hi eric,
welcome to the list. say, is your dream bike fair game to those of us who don't live in rochester? just kidding! but i think rod's advice of buying it on lay-away is an excellent idea. it's worth a try, because even if no one from the list poaches it, this could easily turn into your "the one that got away" story. you ride by the shop everyday, so we expect a report tomorrow on the shop's response to your offer, ok?
good luck,
ray dobbins
miami florida
> Hello- I'm new to Classic Rendezvous and the wonderful world of
\r?\n> classic
\r?\n> lightweights. I'll tell you a little bit about myself and how I came
\r?\n> to ap
\r?\n> preciate these steel beauties. My name is Erik Olsson, I'm from
\r?\n> Rochester,
\r?\n> New York USA. It all began this past April when the left rear wheel
\r?\n> fell of
\r?\n> f of my car, and I found myself without transportation. I went down
\r?\n> to my l
\r?\n> ocal bike shop and bought a used 1988 Trek 400 for $175. Not a bad
\r?\n> deal as
\r?\n> it is in good condition with all original components. I subsequently
\r?\n> fell i
\r?\n> n love with it. Now, obviously a 1988 bike won't qualify for Classic
\r?\n> Rendez
\r?\n> vous but it didn't take long for me to realize that there was a whole
\r?\n> world
\r?\n> of bicycling appreciation out there and that I was just scratching
\r?\n> the sur
\r?\n> face. Since then I sold my car for $1000 to buy a 1985 Gios*torino
\r?\n> "Pro" in
\r?\n> near mint condition with a Shimano Dura-Ace group, Cinelli stem and
\r?\n> bars,
\r?\n> Selle Italia Turbo saddle, and Mavic G40 rims. Still however, a 1985
\r?\n> is not
\r?\n> a 1983. I am currently obsessed with trying to scrape together
\r?\n> enough mone
\r?\n> y to buy a GEORGEOUS pearl white N.R. Eddy Merckx in excellent
\r?\n> condition th
\r?\n> ey've had at the same bike shop for a couple of years. Its an older
\r?\n> Merckx,
\r?\n> '80 or '81 (old style branding with underlining Y and M), but it'll
\r?\n> be a w
\r?\n> hile before I can make that happen. I ride by that shop window almost
\r?\n> every
\r?\n> day to see if its still there. It would be a crime if someone buys
\r?\n> it on a
\r?\n> whim to save a couple hundred dollars off of what they really want.
\r?\n> It des
\r?\n> erves to be with someone who would prefer to store it in thier
\r?\n> bedroom rath
\r?\n> er than in thier garage. (If anyone in Rochester is reading this
\r?\n> please don
\r?\n> 't find it and break my heart). Its funny how my appreciation for
\r?\n> these fin
\r?\n> ely crafted machines deepens and goes forward as thier date of
\r?\n> manufacture
\r?\n> goes back in time. I've found cycling to be incredibly invigorating
\r?\n> and ref
\r?\n> reshing. Someone pointed out to me that the latin root of the word
\r?\n> "respira
\r?\n> te" is shared by the latin root of the word "spirit" which makes
\r?\n> sense to m
\r?\n> e. For me cycling is like a meditation. My guess is that the Italians
\r?\n> picke
\r?\n> d up on that spiritual connection when they perfected thier
\r?\n> frame-building
\r?\n> techniques. Anyway, right now I'm having trouble finding pictures of
\r?\n> those
\r?\n> older Merckx frames online. The one at CR is beautiful with those
\r?\n> chrome lu
\r?\n> gs. Also, maybe I'll pose a question- Does anyone know of a different
\r?\n> onlin
\r?\n> e marketplace for purchasing classic lightweights besides eBay? They
\r?\n> have g
\r?\n> reat stuff but I'm getting a little sick of logging on to that site
\r?\n> for bro
\r?\n> wsing. Looking forward participating in this forum -Erik Olsson
\r?\n> Rochester,
\r?\n> New York USA