clubman 

Yes indeed...my wife will hunt me down and really hurt me if I leave her this pile. Dead or alive.

fender1

This is my attitude toward all of my "stuff". Bikes, musical instruments, tube amps etc.

It also makes it easier for me to to enjoy these things while alive and able.

gearbasher

I was riding one hot summer day in a downpour. I had the road to myself. Then on a slight descent there was an extremely attractive Asian woman jogging toward me. She was wearing a white t-shirt and no bra and she was soaked from the rain. Repeating that moment for eternity would be my heaven.

gravelinmygears 

I'll just leave my log-in for this forum and tell my wife to give it all away. You guys do the rest.

pastorbobnlnh 

I'm sitting at my daughter's desk in her home and to my left is my wife's former German Christmas Nutcracker collection displayed on our daughter's childhood Yamaha.

Made in Germany Nutcrackers

This is a great example of making certain the right person receives what you consider precious.

Is there a means by which a PM can be triggered at death bequeathing my bikes to various C&V members? I'll ask Elon Musk if he can build this into his Neuralink divice.

jdawginsc 

Bikes would continue to live in the garage, because my sons would likely not be that motivated to sell the house or the bikes. They probably won’t ride or restore them.

Thats a good thing, in case tone was unclear...

Chuck Naill

Ironically this type of question is on every forum for which I have participated. I am curious from which this question is being asked. Perhaps we have put ourselves into acquiring stuff we love, but perhaps not something our families have an interest. Or maybe we have become obsessed and are now questioning if it even matters in the total scope of a human life.

RB1-luvr

my stuff will probably be put out to the curb, so keep an eye on the central CT obits.

GullyFoylesbike

I encountered a situation like this very recently! I picked up a new-in-box tricolor RD & a new-in-box XTR rapid rise RD this year for crazy good prices from the local FB group. Talking to the woman about how she was sort of giving these away she tells me that her husband had passed a little over a year prior, and she has just started to get comfortable taking apart / moving his bike workshop out of their garage. She'd left it untouched for that long because it was just such a big memento of him. Her goal wasn't to make money off them, but just to get it all sold to people who would care for it like he did.

So now I have these emotionally charged rear derailleurs, waiting in their boxes for the right bike to come along for them.

davester

After reading this I just told my wife that if I drop dead she should call Gugie. He'll know what to do and who to contact.

gaucho777 

This thread gives me an idea: It might be a good idea to write out a detailed “just-in-case” ad for each bike with reasonable asking price and details any prospective buyer would want to know. Save it in a shared drive and/or put printouts in a file, and tell your partner about the file. Taking away the element of not knowing and the burden of researching all the minute details we have about our bikes would probably go a long way toward making sure they don’t all get hauled away to Goodwill. Although, once the ads are written, I might be tempted to (Lord have mercy) sell a keeper.

My wife’s plan is to give my twin brother all my bike stuff. He does triathlons and has some bike knowledge. But even he doesn’t know much about vintage bikes and I know he wouldn’t want the hassle of liquidating what he doesn’t want.

davester

Hmmm. On second thought perhaps I should tell my wife to call the very conscientious (and local) gaucho777.

VtwinVince

Careful what you wish for, I hear there's a lot of that SADS (sudden adult death syndrome) going around these days......

iab

You're kidding, right?

You actually think that the actual selling, packing, shipping would get done? If yes, imagine this. Your partner does the same for you for their collection life-sized animatronic dolls from early 20th century France. These collectables require disassembly and special packing needs. Or even better, their collection of grandfather clocks with bins and bins of parts.

Are you seriously going to deal with that **** one at a time? Are you going to put 20 ads in ebay/FB/CL/whatever? Or are you going to beg someone to get that crap from your basement?

USAZorro

I ride the same size, and I live in the same state. Crisis averted.

El Chaba

I think that you made a very important and on subject point….Most-or all- of the items in a collector’s collection are in the possession of the person who values them the most. Subtract the collector from the equation when their body assumes room temperature and the the value of items in the collection from the point of perceived value to dumpster is a straight line of shorter length than the living collector could ever imagine.

gugie 

Dunno, as a happily married man who loves his wife and kids, I don’t want to burden them with this decision. They know how much this thing means to me, and are happy to know there’s a plan. My unicorn publicist knows what to do if and when…

gaucho777 

You may know my wife better than I do!

