Originally Posted by
Random Tandem
God bless the bike shops who tell owners of classic and vintage bike that their equipment is archaic and beyond repair, so they should buy a new (high margin) bike. It places welcome downward pressure on the used prices for these lovely machines for those of us who will appreciate them, At a certain age, a bike should be owned by a rider who will do her own repairs. As Bertram Russell observed "time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
-Will
New bikes are not high margin. I don't know where you get this data?
A lot of folks don't know much about the C&V bikes especially the young ones and a lot of folks bring in bikes that have never been touched and need a lot of work and while it might be an old bike it just doesn't quite have that value a new bike can make a lot more sense. Yes some people will pour a lot of money into an old bike and sometimes yes it is worth it but a lot of times it is an expensive proposition for a bike that is a bit out of date for what the customer is doing.