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[BLACKDAHLIA]

Ok so im pretty excited about these 2 bikes. I havent owned a road bike since i was a little kid. I really want to find out more about them and get them running right. They both need tubes and tires.

Fist up is this yellow Volkscycle. I have never hear of it before but its got crazy parts. Looks like an early 3 piece crank. The big ring is skiptooth. Its missing the cables for the gears and i think the derailer is broken. It wolnt take the slack off the chain. Mabey cuz theres no cable? I love this bike and want to get it back to stock condition. Any help would be great!

Head badge...


Next bike is pretty cool also but has no badge or stickers. Everything works great on it tho. Just add a seat and some tuning and its ready to go. If its nothing special i might go fixie or just trick it out a little.


Again if anyone can help me identify them and lead me in the right direction for parts thad be great!!!

Thank you!

 

[deorman]

Cage spring disconnected or broken, chain looks too short. (Not to mention crapped out.)

The blue one's a cheap '70s bike boom dime store bike with some ok mid-grade Shimano components on it.

 

[BLACKDAHLIA]

Whats a cage spring? The chains not in bad shape really just needs a good cleaning. Bothe were in a barn for i donno how many years. Are they worth anything? Or just chop them? I really like the yellow one. I just never seen that kinda parts before

 

[deorman]

The Yellow one is a very basic obsolete Japanese road bike, maybe worth 100-150 bucks in good working order. The cage is the part of the derailleur with 2 idler wheels that keeps slack out. Some have springs that can be released for easy maintenance, some are even tension adjustable.

The blue one is a cheap imitation of a road bike, worth less as a whole than the materials to fix it. Personally I'd probably strip the fork and components and throw the frame in the scrap pile.

 

[Nagant]

The Yellow one is a very basic obsolete Japanese road bike

Why does the head badge say "Made In West Germany". Volkscycle sounds a bit more Deutschland than Nippon as well. Was part of the bike made in Japan?

The three piece crank looks like it might be a typical European cottered type.

 

[deorman]

Ah, so it does.:banghead: My mistake. Many were later sold under that brand name that were Japanese.

I hate cottered cranks anyway.

 

[deorman]

http://www.americanlisted.com/all_states_0/all_categories_0/volkscycle/

 

[BLACKDAHLIA]

I might be a newbie to this but somthing tells me my volkscycle is rare. I really dont know why. But i really like that bike. Even if its not i really like it and i wanna learn more about it. Ill post more pictures asap.

And it cant be jap crap. Its made in germany. That means alot to me since all ive ever done was chop up .... american bikes.

Thanks

 

[mikeeebikey]

Volkscycle: folks cycle.
I have seen plenty, rarer than Panasonic bicycles, but still not valuable, cutt it!
Tha rear deralier could just be rusted! But if the return spring broke its kaput!

 

[BLACKDAHLIA]

I donno what to do with them. Probably just try to make them both work right and ride them? I got my m.t. bike BMX bike first if i can find parts. I just really got attatched to the volks for some reason.

Id love a streached out bike but i dont wanna cut the volks...im probably dumb but i really like it.
Anyone know where i can get tubes and tires for her?

 

[deorman]

If you like old steel road bikes the Volkscycle is worth the little that it needs, even if it had been a Japanese model. Many bike shops either have or can get you 27" tires at reasonable cost, and if it's 700c, they are everywhere.

http://www.biketiresdirect.com/search/27in-road-tires
http://www.biketiresdirect.com/search/city-touring-tires

 

[ctaccruiser]

If you like the volks bike, by all means fix it and ride it.

 

[Nagant]

Another vote to fix the Volkscycle.

I should have worded my statement and question differently deorman. I'm not bike knowledgeable but was baffled as to how his could be a Japanese bike. Now I see from your link that many of these were made in Japan. Looks like Blackdahlia was fortunate to score a German made example.

So far I haven't had the displeasure of dealing with a cottered crank.

 

[kingsting]

Fix em' up and get them running again, just don't dump a of of $$ into them. That style of bike is fairly easy and fun to work on.

 

[BLACKDAHLIA]

Thanks guys

 

[JimMendel]

My suggestion would be to use the derailleur and whatever other parts from the blue one to fix the yellow one. The Volkscycle needs new tires, brake pads, a set of brake cables and shifter cables, bearing overhaul, a new chain and some nice, period correct black cotton Tressostar bar wrap. If you want to really blow some cash , a new "retro" style seat and a fender set would make it really nice.

Check out http://www.niagaracycle.com/ for cheap parts. http://sheldonbrown.com/ for technical stuff, like servicing the cottered crank.
It was an inexpensive bike when new, but looks like it might clean up OK and make a good rider. You will spend more than it's worth to fix it, but the fixing is the fun sometimes.

 

[Bob Gray]

My understanding is that the Volkscycle was an American company associated with Schwinn. They operated kind of like modern bike makers and just contracted out all their production. The early bikes were made in Germany, (Kalkoff?), and later ones in Japan by Bridgestone with the Japanese ones being far more common. Volkscycle kind of had a reputation for decent entry level bikes. I used to have one years ago, but I remember very little about it now. I bought it cheap as a project and never quite got around to doing anything with it.

I wouldn't necessarily rank the German Volkscycles above the Japanese ones either. This was before Bridgestone's heyday, but 80's era Bridgestone bikes are considered quite good.

 

[Thxcuz]

Every bike is worth something. Sometimes you get paid in fun. Some times you get paid in new knowledge. I don't put a $ value on my bikes because if I look at it that way I've always lost money. But if I look at the fun I had and the things I learned, I made a hefty profit .
Do something cool with those bikes and you'll be a richer person

 

[Wildcat]

I'll vote to fix up the Yellow bike. The Volkscycle with cottered cranks is an early 10 speed, probably 70's. I have gone through a lot of the cottered style cranks, on English 3 speeds and one Hercules 10 speed. My old folder uses cotter pins also. If you don't need to lube the crank bearings, leave them alone. You can adjust the crank bearings without messing with the cotter pins. Once you've changed out the pins, it's pretty simple. Just be sure you get replacements of the same size and remember one pin must face the opposite direction when you put them in. The derailleur may be fine, the chain wasn't threaded through properly maybe. It looks like the chain is rusted, so it'll have to be replaced. I don't see any shifters either. Maybe you can take the shifters and cable off the blue Huffy? 10 speed. They weren't indexed shifters, you had to feel for the right gear, so they should work. A cleaning and waxing will bring out the yellow paint. Then with some high pressure tires it will be a fairly nice ride. One other option is to go with an internally geared hub, or even a 2 speed automatic or kickback hub and avoid the shifter and cable.