am i totally warped

trek-man said:

oky doky
The sainted old wreck of a bike that got me into this twisted obsession is a rather well used and abused ancient malvern star frame purchased at the pawn shop for the princley sum of $20. Ive just thrown together the pennies to purchase a flash new ride and now im entertaining thoughts of restoring the bejesus out of the old frame.
Is there anywhere i can go searching to put an age on the frame of the old girl and is there a similar amount of info for older groupsets. What i would like to be able to do is put what would have been a classy groupset for its vintage together to complement the rather stylish old frame. I was thinking Campy as the new rig has tiagra. Then i can try both worlds. Any help with info greatly appreciated.
cheers
Mick

Hmmm, where's Suzy gone recently? She could inform us on restoring old Malverns.
littlefishbicycles.comlittlefishbicycles.comOpen ↗
Dug up these pic links from a old aus.bicycle thread:
atnf.csiro.auMalvern Star Side.jpgOpen ↗
atnf.csiro.auMalvern Star Quarter.jpgOpen ↗
atnf.csiro.auMalvern Star Head.jpgOpen ↗
atnf.csiro.auMalvern Star Down.jpgOpen ↗

trek-man said:

oky doky
The sainted old wreck of a bike that got me into this twisted obsession is a rather well used and abused ancient malvern star frame purchased at the pawn shop for the princley sum of $20. Ive just thrown together the pennies to purchase a flash new ride and now im entertaining thoughts of restoring the bejesus out of the old frame.
Is there anywhere i can go searching to put an age on the frame of the old girl and is there a similar amount of info for older groupsets. What i would like to be able to do is put what would have been a classy groupset for its vintage together to complement the rather stylish old frame. I was thinking Campy as the new rig has tiagra. Then i can try both worlds. Any help with info greatly appreciated.
cheers
Mick

Try the Canberra Bicycle Museum for examples of Malvern Star and Speedwell and other Australian Brands.
and Rolf Lunsmann's information on Malvern Star and Speedwell bicycles
canberrabicyclemuseum.com.auMalvernStarOpen ↗
and
canberrabicyclemuseum.com.authe bicycles.htmOpen ↗

Also the Australian Section of the Classic Rendeyvous website

Mike

trek-man said:

Ive just thrown together the pennies to purchase a flash
new ride and now im entertaining thoughts of restoring
the bejesus out of the old frame.

Quoted message said:

Is there anywhere i can go searching to put an age on
the frame of the old girl and is there a similar amount of
info for older groupsets.

Yes, you are totally warped. So are lots of us. What sort of information you can get on the bike depends alot on what exactly it is. If it's a Malvern Star five star model (count the stars on the head tube), then you can get huge amounts ofinfo about it (for example what year it was made, and where) just from the serial number. People like Rolf Lunsman (google for a contact) or even little old me would be able to help, assuming you're able to find the serial number (stamped on the dropout).

As for parts, that depends on the age. If it's older than about 1970s, then the majority of quality Australian bikes used English components. Brooks saddles, Constrictor rims, Airlite hubs, Williams cranks, etc. Post 1970 it's probably Japanese (Shimano, Suntour), or else European (Campagnolo etc).

If it's a decent age, don't expect to be getting parts cheap. A good example is a Brooks saddle on ebay.au last week, which went for US$330. That one leftme sobbing in my beer, as it would have looked _so_ nice on my 1950s Speedwell, but if I spent $400+ on a saddle (and an old one, at that) Perry would probably kill me.

Some good web pages to look at:

http://www.classicrendezvous.com (a quick page on pretty much every vintage brand)

http://canberrabicyclemuseum.com.au/ (info on Australian bikes)

Best of luck,

Suzy

Thanks for the replies guys, unfortunately its not old or rare enough to be a five star its more like a crappy tiawan frame from the seventies or eighties. I know i shouldnt throw good money after bad but it was the first road bike ive used and its identical to one my dad had years ago. Im thinking of stripping it right down and building it up as a tourer sort of thing with contempory campy bits probably sourced from e-bay. Ahggg decisions decisions I supose that i better just face the fact that im a sucker and i'll do it anyway instead of agonising over it.

trek-man said:

Thanks for the replies guys, unfortunately its not old or rare enough to be a five star its more like a crappy tiawan frame from the seventies or eighties. I know i shouldnt throw good money after bad but it was the first road bike ive used and its identical to one my dad had years ago. Im thinking of stripping it right down and building it up as a tourer sort of thing with contempory campy bits probably sourced from e-bay. Ahggg decisions decisions I supose that i better just face the fact that im a sucker and i'll do it anyway instead of agonising over it.

There is some interesting info on dating components here:
vintage-trek.comcomponent dates.htmOpen ↗

I recently pulled a Malvern Star frame with a few bits on it out of a kerb-side rubbish pick-up. It has a single star on the head-tube (a plastic star badge, no less). The parts included Shimano indexed down-tube shifters, Weinmann brakes, Shimano derailleurs - mostly basic level stuff. But the frame has stickers on it that indicate it is made out of CrMo steel and was made in Japan. I stripped the components off it on Sunday night. It's not super light or super heavy. It's my size so I'm keeping it to build into a cheap single speed using a new cheap wheelset ($200 for Tiagra hubs, Ritchey Aero rims and DT spokes) and spare bits I mostly already have. A cheap saddle is coming from Performance in the US but I may put a Brooks B5N (1970s? - found in a skip bin in 2003) on it.

[censored], I am rambling. What I mean to say is, don't assume that your frame is a crappy Taiwanese number. Mine had crappy components but is a reasonable basic frame.

SteveA

suzyj said:

If it's a decent age, don't expect to be getting parts cheap. A good example is a Brooks saddle on ebay.au last week, which went for US$330. That one leftme sobbing in my beer, as it would have looked _so_ nice on my 1950s Speedwell, but if I spent $400+ on a saddle (and an old one, at that) Perry would probably kill me.

An old Brooks saddle for $400:eek:

Dad's got 2 of those lying around in his garage. The bikes they are attached to may even be worth money now.

(Smartie goes rummaging around Dads junk pile in garage)