I had expected Brett Horton to chime in on this but maybe he is no longer a member.
A discussion with him a while back about collecting in Europe and ex Pro bikes in particular brought out a couple of interesting points. Collecting in Europe seems to be quite a ways behind us with fewer numbers of people actually interested in old stuff, though that seems to be changing. Current Pro Teams dispose of surplus bikes at the end of the season but other than bikes ridden by the top tier riders the value of the bikes is according to size with the popular sizes worth more than the very small or very large ones. Brett acquired a bike of Eric Zabels but specified early that all components had to be original as parts seemed to float from bike to bike with top riders getting the new stuff and domestiques getting a lot of previously used stuff. Remember in years past Bike Racing was a Blue Collar enterprise and most riders would return home and give the stuff away to their fellow villagers. Maybe recently team mechanics might hold on to stuff we might find collectible but I think many bikes ended up with their bars turned up and continued life delivering eggs and bread. I cannot imagine the current plastic bikes in that occupation
Eddy Merckx is an avid collector and Brett has lots of stories to tell about that
BOB FREITAS
blue skies in MILL
VALLEY, CA USA