puchfinnland

I just listed my St. Tropez bike for sale,

St Tropez Vintage road bike-fully serviced

I swore this bike looked familiar and then looked up a Bridgestone RB-1
its uncanny, even the pump nib on the head tube is there....
double bottles.

I wonder whpo actually built these bikes?

Bridgestone RB 1 Road Bike 1987 1988 Shimano 105 Groupset All Original | eBay

comments?

The Golden Boy 

I don't know that I'd so firmly draw that connection as to say "The Famous Bridgestone RB-1 is the same bike from the same builder."


There's a lot of similarity, yes.

TugaDude

A quick google search didn't yield much information on St. Tropez bikes. Seems they were mainly low end and distributed out of Long Island, NY.

Manufacturers copy all of the time. Raysport bikes, made in Mexico were Cinelli lookalikes. Also, manufacturers would often private label, with the resulting product sharing similarities with their own brand.

It is fun to wonder about who made what and with which tubing but as time goes on I'm sure a lot of the facts will sink deeper into the abyss.

Bianchigirll 

Its all in your mind

howsteepisit

Since you are already advertising this as the same bike I think this is a clumsy attempt to draw traffic to your auction. You have no interest in opinions. Thats what i think.

Grand Bois

Shame on you!

Just kidding.

The Golden Boy 

It's a CL ad. Not an auction. Fixed price. He's a supporting member, he could post a "for sale" ad in the sales area. No mention of shipping in the ad.

Does that change what you think?

howsteepisit

I am still skeptical of the intent of the post. But the OP does have a lot of posts, and is not a come lately member to his credit, but I really do not understand the purpose of the thread after making the claim in the for sale CL ad. If you are selling the bike, if the same maker as Bridgestone or not is immaterial after you have set the price. A second reason for skepticism is could it be an effort to not only draw additional buyer to the listing, but to raise the question and leave the impression that it its somehow linked to a bike with a very strong cachet.

Discussion was invited after all.

shelbyfv

Sorry, "same bike from same builder" is just wrong unless you know more than you've told us. They do look similar, though. Seems nice enough for the price.

cranky old road 

Hard to tell but the OP's bike seems to have wrap-around seat stays while the Bridgestone does not.

frantik

If I were selling that bike, I would take the RB-1 reference out of the title and make it more clear that you don't actually know for sure that they are the same bike. You can still mention rb-1 and get the keyword searches without making claims you that may be inaccurate.

Good price though, would sell quick here

lostarchitect 

Every Saint-Tropez I have seen was pretty much junk. I can't tell much from your crummy pictures, but I highly doubt they are the same bike.

acoffin 

Pump peg and bottle bosses mean very little. The head lugs look different to me. If we could see side by side comparisons of the seat clusters, drop outs, and other details maybe we could start to make some assumptions.

LesterOfPuppets

If that Ishiwata EX tubing sticker wasn't just stuck on some frame made out of something else then it can't be all that bad.

Paramount1973 

Ishiwata EX tubing, Tange cro-mo fork, direct mount derailleur, down-tube shifters, 105 headset...that's not a crap bike.

lostarchitect 

Maybe, I'm just saying that every one I have personally seen has been junk. Like, department store junk, not, say, low level Raleigh junk. This one is obviously better, but that doesn't mean it's a Bridgestone RB-1.

According to Sheldon Brown: St Tropez: [TABLE="class: grid, width: 728"]
[TR]
[TD]An undistinguished low-end marque. Some of these are Taiwanese, not French. The bottom of the barrel.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Maybe this bike has the wrong decals entirely, or maybe there is more than one St. Tropez?

edit: Maybe someone put the decals on a better bike to deter theft?

oddjob2

Blowing up the pics on my high res display, you can see pretty clearly the differences in the lugs and how the seat stays are different at the seat cluster.

zazenzach

definitely not an RB-1. very deceptive craigslist ad.

also not sure what you mean by ex 4130 rivaling columbus. it might rival low end aelle or cromor, but youre dreaming if you think its comparable to SL/SLX.


not a $320 bike either.

RobbieTunes

I've never seen a Saint Tropez that nice, and that's all I'm sayin.....

aussiepug

ei.

aussiepug

Satana vitu.

frantik

Depends on the market. I could sell that bike for 320 in less than a week locally. But not with that ad.. OP you need to include a bunch more pictures of the components (for example maybe even one thing confirming it's Shimano 105 would be a start). And I'd drop the reference to RB-1 completely, it's just confusing your potential buyers.

Here's more detailed pics of the same model.. doesn't look that bad of a bike: On The Rode Again: St. Tropez La Mirage

Also, when I google "saint tropez shimano 105" the first link takes me to a thread where you bought it for 100.. potential buyer might put two and two together: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...-groupset.html you can delete the thread i believe

The Golden Boy 

And I think the discussion is not going in the direction the OP intended.

As far as intent- I take it more in a "look what I figured out" sort of thing. And I think he's finding that he figured wrong.

Kobe 

Now he needs to delete this thread too.

puckett129

Seat cluster is totally different. It is misleading [read: a lie] to say in your ad that it's the same bike/builder without any shred of evidence. I doubt very much that it is. I would pay what you originally paid 2 months ago, but not what you are asking now.