jdawginsc 

I have started working my way into the porta-shed and begun to clean and build some more giveaway bikes. It takes some doing to build up as Frankenbikes that look okay but anything that clears stuff out is a good thing.

I give them to students who are always flabbergasted they are free. It also helps me to clear component overages.

Latest

AdventureManCO 

Guys, you are all doing great work! Keep it up!

One of the biggest hurdles for me was something a few of you had mentioned. Namely, the mental barrier of sending something to the scrapper that we still see value in. That value is strictly in the hardlined utilitarian sense of a bicycle - something you can ride, a means of transportation, a form of healthy exercise. All good things!

But some of these are projects that are not rideable as-is, and while they could be, we (as in: you) are probably the only one in the entire world that may have an interest in doing so. And if you have had the project for a long time and haven't yet completed it, then there is little chance that someone else will.

Now obviously this applies mainly to low-tier and some mid-tier vintage bicycles. High-tier gets a strong 'pass' as there is usually always someone interested in a 'paddling upstream' type of project, because the ends are worth the means.

I'm still curious enough about the Gitane, that I think I want to keep it around, but I'm getting comfortable w/ the idea of getting rid of my other French bikes.

The 'fire drill' routine is a a great mental exercise to try for yourself. It goes like this:

A fire is coming through and you need to get out fast. However, the family is already out, the pets are out, and your wife grabbed the photo album and the important documents. You estimate you've got enough time to quickly toss 4-5 bikes out of the basement/garage/living room (ha!) before the fire engulfs everything. Which do you grab? My list goes something like...Huffente, green Trek, the Midget, the 990, the 750...okay okay, and maybe a couple of frames

I come out of that exercise more surprised by the bikes that my brain didn't automatically choose, moreso than the ones it did.

In other 'bike reduction' news, I'm setting up the Midget for my son, since he has expressed a bit of an interest in riding some of my road bikes as of late, and I really want to respond to that interest! The Midget is the smallest 'true' road bike I have (around 49cm), and fighting the urge to keep the bike for myself rather than set it up for him tells me that he should love it - it is a really, really good bike. It rides so well, and feels way faster than it should, for its weight. So I can't think of a better experience to get him hooked on biking.

I haven't checked mail for a while, but I'm thinking I could have a check in there that may cover the shipping for a few bikes, and that means a few more will be leaving!

PhilFo 

Last summer I gave away (not scrapped) my very much loved 1972 Mercedes Benz 220D. I had owned the car only a week or so shy of ten years. Driven it across the continent ocean to ocean and border to border numerous times. That was "the last car I was going to own." Salt on northeast roads turned her into a Flintstones mobile and she took up too much room in the garage, not moving for a year. I didn't have space and certainly don't have the electrical service to push a welder in this old 1924 row home. The car had been up for sale since 2018, first at $6000, then $3000, $2000, $600 and finally free. She languished for a while at the free mark, maybe 8 months, until a guy who works on these old Benzes came and hauled her away. That entire time I would not let her be scrapped and gave her away to a person who would use and utilize the extra parts I kicked in, instead of taking the $400 for scrap value. I digress. It's hard getting rid of these objects we often times bleed into.
Phil

NVFlinch 

Help, our house is on fire - quick - spray the bikes!!!

Ya got the right priorities, wrong approach...

AdventureManCO 

LOL good man. It was a test!










You passed

kani

I too have realized I have too many bikes and too many frames (between 10 and 30 bikes depending on how complete it needs to be to be considered a bike), and I too have fallen for the temptation of opportunistic buying. I have started to try to get rid of the bikes that don’t excite me anymore and I only buy new bikes if they are cooler than what I already have, or if I can use their parts to complete some of my unfinished bikes. The advantage of always getting something better is that each bike increases the standard of the collection and suddenly some of the bikes you thought you could never get rid of don’t seem so unobtainable anymore. Good luck😊

Kobe 

This thread has been inspirational, well more of a reminder to get off my butt and sell some stuff.

Sold 1 1/2 bikes the past few weeks. Sold the New Albion Privateer in an hour after I listed it.I guess I asked too little.

Sold the Sram 7 speed IGH wheels and shifters off my Kabuki. The buyer only wanted the drivetrain because the bike was too big for. Luckily I kept the original parts and will built it up and sell it again.

This gets me down from 6 to 4 which I can live with, but the Mercian may eventually go if I can get a decent price for it.

Kinda fun simplifying.

mhespenheide 

For me, there's only one "fire drill bike": the first good bike I ever bought, an '87 Bianchi that since been Gugified. There are others that I like, but that's the one. Any other time in this mental exercise goes to grabbing camera equipment, slides, and hard drives.

AdventureManCO 

This right here really hits home for me. I think this is the point. The point is to enjoy this hobby, yes? To have fun? To allow it to keep us in good physical and mental health? Yes!

When I have 4-6 projects all languishing, its really hard to do that. Number one, there is no way you can phyically benefit, because the bikes are in pieces, and second, there is a lot of mental disorganization in this. I'm a naturally disorganized person, so having multiple project is a bad thing. I do NOT want to be that guy that holds on to a project for 30 years, then never finishes it and then I die. Nope.

