Nishiki alien the one with the box Ali frame

Got a full bike off my mate, it's got the chromo rear stays and in very good condition, xt crankset, magura hydraulic v brakes and rockshox fork. Any ideas on what it's worth as I've got to many bikes at moment

If it's the black one, you should sell it to me

In any case, you should check very carefully for longitudinal hairline cracks on the head tube starting from either the top or the bottom bearing cups, and hairline cracks next to the welds where the top tube meets the seat tube, and where the rear triangle's seat stays bolt on.

One more place I've seen stress cracks is where the rear triangle bolts to the back of the seat tube - the weight of the rider over time tends to pull the bottom of the "bolt-hole" outward and push the top of the "bolt-hole" inward.

I'll try to post some pics later tonight.

Alright, settle down kiddies; I said "bolt-hole", not butt-h...
...I don't know what else to call it.

Haha I like it, yep will check tomos, I cleaned and polished it up never saw any cracks at all, my mate had it 12 years then gave it his brother in law who never really used it. Sadly it's not the black one tho

I've bought a few of the red ones over the years, and other than a NOS one and a frame-only one that I bought a few years back, all the others I've seen are cracked, so I think you have a rare one there. Don't look at it sideways or it might crack!

I bought one recently that had been repaired back in the early 1990's and the seller had stripped the paint to bare metal before the repair. When I went to look at it, I saw that at some point in its life it had cracked again next to the repaired welds.

That guy told me that he used to work in a bike shop BITD and that the red ones weren't so popular when they came out; he said they sold about 3 of them in 1990, but he remembers they sold about 20 of the black ones in 1991. So why is it now that the red ones seem to pop up now and then, but the black ones are almost non-existent? It's a mystery to me for sure.

btw, can I dibs this one for Retro_Roy? I know he's been looking for one (one that's not already cracked, that is).

Crack pics:

Red bike is an Alien ACX, seat-tube detail. Note the crack behind the weld. I've seen them much worse than this.

Orange bike is actually a Nishiki FS-3, but it was built using the same tubing, same welding process, virtually the same geometry, although the head tube has thinner walls than the ACX head tube along most of its length (except the top and bottom where you can see it's thicker).

The all-aluminum Aliens tend to crack in the same places as the ACXs and FSs. There are probably other areas prone to cracking, but in my limited experience, those are the 2 most common areas cracks can occur.

Maybe you can show us some pics after you spiff it up?

Ah nice one thanks for the pics I will double check mine. How do I put pics up on here please.

I believe after 5 posts you are given the option to post pics, so just reply one more time and you should be good to go.

Your the man thanks

I think the pic is to big to send

Try cropping or re-sizing so that the width is 1280 pixels or less.