I can't afford the prices some of these parts are rising to, and think it's a good thing--this is a repeat, but I want to see executives and product planners in the bike biz become fascinated by the fact that a bike with "only" five gears on the freewheel can be worth 5K, and a derailleur not made for indexed operation in a dedicated system more than 1K. Please, vintage collectors, riders, and restorers in Japan, make friends with some Shimano employees--and let them ride your bikes! Classic design still works in other vehicles--seen pictures of the next generation Ford Thunderbird, anyone? Let's all whisper in the ears of any product folks who will listen; there still is a market for road bikes that don't look like BMX iron and ride like jackhammers.
David Feldman
> I find the trends for prices of vintage bike and bike parts to be an
> interesting conundrum. On the one hand , this is mostly about disposable
> income, people with the resources to spend on nonessential commodities
> (insert art, Armani suits, antiques, etc., etc.) One could argue that
> the money spent on a derailleur would be better spent feeding or housing
> those who live off the bottom of the world's culture, but suggesting
> that isn't going to make it so. The rich, and those who can afford the
> kind of prices certain vintage memorabilia are commanding, are if not
> rich, at least tapped into a source of disposable income that most of us
> can't match. It would be hard for me as a public school teacher to throw
> a two week's paycheck at a Simplex derailleur and still not match the
> current bid. I'm not crying about what I make for a living; I
> acknowledge that how one spends one money is a personal choice. I might
> not like the way things are going (I can't hang with the big boys), but
> the collector is free to pay what he wants, and the dealer is free to
> get the most bang for his buck. Welcome to free trade!
> The other side of the question for me is what happens to an realm of
> collectable items when the prices for the parts exceed the whole. It
> happened in the pressed steel toy truck world years ago, when not only
> were lesser valued, complete trucks cannibalized to make the higher
> values version, but an industry of repo parts made originality an
> obsolete question for a lot of buyers. The bike industry is already
> played this out with reproduced versions of the Phantom, Colombia 5
> star, etc. The thing that would gum up the works right now would be if
> some started manufacturing knock-off replicas of these high end bikes
> and parts!
> I can get bugged by all of this because on some level I can't be a part
> of it. Parts or bikes that I would like are out of my reach. It's funny,
> I'll never be able to afford a 2 million dollar house, but I don't get
> bugged when someone buys one one. But there are 2 things that I have at
> my disposal as a lover and collector of vintage bicycles that can't be
> entirely altered by the heavy pricing phenomena. One is finding stuff.
> Once pieces get into the higher echelon of collecting, they never come
> down. But there is still stuff out there. (E-bay, etc. is rapidly
> destroying that) but I can still find collectable items. I can also look
> to collect things that are high quality, but not the top of the heap.
> (The backside of this is that any dealer with a modem now thinks "any"
> Simplex derailleur is worth big bucks.) But I have faith. The other is
> keeping stuff in a network of fair pricing. I try to barter when I can
> and to barter for the price I paid for it, rather than it's so called
> value. The men I trade with operate on that same level. I'm not working
> on that 2 million dollar house by gouging my friend. Recently, I found
> a mint, Shimano 600 Centurion that is a nice rider and a '38 Raleigh
> Golden Arrow from it's original owner. Fight the Power!
>
> Art Smith
> I can only pedal one bike at a time anyway
> Turning up the heat in Phoenix