Jonny B

What's the strangest thing (for sale) you've seen in your LBS? There's a Giant MCR in one near me (full carbon Lotus-style TT bike designed by Mike Burrows), £1000 complete (set up for road racing though). The owners of another one are big on restoring vintage bikes, and they have a Paris 10 speed sitting in the shop with a sign on it saying 'As sold by us in 1948'. Don't think they actually sold it, but they have been around that long.

DieselDan

A Hamilton road bike with 24" wheels, and it's not a junior bike.
A Softride with 26" wheels.

Rev.Chuck

Set of Aerolite pedals, early clipless, they are meant to be nailed or screwed to a wooden sole. Shaft drive bike from 1890's.(It is not really for sale tho)

g3ck0

how would you 'unclip' or even get out of your bike??

cheg

https://xtracycle.com/gallery/view_ph...ds&id=DSCF0027

Rev.Chuck

The cleat nails to the shoe. The pedal is just a cylinder and the cleat is shaped to recieve it thru a slot across it. To get you foot off you slide it straight out to the side. Apparantly you can still get them in Europe(Maybe here)

seely

They have actually brought that pedal back... they are in QBP now if you look through the pedals section. Much slicker looking, and ultra lightweight alloy now if I recall (maybe even Ti?) forget what they are called though.

forum*rider

I saw those pedals too, yeah they were made out of Ti.

I think these were the ones:

https://www.supergo.com/profile.cfm?L...605&referpage=

Waldo

^
Negative. The M2racer pedals work on a completely different principle; the cleat spreads the hemispherical portions apart (they're spring loaded) when you step down on the pedal.

forum*rider

So it's basically the reverse of the pedals Rev.Chuck was talking about.

fooey.

pdxcyclist

Strangest thing I saw was "mile a minute" record-setting bike from the early years. The record was set by riding behind a train, but the scary part was that the front chain-ring looked like it came from a sawmill. Imagine that thing spinning at 100 rpms between your legs.

catatonic

a 24" wheel, double width with 10ga spokes. Turns out it was a custom build for the owner's whizzer. Freaking awesome as well, I might add. Turns out the owner is a massive whizzer nut, and so is his family. They have family&friends rides every other month or so.


edit: forgot the "for sale" part. Oddest for sale has to be an original set of 1970s 10-sp brake levers. I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw them...almost bought them too, just for the sake of saying I have NOS brake levers that are older than I am

UziBeatle

Weirdest thing I saw recently at a bike shop was these bicycles with bizzare stretched
front ends. I didn't get the name of the bike maker but whoever it is they obviously watched
one TOO MANY episodes of American Chopper. All one needed to make a full strectch chopper is to
drop a engine in the frame. Even the seat pedal geometry was like a American style chopper with the feet forward. The front wheel tubes were overlarge so as to make them appear like hydraulic dampened tubes one sees on some choppers. PErsonally I'd had gone with the springer look but I'm a weirdo I guess.

Total crazy!

Brianwh

The weirdest thing(s) in my LBSs are the employees. Still, it's good that the managers are willing to hire the mentally challenged.

greenbreezer

A kiddie trike with rear suspension and knobby tires. And they also have a bin full of the coolest valve caps ever!

Gibbygoo

same here

Jay H

One day, I walked into my favorite bike shop and...



Jay

Rev.Chuck

We are not mentally challenged, we are differently abled.

dexmax

Nice one!

CommuterKat

I give up!

N_C

Ok I gotta ask. What is a whizzer? And please don't say someone who pee's on the side of the road.

N_C

It would be a bigger concern if you're a guy riding it.

N_C

I would have to say the strangest thing I've ever seen in my LBS is something that can only be described as an abomination. Try to picture this as I describe it ok?

I saw a Huffy mtn bike with a weed trimmer motor attached to it. A gas powered one, not electric.

Rider position: This thing had foot pegs attached to conventional axle nuts in place of the QR at the rear so the rider could put his legs back so they would not get in the way of the motor & not be burned by the hot exhaust. Imagine the crotch rocket position.

Motor support: The motor was sitting on a steel plate that was welded to the top tube with a support brace welded to the bottom of the plate & to the angled down tube near where it meets the bottom bracket shell.

Drive train: The bottom of the motor was even with the top of the top tube to the right of it with the exhaust blowing across to the left. This thing had a longer shaft on it that went across & above the top tube. The shaft had a sprocket welded to it with a chain that went down to the chain ring.

Because of all the extra heavy weight of this thing the genius that built this contraption drilled holes in the top tube & down tube to lighten it.

Now anyone with half a brain would not in his or her right mind build such a death trap. First of all there are not guards around the chain that goes from the motor to the chain ring. Plus nothing to deflect the hot exhaust blowing across the top tube. Plus the center of gravity on this thing is totally changed & differant because the motor is up high & on the one side.

Does anyone else see the problems or potential for serious injury & worse with the thing?

Oh & the reason it was at the LBS. The guy needed a new chain to go from the sprocket attached to the motor down to the chain ring. Unfortunatly the shop did the work for this guy. IMO they should not have because of liability reasons. By that I mean this bike has been seriously altered & this is not an intended purpose for a bicycle with these types of alterations. So if something happens to anyone who rides it the shop could potentially be held liable for putting the new chain on.

saddlesores

harley-davidson® cruiser bike --- @ $2,500

megaman

This wasn't at a bike shop, but it was really weird. There was a picture of this riding lawn mower. The price was $750. The weird part is the "mower" was a reel type mower with the rear half of a bicycle welded on to the handle of the mower. It actually looked like it would work. That way you could cut your grass and get your riding in at the same time. This picture was hanging in a small restaurant with the contact phone number.