On that not, I got a yellow cable kit and chain in, which means I can FINALLY finish the Jungle Junker Allez. I just need to put it together. I save the yellow bar tape (its in OK shape), I found a decent set of 600 levers at the co-op to match the other 600 stuff on the bike, and in a weekend, it should be ready to rock!

Plus, I went for a bike ride today, and the son really wanted to try out another vintage bike with pedal cages. I think they really fascinate him. He loves trying new things and wants to practice something until he becomes proficient. So, I lowered the seatpost on the blue PXN-10, and let him go to town. I hopped on the Trek 600, and we both went riding. He got to also try out friction shifting for the first time. This is what it's all about. Since these smaller 52-53cm bikes seems to *barely* fit him, I'm going to not immediately get rid of them, but my hope is to build them up (the Gitane, the PXN-10 *which still needs drivetrain reburbing*, the Midget Miyata) and just sort of see what he likes. Right now, his main bike is a Specialized Crossroads, which honestly is a GREAT bike, and can really grow with him, but who am I to stop him new found love of ancient, crusty vintage road bikes??

So for now, I'm going to leave the 52-53cm stuff alone, and maybe just focus on the 'my size' stuff. The 60s PX-10...it's probably going to go. It is a GREAT riding bike, and one of the bikes that first got me into this hobby, but maybe someone else could enjoy it more. I'm going to build up the green 1979 Trek 930 w/ all Campy and test it out against the 1983 Trek 600 (a Clang find) and may the best bike win.

I also would like to get the Sport Racer built back up, but the Midget and the Allez are the priority right now. The Huffente is also going through a bit of a makeover right now, but that is more Area 51 type stuff to be revealed at a later time. Regarding the Allez and the Sport Racer, I'm pretty interested to see how the 55cm size stacks up against the other rides. Maybe it will be the goldilocks size for me.


Keep up the great work, everyone. You guys are doing great.

RiddleOfSteel

It is. And I know the wallet likes it as well.

@AdventureManCO I am now thinking of aiming for two, if not one final bike now. Combining capability, comfort, and speed--a second pass at what I did during 2020 when I was furloughed, only even more betterer. This means I get to build and rebuild bikes again (finally!), which I've been dying to do. Yes, more bikes out means yet more leaning on the Portland+ market for tall bike buyers, but there might be some flexibility to meet others halfway. The Final Bike (Again) would be as I believe I wrote earlier, my '85 620. It is perfectly functional and very capable as is, but I have this Di2 groupset that I like a lot (and would like to keep using) and am thinking a Wolf Tooth Road Link coupled with a converted-to-long-cage Di2 rear derailleur and that HG800 11-34t 11-speed cassette that fits on a 8-10-speed freehub would keep it extremely capable while also mazing out on the crazy factor. From 620 to Super 620 to Superest 620, or something like that. 36-34 low combo, 53-11 high combo.

AdventureManCO 

You are a better man than I, especially after my next update to come!

AdventureManCO 

Well folks, I've had my first relapse.

I was browsing around (fun to do), and lo and behold, a Trek 970 pops up and I see the ad literally 1 minute after it is posted. It is the price of a few Starbucks drinks and tips - I would be an absolute DUMMY for not picking it up. I even announced to the wife "Yeah I'm picking up a bike!". She just sort of chuckled, but she knows I've gotten rid of a lot, so its all good.

Owner was cool, we chatted bikes and bike carriers for a while. I actually gave him a bit more than he was asking, since it is tough to find great people to deal with, and I want to really appreciate those transactions.

I have a '96 Trek 990, which was the highest end Trek steel mtb in the catalog, and I've always wondered how one of the lugged versions would compare. For a while, I had a (I think?) 1992 Trek 990 in a large (23"?) size that I sold for a non-profit, but seeing as how the fit was so big, I never got a really great feel for the bike (although I did get a feel for the stock suspension fork, back when suspension was sort of new - it was a pogo stick!) and didn't keep it that long - the day I posted it for sale, I got over 20 emails!

Anyway, what is cool about this one is it is also a 16.5" frame, exactly like my 990, but even cooler - it is a '93, which is the best year for these lugged Treks, as they have a slightly wider spaced headtube (which I didn't realize), and came with a threadless fork.

The thing is almost cherry, and even came w/ a pair of Ringle Holey ti-Stix, so technically the bike should be more than free by the time we're done.

