How much is a murray bike worth
His bike was saved from the trash heap by Jeremy Hutsell of Capp’s bike shop in Topeka Kansas. This bike was originally owned by an Ohio native named Richard Alexander. In the late ’70′s, an era when different types of steel was really your only bike options, it would have been nice to be able to try out a Graftek. By comparison, the Graftek would seem like you were jumping up and down on shag carpeting. Imagine jumping up and down on a parquet basketball court (that’s the steel bike). It was almost like the graftek had under-inflated tires. 22 lbs) and the feedback from the road was noticably muted. The steering seemed quite similar, but there was a marked difference in sensation coming up through the pedals. Speaking of steel, we rode a steel Colnago with the same components and then tried out the Graftek to see how different the bikes would feel. That’s a spare tire holder under the saddle. Notable things include Raleigh’s Telex number (Telex!), the fact that the air freight from London to the Moscow airport was only about $10 less than the cost of the entire bike, and that the “E” on the typewriter was wearing out. The bike was in pretty good shape when we got it, so if the KGB took it apart at any time, they did a stealthy job and got all of the pieces back in the right place.īy the way, if you click on our photo of the original invoice it’ll expand and you’ll be able to make out some neat details.
Left unattended, Richard’s Raleigh may have been inspected once or twice to see if secret messages were being transported inside the tubes. We can imagine that theft wasn’t a big concern. Having all of your bike rides monitored by the secret police might have actually been a plus. Richard works in the office of the naval Attaché and rides his bike around Moscow during his down time. Lyndon Johnson is in the White House, Leonid Brezhnev is running the Soviet Union, and the superpowers are fighting a Cold War.