Ken Bird Road bike

Hi,

My father in-law had told me about this bike then recently he dug it out of his garage and has passed it on to me. I would like to sell the whole bike but i have not any really idea of what it is worth. So i am writing to you all out there i hope that you will give me an honest idea of price. I believe he said the bike dates from the late 70’s ear;y 80’s.
I will put some pic up below via the link.

http://s905.photobucket.com/albums/ac258/goby_2010/Ken%20Bird/

Bugger all to be honest. It’s decent quality but nothing special, not like a top end retro Colnago or anything.

Ken Bird had a small bike shop in Crystal Palace and traded on his reputation as a former TdF mechanic. He had a knack of turning any conversation on any topic to “when I worked as a mechanic on the Tour de France…”

He died about 5 years ago.

Not a lot. Around that time shops like Ken Birds sold no name frames with the shops name on them. I had a Birds of Colindale (no relation)
The equipment is bottom end Simplex and silstar, bolt on 271/4″ wheels, Weinmann 999s etc.

However, and it pains me to even suggest you do this. That frame is a simple fixie conversion due to the long drop outs. That’s where your market might be.
The sales value of the components is almost nowt.
Other than that, clean it up, bung on some mudguards and keep hold of it.

PS if you split I’ll have the wheels and possibly the brakes.

PPS I sold a similar 70s Claud Butler, the bike wouldn’t sell, but the frame alone when split went for more than I expected for the whole bike.

its just an old bike…. £20 at the boot fair

Similar bikes higher spec and 531 throughout struggle to reach £50

On Ebay someone might think it’s better than it is and pay over the odds.

Hi all, ah thankyou very much for your responses. Well i might just have to hang on to it then and bung on some mudguards, and then just use it for going out on with the family. Might sling it on ebay next time they have a free listings day see if any intrest.

Yeah it’ll make a nice commuter. Though downtube shifters, centre-pulls and narrow narrow bars take some getting used to.

It is very clean though, that’s a big bonus. Also Ken Bird is a sought after name, and an enthusiast might just buy it for the name.

I’d suggest http://www.retrobike.co.uk or is it com? rather than ebay.

on the same subject; would an old coppi (vitoria?) be worth anything? have on as a winter bike only its a bit too nice for winter and it also doesn’t have deep drop brakes so is abit useless as those race blades get clogged up.

So if i stick it on retrobike, do you reckon £40 collect is fair then?

Don’t know my Coppi’s. But again there wete a lot of budget made frames made under the Coppi banner. The one that you find a lot was made from Thron tubing and not worth much at all.
That said I don’t know them by name so yours could be worth a mint.
The Coppi name was bought by actually I can’t recal? and they knocked out the cheap one you see a lot of, IIRC virtually every tube carried the Coppi name.

Ditch the rack and junk on the frame.
Raise and straighten the saddle.
Re tape the bars with white cloth tape (1.40 @ Ribbles)
Clean it up and ask for more with offers.

If that pump is a Blumels Ebay it as they are very collectable.

So not worth much, but a nice old bike. The person who buys that will be a winner.

Ah sounds a very good plan, right off to ribbles to get bar tape! :o)

i think coppi were bought by machatti? I’ve got the current manufacturers url at home. big brand in italy somewhere that begins with a M. If its not thron tubing it may be worth something???

Seen the post on Retrobike…miserable sods 🙂

If any spares come off it let me know.

turns out its columbus euron tubing… coppi was bought by

coppi’s new owners