wrk101

All I know is I did a lot better selling during the "Great Recession".

Spoonrobot 

I went and bought this. Owner didn't want to haggle so I gave $110 for it. Appears to have most if not all of the original equipment and minimal wear. Tires are dry-rotted but otherwise all it needs is new grease and then to be put on the road. I'm going to clean it up this weekend and send off with my brother as an alternative to running for his ultra distance training. Thanks for the tip.

ramzilla

The thing that bothers me the most about the drought in sales is that I can't buy another fixer upper till I sell one I've fixed up. Generally speaking I can only keep about a dozen bikes at my home at a time. Any more than that & I'm asking for a whole lotta trouble from the boss!!!

Kabuki12

I’m there with ya . I am at that bakers dozen and I have shed with a couple more that need massaging to put back on the road that the boss doesn’t know about. The good news is I just sold a couple of CNC machines at my shop so when those leave..........MORE Bikes?

wrk101

Good move, that was an excellent value.

zukahn1 

+1 The nicer Diamondback road and MTBs from the 80's are nice top end Japanese built bikes that tend to be undervalued even in this soft market. The brand has been completely destroyed by the tone of department store junk sold with the Diamondback label in later years.

wrk101

May be a perception problem.

According to the Fed Reserve Bank of Atlanta, wages for the BOTTOM 25% were up 4.5% in the last year, while the increase for the TOP 25% averaged 2.9%. The shortage of blue collar workers has changed everything. Talk to any small business owner about finding help. Around here, they all complain about it. IMHO, its more about wages. Business owners used to paying low wages need to recalibrate and pay MORE to attract workers in this low employment era. The days of getting 100 applicants (or more) for 1 job opening are over. In some areas, employers have stopped drug testing because the remaining available pool cannot pass.

I managed a business where there were little to no blue collar workforce availability. Yet we never had a problem finding employees. I used to get asked about this from other business managers. Our secret? We paid MORE, so our workers came from their businesses. It didn't make us very popular of course, but that's how it goes.

repechage

Some of that depending on the state or locale is due to the increase in minimum wage. Not a bad thing, but it distorts the percentages. Near me, the minimum wage is going to $13.25 from 12.00 - percentage wise that is significant, just over 10%. in real buying power? It actually might hurt- if one works too many hours, bye bye "snap" (AKA foodstamps) If one looks at the Mode of new hires, not the average, low wage earners are losing ground. Middle class workers without a college degree are losing ground. There are opportunities on the horizon, if one is younger, fit and can find the training. This has not been a priority for industry or government to match training to need. There is complaining by the Wireless industry currently about finding capable workers to implement 5G transmitters/receivers. Is the industry setting up training? They are complaining that they are not being served by education. (then, once built out, how many will keep a job servicing?) There are many structural problems. To circle back to classic bicycles, they are a good, but not a necessity for most.
one last note- wages may be up, but are annual net earnings up? I always want to know the details behind the headlines.

wrk101

No increase in minimum wage here. The "good" service jobs are paying way over minimum wage, not due to some edict, but due to needing employees. Actually, middle class earnings without a college degree are finally starting to grow, and those with a degree, depending on major are starting to slip. Certainly college graduates continue to earn more as a group. Do you have data for your comments? I too would like to see data.

The mismatch of training to skills in demand continues unabated. I saw too many trying college at the community college level that just couldn't hack it.There time would have been much better off learning a trade, than taking remedial classes over again and again and again. In my experience in industry, we gave up on institutions providing the needed skills and training, we provided it.

If anything, I think more people have more money are are buying NEW bikes. The advent of "gravel grinders" is attracting people to the latest and greatest. All of a sudden, vintage &. classic becomes old and outdated.

Look at this chart from the bureau of labor statistics, one of the smallest increase in the last year was in the management and professional category. The highest was in the service category. #2 was the production, transportation, and material handling category.

RV sales are a good example. At the depth of the Great Recession, RV sales plummeted and many RV makers went bankrupt. Recently RV sales are at all time highs. An RV or a boat are two purchases that can be put off or avoided. Its a good guide IMHO of economy health as people feel comfortable spending so much money on a discretionary item.


https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/co...-june-2019.htm

TugaDude

I am not speaking for her but I don't think she ever attempted to make a profit necessarily. She just sold bikes to make room for more.

Miele Man

Not if you're left handed.

Cheers

tkamd73 

I’m left-handed, and Yes, it’s on the wrong side.
Tim

ramzilla

I'm too heavy on 80's era Japanese racing bikes right now. If I can ever get rid of a couple of them the next thing I'll get will be a couple of nice vintage step-through frame Raleigh, Peugeot, Fuji, or Schwinn. Take the drop bars off & equip them with upright bars & shifters. I've got a customer base for more comfortable bikes around here. (Just gotta sell some of these darn race bikes first)!

cb400bill

So am I. And, it is still the incorrect side.

SurferRosa

What's amazing, Tim, is I've tried it on the other side, and, magically, there is no difference in bike function.

Crazy, I know.

You'd think if something is so passionately held as being "incorrect," there would be some kind of difference.

obrentharris 

You're lucky no one noticed that the labels on your hubs don't line up with the valve holes in your rims!

They might cut you some slack though for posing the bike for the photo with both valve stems up and the drive side pedal in the 3 o'clock position.
Brent

SurferRosa

What actually bothers me with these and another set of my Araya wheels is the rim labels are facing the nds in relation to the hub label/engraving.

Phil_gretz

Agree. Levers should be on non-drive side. It may be in the rules somewhere...

Phil_gretz

You could unlace the wheels and flip the rims.

repechage

There is a shop that still has a Schwinn two color neon sign in the window- looks a bit like a Paramount headbadge. Not sure if they sell any Schwinn's anymore.
They are constantly running a SALE- big banners, they do change them out to their credit.

zukahn1 

Part of of the Schwinn deal when they went bankrpupt and sold out to was that the few solvent. Dealers could the keep the label and use it as lo as they they maintained a real shop. many chose to use the well respected label. Last I checked most US cities have several dealerships.