Mark Stonich wrote: "isn't there a good chance that this bike had been stolen somewhere along the line?"
i see what you're getting at Mark, so my question to the group is, how could you tell any bike you bought has a "history" if you buy it from someone you don't know, i.e. ebay, thrift store, dump?
i'm confident this bike was donated to the recycling center. it doesn't appear to have been ridden in quite a long time. most of the parts have rust and there was an abundant of pollen caked amongst the cobwebs around the brake calipers. the tubulars were completely flat and as brittle as a cracker. it really wasn't in much better condition then most of the other bikes there. as a matter of fact, someone was buying another bike of much lower quality, but was much cleaner at the same time, i was picking this out.
this is not to say stolen bikes couldn't show up there, anymore so then ebay, thrift store, etc. i've heard of someone who found their stolen mountain bike there. however it was new and very clean. i can't say i've ever seen anything like that at this place.
but with anything that you didn't buy new or from a known source, how do you determine what you'll check to see if it's really stolen?
Eric -when i see something that's hot, i don't always think it's hot- Acuna Santa Rosa, CA