Seriously though, I think it might still be beneficial. At least they will know what the bikes are. I would not expect my wife (or my brother, if it came to that) to disassemble or ship anything. Those pre-written ads could be bundled and used to sell the whole lot. Or they could be used a couple at a time to sell locally on CL or FB marketplace--or it could possibly(?) even be used for tax write-off purposes. Honestly, I've had a pretty hassle-free experience selling on CL. At least it'll give her some options: 1) just dump it/give them away, or 2) copy & paste this ad and wait for reasonable offers. For most of my bikes, I'd guess that in the $700-$1200 range per bike. Enough $ that it might be worth the trouble. I've sold about 20 bikes on CL over the years, and I almost always sell to the first person who shows up at or near my asking price, because I make sure the bikes are in great shape and priced reasonably. All of my bikes are essentially complete and ready to ride. I'm also talking about maybe ten bikes, not 20+ bikes like some hoarders serious collectors.

RCMoeur 

I've told Dear Wife that should I encounter a situation where I become unexpectedly living-impaired, she & my son can keep what they want (probably not much other than their bikes) and the rest can go to the Rusty Spoke co-op. Now the Spoke is familiar with how I set up my bikes in a way that pleases me and not necessarily any other sane human being (so much chrome and retroreflective sheeting!), and so I suspect they wish me many more years of health and happiness. Although they will probably want most of my carefully-accumulated spare parts (can't have 'em all yet, though).

cinelliguy 

I figure the best thing I can do is document the bikes, all details, all images needed to sell each one. Selling via C&V, CR, Ebay, CL, close, like-minded friends. Keep those details and selling instructions in an easy to find location. Sure I have some friends that will probably help her or the kids out, but that is a moving target since I may, maybe, outlive some of the close, like-minded friends! I am constantly revising, this and that. The goal is to not be a pain in ass as a legacy for my wife and family. Minimal cursing me after death...

Guy Apple
Redwood City CA

jeirvine 

That's my next band name, right there.

SurferRosa

Cloning! The perfect solution to all this!

Ogsarg

It’s a good time to consider the position you’re putting your family in. They know you love your bikes and probably know they have value but no idea how to go about selling them or deciding who to give them to.

you could spare them a lot of grief by providing some instruction on what to do. If the money is important, then maybe talk to a local shop about consignment. At minimum, you should document each bicycle in detail; maybe even create listings, they could use to sell them.

If you just want them to go to someone that appreciates them, I suspect you could find people here that would be happy to take them.

children sometimes have a lot of guilt throwing away or donating things that they know their parent cherished. You can help them a lot by providing some help now.

tiger1964 

Maybe the forum should have a program, set up on a dead-man (literally) switch. If a member does not post for 45 days, it sends a message to the member's e-mail address: "Dear Mrs. Colnago53, your husband dropped off the forum and is presumed dead -- please contact us about disposition of his bike collection"

alexihnen 

I’m relatively young, 45, and have kept detailed records of bikes, values, etc. They currently number 62 and I have no idea in a practical sense what would be done with them. Everyone in the family rides, but no one cares about old bikes other than me. They know I like them.

In the past year I’ve dealt with disposing of my mother’s possessions and now my grandfather’s. He has numerous large format cameras from the 50s/60s. It’s cool stuff. I have a journalism degree and learned photography in a dark room. Still, I don’t want his stuff (including his boyhood stamp collection too) and would love nothing more than to find someone passionate about such things. In short, the market does that, and listing everything for sale might place it all, but that’s a lot of work.

Back to bikes, I should really spell out what happens, understanding that no one in my family can write a for-sale listing, let alone pack a bike to ship. It’s tough to be honest about this stuff, but it’s a real service to those you leave behind.

On the flip side, there’s a business model here, disposing of collections, but my best estimate is one can’t pay more than about $0.25 on the dollar to cover transportation, storage, cleaning, cataloging, etc. And that’s not an attractive number for a seller. Best to place bikes with those who will appreciate them, if possible.