Classtime 

It looked ok. I was pretty excited to respond to Trek 700 Series add before it was sold. 125 bucks, free post and stem. Looked good. Got it home and...




I think someone braced the fork in an attempt to straighten the frame. What to do now!?

Unca_Sam

Oof. Tally your loss? If you know a frame builder, you could probably straighten the frame and the fork with alignment tools. For a price, of course. You'd have to decide if the bike is worth it.

rosefarts

There's a Trek 531 fork on eBay right now for $160 (I think that's crazy but who knows).

In theory you could sell the fork and recoup the money.

Other than that, you could cut off the rear triangle and make a terrible shop stool. Or you know, copy my mailbox.

jetboy 

I still have a trek I cut in half and added pipe fittings to make a poor man's travel bike. i also found better (but way more expensive) options since then:
Bicycle Frame Couplings - GROUPJ

my trek had the same basic damage, so it was fun to experiment

markwesti

How could a person sell a bike like that ?

SurferRosa

I bought a tall '79 Motobécane Le Champion sorta like this. Didn't notice two dings in the chainstays and a dent under the down tube ... nor the rip in the Brooks saddle until I got it home. Couldn't build it up and recoup the sale, so I parted it out and made a few bucks. Even sold the frameset to someone who didn't care about the three dings/dents, just wanted a full 531 frame for cheap.

I agree about selling the fork on ebay. Just remove the rust on the steerer first.

cudak888 

Complete bike, or frame and fork? $125 is steep, but you can always justify it by the parts that you can put on another build.

If frame and fork, go right back to the seller and shove it in their face. If they doesn't give you back your money, shove it in a different place.

-Kurt

Classtime 

My rules for second hand stuff as a buyer is buyer beware.
The fork is tweaked also. Steerer tube is straight so I'll get the dropouts in the right place, have fun rebuilding the bike with new grease and such, then offer it with full disclosure. The crumple in the DT is under the shifter brazeons so I can't try the frame block thing. It is full 531. I just got back from the garage after going down to move it to the trash🤔It's not going to the trash man yet.

malcala622

I message sellers on offerup when the bike theyre selling has been crashed. Some believe me and others tell me off.

Even offerup brass have not responded to my concerns of crashed bikes being sold on their platform.

67tony 

rosefarts, I don't know what's funnier...your mailbox or your name!

verktyg 

I'd been jonesing for an BIC orange Motobecane Team Champion since I first saw one in 1974.

Jump ahead to 2007, a dark blue and chrome 1982 Team Champion frame came up on eBay.



I was high bidder and opted for a local pickup. When I met with the seller, I could tell from 10 feet away that the fork was wrong. It had a Tange replacement fork!

The first thing that I did when the seller handed me the frame was to feel under the top and down tubes. Sure enough there were ripples. I reached an agreement with the seller that I would have it checked out by a local frame builder and then decide what to do.

I took it to Ed Litton and we put it on his layout table. The frame was straight so I negotiated a substantial refund from the seller and kept it.

I was so bummed out that it sat for several years before I started to assemble it. The first problem I ran into was the Tange forks were made for 27" wheels with lots of rake and clearance. It raised the front of the frame up over 1/2" and changed the head tube angle to 76°. It sat for another few years until I came upon a Gitane fork that matched the original Team Champion.

I finished building the bike, rode it a few times but found the head tube was now 75° but still too squirrely so it sat some more. I rode it again a few times recently and decided to have the head tube angle bent back out to the original 74°.



But wait.... Last December I came across a 1985-86 LOOK Bernard Hinault Reynolds 753 bike with a Mavic gruppo at a LBS. These are very rare. There were only 250 or 500?? of these frames made.

I asked the owner how much and he said that he didn't want to sell it that he was going to restore it... Well money talks and it was late in the day and I didn't LOOK the horse in the mouth too carefully....

Had I done my due diligence, I would have/should have passed....



