Re: [CR]Restorations

(Example: Events:Cirque du Cyclisme:2007)

From: <rodk3d@comcast.net>
To: Morgan Fletcher <morgan@hahaha.org>, <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR]Restorations
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 21:23:54 +0000


Right on Morgan! I wouldn't be surprised to see that in a show of hands, you'd be in the majority.

My situation is pretty similar to yours. I'm 47, middle class, live in an expensive neighborhood, have a wife, 3 daughters, and 2 female dogs. I ride a lot and by "normal" people's standards have way too many bikes and bike stuff. The vast majority of my bikes have been funded thru the judicious buying and selling of stuff, mainly bike related for sure, but even the occasional stereo.

I have 5 bikes not counting my Stumpjumper or bare frames. I have a 2004 Mercian Vincitore, 1979 Chris Kvale, 1978 Eisentraut, a 70's MKM fixie and another soon to be fixie, a 1985 Serotta Nova Special track bike.

The chances of my owning a historically significant bike are pretty slim. There is no way I can afford to buy an old Masi or Derosa frameset for $2000. My Kvale was a bit rough by my standards anyway, so I had Chris repaint it. It's now gorgeous in my eyes, and my eyes are the only ones that matter. I would not want to ride on a bike that does not look at least pretty darn nice. To me, there is nothing more beautiful than a nicely resprayed bike with like new components that work well together and work well for me. My bikes have to be great riders and be able to carry my rear end up in the mountains. No corncob freewheeels here in Colorado!

So, IMHO, we have at least 2 distinct types of people on this list. We have the really serious collectors (Chuck, Jay, Peter, Matt, Lou, Dale, etc), and you have people like us who just dabble in it with a handful of bikes, all of which are ridden quite often. We get a few bikes, fix them up and ride them lots. If a better one comes along, we'll sell one of the old ones. Us dabblers just can't afford to restore an old Masi, then hang it on the wall and never ride it. More power to you though if you can!

just my 2 cents,
Rod Kronenberg
Fort Collins, CO


---------- Original message --------------


> I'm a thirty six-year-old father of two. I am middle-class and live in an

\r?\n> expensive area. I ride a lot and have too many bikes. My wife says I'm a

\r?\n> packrat, and my garage reflects that. I have an almost non-existant "fun"

\r?\n> budget. I like classic road bikes. I can't just drop $1000 or more on a

\r?\n> nice classic when it goes by, as it would cause significant marital

\r?\n> discord. So I have to collect within my budget, looking for deals and stuff

\r?\n> that is definitely at the bottom or below Chuck's hierarchical list. :) I

\r?\n> collect for my own pleasure. With one or two exceptions I have no plans of

\r?\n> ever selling my bikes. (We all have those transients in our collections, I

\r?\n> bet.)

\r?\n>

\r?\n> I've been lucky enough to find some really nice bikes/frames, cheap. Two of

\r?\n> my prized finds are a Carlsbad Masi frameset and a mid-70s Pogliaghi

\r?\n> frameset, both my size, and both _just_ within the financial boundaries of

\r?\n> my happy marriage. Both had something wrong with them. (Masi had later

\r?\n> braze-on work and nickel plating with rust blooming in some spots,

\r?\n> Pogliaghi had a cracked downtube and some maybe non-original braze-ons and

\r?\n> non-original paint/decals.) There's no question in my mind that these

\r?\n> framesets needed restoring. I sent them to the best guy for the job that I

\r?\n> knew, Ed Litton. They will come out with beautiful paint and the right

\r?\n> decals and the right braze-ons and I will be happy. Ed is truly a keeper of

\r?\n> the flame. He loves classic bikes too, is happy to teach a newbie like me

\r?\n> what's what, and his shop restores bikes that might fell through the cracks

\r?\n> - like mine - back to glory. These framesets will have no patina, probably

\r?\n> greatly diminished mojo in the eyes of some, but I'll still be happily

\r?\n> married. The paint won't be thick imron, but just-right PPG, I think. Hell,

\r?\n> Ed painted some of the original Carlsbad Masis. I will scrounge parts that

\r?\n> are basically correct, but there's little likelihood of me getting all-1975

\r?\n> Campy parts for the Masi, nor of me affording show-winning NOS componentry

\r?\n> either. I'll ride these bikes, I'll lend them to close friends and visitng

\r?\n> family to ride. I may end up spending more than someone would spend to buy

\r?\n> a complete original classic, but my wife won't see a $2000 purchase go

\r?\n> by. (She'll see a year or three of smaller purchases go by. :)

\r?\n>

\r?\n> I've got an old 1963 Peugeot PX-10E (Not sure on the "E".) that was bought

\r?\n> by a listmember (and ebay ethicist) for about $400, then parted out and

\r?\n> sold piecemeal on ebay to the kauzos of the world for over $1500. I ended

\r?\n> up with the battered frameset and a few unsaleable bits for about

\r?\n> $75. There's no way I can afford the Simplex Raid 61 derailleur or

\r?\n> Stronglight 57 crankset or aluminum-railed Ideale saddle that were on it,

\r?\n> but I'm scrounging interesting, roughly period-correct parts (Stronglight

\r?\n> 49d cranks, lower-tier steel simplex derailleurs, some wingnut-qr Normandy

\r?\n> hubs, Ideale 80 saddle, etc.) that will make this bike rideable again, and

\r?\n> it will be charming and French and fun to ride.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> I'm sure there are more people like me on this list. We love old bikes, we

\r?\n> do our best to reclaim, restore and renovate old bikes, but we do it on a

\r?\n> budget and we do the best we can with what we've got. I wasn't riding or

\r?\n> even alive when some of you were acquiring and riding this stuff. Perhaps

\r?\n> someday I'll have the cash to drop on the dream bikes I see and hear about

\r?\n> on this list, but for now I can only do my best.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> One of my winter project is to finish building a Molteni Merckx (also an Ed

\r?\n> Litton restoration) with scrounged Super Record and ride it. I'm looking

\r?\n> forward to riding it with people I've met on this list.

\r?\n>

\r?\n> Morgan

\r?\n> --

\r?\n> Morgan Fletcher, morgan@hahaha.org Oakland, CA