Your honest opinion on a Elgin Twinbar

[KenM]

I would like to get an honest opinion on the value of two bikes on ebay. The black one is not original and is missing some valuable parts (head and crank shroud). The other is for the most part original with a few NOS parts. I am currently looking for a Twinbar and don't want to over pay.

Thank you in advance!

Black Twinbar
http://www.ebay.com/itm/290622979740?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2648

Red Twinbar
http://www.ebay.com/itm/180743628338?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1431.l2649

 

[Freqman1]

First let me caveat this by saying I am no Twin Bar expert but these are my observations. Twin Bar prices have been all over the place in the last year or so. I would stay away from the black bike because, while it looks nice, it is not correctly restored and as you mentioned missing some pretty significant items. The red bike looks like the one I would try for but I'm not sure that guard or light are correct for this bike. That said elgin did some crazy things with promotional models that aren't documented very well. A 4-Star deluxe sold last week on Ebay for almost $1900 and it looked fairly complete and correct but needed some work. This bike doesn't have the dual light set-up which is always more desirable. Just a guess here but I'm thinking this bike could do $1000-1200. I'm sure there are more people on here (Mike) that could answer this better than me. v/r Shawn

 

[KenM]

First let me caveat this by saying I am no Twin Bar expert but these are my observations. Twin Bar prices have been all over the place in the last year or so. I would stay away from the black bike because, while it looks nice, it is not correctly restored and as you mentioned missing some pretty significant items. The red bike looks like the one I would try for but I'm not sure that guard or light are correct for this bike. That said elgin did some crazy things with promotional models that aren't documented very well. A 4-Star deluxe sold last week on Ebay for almost $1900 and it looked fairly complete and correct but needed some work. This bike doesn't have the dual light set-up which is always more desirable. Just a guess here but I'm thinking this bike could do $1000-1200. I'm sure there are more people on here (Mike) that could answer this better than me. v/r Shawn

Thank you so much for the reply. I appreciate your comments!!

 

[Talewinds]

In response to your PM, my opinions mirror Freqman's above. The black one looks nice, and if you just want a good looking bike to ride the black one isn't bad because although it's certainly nowhere near correct it's clean and nice and ready to rock, AND, the purist maniacs will shy away from it, keeping the price sane.
The red one is the much better bike though. It's already got the very hard to find and very, very expensive parts on it. But this bike will no doubt have some bidding competition IF the seller doesn't take an offer and pull the plug before auction end, a troubling and more frequent occurrence.
The "celebrity" bike prices have been all over the board this year and any guidelines can just about be thrown out the window. Good luck on your search!

 

[KenM]

In response to your PM, my opinions mirror Freqman's above. The black one looks nice, and if you just want a good looking bike to ride the black one isn't bad because although it's certainly nowhere near correct it's clean and nice and ready to rock, AND, the purist maniacs will shy away from it, keeping the price sane.
The red one is the much better bike though. It's already got the very hard to find and very, very expensive parts on it. But this bike will no doubt have some bidding competition IF the seller doesn't take an offer and pull the plug before auction end, a troubling and more frequent occurrence.
The "celebrity" bike prices have been all over the board this year and any guidelines can just about be thrown out the window. Good luck on your search!

The seller with the black bike pulled the plug before auction end. Thank you for your response. I appreciate your help very much!

Ken

 

[fordsnake]

I think the eBay seller had the same idea as you...perhaps he bought the bottom bracket shroud that Rustyspokes66's had listed yesterday on eBay? And with that and the commonly found repro head shroud, he could complete the desirable Twin-bar 20 and certainly up his price!

 

[then8j]

The red Elgin is this bike it was a limited edition anniversary bike (I believe) has a different type of delta light that's not the typical round one, gothic chain guard (worth 300-500 by itself)
Looks to me that this red one has everything and is in good shape, just my opinion. I don't want to sway anyone one way or another
I would be bidding for it if I didn't have as many other projects going

Untitled by then8j, on Flickr

 

[Larmo63]

I vote for the red one too....

The red one shows much more potential.

 

[z-bikes]

The seller with the black bike pulled the plug before auction end. Thank you for your response. I appreciate your help very much!

Ken

The seller had a bid of $1,000 that he cancelled. With the amount of parts missing or not correct I would have taken the money and ran!