jjhabbs 

I'm so fortunate to have this collection. Some of you may know the original owner of these bikes. He is from just north of Nashville.


The gents widow wanted the collection to stay together and shown for others to appreciate. I will get around to doing a video and history on each bicycle as time goes on. Next week I'll have a video where you can learn about the original owner and his family.

Not sure if I'm going to put some of it up for sale or not. So this isn't a "for sale" post.

Curious about so much in this collection and I will be asking many questions on the bikes as they come up one at a time.

I thought the vintage freewheels were interesting as well as the original Condor stem! The Condor seatpost has the same etch!

John

jet sanchEz

Lovely

I noticed that Condor in your video, the paint pops and that's a very cool stem

velomateo

Wow, what a haul. Nicely done John.
Hey, which one did they keep? I know you said the daughter wanted one from the collection.

jjhabbs 

you have a good memory.

She kept the DeRosa!

John

Kabuki12

I’m glad to see someone is still collecting. It seems a lot of us are going the other way! Good going John , nice score.

Bianchigirll 

WOW That's a fabulous find. The Hetchins is really nice looking, I really miss mine sometimes but.... You know there is a great Hetchins page with a registery yes?

John E

Great find, John. "N plus one, and then some."

I wonder whatever happened to the "Hetchins Heaven" collection of 24 road bikes, one from every year starting in 1953, if I recall correctly. The delightful gentleman who owned the collection had retired to north San Diego County after a long career with Hetchins in the UK. Curiosities included one bike with a bottom bracket that had been threaded backward, so it had to be assembled with the fixed cup on the left and the adjustable cup on the drive side. (I guess not being able to make this mistake would be one of the few advantages of Italian or French BB threading, the other being my suggestion to assemble with adjustable cups on both sides, to fine-tune chainline adjustment.)

That Caimi/Everest freewheel caught my interest, because a 5-speed 14-22 was original equipment on one of my Capo Siegers. I gave it to a good friend and classic bicycle collector because I need a few more teeth on the low gear cog for the hills around here.

tjfastback66

Impressive Eye candy - let me know if you run out of storage space. I have room for a few..

steelbikeguy

just to follow up... the Hetchins registry can be found here.
although I'd encourage anyone to just browse through hetchins.org for fun.

Steve in Peoria

chain_whipped

Fellow from above watching over, couldn't ask for a better new caretaker. Congrats!
All fantastic but the Condor is a standout with those lugs and bonus stem. Mighty fine!

VtwinVince

Holy crow, what a haul. You'd better clear out some of those cages to make room!

Mad Honk 

John,
Keep this up and you are going to have a Campy stash larger than the one I have. Great looking set of bikes and they should compliment your existing collection. Do you have plans to expand the garage yet? Smiles, MH

jjhabbs 

Im not sure what I'm going to do with it all. Probably sell some of it and stash some for future builds. Im not going to expand my garage. But Im planning on selling the green Audi TT to make room for more bikes!

John

dddd

Great find.

I kind of worry about coming across a collection like this one, becoming the steward of yet more bikes..

Chombi1 

Well, now you cannot die too soon if you plan to fully enjoy ALL your bikes.....
Please do a detail and ride review on that Hetchins. I always wondered how those curly stays feel....

1970.gpp

I've been watching your YouTube channel for a while now and have to say that your collection is really stunning. You're going to need a bigger garage!

icemilkcoffee 

With parts hauls, I think the main challenge is trying to remember what you got. I don't have a tenth of what John's got and I have trouble remember what I have.

Catnap 

I track everything in spreadsheets, with periodic inventories. I log what I paid for stuff and the condition it's in. When I sell a component, I log what it sold for, the date, and where it sold. For complete bikes, I maintain a separate spreadsheet tracking each build, so if/when I sell a bike, I know what I spent on it in the past. The spreadsheets help keep me "honest" - not only do I know my inventory, but how much I've spent on my hobby and how much I've recouped through sales.

icemilkcoffee 

I don't think I want to know how much I spent!

steelbikeguy

That can be an issue, especially if you've had a long time to acquire stuff and squirrel it away for when you might actually need it.
My solution is to just set up a spreadsheet for this sort of stuff. It helps me track my freewheels, 7 speed cassettes, 8 speed cassettes, chainrings, chains, derailleurs, pedals, etc.
It has been essential for my collection of SunTour cogs!
If nothing else, it lets me avoid digging through the various boxes or bins when I start wondering if I've got a spare part or not.

It can also be a good idea to take a photo or two of some parts, just to help remember the details such as condition of the part. Might be handy for insurance too, in the worst case scenario.
A shot of my Shimano bottom brackets...




Steve in Peoria

VtwinVince

I just bought a smaller collection in a neighbouring city, now I have a road trip planned.....

Wildwood 

Well, as an admirer of the Garage, all I can say is = I know who to call when I have to sell the 8 or 9 left in my vintage fleet.. Size seems about right, too.

curbtender

I thought of this collection and how nice it would be to have the extra space when I visited this local estate for sale. The extra building was built as a music studio to encourage a local musician, John Fogerty, to return to his wife. Never happened but it would make a great showroom for somebody.
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Pinole/480...4/home/1069656

PeterO

I also have a nice collection of classic/vintage bikes that I would like to post once I get 10 postings under my belt. For example: 1987 Montaneus pristine, 1980 Ritchey custom road, selection of very nice Univega touring gran turismo, etc.

AdventureManCO 

Oooh, sounds fun! Keep posting!