rjhammett

Got some regrets about a bike you no longer own? Is there one in particular you wish you still had? Did your parents get rid of one of your bikes, did you sell one, donate a bike, toss one out that now you wish you had? Let's hear about them.

Here is a bike that I sold last spring that I wish I had kept. It was a 73ish Raleigh Grand Sports that are kind of rare. Like anyone working the stock market I bought low and sold high.

Flying Merkel

My 1979 Univega Viva Sport. Just a great all-around ten speed. Sold it to a guy who never rode it or finished paying for it. It was stolen during one of his moves. It deserved better.

Got a 1982 Raleigh Grand Sport in my backyard. Going for a ride at the beach today.

And if you buy high and sell low, you have a better story to tell.

Amesja

I wish I still had my 'first real bike" which was a neat old Huffy 3-speed banana-seat bike with flames all over it. I fixed it up really nice and gave it to one of my friend's kids who promptly left it unlocked at school a week later and it got stolen.

That which comes easily to folks is not cherished.

Lesson learned.

KonAaron Snake 

I have very fond memories of my Lotus Odyssey...which was my first real bike and not a Huffy BSO or BMX. Columbus tubing, front and rear racks, stable ride and very versatile...great bike for all around usage. I LOVED the gold-blue color scheme.

I really liked the Lemond Poprad that I sold in April...that was an excellent bike and rode very, very well. It made room for something else, but I was very fond of it.

Lenton58 

Knight of Wolverhampton (c.f. Classic Rendezvous) No pics available. I bought it from Lorne Atkinson's shop in Vancouver c. 1975. Reynolds 531 and a lot of Campy components. It had been a training machine for a guy named McCrae who was doing the European road racing tour. In a moment of utter lunacy I sold it to a rather tall young woman who was thrilled to get it. At least it must have gone to a good home. If anyone ever spies a pic of a Knight, please let me know.

vjp

I had a ZINN Morgul Bismark that I bought new in about 89-90. It was full Mavic SSC including stem/bars, seat post and headset. It was pure white except for the seat tube which was a crazy multicoloured mess that looked AMAZING!!. It was done by winding string around the tube kind of randomly and then spraying a colour, unwrapping some of that and then wrapping more and spraying another colour. Kind of how little kids will make layers of paint and then scratch "i luv u" through it for mothers day.

The bike rode great (Columbus SL) the parts were amazing, and I had to sell it when we were having our first kid and biz was tough for me.

It went to a young kid who went onto win a Provincial Championship with it and then started MTB and had a little success.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Green_%28cyclist%29

Really miss that bike, I don't even have a pic of it

Congo_Powers

For my 12th or so birthday my dad gave me a dark metallic green Raleigh with some gold detailing that was later brought along when he moved to another town. As all bikes I got as a kid, it was to big at the time. Now, some 25 years later, it would probaly have fitted me rather nicely.

I thought it was quite odd looking with foam clad drop bars, fat tires, cantilever brakes and downtube shifters. Not really a road bike and not really a mountain bike as far as I could figure.

When my dad and his then wife split up he moved and the bike was left to rust away in the damp air of this coastal town, completely forgotten by me.

Since my interest in old bikes came to me I came to remember it and started searching the interweb for info. This spring i found out what it was. See link (not my bike):
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_C1XrRVl3W8...affbikes-6.jpg

It kind of hurts thinking of it today...

WickedThump

My '74 Motobecane Mirage. Stolen while locked up right outside a BART security booth. It put me off cycling for quite a long time.

Congo_Powers

Oh, and a black metallic and yellow Motobecane MX 103 that was stolen a few months after I got it. I remember being so sad I got a fever. I was nine at the time.

rootboy 

I had three pretty nice bikes in the '70's, but the one I wish I still had was the Raleigh Competition. The year they put Huret Jubilee derailleurs on them. I upgraded to Campy brakes too. That was one nice bike.

LeicaLad 

This one:



The mother****** who stole it was killed in a motorcycle accident before I could find out where he'd sold it – for a reported $100.

Yeah. Call it karma. I'd rather he lived and I got my bike back.

Bianchigirll 

My '88 Bianchi Super Leggera w/ SL frame and CampI Chorus. It was a great bike and I worked alot hours moonlighting to afford it. Alas the frame cracked and it was traded for my Proto w/ MAX tubing.

I really miss the Campi Olympus group off my Cdale MTB and miss my '90 Gary Fisher HK II.

ftwelder

For me it's not a bike but a set of wheels. When I first started collecting I found a pair of Omelenchuk wheels with Durkopp hubs and sold them on ebay. I just can't get around that one. It might have taken ten years but a bike built around those wheels would be a show stopper.

Life goes on.

