Classtime 

My C&V Market -- Mid Level or High and under the radar --is changing. There are many bikes I want to buy listed at giveaway prices--like always. In the past, I could restore some mid-level racer, enjoy it for 1,000 miles, call it a "Keeper" and then sell it for a couple bucks more than I put into it. But now, I have bikes I want to sell but hesitate because I'm not gonna give them away! Some of my sales were to folks looking for transportation or a sporty bike to ride with their friends on the bike paths. Maybe those folks are getting electric bikes. My local REI with a very busy repair business told me that 2 e-bikes are coming in for repairs for every bicycle. Not because they break more but because they are ridden more. That is in my market. I think the Wall Hanger Collector these days is jacking up prices. Snatching up unmolested $400 and $800 Paramounts and Masi GCs 10 years ago would have been a good investment.

Wildwood 

C. Dogge, iyp.
Levers are Dia-Compe Gran Comp. During last rebuild of the black Harding (How narrow should handlebars be? build), I got tired of searching for vintage clean unscratched levers with soft rubber hoods, . Bought 2 sets of the new at a sale price, . The 2nd set didn't look right on the next build ('87 Bianchi) and the latest project to come along was the Harding Pro (still a project). You know me = originality is secondary to 'just riding them all'.
@John E - I have little doubt that the black 1980 Harding (Holdsworth) Special came from Charlie's shop. The older Pro seems to have come to America from Ireland - likely not sold thru Charlie's shop. And yeah, if anyone wants to sell a 60+/-cm Harding for cheap = I'll buy it as a frameset or complete - Hardings like to gather together, but that doesn't make us hoarders - just extended family. Glad my name isn't Wildwood Trek! Too much family is....too much.

awac

Steady on ol’ boy! Thank goodness you cleared that up. I remember asking for a Meccano set for Christmas, I was just laughing thinking what my mothers face would have been like if I had asked for an erector set!

Wildwood 

@awac - small world story - I knew a fellow who had a home in the New Forest, near the coast. It was too far for him to commute daily to work in Havant, so the company (a former IBM group) allowed him to be a consultant with an accommodating work schedule, I believe. He must have loved the area from his comments. Cheers.

SurferRosa

​​​​​​

Wildwood 

If you'll be my bodyguard, you can call me Al, ....Betty.

USAZorro

I'm likely a bit certifiable. I did once buy a bike for $1,200, but other than that, I don't think I've spent more than $300 on a bike - unless you count the tandem I picked up this spring. Usually it's much less. However, there have been a few times when I've put a few hundred into a $50.00 purchase, and often as not, it's to do something quirky. I graduated from one project at a time to several concurrent projects that crawl along in parallel several years ago. Fortunately, I'm not stuck somewhere that's expensive, and I have sufficient space to not be overcrowded. I am also a bit of an optimist. I picked up a couple bikes that I thought would be set upon by a pack of ravenous wolves here when I offered them for very fair prices, but I still have them. Just need to find a decent swap nearby and they'll move along.

I think 5-10 years ago was peak acquisition amongst the crowd here. Lots of us are in 60's and 70's now and the outgoing lines are a bit longer than the incoming. A lot of us can give a good estimate of what something should sell for, but is that person a C&V denizen, and is that bike in the size they are looking for? Maybe if there were 5 or 10 times as many of us... Egad. my post is choppier than an Andy Rooney segment. Manana.

awac

It is quite special for the UK. The 4000 odd livestock, New forest horses and donkeys are allowed to wonder freely, on the roads, in the villages around the campsites which makes driving interesting. It has its own super council called the verderers this is from the website.

“Evidence from the 13th century indicates that the Verderers were originally a court within the Forest, authorised by the Crown and elected by the County. They sat to hear cases of offences within the Sovereign’s Forest. They could deal with minor offences directly (by fines) but more serious cases were referred to higher courts – ultimately the Forest Eyre.Verderers’ powers were extended in the 17th & 18th centuries to address offences undermining the planting and preservation of oak for ship-building (such as breaking Inclosure fences, encroachments on Crown land). Powers to deal with trespassers and abuses by Forest officers were also strengthened.
In 1877, the Verderers’ Court was reconstituted by a New Forest Act of Parliament. The Act abolished the former oath of allegiance to the Crown. The Act required the appointment by the monarch of the Official Verderer and (originally) five Verderers to be chosen by the Commoners and Parliamentary voters in the New Forest parishes. They were to be the guardians of Commoners, common rights, and the Forest landscape.
The New Forest Act of 1949 increased the number of Verderers to comprise five elected, an Official Verderer, and four appointed members. The Act also gave the Verderers additional powers to make and amend byelaws”.

You build a new house here, if you have enough money and get permission, it costs you £3000 to cross the verge on top of your purchase price (and it doesn't transfer with sale).They are quite powerful here, but the flip side is that otherwise it would be full of footballers houses by now! It is all very “that’s the way we have always done it here”.

By American standards the forest is a small park, but it ancient and beautiful. I remember being North of Seattle with my compass opening a walking map and just seeing green and contour lines….oh I thought, no cheating with taking a bearing to a village, I am going to have to work on this one!

Big tourist area. That’s the industry I work in now, and work give me a place to live here. I have a house er project in France that when I retire I will go to and make myself poor (more poor) buying every old French bike I find, but I will be sad to leave here, but that is 10 years away yet, I might win the lottery! Yeah right!

kvnmuadib

how about a 89 Peugeot Dolomite's all Campy Athena i 60 cm c-c 59 cm tt c-c tt featured in Campyonly as Kevin's bike? It's on the block.

kvnmuadib

ps it comes with the original White Turbo as depicted in cycles peugeot and white platform pedals now. I dont have the white looks it came with but you can find them somewhere in time

kvnmuadib

the things i can t part with I dont by but in the long run I just want for them to be worthy of the time and effort I put into them.I will sell at pricepont t that a smart investor can may make money some day but I would love it to be the guy who loves bikes as much as I do..........thats my take and i am compelled by time and money to sell

kvnmuadib

maybe so but its nice dream you have anyways.I hit the irish sweepstakes once but spend it on bike parts and i found a box of gold to ease the suffering of the little children of the world so that counts for something ........

due ruote 

I think this is key. Younger folks don't have the point of reference of having grown up with these bikes. Sure, some will admire them for their looks, but it's not quite the same. The last time a steel bike was ridden to victory in the TdF, today's 40 year-old was 11.

I also think the recent evolution of new bike offerings (e-bikes, gravel bikes, recreational flat-bar bikes) has eaten into the market for those who previously might have taken a vintage bike and modified it for their purpose. There are plenty of off-the-rack options now for a wide variety of riders.