Drillium Dude 

Now it can be told

Wow, didn't think I'd cause a stir - I just wanted a placeholder!

Okay, here's some of the story: a couple weeks ago a member contacted me regarding facilitation on a bike available on Ebay in the east. The seller was at first listing it as "Local Pickup Only", however, it did not sell the first go-around. The second time he listed, our member contacted him and asked if he would reconsider the local pickup - and if so, would he sell to an out-of-country buyer if he had a facilitator?

Well, I'll leave it to the lucky new owner of the beauty below to give the blow-by-blow details of that portion of the story, but let's cut to the chase. He won the bike. It was shipped via FedEx and was supposed to arrive at my door this past Monday. No soap. Monday afternoon I learned it was in the Burlington FedEx distribution center - but supposedly the package was damaged in shipping and the rep I talked to said they would not be attempting delivery, instead contacting the shipper and requesting a claim to be made by the originator

Tuesday when I got home from work, there was a FedEx sticker on my door, informing me I'd missed the first of three attempts to deliver (I had to be present to win). I called FedEx and this time got a very helpful lady who contacted the dispatcher in Burlington who then called me back, said that they were going to attempt delivery and they gave me 0915-1015 as the timeframe for delivery today (Wednesday).

I went into work, then headed back to my house to wait; finally, at 1045 the driver showed up. The damage? A small portion of the handlebar was poking out at one of the oval carrying cutouts in the bike box. We pulled the bike and it looks fine - hell, it looks fantastic

So, I signed for it and headed back to work; you'll never know how tough that was. Even though this was not my bike, I couldn't wait to unwrap it and drool over the details.

I finished getting all the packaging stuff removed and put the few removed parts back onto the frame about .5 hours ago. I took some pics because, well, you all know what we say here on C&V. Plus, the soon-to-be-new-owner has not seen pics of it's condition since it left the seller. So, here are some teaser shots for the time being - lets see how fast someone can ID this time-capsule:











I probably made this too easy, huh?

Saturday I will be meeting this member in an undisclosed location to turn the bike over. Once it's safely in his hands and in his house, we'll be able to finish up the last part of the story.

DD

tugrul

Fascinating

seedsbelize 

Do Tell?!

jimmuller 

No, facilitating.

mikemowbz

Ask and it shall be told...soon, I'm sure. Maybe some drama? A happy ending? Sure hope so. Working on the buildup, it seems

old's'cool

If you must vacillate, please vacillate in the waiting room.

jimmuller 

I was vacillated back in gradeschool and have the scar to prove it.

Drillium Dude 

Please re-read the first post - pics and some of the story are now available

DD

photogravity

I have no idea what it is, as no IGH is present!

Actually, is that a Fiorelli? I'm SWAGing a bit here, but making some effort.

Gary Fountain

Is it a Mercian?

Drillium Dude 

PG: Nope, not a Fiorelli

As for the IGH, you never know...although I think the new owner will leave this pretty much as-found. It's in absolutely stunning condition and looks as though it was barely ridden. Not even many chips to speak of on the driveside chainstay!

It's a good thing this is too big for me, that's all I can say.

Here's a shot that will probably give it away:



DD

Drillium Dude 

Ding-ding-ding - winner

Dang, that didn't take very long - and it came in before I posted the give-it-away shot.

Gary, did you guess by the little bit of headtube decal that could be seen in the 5th photo?

DD

Drillium Dude 

More pics now that it's identified:











"Black Beauty" comes to mind here...

Oh, and this bike is light! It's huge, yes, but it doesn't weigh a thing - and that's a clincher wheelset, too. No drillium on it, either

Again, if it were my size...

DD

Snydermann

If Batman were to choose a bike . . .

Drillium Dude 

^ My thoughts exactly!

DD

eippo1

Hah holy racing bikes, Batman! That's awesome. I think this is the first guess I've actually figured out before the reveal stage on c&v bf. for me it was seeing the bit of blue on the head tube. That amd the wayvy headtube lug accentuated by the pin striping.

MrEss

This is _bee-autiful_. You definitely made it too easy, even before you showed the bottom bracket cluster -- One can see just the tiniest sliver of that super-colorful head-tube decal. That clinched it, especially on a bike so obviously English.

Congrats to Gary Fountain on getting in before the rest of us. :-)

Gary Fountain

Bloody Velobase - too much information at your fingertips. Yes I got the clues from the little bit of decal you had strategically shown.

Holy spinning cranks DD, a bike any caped crime-fighter would be proud to be seen in public on.

Kobe 

I was following this one. It looks much happier with the original wheels.

Henry III

Dang that's pretty sweet. One thing though that caught my eye in that first picture. Is the dropout cracked along where the adjustment screw would thread through?

Drillium Dude 

^ Crack is actually through the plating - it originates around the dropout adjuster screw hole. A small fleck of the plating has also fallen away. I'm pretty sure it's not a structural issue, but since it's not my bike, I don't want to mess with pulling up the plating to look underneath right now - we'll check this out at turnover-time.

Just got done replacing the dropout screws with a NOS pair (the short versions) and swapped out the red cable with a Campy stainless coil - the one with the correct RD ferrule on the end. Shifting is very crisp and precise now. Brakes tomorrow afternoon and this baby will be ready for a test ride during the turnover

DD

Glennfordx4

Thanks to you I have a new desktop back ground.

Glenn

old's'cool

The Batmobile was my first car. OK, it was a Dinkytoy, but the wheels turned and steered, the blade at the front deployed, the flame at the back pulsated, and the triple cannons behind the cockpit fired actual shells (until they all got lost).

Drillium Dude 

After an interesting last couple of days (including getting a Wallyball slammed into my contact-lensed right eye this morning), the bike will be on its way to the turnover location tomorrow morning. IOT facilitate the "test ride", I was obliged to lend a bar/stem/brake lever combination for now - but we've already worked a possible solution to that short-term fix. We'll know by 1100 tomorrow.

Yes, pics will follow tomorrow afternoon/early evening. It will be nice, if nothing else, to meet yet another BF C&Ver face to face. IMO, that's going to be the best part of this - well, that and seeing said BFer's face light up when he picks this bike up and realizes just what I mean when I say it's light!

Stay tuned...

DD

mikemowbz

Well, with the bike having now had a chance to lean leisurely against the fence in my front yard in Vancouver (in the gathering dusk), I can come forward:



First off, the absolutely key thing to take away from this: great C&V Forums experience. It doesn't all happen on the internet (or by mail), and this, for me, if the proof. Drillium Dude's help with this facilitation was absolutely above & beyond

We hit a lot of bumps, and with me off in another country (if Canada really qualifies as that), he made tremendous efforts to smooth out the logistical ones and the technical ones, and was always available so we could keep each other in the loop (did I mention that there were a few bumps?)

And while I'm on this note, I should also give props to kc0yef, who brought the initial ebay auction to my attention. I'd actually been compulsively adding the bike to my watchlist (and deleting it in moments of clear-headedness) when it was up as a BIN item for $900 + shipping...though there is no way he could have known this. I didn't bite initially, but an auction kind of stirred the pot...

I'll be adding 'my side of the story' to this thread in more detail (including the journey back from the "turnover location" with a few choice pics), but the detailed version is simply going to have to wait until I have had a tall glass of beer and good lounge on the couch...