Oh and the '94 werks Yeti profro with record OR.

pcb 

Sold a '78 Redcay Touring last year. Went to a great home, a fella who still had the '78 road frame he ordered/bought from Jim in '78, and had been looking for a touring Redcay stablemate in his size for years. I thought it was the most beautiful frame I'd ever had that fit me, but it was so nice I seldom rode it. Put the proceeds of the sale into a new custom Waterford that actually gets ridden, so I think we both did well, but I'd still love to have the Redcay hanging on MY wall to gaze at. Jim's frames were very clean and subtle, but worked---he cut/profiled all his lugs, made his own cable guides. There's a rightness about them that really speaks to me.

look171

My Puch. It was my first real bike I entered a race (jr cat) with way back in 1983. Nothing fancy, nothing to write home about, but its mine. It had Suntour Cyclone on it. The bike I really want is my child hood little tricycles. That would be cool. I don't even know what they were only blue in color.

John E

My first Capo, a 1960 Modell Campagnolo given to me by one of my college chums. Enroute home from work in 1976 in west Los Angeles I got left-crossed by an inattentive motorist. I had Rancho Park Cycles straighten the frame, and I rode it a few more years until the downtube began to rupture. I gave the frame to a friend who taught bicycle repair, so that he could show his students how thin Reynolds 531 tubing was between the butted ends, but I now realize that CyclArt could have replaced the two damaged frame tubes.

I have since compensated by buying two more Capos of the same vintage (see signature), but I still miss S/N 45211.

sloar 

In the 80's I was big into freestyle bikes. Really wish I still had my hutch trickstar and redline rl 20 II. Those things are worth a fortune today!

BluesDaddy

This Shogun Alpine GT. I bought it and flipped it. It was 1-2cm too small but I would live with it if I got a do-over. I got it for a song and it was in showroom condition. Full Deore touring group and top-of-the-line Japanese touring goodness from the late 80's.

pcdmiele

I wish I still had an 84 Basso (don't remember the model) full campy. I paid $600 for it when I was 15. (a full summers wages) I sold it for $600 in 1990. I just remember how smooth and fast it was. A real joy to ride.

Royal

auchencrow

Though I wouldn't have a use for it, I kind'a wish I still had my 1st bike: A turn-of the century Iver Johnson which my mom bought for me at a junk store in Hackensack NJ.

Aside, the one bike I regret selling was my minty '84 PSv10 with the lions on the fork crowns.

AZORCH

1971 or 72 Paramount. Not even certain of the exact vintage because I really wasn't tracking such things back then. In 2001 we moved to Alaska, we thought at the time forever, and I figured that was the end of my road biking days. Sold all my road bikes from the time: Centurion Turbo, Fuji, Paramount, and a couple others. I really miss the Fuji sometimes, but that Paramount just seemed to fit my at-the-time body so well. It's the one bike that I would like to eventually replace (hint, hint!)

flash2070

It would be my 80's Ciclos Macario from Spain! I bought it at a swap meet! I was walking the location looking for road bikes! As I'm walking, I turn to my right, and there it was! This was my first experience with a professional road bike from Spain! I knew it was high end due to the 531 and the DA/SSPro combination! It rode beautifully! It had one of the nicest rides. My cycling buddy fell in love with it, and so I sold it to him. Because the bike had some oxidation and paint blemishes, he decided to paint it. He actually befriended a guy at the local bike shop that does fixies/singles on the side, and is a beginner painter (BS). Well, the guy convince my friend to let him paint the bike, and you guessed it! He completely trashed the bike! There is paint runs all over the frame, the paint is crappy, and the paint is pealing everywhere! This must have been his first paint job, as he completely trashed the bike! My friend still had the chance to take the bike back, as the guy had procrastinated about getting to his bike. I advised my friend to go and take it back, that he still had time, but he felt committed, and thought that that flunky was going to do a good job! He did not! Well, the bike is with me now, as part of a money plus bike trade! I plan to ask one of my good friends from the BF to paint it for me, and help me restore it to its original condition. I hope he can! For now, it is safe in my house! :-)

P.S. No after pictures...I prefer you see it how I found it!







Flash

kroozer 

My Raleigh International, mostly for sentimental reasons-- I toured on it through Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco when I was 17-19. Those were the days! I really loved that bike. I wrecked it in a traffic accident but still have most of the parts and the panniers. I could get another one but it wouldn't be the same, plus I have several other similar rides now.

cbresciani

My first Colnago, and my first carbon fiber bike, a Guerciotti Carbonio with the Campy Record Gruppo.

Roypercy

My 79 Motobecane Grand Sprint. My first real bike, and the first one I spent my hard-earned money on to buy new. It had a beautiful blue-and-silver paint job (the "new" graphics) and rode like a dream. I rode the wheels off it for about 4 years, then sold it my last year in grad school because I needed the money and had no time to ride (and no space to keep the bike in my postage-stamp size apartment). No bike since has put such a smile on my face. One of these days I want to find another, for old times' sake.