Turned my machine on this morning after a couple of days to find my inbox stuffed to the gills with hundreds of emails regarding a Gios that was bought on eBay stripped of all of it's parts and then sold off part by part.
1. What in the world made this Gios bicycle so worthy of so many posts? Gios bikes with pantographing are everywhere in the Bay Area.
2. Since when (or maybe I should ask who) decided that a Gios was a top tier bicycle? I would say it isn't even close. Super Record equipped? That automatically knocks it down 4 or 5 tiers.
3. People go to France and bring back Rene Herse, Alex Singer, and Jo Routens bikes. These bikes are stripped to skeletons, the frames sold in separate auctions (as are all of the old Ideale, Mafac. Simplex, SKB, Stronglight, TA, parts etc. that originally adorned these classics.) No one seems to care about the fact that these TRULY VINTAGE BICYCLES are stripped and sold for profit, (or they would have posted 100+ posts like the very common Gios.)
4. I emailed the guy who was stripping the bike when I saw the parts go up for auction (as I wanted to buy them all.) He replied to me that he was committed to putting all of the parts on eBay for "his client." So sounds like the bike may have been purchased and/or taken over by a broker. This would mean the disassembler/seller is the broker.
5. I do not know the guy who bought the bike. I do not know the guy who originally owned the bike. I do not know who the client is. But none of this really matters. A buyer is free to do whatever he/she wants to do with his/her new-found toy.
Constructive thinking:
Preservation of classic cycles is one of CR's main focal points. That said, why didn't a CR member spring for this bicycle?
IDEA!!!---What if every time a bike that the CR List considers to be a true classic and we all agree should not fall into the "wrong hands," we ALL chip in and purchase the bicycle? Then we could find storage space for these cycles and bring them to life at the Cirque? We could even go on rides on them.
I have no idea how many people are on the list, but let's use the number 700. If the GIOS was $2800.00 we could buy this bicycle for less than $5.00 per member.
Ted Baer
Palo Alto, CA