miskines

Here's the background. I am an adult but I always rode hand offs from a friend that is a serious racer and bike enthusiast. He would pass really nice bikes my way and I'd ride them. His son is getting older and recently asked for them back (after years of long term lending). I had an old entry level GT Timberline MTB I bought at police auction 10 years ago that I never used and decided to covert it to a big tire urban commuter and just by luck I garbage picked a rather nice Takara Prestige entry to mid level road bike from the mid 80's. I got the bug! I've been riding way more and shopping for parts way more. It started with the basics to get the bike rideable, new tires, pedals, grips but now I find myself upgrading the Takara Prestige with better vintage parts like downtube shifters, Stelle Turbo saddle, Did Comp Aero Gran Comp brake levers, and SR 150 peddles. Today I made impulse purchase of a Carver 440mm suspension correct straight rigid fork for the GT just because I like the look of it! Now I need a new headset and neck! Well I love it but I think I've spent $500 on two old and nothing special bikes. Anyone have a good story?

jdawginsc 

Welcome aboard...every single person on here has likely spent much more than a bike is worth...since I spend without selling, I have a museum of rescued items I may or may not ever be able to use!

JaccoW

I have a list of bike-threads on here that I spent between €20 and €120 ($24-$145) on to buy and many times that to turn them into something I will really enjoy... or someone else.
It's a hobby with a lower return on investment than some of my other ones. But then again, not everything has to be mechanical keyboard artisan keycap levels of profit.

I should probably start writing down how much I am spending so I get an idea of what they are worth.

To make a list:

• Batavus Randonneur GL < This one has been the most expensive one... so far
• 1995 Gazelle Lausanne mixte
• 1996 Koga-Miyata SilverAce
• 1977 Gazelle Tandem < this is the cheapest one
• 1992 + 1993 Koga-Miyata Traveller & WorldTraveller
• 1969 Gazelle SuperLicht

jdawginsc 

I have a $1000 Basso Gap worth $600!

Phil_gretz

Finish this part of the story, please. Did you return your friend's bikes to his son?

non-fixie 

noobinsf 

"I Enjoy Over Spending on Old Bikes" could be the name of this forum.

SoccerBallXan

I don’t enjoy spending any of my money, but I do enjoy my growing bike collection!

grizzly907la

I overspend. I could save up and get a new bicycle that's awesome, however I choose to get old, and what consider, junky bikes and fix them up. I like wrenching, and its therapy for me. It gets me out of my head and though, I get frustrated at times, it's worth it for me to something that was old and useless being turned into something rejuvenated and functioning again.

Axeman88

I joined this forum because a left turning auto smashed up my motorcycle and I returned to bicycling after several decades of hiatus. If you think the phenomenon you describe is bad with bicycles, count your blessings, and consider the world of motorcycles, where it seems a substantial percentage of riders commence the binning of factory parts even before their new machine has left the showroom. There are tens of thousands of essentially brand new factory silencers from Harleys in the garages of riders all over this country. Motorcycle parts, (except for Royal Enfield), are not cheap either.

A friend has this disease, I call it "Chromititis", very bad, on the order of several hundred dollars a week, continuously. Google "Garbage Wagon Motorcycle" to see what I'm talking about.

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum, and known to wire brush and paint over rusty chrome to get another year or two of service, or decide that a failed safety or emissions control component isn't "really" needed.

cocoabeachcrab 

it makes perfect sense! just go read Catch-22 and follow how Milo buys eggs for 7cents and sells them for 5 and makes a profit! it's all for the benefit of the syndicate, and everyone profits!

3alarmer 

.
...I have always made up the money I lose on each bike, through buying and selling in volume.

squirtdad

I don't view it as over spending, especially when i look at the cost of new bikes of similar level of quality.

My miyata 85 with 5800 105..... 300 for the frame, 300 for the wheels, 100 for tires/tubes, 500 for 105 group (granted that was when you could get groups from a UK bike sites, but complete ultegra at colorado cyclist is 1050), 20 handle bar tape, 70 for seatpost,, had the bars, stem and saddle. so call it 1300 hard to get a bike of that quality for similar new

current build sr semi pro 170, style dictated arabesque shift levers 35, tires and tubes 80, cables and housing 25, porteur rack 75. use postino vo bars I have so 385 for cool and unique city bike

randyjawa 

If you truly enjoy what you are spending money on, it can't really be considered over spending, in my opinion. Mrs. Me might see it differently.

Rare is the time that I have invested too much in a vintage bicycle. Having found quite a few, meaning a heck of a lot, I can think of three that I might have spent too much on. But, even then, I still had fun doing it so I do not consider the money poorly or over spent.

jdawginsc 

Somehow, having a nun join a bunch of gentleman admiring Ms. Non-Fixie's bike in Holland with a backdrop of beautiful old city homes, and guys wearing Peugeot jerseies is artwork to me...I need to visit.

By the way, for Hollanders, what is the distinction between Netherlands and Holland?

Murray Missile 

I suspect we could be long lost cousins LOL.

non-fixie 

Actually, that picture was taken in Oudenaarde, Belgium, at the start of the Retro Tour of Flanders (which is - more or less - the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium).

Technically, Holland consists of just the two western provinces North and South Holland. For Hollanders that difference is of little consequence. For Netherlanders outside Holland that is a very different matter.

genejockey 

How do you make a small fortune in vintage bikes? Start with a large fortune.

My worst tendency is what I'd call panic buying. The Lotus Classique I just got has full Arabesque kit. Full, that is, except for a replacement NDS crank. I had to stop myself spending $150 on a whole crankset from Belgium. Or I could have gotten the one from Serbia that was guaranteed to arrive by the middle of August. But I literally spent most of an evening going back and forth about buying one or the other of those. OR the other one from Belgium that was cheaper because it has French pedal threads, but I could buy the taps to convert it to 9/16 for only about 30 bucks, including shipping....

Wilbur76

Enjoy overspending? No. Enjoy the outcome? Mostly yes. Some projects I wish I could do-over but then I’m forced to spend more $ on an old bike that got loved enough.

jdawginsc 

As a social studies teacher I should probably have known that (I didn’t!), but I remember my father telling me that unless you are local to the stories and histories, European border areas and such are privy to their own histories...he was from Flensburg...a border area...

Thank you!

P!N20

My spending in inversely proportionate to the size of the item. For example:

"You want $200 for that bike? Pffft, I'll take my money elsewhere."

"$100 for that front derailleur bolt? Here's my bank account details, take what you need."

merziac

Welcome aboard, glad you found us, you're absolutely in the right place.

So we need some pics, of the project and "loaner" bikes, good ones and plenty of them or it didn't happen.

As noted above, did you return the bikes, is Dad still around, will the kid curate the bikes or sell em off, inquiring minds want to know?

Many of us here have several bikes that we paid plenty more than they will ever be worth unless we find somebody thinks exactly like we do, probably not going to happen.

jdawginsc 

The worst money magnets are the "bike part lot" variety. It's like Christmas at your grandmother's house. You know that you will get knitted socks, tic tacs and chapstick, but there is also that random gift surprise that makes the tic tacs more fun to eat...

Korina

I put around $800 into my bike, much much more than it's objectively worth, but I have a better bike, more suited to me, than I could buy new for the price. Is that overspending?

EDIT: No. No, it is not.

jamesdak 

ME!!

Only I call it something else...