Paul: There is something deceiving and misleading when a seller does not present actual pictures of an item. I'd think twice about bidding on items presented at auction on Ebay by any seller if I thought they were guilty of this practice. At least the seller was honest enough to admit this practice, but he should put a disclaimer on the ad stating the the picture in the ad was only a representation of the item at auction. I ran into trouble several months ago when I posted a complete 1950s bike to the CR Group that was re=enamed, and the potential buyer was upset that the restoration was not disclosed. Both I and the potential buyer broke off the sale amicably, but I learned to be more careful when posting sales. Hetchinspete Boston, Mass
>
> From: "Paul C. Brodek" <pcb@skyweb.net>
> Date: 2003/01/01 Wed AM 11:19:33 EST
> To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org, mitchell@gassworks.com
> Subject: [CR]Ebay Auction Caution; Was: Suntour Cyclone Shift Levers Attachment
>
> I checked out this auction and wanted to let CR list members know that
> most of the "Winner Pro" freewheels this seller is showing are in fact
> Winner freewheels. The Winner freewheels did not have
> precision-ground races or an oil port, both being upgrades featured on
> the Winner Pro. The easiest way to distinguish the two is the
> lockring color: silver on the Winner and gold on the Winner Pro.
>
> There's no huge difference in ultimate performance, though the oil
> port is nice for those who clean and overhaul their drivetrains
> regularly. Despite there being no critical performance differences,
> I'm a believer in getting what you pay for. Be forwarned that if the
> picture shows a freewheel with a silver lockring and claims to be a
> Winner Pro, the pictured item is not a Winner Pro. If you can't see
> the lockring in the picture there's no way to tell what it is. What
> the seller actually ships is anybody's guess. I notified the seller
> about this a couple of months ago, and got some vague reply about not
> all pictures being the actual auctioned item, and they're both great
> freewheels so there shouldn't be any problem....
>
> I'm straying a bit outside the CR timeline here, but figured some CR
> folks might be looking for post-'84ish freewheels for their pre-'84ish
> machines.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul Brodek
> Hillsdale, NJ
>
> On Tue, 31 Dec 2002 22:26:23 EST, ABikie@aol.com wrote:
>
> >In a message dated 12/31/2002 10:06:35 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> >mitchell@gassworks.com writes:
> >
> >
> >> One of my more amusing parts failures was with these shifters. I was on a
> >> loaded tour up the California coast, got up very early one morning, and was
> >>
> >> more than a little tired and groggy. On one of my first uphills, I tried
> >> shifting down with the right lever. The front derailleur shifted. In my
> >> daze, I then tried using the left lever. The rear derailleur shifted. I
> >> thought I had entered some bizarre reversed universe until I noticed that
> >> the shifter's very thin clamp had broken. Each time I tried to shift, the
> >> shifter slipped down the down tube and slackened the cable for the other
> >> derailleur.
> >>
> >> The shifters were extremely light for their day, but I wouldn't recommend
> >> them unless light weight is your only goal.
> >>
> >
> >Properly installed and maintained, these shifters have never been any less
> >reliable than any other I've used.
> >There were also factory braze-ons for them and we even installed both brazed
> >and cold bosses for them- a simple water bottle boss was all it took.
> >One model 'topmount' lever set had a cam mechanism (the name is temporarily
> >escaping me) that trimmed the front derailleur when the rear lever was
> >actuated.
> >
> >Larry Black
> >Maryland
>
>
>
> Paul C. Brodek
> Hillsdale, N.J. U.S.A.
> E-mail: pcb@skyweb.net