[CR]Ebay Eddy Hour Bike and a fair warning quandry.

(Example: History:Ted Ernst)

From: <BobHoveyGa@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 2006 17:26:00 EST
Subject: [CR]Ebay Eddy Hour Bike and a fair warning quandry.
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
cc: vjp@telus.net

Victor, I guess I probably would have contacted the seller first, but either way there's a lot to be concerned about with this bike. Regardless of my intended use, if I was the bidder I'd definitely want to know if something in the description did not match the bike.

I'm a bit behind in my list reading so maybe this had been hammered to death already, but over and above the decals you mentioned, wow, that frame really looks, well... like something very different than what it is claimed to be.

The cutout in that seat lug is like nothing I've ever seen on a Colnago, though it does remind me of something I've seen on some 80's bikes... just can't quite remember where tho, anybody know?

All the Hour Record era bikes (even the fakes) had the short fluted stay ends that were typical of Colnagos of the period... this one's got the "Italian fastback style," more typical of some 80's and 90's bikes. The shape of the rear dropouts and the filing of the stay ends is all wrong. The headlugs are not even close... the sides are not deeply cut the way almost all Colnago headlugs were.

At least one of the Hour Record backup bikes had club cutouts in the lower head lug and on the fork crown, and one of the fakes had spade cutouts (tho the bike Eddy was photographed riding did not appear to have any cutouts, either in the lugs or fork crown). This bike appears to have cutouts in the upper and lower head lugs (not clubs or spades... hard to see but it is probably the same shape that's on the seat lug) and nothing on the fork crown. There is no club cutout under the bottom bracket.

I don't think there's much doubt that this is not the Hour Bike, a copy of the Hour Bike, a 'backup' Hour Bike, any sort of Colnago bike, or any bike at all produced within ten years of the hour record.

But they did spell Eddy's name right on the downtube decal...

Bob Hovey Columbus, GA

In a message dated 1/21/2006 1:39:54 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org writes:

Last night I was on EBAY and looked at this auction,

http://ebay.com/<blah> yZ98084QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The whole story seems a lttle suspect to me, and that bike is not a Colnago, DeRosa or Merckx as far as I am concerned.

It was supposedly "built" up in the early 80's and the decals added then. The decals look to be late 80's early nineties, the rims are early nineties and well...it just looks like it was recently built up with some NOS parts, some in the 80's and some not. It has been built up for 25 years and never ridden? Never?

I started to send a message to the seller that maybe the person they got the bike from had "embellished" but that it was probably not correct. Then I thought, what if the seller knows that and is not being truthful...??? Would they change the auction?

I deleted my message to the seller and instead sent a short message to the highest bidder that I didn't think that the listing was correct and if they wanted I would give my reasons in a following e-mail.

This morning I received an email from the SELLER!! He wanted to know why I didn't contact Him of I thought something was up and to "stop sabotaging my auction".

I felt stupid. Why didn't I contact him first? I would appreciate it myself. But I was even more surprised that the high bidder would have passed along my email to the seller without asking what my thoughts were first...???

I have been pondering all day, mainly thinking that I should mind my own business, and the I had the thought that maybe the high bidder was a shill bid. I don't know.

Minutes ago I received an e-mail from the high bidder stating "I don't really care if EDDY rode it or not, I'm just interested in the bike". But asked for my thoughts on the bike.

I then checked on the high bidder and realized that he/she is also in wisconsin, like the seller.

What do you think?

Victor Penner