Seeing how NOS vintage Cinelli track bars sell for between $300 - $600 it’s quite a surprise that some even rarer and made here in Australia NOS chrome steel track bars sold for $37 and change.
I’ve seen a few of these on various Oz made track bikes from that era and they’re quite a nice bar. From the auction spiel …
ORIGINAL NOS MAJOR TAYLOR STYLE TRACK BAR 1950/60s MADE BY CYCLE COMPONENTS MANUFACTURING COMPANY AT GUILDFORD NSW. NEVER USED THEY ARE 17" WIDE AND 6 1/2" DROP THE MOST POPULAR TRACK BARS USED IN THE 50/60s PRISTINE CONDITION
Shame that Oz manufacturers get no love. And there were hundreds of smaller industries and parts makers … some of them with better quality parts or more innovative than what was available in Europe (like VEW hubs etc).
I was telling Blakey about these for his all chrome track beast, they seemed like they were going cheap. I’m pretty sure the seller has multiple pairs too.
the best i can go is i dunno, $15. then ive gotta spend a bunch restoring it and its gonna sit around here for a while… look ive got a buddy who knows all about these things, let me get him down here.
Dunno, I’ve got a few friends in the US who not only have these bars but some of the most important vintage Aussie track and road frames/bikes. In fact if you asked me who has the finest collection of vintage Aussie bikes I’d point you to a gentleman from Texas. Whilst this stuff may not be valuable now, it certainly will be one day and by them most of it will have been forgotten, in landfill or with overseas collectors. That’s why I posted the thread and asked “What price Australian?” Seems nobody cares for all the stuff our pop’s, uncles and mentors raced on and were unique to this country.
That’s Universe Cycles and Bob Sepping’s son who’s moving a lot of their older stock.
To anyone that’s thinking of these I say buy 'em … they look nice, well made and are a lovely shape. Swoopy but not as deep as Cinelli # 17’s.
Poor Bob … he used to scatter us kids out of the shop because we had no money but used to ask all these questions about Vitus’ and Pinarello’s. Fast forward 20 years and then he use to get the shots becuase I was asking about a lot of their older stock, and he knew I knew it was valuable but it had been sitting there for 30 or 40 years gathering dust. Anything I wanted he said wasn’t for sale … I bought it anyway