I have an araya world champ super aero (I dont know which to call it, it has stickers stating both) laced to a suzue. That rim is so slick sex.
not my story, but a guy at my friends shop found a dacordi frame with s75’s in great condition in the dumpster. i want to meet the guy who threw that out, shake his hand and PITD.
My frame is an early 90s piece of shit Bianchi made in Taiwan that I bought for $40 plus shipping off ebay from some dude in Michigan because you can’t buy a motherfucking lugged steel frame in any goddamn condition from any-fucking-body here in the SF bay area for anything less than goddamned $200. Hi-tension steel bike-boom Schwinn? That’ll be $300, thanks. Fuck you!
No really, this is a topic that I’m not angry about.
[quote=“halbritt”]My frame is an early 90s piece of shit Bianchi made in Taiwan that I bought for $40 plus shipping off ebay from some dude in Michigan because you can’t buy a motherfucking lugged steel frame in any goddamn condition from any-fucking-body here in the SF bay area for anything less than goddamned $200. Hi-tension steel bike-boom Schwinn? That’ll be $300, thanks. Fuck you!
No really, this is a topic that I’m not angry about.[/quote]
You’re looking in the wrong places then. My friend got a cro-mo Raleigh frame for $20 yesterday. Try swap meets and garage sale if you don’t want to pay the premium for someone else finding it then flipping it on CL.
[quote=“halbritt”]My frame is an early 90s piece of shit Bianchi made in Taiwan that I bought for $40 plus shipping off ebay from some dude in Michigan because you can’t buy a motherfucking lugged steel frame in any goddamn condition from any-fucking-body here in the SF bay area for anything less than goddamned $200. Hi-tension steel bike-boom Schwinn? That’ll be $300, thanks. Fuck you!
No really, this is a topic that I’m not angry about.[/quote]
That just gives you a reason to buy a Kilo TT or a Brassknuckle.
That’s true of just about every major city, from what I’ve seen and heard lately. Garage sales and thrift stores are now and will always be the #1 place to score vintage bikes. As for deals, there are still plenty out there. I’ve posted more than a handful of sub-$300 track frames and equivalently cheap whole bikes on the eBay thread. If it’s not “PISTA KEIRIN NO BRAKEZ TRACK” then no one seems to be interested in it.
My story is my LeMond track bike. It was posted on a local cycling forum for like a week. I kept seeing it and thinking “While $200 for a Fillmore is a great deal, even if it is my size, I don’t need it.” Finally, the guy updated his post and was said something about how the bike was from the late 1980s and it say “Le Vanquer” on it. After some Googling, I realize it was going to be something exceedingly rare, since there was absolutely no trace of such a bike on the internet. I emailed the guy, told him I wanted to take a look, and expressed how eager I was to see it. I got out to his place early the next morning, and he rolled the bike out. I took one look and said “I’ll take it,” which obviously surprised him since he was clearly ready to haggle over the price. I think I found the last cyclist alive who didn’t know that old track bike were valuable. Anyway, I bought the bike and made almost my full $200 back just selling parts that I didn’t need because I had my own I wanted to put on (wheel, bars, etc).
That’s true of just about every major city, from what I’ve seen and heard lately. Garage sales and thrift stores are now and will always be the #1 place to score vintage bikes. As for deals, there are still plenty out there. I’ve posted more than a handful of sub-$300 track frames and equivalently cheap whole bikes on the eBay thread. If it’s not “PISTA KEIRIN NO BRAKEZ TRACK” then no one seems to be interested in it.
My story is my LeMond track bike. It was posted on a local cycling forum for like a week. I kept seeing it and thinking “While $200 for a Fillmore is a great deal, even if it is my size, I don’t need it.” Finally, the guy updated his post and was said something about how the bike was from the late 1980s and it say “Le Vanquer” on it. After some Googling, I realize it was going to be something exceedingly rare, since there was absolutely no trace of such a bike on the internet. I emailed the guy, told him I wanted to take a look, and expressed how eager I was to see it. I got out to his place early the next morning, and he rolled the bike out. I took one look and said “I’ll take it,” which obviously surprised him since he was clearly ready to haggle over the price. I think I found the last cyclist alive who didn’t know that old track bike were valuable. Anyway, I bought the bike and made almost my full $200 back just selling parts that I didn’t need because I had my own I wanted to put on (wheel, bars, etc).[/quote]
How can that story be true? Even if he was the last guy to realize it, how did someone not beat you to it? That’s crazy!
