Road Cycling - What happens to old team bikes?

During a discussion with a friend on team bikes, we started wondering what happens to the bikes that teams use after the season is over. For instance, what did USPS do with the '02 bikes from last year? Do they sell them off to the public, donate them to charity, or destroy them? It would sure make a interesting coversation piece at the next group ride if I had the bike that Lance won his fourth, or even third, TdF with! :thumbup:

What are the odds that you would be able to get your hands on a bike like that?

Heck, I'd take any bike that was ridden in the tour. But I don't know if they tear them down, scrap the frames and sell the components on ebay. I'm curious as to where they go. They all can't go into museum's, can they?

Friends of friends probably, sponsor's son-in-law.... stuff like that

chances are they probably auction them off to bike enthusiasts who will hang them on their wall and admire them. Of course I'm only talking about the ones that let's say Lance one the tours on. You can probably get something like what you're talking about from one of the other team members

I would think that it is highly doubtful that you would be able to get the exact bike that Lance won any of the tours on. They probably even let him keep the bikes himself.

I'd take one of the lowiest domestiqies.....

USPS has auctioned off old team bikes for Charity in the past. They had links to the auctions at the Trek website. They had quite a few team bikes and also some that were used during the filming of commercials featuring Lance.

I don't remember what sold for but the prices seemed fairly reasonable for a collector bike.

Lampre Dankin's Fondriest bikes from last year were sold after the season by an outfit out of Florida called Glory Cycles.

I've also seen US Div3 team bikes from Prime Alliance and Navigators for sale on Ebay.

Most of them are Ebay'ed off.............

Do not know of USPS. I am sure being theh carbon frames they are returned to Trek as all the parts. However wheels and such I am sure are sold locally to the USPS warehouse.

I know in the older days teams like Banesto and such sold nearly all their equipment. I lived close to their warehouse and frames that they didn't need for the next season would be sold. Frames they can used would get repainted and used as spare bikes. Same with parts.

Hi

I tell you that I live in Spain and when Banesto signed contract to Pinarello on begining of 90s (they where using Razesa and Reynolds) they kept the bikes from the best riders such us Indurain and Delgado, and they had a lottery with the old ones. At that time I had a bank account in Banesto and I won a bike rided by Javier Lazpiur. The bike is incredible.

If you poke around, sometimes you will find them having been donated to auctions, charities, and the like. Many riders keep their old bikes.
Recently, a bike that Robbie McEwen rode in the Tour was on Ebay. The guy who had the bike (it was a 48cm frame) wanted ten grand, Australian, (he was, you guessed it, in Australia) and it's been on Ebay twice now with no buyers. That small of a frame is something to hang on the wall of a bar and that's a lot of cash for a wall hanging. To me, anyway.
A couple of Lance's bikes have been auctioned off during the Ride for the Roses, and off the LAF website. They were able to sell them for ten or eleven thousand dollars. Lance signed them, as well.

A couple of years ago, a guy put an old Caloi frame up on Ebay. The story was that when the Motorola team went out of business, he called and asked for equipment and ended up getting one of Lance's old frames plus some other gear and the transport bag for the bike. Had Lance's name on the top tube. He put it up on Ebay with the necessary certificates...I think he got close to eight grand for the bike.

But, frankly you can buy a bike exactly like those...anymore, most of the frames are stock, stick on some Record or Dura Ace, a set of top notch wheels, and it's just as good, your size, and probably not as expensive.

LBS here has the bike Claudio Chiappucci rode when he held the TDF Yellow Jersey...has the jersey (Autographed) too. I believe they (owner) are family friends or something though.

Edit: Oh yea that isn't for sale though. :D

I know 2 people who have bought Lance's bikes in the Motorola days.. You have to have an inside connection and great timing.. I have 2 team bikes, one was Sean yates and the other Frankie Andreu, both Motorola Team issue - Eddy Merckx's..

Standard issue is 2 road bikes and 1 time trial bike. So it is not like there are thousannds of these things every year.

Maybe I'm crazy, but if I won the TDF on a bike I don't think I could ever get rid of it.

Can you imagine some domestique trying to sell his bike on eBay? I bet it would look like a scam. I wonder if those guys even mention who they are if they eBay them off. Who knows, someone out there may be riding a pro bike without knowing it. Or do all of them have names painted on them?

Most of the team bikes have number plate braze ons which normally do not come on stock bikes.. Mine has the names of the riders on the top tube..

I believe that with some of the US teams individual riders are allowed to sell their team bikes. The money they get is considered part of their compensation. Sometimes you can buy them from the riders themselves at VeloSwap and similar events. Velo News had an article about it last year sometime.

Here's a Very nice Team bike for sale,
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=98084&item=7149880795&rd=1,

I believe that with some of the US teams individual riders are allowed to sell their team bikes. The money they get is considered part of their compensation. Sometimes you can buy them from the riders themselves at VeloSwap and similar events. Velo News had an article about it last year sometime.

Ya... many years back I got Alex Stieda's 7-11 team Serotta frame at a garage sale! There were several other elite roadies there selling off stuff too.

pointyhead,

Ask here (http://www2.trekbikes.com/Inside_Trek/Misc/Contact_Us.php)

I have a friend that has one of Lances USPS spare bikes that he never used...