, for $10! When I went to pick it up, I found that it had been "stored" on a clothes line - the owner saying he did that to keep it off the ground so that it wouldn't rust. I thought that was a logical theory until he took it down and a couple of litres of water drained out of it .

I seem to have developed a habit of buying wheel sets, if they are a good price, even if I don't have an immediate use for them. One such set was the Mavic G40s that proved to be a perfect for the Superlite. I had paid about $70 for the wheels, with tyres.

I have seen photos of the more colourful Superlites...I can see that mine is a little more on the conservative side, lol. You may also have noticed that I bought a Repco Continental, for my wife, in the same colour scheme - it appealed to my sense of humour, so just had to buy it. . I like the explaination for the "masculine" colour - makes me wonder what they called the lilac on the Superlite

I did some work on the old Malvern Star on the weekend. I had considered respraying it, but a good wash and wax was all it needed. The previous owner did a very good job of respraying it all those years ago. I will have to add some more recent photos.

I also started sanding the black paint off the 1961 Speedwell. I was able to reveal quite a bit of the original pattern, much more than I thought would be possible, and am now considering trying to restore rather than respray. I took some photos which I will be adding to my folder soon.

Scott

Scott

[floody]

One tip I'd like to add is that I have never seen a roadie frame worth keeping which has a pressed plate chainstay bridge. One of the more definite giveaways of a chinese waterpipe clunker.

[ldrcycles]

My 1986 Dawes Shadow is plain gauge 531 with pressed steel chainstay and seatstay bridges There are exceptions to every rule, but this one is pretty solid, the Dawes is the only one i've seen so far.

[Kid_Carbine]

That sweet Quicksilver of Kids looks to be a modded cruiser design-24" wheels going by the rear mech and crankset as a scale.

The Quickie MTB is in fact a modified 26" Cruiser design & the wheels are still the 26" size.
The rear triangle was made wider to accomodate the 126mm O.L.D. of the hub with the six speed freewheel & a tab was welded to the lower part of the chainstay to mount the derailleur. Additionally the seat was changed to provide some suspension & the cruiser bars [with cross brace] were replaced the type as shown.

Other than the addition of the freewheel, derailleur & friction shifter it is pretty much a Quickie 26" Cruiser.

The bloke that actually made the frame at the factory when he worked for Competition Development, is a friend of mine & he contacted me this morning to proudly announce that he had scored a Quicksilver 24" cruiser just yesterday. He probably made that frame also.
He was out cruising on his Quicksilver Team Helium BMX [yes, he made that frame too] when he spotted the Cruiser leaning against a garage door.
It's pretty scruffy & has 26" wheels in it but it will be restored.

This is my repaired but unrestored 24" Quickie Cruiser. Its from the first batch & is serial No. 6
The original seat post & a correct/original replacement seat have now been fitted

[CurbsideCowboy]

Dayum! Nice Quikies, but I'd rather have a Helium.