The guy I bought my Raleigh Track bike from was equally clueless, he raced BITD and lived in the burbs. He had no idea the bike was worth anything and was blown away by the 50 calls he got about it in one day.
the dude who handed me the suzue to araya and 4500 dollar tandem frame among a handful of other rims and a campy wheelset was pretty clueless.
no shit, that story is amazing. he HAD to know he was giving away some $$$ stuff.
There was someone in Parma selling a 70’s track bike for $100 last year. I wish I had had the money to pick it up back then.
[quote=“kemmer”]How can that story be true? Even if he was the last guy to realize it, how did someone not beat you to it? That’s crazy!
The guy I bought my Raleigh Track bike from was equally clueless, he raced BITD and lived in the burbs. He had no idea the bike was worth anything and was blown away by the 50 calls he got about it in one day.[/quote]
Well, it wasn’t Craigslist, just a forum most frequented by roadies. The guy is actually a super nice dude who organizes all the criteriums where I’m from, and is a hot-shot Cat 2. I think everyone either didn’t care, or like me, figured it was just some boring Fillmore that didn’t interest them.
[quote=“zombie”][quote=“halbritt”]My frame is an early 90s piece of shit Bianchi made in Taiwan that I bought for $40 plus shipping off ebay from some dude in Michigan because you can’t buy a motherfucking lugged steel frame in any goddamn condition from any-fucking-body here in the SF bay area for anything less than goddamned $200. Hi-tension steel bike-boom Schwinn? That’ll be $300, thanks. Fuck you!
No really, this is a topic that I’m not angry about.[/quote]
You’re looking in the wrong places then. My friend got a cro-mo Raleigh frame for $20 yesterday. Try swap meets and garage sale if you don’t want to pay the premium for someone else finding it then flipping it on CL.[/quote]
I’d pay a premium for something decent. I’d rather not pay a premium for something made of plumbing pipe. I need to look around some more as I’m trying to find a reasonably decent 50cm steel frame to build up a geared bike for a friend.
the only thing interesting about my bikes that isnt really all that interesting is the thomson stem i picked up on ebay for super cheap cause the title was spelled wrong.
best way to get shit.
I found the frame that would become the basis of my winter/rain bike at a bike co-op here in Minneapolis called the Grease Pit. I jumped on it right away because frames in my size (59-62 or so) seem to be pretty hard to come by. It’s a Schwinn World Sport from the mid-80s that had been very poorly painted in a flourescent orange/black tiger stripe pattern. Apparently it had been used for the last few years by a guy who was there at the shop whose new bike was painted just as hideously. And before that, another guy at the shop had found it in a dumpster where he was making out or something. It was like I was the recipient of this chromoly heirloom with a long, kinda gross history.
Anyways, I got the frame, fork, a decent stem, headset pieces, headset help as it was my first time in this realm, for a grand total of $20 bucks plus some parts I donated. A little paint and a few parts, both new and laying around my attic, and I’ve got a fine ride that I don’t have to care about much at all.
i broke my cheap vetta seat recently and its been sagging like a hammock ever since. i said fuck it and went down to the bike shop prepared to pay $120 for a new rolls. they said they won’t have any in stock until tomorrow and i tell i’m come back. i went to shifterbikes later with my brother who i’m spotting cash to for some toshi’s because he’s in dire need and some dudes got all his parts on the floor talking about a build with dan. he was talking about trashing some parts and i spot an old rolls, $50 and its mine. score.
i proformed my bike from work.
there were flip chops laying around in the back so i took them since i dont really like drops. i still have the drops somewhere.
then the plastic pedals that came with them went to shit and broke so i EP’d the mks stream pedals. but the order wasn’t big enough so i splurged on the order and got sugino messenger cranks and chainring.
i wanted something simple, but BTI was sold out of black and gray and silver, so i had to step into the tarck side and get blue anodized crankarms. same price anyway. i kept the chainring black.
i also have some chopped down flat bars that i got from a girl at school.
nobody sells deep v’s laced up to formulas already made here, i’d have to order them from work but i was impatient. all our distributors were sold out, anyway. so on my small trip to san francisco i picked up a set of black nonmachined deep v’s from american cyclery. they were cool. gave me a free box to put it in so i can check it on the plane.
i have a tarckbike sticker on it and i got my friend that works at lids to nick me a 7 5/8 fitted sticker. after finding frames of different sizes that were waaay too big to ever work on, like that black 58cm nishiki i got for free and gave away, i finally got a bike that fit.