In a message dated 9/26/2001 4:01:42 AM Eastern Daylight Time, rabbitman@mindspring.com writes:
<< they stated $280.00 for a Shimano edge equipped 1990 Trek steel lugged roadbike, $300 for a Shimano 105 - Trek aluminum framed wonder from about the same era, and $350 for a Specialized carbon fiber Allez from the late 80's. In my opinion, these items should bring about at least 33% less on each item. Now that I know that they get road bike discards, sooner or later something with a bit more pedigree should some in, and I want to be ready. Garth in sunny So. Florida >> Garth Values are relative and condition is important. Let's say you think a Trek aluminum framed roadbike with 105 is only worth $200. I have to compare what one gets today for $200. Decent front wheel, three pro tubulars, dinner for 6 with average wine at a nice restaurant, 21 hours at the better interbike hotet room, maybe half a car payment, a veterinarian visit for a large animal without shots, 47lb Mongoose suspension bike at WalMart, cheapest Chinese off-brand entry-lavel rigid mtn bike at a bike shop willing to sell them, much less than an ounce of designer fragrance, not-quite-the-best Korean road shoes with name-brand label, not-quite the best pedals, ski jacket, a day of downhill skiing for two, 21 hours of a posh Backroads bike tour - seven of which you will sleep -eight of which you will ride on public roads that cost nothing to use, and if we both had the time, I could go on for days. While I might enjoy most of these things - the choice of any of them or the Trek road bike, even at the more-than-fair asking price of $300, would be a no-brainer. I have been buying things and selling bikes for nearly 40 years.
Now, lets look at that American-made Trek lightweight road bike - For less than a week's pay at minimum wage, you could own that machine that could provide environmentally-friendly,cost-free transportation for years. With a light set of high pressure tires, you could be quite competitive in even a professional race. You could enjoy a lifetimne of recreation and fun with just an occassional chain, tire, or small part.
The only reservation I have with pawn shops is that I often think of the situations behind the merchandise. Broken homes, desparation, theft, substance dependence, opportunistic politics. when i walk down Baltic Avenue in Atlantic City, the street lust a block away from the zillion dollar glitz of the monuments to gaming, sexploitation, and other hot buttoins to many, I can't help but notice the abundance of blood plasma donation centers, liquor stores, and pawn shops. Just a little eerie. I know many friends in the pawn biz and have no animosity.
Atlantic City may not have had the money before 1977, but Katherine Kramer's Boardwalk Pro-Am bike race was my fondest memory. Two miles down the boards, one block west, two miles up Atlantic Avenue, and back up to the boards.
I can still hear the surf crashing on the rocks and piers and feel the sea breeze blowing from the right as we criuised down this 'flat velodrome' at 33 mph.
Good luck with the bikes, they all seem like good deals
Back to the trenches of the shop
Larry Black
It would have been an annual event but with th