Garelli Road Bike

edwsqa

Retro Newbie
Hi my name is Matt and I am from Florida. I found a old very lightweight 700c Garelli bike at the scrap yard in great condition other than some of the parts are rusty. I was wondering what you guys thought about it. I believe it is from the 80's.

It has a suntour 2 speed front derailleur
Old shimano 6 speed back derailleur
Frame measures 22 inches from pedal to seat tube
It's made of steel and covered in stickers

Garelli is a company that made motorcycles and parts mainly and I think they have a following since stickers and stuff are listed on ebay. I believe that say if this were an old italian moped in great condition it'd be considered valuable but with bikes I'm not so sure. It's missing a handlebar end cap, the handlebar break hub wires are worn, and the rear skewer bolt is rusty. The rear derailleur is old shimano that was added in later and everything else but the seat is original.

It's a nice bike to ride. I've been riding it along the local bike trail which is something I wouldn't usually do and I stopped by the trailside bikeshop and asked how much it was worth. The guy said at least 100 and some hipster might want to pay 200 if they really like it. I was wondering what you guys thought about what I think is an extremely rare bike. Here are some pictures.
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I posted it before in the how much thread but I really would like some more information about it. I looked all over the web and I can't find any info about Garelli's bicycles at all. Thanks,
Matt
 
Some years back one of the Supermarket chains in Italy (Can't remember which )Sold Garelli bikes & the bigger stores sold 50cc "whizz bang mopeds as well Haven't been to Italy since the mid "norties " so can't be any more informative
 
Got any idea how much this thing is worth? The back deraileur works beautifully but the front deraileur needs some convincing to get the chain to move. I imagine that someone with a little more experience with this sort of thing can get the front deraileur working like a charm by adjusting the screws and tension on the cables. I never used road bikes before but this thing is like biking on air to the point where I regularly ride it to work. It's seen better days but the damn thing is so light that you can get blown over in a gust of florida wind. It's like 15 pounds.. lol.

Any idea how much it is worth? The guy at the bike shop appraised it for at least a 100 and suggested that some hipster might want to buy it for 200. I was thinking about selling my vintage jamis boss cruiser and this bike and buying a brand new bike.

Is the smaller circumference front gear supposed to slip a little if you crank it too hard? The chain feels like nobody ever put oil on it. Should I put oil on it?

It's a bike that is domestically sold in Italy? I think it's a really rare, beautiful, and fast bike. I feel like sonic the hedgehog on this thing compared to my jamis boss cruiser. I'll post some more pictures of the Garelli along with a bonus picture of the boss cruiser for some more replies. I know how you guys like bikes. Thanks Little Al.
 
If you'd excuse me for making a double post, do you think that someone just got frustrated changing the tube and threw it away? My older brother was the one who "found" it at the scrapyard, actually, and he used to have problems with opiates since it is Florida.

Do you think that someone seriously just threw this thing away? He's clean now and lives someone else. He found it like 2 years ago. I'm probably going to call the local police and ask if anybody is missing their really unique yellow garelli bike. Should I? He said it cost him 35 dollars. Vintage road bikes are a very niche market and it is to my understanding that this thing could be sorta be worth mega bucks if someone who knows how seriously cleaned it up. I have no idea why someone would just throw away a bike with a bad tube. Thanks, thanks again!

edit: I called them and they say there's no way of knowing without a serial number. Did someone seriously throw this in the scrapyard? Should I feel bad for owning it?
 
Logo is the same for the motorbikes,

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Handlebar stem and handlebars are SR, Japanese company, maybe SR SaKae. Check the crank and pedals too, to see if they are made in Japan. Brakes too, are they Dia Compe? Those were made in Japan too.

A lot of Japanese parts it looks like .

Still, a unique bike, clean it up, that SunTour decal is unique, some of the other excess decals might not be needed for selling. So, be careful if you remove anything.

The rear derailleur has a claw; that does not signify a top of the line bike. The dropouts for the back wheel look like stamped to me too.

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Does it not weigh much or just the usual metal frame material?

Nice SunTour decal. SunTour, Japanese company.

Japan did make some bikes made to look European; I'm not saying that happened here. There do seem to be some Japanese parts if not almost all.

For it's uniqueness, perhaps $200 cleaned up.
 
Dropouts are forged, the "real" hanger is hiding behind the "extra" hanger holding the rear mech :)
 
Re:

It has that outward bulge of the forged hanger in the picture. I took it on a home weight scale and when i carried it, it went up by about ~24lbs. The hanger along with the skewer is pretty rusted but the gears shift pretty well. I've been talking to my brother on facebook, he says that it is worth something but I tell him that it's kind of a good bike that is past its hayday. I think 200 dollars is a pretty good estimate but my brother insists that it is worth more.. I imagine I can do several things to increase it's value such as new handlebar wrap and better braking, but I am actually pretty impressed with this bike. I am going to use it as a regular ride considering it is like this sort of ultra lightweight racing bike from the 80's, but I doubt anyone else will really appreciate it. My brother used to work with cars so he'd visit scrapyards but I am kind of wondering WTF is this thing doing in the scrapyard for 35 bucks.
 
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