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My cousin bought a bike off someone for £50 and asked me if it was worth it?
It was a Kona Explosif with an 853 frame and 8 speed XTR groupset, Bomber forks and Mavic wheels. The only thing non-standard on it is a newer hydraulic XT brake on the front.
While that kind of bike was from before my time, I am pretty sure it is worth more than £50. He's now looking to find out where to sell, whether to sell individually or as parts and how much to ask for.
What do you guys think?
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With a stealth add like that, I don't think it'll take long to sell here.
£30?
From what I've seen the line for retro value for mtbs is around 1996/7. I think the bike in your photos is a couple of years the wrong side of that line for the nostalgic "retro classic" prices that some older Konas seem to attract.
Although I have a '99 Kula rolling chassis kicking around, so I'd be happy to be wrong!
Retro bike or one of the 90s groups on facebook. Worth more parted out there.
Xtr stuff might get £200, cranks are usually around £100 depending on condition
Handlebars are titanium by looks of it and worth around £50.
The rest is a bit of a mismash, frame is post 98 so later than the desirable ones, but likely to get £150-200
Although given prices at the moment I'd be tempted to stick it on eBay / marketplace for £500 and see what happens
Always eBay for highest price but if needing local collection then price will be lower than if you are able to post.
Clearly worth more than £50 and I would imagine around £4-500
Oh, and if that brake lever is a black ops or ultimate then it's worth a fair bit alone
Probably a Kona or retro FB group...
And maybe do something about that front disc! It looks like it predates the rest of the bike by a decade or two! In fact, mismatches like that always carry a wiff of stolen bike put together from parts to me but it could just have been what they had lying around in the shed. Who did your cousin get it from?
On the plus side, I had a set of those XTR cranks, they were awesome. WOULD. NOT. DIE. Shame the BB was a dedicated XTR spline pattern as it put to bed any nonsense about Shimano Octalink being in any way as bad as ISIS or whatever the 'generic' splined standard was.
I'm afraid your cousin has bought a stolen bike.
Hot.
Stolen.
Interesting like-new XT brake on there from about 2014. Worth £30-50 on eBay itself. But it's stolen.
How do you know it is stolen, with certainty?
How do you know it is stolen, with certainty?
+1
I'd say the odds are that it's stolen.
Clearly a bike that belonged to someone that actually cared about bikes. Seems really unlikely that they'd let it go for £50.
If it was me, I'd probably be making some enquiries about trying to get it back to the original owner. I'm sure that they'd happily reimburse the £50 spent on it.
Not stolen. He was working at a lady's house whose husband had died. He bought this and a Gary Fisher for £100 for his kids to ride around town on. His colleague bought a 1950s Hillman that was in the garage too!
There's probably a lesson there for all the people who say "oh, it wasn't that much..." to their wives.
How do you know it is stolen, with certainty?
I don't, but it bloody well 99% whiffed of it. If purchased off a widow with no idea what her husband had, then that's in the 1%.
If he's so inclined a bunch of flowers would be a nice thing to do if he does sell, because he's got an absolute bargain there and she's lost out on a few hundred pounds.
That rear Avid brake and lever is probably £100 on its own!
Parted out and sold on Retrobike or eBay that's probably £5-600, or £350-450 sold whole.
Of course current secondhand prices as they are it'd probably make more.
Cant see the pic.
On the plus side, I had a set of those XTR cranks, they were awesome. WOULD. NOT. DIE. Shame the BB was a dedicated XTR spline pattern as it put to bed any nonsense about Shimano Octalink being in any way as bad as ISIS or whatever the ‘generic’ splined standard was.
I'm still looking for a compatible BB to get my old set back onto a retro build!
when they do appear on Ebay or similar they go for silly money. Was told that some road bbs were compatible too but could never work out which models
He was working at a lady’s house whose husband had died. He bought this and a Gary Fisher for £100 for his kids to ride around town on. His colleague bought a 1950s Hillman that was in the garage too!
This is where the definition of ‘stolen’ becomes ‘nuanced’ 😎
There’s probably a lesson there for all the people who say “oh, it wasn’t that much…” to their wives.
Indeed. And vice versa 🙂