Antiques Roadshow guest has six-word response to ‘rust bucket' bicycle's staggering price tag

Edinburgh Live

21-05-2025

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WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.
An Antiques Roadshow guest couldn't help but chuckle when he discovered the true value of his old bicycle.
Expert Adam Schoon was on hand at the Newcastle Civic Centre to meet with guests to film another exciting episode of the iconic BBC daytime series.
Presented with an old bicycle, Schoon stated: 'I'm a really keen mountain biker, I'm used to carbon fibre, Kevlar, aluminium, and you bring me a rust bucket. Where did you get your rust bucket?'
The guest shared: 'I got it from a house clearance shop in North Shields, luckily. It was lying at the back of the shop beside this old sofa and I just saw it lying there and I had a feeling that was going to be worth a bit of money.
'So what I did was, I did a little bit of research on the internet and I discovered there was one in America that was worth quite a bit of money.
'I thought 'right, how am I going to get this on the tube?' So I went and picked a few other items in the shop like lights and things like that, and I made the guy an offer of £300 for the whole lot. Overall, it cost about £200.'
(Image: BBC)
The bike's owner then shared that it had just one handle at the time of purchase before adding a second handle.
Schoon said: 'Just getting down to brass tacks, the bike is made of two things, wood and iron. Original handle there and this one was an old -'
'An old file handle', the guest, who works as an engineer, clarified. 'So what I did was I drilled the end, carved it a bit and varnished it.'
The expert queried: 'And the seat looks a bit later, did you add that on?' before the guest remarked: 'No it was covered in an old piece of cloth actually and it was stapled on the bottom. I rather liked the wood so I filled the wood worm holes in and cleaned it up and varnished it as well.'
Schoon then admitted: Well when I first saw it, I really didn't know if it was a fake or whether it was real.
'Let's have a quick look just here and here. Two rivets which you can see are handmade, this is a hand-wrought bicycle. It's got tyres made of iron. This was before pneumatic, pump-up tyres.'
Schoon continued: 'Now originally, if this is right, it would have had a leather seat. Obviously just a little bit of token comfort. You're sat basically on a spring and that's it. What must have charmed you was the fact it's for a child.'
'Yes, I haven't seen anything like it before. It's quite fascinating," the guest said.
(Image: BBC)
But when the expert asked if he would let his own child 'loose on a bike like this today', he laughed: 'Absolutely not!'
'I think you've got the feeling that it is actually a period one from the 1880s and it is indeed an American one', the expert said.
'They call them high wheelers and in fact the men who used to ride penny-farthings as we used to call them, were called wheel men or wheeler men.'
He then concluded: 'It owes you the equivalent of £200. In this condition, it's clearly worth £2,000.'
Upon hearing this figure, the guest's voice cracked as he exclaimed 'What?' and laughed. 'You have done well', Schoon said.
Still beaming from ear to ear, the guest added: Goodness. Knock me over with a feather, goodness me. £2,000.'
He shook his head as the expert praised: 'Yes, so you had a very good eye, good for you.' Unable to stop smiling, the owner added: 'Incredible.'
Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.