In a message dated 9/8/2004 5:11:17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ed@maggs.com writes:
<< As an outsider, can anyone tell me why there is so little activity about bikes with famous provenances? I had assumed that the bike collecting community would be all about the "machine that Anquetil took up the Galibier in xxxx" or "the bike that Campagnolo froze beside when he had the idea of the skewer". Let alone the terminal Simpson bike.
Is this because all the famously owned bikes are safely in museums, or because they're too hard to identify? >>
Hi Ed: I think you have it at the end there. There are few verifiable bikes that come on the market for which there is a true paper trail to support any alleged provenance. And there have been a few bikes for sale with claimed famous owners (& commensurately high selling price expectations) that have not stood up under even the mildest scrutiny... At least that's my observation...
Dale
Dale Brown
Greensboro, North Carolina