This Trek, recently discussed:
Got me thinking about why some bikes have value and some don't. We've been over most of *that* particular subject again and again, but one thing that's occured to me more than once, is that the top pro, pre-index bikes of the 80s--as a class--seem to be undervalued.
There are exceptions, sure. The exceptions tend to be bikes that were rare to begin with, like, say, a Bianchi Superleggere with chromed head-lugs...those and bikes like them seem to go high on ebay at any time..the couple that have come up there.
But in general? Up until quite recently you seldom saw clean 80s pro bikes break a grand on ebay, and elsewhere.
I think that may be about to change though. I started getting back into the bikes I loved as a teenager, when I was about 40. Life itself had me thinking about what had made me happy back then, and I had the money to indulge myself. At the time (1996 or so), I had two bikes. When I started hunting for the early 70s bikes I liked, I found that they were fairly reasonably priced. Under $1000 for even very nice Pogliaghis and Colnago Supers from the early and mid-70s.
That's changed. Were I to try to buy those same bikes now, in the same condition, I'd have to pay nearly double the price in 1996. This didn't happen to all bikes from that time (as Steve Maasland's pretty Zinni makes clear), but it happened to many of the premier marques.
Now all those guys who were 14 or 15 in 1982, are closing in on 40. That tells me that many of those nice 80s Super Record bikes may start to really jump up in value.
Be interesting to see if it goes that way.
Charles Andrews
Socal