I know. I know. I have taken a step backward. But. I'm also going to be moving two bikes this weekend, and if those *officially* leave my possession, I'll still be down -1 bike this weekend. However, in the interest of transparancy, and to my slight embarassment (not really, no shame!), here is where I stand:

Bikes: 17
Frames: 3
Most recent purchase: 3/23/24


Annnnnnnnd...here she is in all her glory:









You can see I'm continuing my cherished tradition of buying 'too small' bikes

VtwinVince

LOL, great thread, and one I too can relate to. I picked up a weird Saronni off a guy in a neighbouring city a couple years ago, and he said he had some 'other stuff' I might like, but never heard from him until I saw an ad for an interesting South African Alpina in my size, same guy selling. I called my 'facilitator' and bought, then he said he had a weird mystery bike that he's also selling, so of course I had to see it, and wound up grabbing it as well. Then a week later he messages me that he's moving out of town and has one more bike, plus a Campy Touring groupset for sale. You can guess what happened: the other bike turned out to be a super cool Colner in my size, so now my buddy's living room is full of my new stuff. Then my 'chief facilitator', who lives closer to me, picks up everything, and for a joke sends me a photo of them heaving my stuff in to a dumpster. Just about had a heart attack. Now I've got to downsize, since this is the scene in the 'bike bunker'......

noglider 

@Mr. Spadoni, I clamped my Super Course frame in the vise that way to spread the dropouts. Then my BB didn't thread in, and I had to have the threads chased. I'm not predicting anything with your frame. Maybe I did something wrong.

noglider 

Has this thread helped anyone control their collecting impulses?

jdawginsc 

Actually, yes and no...

Murray Missile 

It has me, a bike I had tried to buy a couple years ago was just relisted at only $5 more than what I had originally offered him, he had listed it as "make offer". I made what I thought was a fair offer based on what the bike was and it's condition which he rather rudely turned without making a counter offer. He later relisted it with a totally absurd price, about 4 months ago he dropped the price to 25% of his asking price and last night he dropped that price by another 40%. It's well worth the current price just in parts but... parts I have, room I don't.

Another bike I had been looking for just popped up locally in my size. Priced too high but I'm confident it will sit on Marketplace quite a while until the seller comes to his senses and knocks it down to a reasonable price. Then somebody will snag it but that somebody will not be yours truly.

Why am I looking you ask? To see what the local market is doing for my own inventory reduction attempts. In the past week there have suddenly been truckloads of parts/project bikes and parts listed. Some are for insane prices and some at scrap prices or outright free and there were a couple others that would have had me already in the car to pick them up just a few weeks ago. Now all I see is competition for getting rid of some of mine.

I'm going to check a few of mine today to see if they can take 700 X 32, 35 or 38 tires. If they can't they are OUTTA here!

Tried selling my "knee recovery" bike for a couple weeks and it didn't even get any looks at the ad, probably because people just saw another old Traveler not what had been done to it and being a "belly button" bike there are lots of these on marketplace for MUCH less. Of course all those need a hundred dollars minumum to make them functional again and mine was ready to roll with upgrades but non-bike people don't see that. It's a sweet ride and the paint is really nice but I no longer need it and I have better uses for the 700c wheels and 35mm Kenda Kwests so it will either get downgraded or parted out and the frame given away, the latter being the most likely scenario.

georges1

I think downsizing is more complicated than one thinks because there are good deals that you can't pass up.I have given back then two months ago bikes , one that was a gitane prologue equipped with105sc and dura ace to a neighbour because he helped me and a luis ocana made of vitus 972 tubing equipped with 105sc and weinmann brakes to my bike tech because it occupied space in my garage and because he often offers me fair prices on my bike assembly projects. He gave it to one of his customers who is delighted to ride with it. I might add another columbus genius frame if it isn't sold .

jdawginsc 

Next project is to build and sell two Cannondales at reasonable prices. One is a mint/near mint mint green SR 400 (1987) with everything intact. The other is maybe a 1992 SR 600 with alloy fork. Some underside scrapes. Going to market both as slight retromod and freshly refurbished Tribike potentials.

Then build the AD SLE up and see what interest that generates locally since nobody wants it here...maybe even with the bronze 600ex parts I have posted here. Might be cool. I guess if someone wanted the parts I could send along the frame.

Also need to find a good home for the lovely 54 cm Tri A. Multi Track might be a build and giveaway to a friend or something.

AdventureManCO 

Accurate!

sd5782 

Silly, it is just to free up space for some higher end stuff obviously.

Kobe 

I am so glad I am on the other coast. I am your size and seeing some of your builds listed(yes, I still look) would make me relapse.

Mr. Spadoni 

Oh, if you’d just left me out of this. My next task is to get paint off a shifter boss before I can’t mount a lever. Probably wouldn’t have been a problem but then my name was mentioned and the jinx was in.

RiddleOfSteel

Well thank you! I just floated a down-to-one-bike theory that will be "at best" two bikes as of now. Gotta keep the big black 620 as is, which means the Di2 is going on a different Trek now, thanks to a minor component swap for testing purposes that went very well. It will basically look like a Big Boy CX bike. It'll be pretty wild, but also...aesthetically coherent, which will still surprise me. I'm excited.

Murray Missile 

Yep, that's it in a nut shell. That's how I was raised, my parents both went through the Great Depression and they didn't throw things away when they got broken or were wearing out they fixed them until they just couldn't be fixed any more, only then were they replaced. It's hard living in a "disposable society" when you've been brought up that way.