When I got it home, I found the seat post was stuck. When I started working on it the BB and just about everything else was frozen too!

The rusty spokes should have been a give away! The PO was some kind of poser wanna be triathlete. I doubt that anything on the bike had ever been lubed or adjusted.

Some people shouldn't be allowed near anything more mechanical than a ROCK.

Maybe he/she should be swimming in a black wet suit out near the Farallon Islands where great whites feeding on seals get eaten by orcas!

verktyg

Unca_Sam

verktyg, that was an unusual amount of venom from you. If it makes you feel any better, you've laid hands on more beautiful machines than I ever will.

Last ride 76 

One might think I would recognize signs of a front end collision... My first experience was with my Ron Cooper in 1976. But no, I managed to buy a 2nd Ron Cooper, in 2020 with undisclosed front end damage... No wonder the seller wanted to ship it, the weasel. $125 also. Got $25 bucks sent back, after I complained. (He claimed his "friend, who used to work at Serotta", Huh, right! Said it was fine.) But I wanted it soo badly. Still sitting in a corner.
I also bought, get this... A Vitus 979 at night.. In a police parking lot for safety... for $450. Excellent full Campy, except for Modolo brakes. It had a hairline crack at the seatlug. Broken seatbolt might have been a clue, except smart me had just broken mine two weeks earlier at my LBS... without damaging my seatlug... Steel, vs aluminum, maybe, hmmm???
A year later, I have another Vitus frame, and the first, which i rode with a quill type seatpost, will be going up for sale, but with full disclosure, this time.

Note to self>>> Enthusiasm is good, but remember to check the teeth, (unless it's a gift, of course).

Cheers, Eric


How'd he do that amazing filing? The lug tip is actuallyactually the surface of the tube...
Oh um, I see.

Admittedly the damage on mine was a lot more obvious, when I tried to pedal my way back into the race, the front wheel was overlapping the down tube by a couple of inches...

SJX426 

I think I like the direction this thread is going! I too need to vent!
I moved to the DC area in 2011 to get a job, all my stuff was still in Portland, OR. well Aloha. I needed a bike and having spent some time on here, I had a hankering for a Trek. Started looking at CL and found one. Looked at it at dusk, took it for a ride. Kinda worked. Model 610 rattle canned. I intended to be big in restoration so paid the $250 for it. Mistake. Here is what it looked like the next morning, still with enthusiasm.
003_Trek 610 As Purchased, on Flickr

Not bad looking until I started taking it apart to clean and lube. The frame was fine in terms of dings etc. BUT it was drewed! No eyelets! Twisted RD, crank pulled with a bearing puller, bad bearing cone in the hub, Helicomatic. Rim spoke eyelets rusted and falling out. Such a disappointment.
I could show pics but you can go to the Flickr page.
Decided to try to turn lemons into lemonade. Frame and fork were stripped. I found a local guy who silver brazed his own frames and added the eyelts back on and added mounting bosses for a rack along with down tube cable stops for bar ends. Used the parts form my crashed Motobecane Le Champion to build the frame up. The intent is to paint it BRG. It is hanging from the ceiling with a primer coat. Really should finish it. I did assemble it to see how I lliked it. Good enough. Plan is to make it a sport tourer, as designed, with a rear rack. Now maybe a gravel grinder?
Kast assembled pic:
104_PaTrek. by superissimo_83, on Flickr

Actually this experience set me up for a good purchase with enthusiasm, a Pinarello.

It too was a CL find for $300. Looked at it in the dark. Stated that the last purchase in the dark using car head lights didn't work out well. He said "make me and offer." I said "$200." He said, " I would have take $150." I said "SOLD!"
Pinarello Vento- as purchased by superissimo_83, on Flickr
Wrong size, 57. Good for my Daughter. Cleaned it up. Put Superbe Pro on it for a test drive for her.
Pinarello Veneto by superissimo_83, on Flickr
It too needs paint. She doesn't have room for it right now.