Any collector value of this Rock Lobster?
 

I recently purchased what is supposed to have been Paul Sadoff's personal cyclocross bike. One he made for himself - perhaps even raced and then sold to the person I bought it from. I have not bothered to verify the sellers story since it didn't mean a thing to me when I purchased the bike - I just bought it to ride. Well, now that I've got about 100 miles in the saddle, I've decided that I need to make a few changes to make the bike work for me.

Before I do - am I messing with a potential collector's item? I'm changing handlebars, stem, saddle, seatpost and perhaps the fork.

I guess I can keep the parts and restore it later but knowing nothing about collecting - would it still be considered an original then?

I'm sorry for coming across as a smart-ass but without any dosumentation or even so much as an autograph on the frame you could just as easily claim that your bike was once owned by the Pope himself.

Furthermore, without proof of prior ownership your bike has zero "collector's value". And even if someone did know and care who Paul Sadoff was, the bike would be only worth what they were willing to pay for it.

So... now the bike is YOURS and that's all that matters. Bikes are made to be ridden, not hung up on some lard-ass collector's wall.

Do what you need to do to make it suit you and go ride!

Enjoy!

You don't come across as a smart ass so no concerns there. Since the seller was making a big deal about it - I asked about documentation and he encouraged me to contact Paul myself - I just haven't bothered since it had no bearing on my desire for the bike. Since then I've learned a little more about him so I wondered if there was any collectors value in this bike. I guess I should start by contacting Rock Lobster and see if the story is real huh? Without that there certianly is no collector's value.

I'm not a collector of any sort though so I'm not sure it would really matter except it would be kinda cool. Anyway - thanks for the opin. And in case anyone wants to know, you can read a little about Paul Sadoff here.

Any pics of the bike? Sounds like a cool ride.

The bike is very easy to check on - Paul is still building Rock Lobsters and a picture to him would solve any questions you have. http://www.rocklobstercycles.com/

As for collector's item? Who knows. Some people will collect anything for any reasons. As for me I would tend to doubt that the bike has any value not intrinsic which on a Rock Lobster is a great deal.

Paul Sadoff is probably the best bike builder in the Santa Cruz area and that includes a lot of bike builders. It's my opinion that he's better than Keith Bontrager ever was. Paul isn't nearly as opinionated as Keith is and I'm not knocking Keith. If you like Keith's bikes you know that he didn't change them from what he thought was right. Consequently most sized bikes were killer good but the larger sizes didn't handle all that well.

If you want to make changes in your Rock Lobster by all means make it the way you want it and not the way the guy who bought it from Paul set it up.

Thanks all. As requested here are a couple of picts. The components are Campy Athena 13-26 9-speed in the rear and a 39-48 up front. It weighs in at 21.5 pounds as you see it here. Feels heavier to me when accelerating off the line but I'm used to 20-inch wheeled folders so it could just be the wheel diameter difference.

I find that I don't need to change the stem after I swapped out the Ritchy "ergo" handlebars pictured here for some old-school Nitto bars. The Nitto's have a bit of flare out on the drops. The net result is that the hoods are now about an inch or so closer together and that solved my reach problems. Feels like a different bike!

That bike is beautiful...

that looks like a pretty sweet ride! reading the thing article from dirt rag...paul sounds like a pretty funny guy. I got one of his frame that won a national championship...so the seller said.

Nice bike. I like bikes you can't go to a website and see. You have the only pic of your bike. That said, do whatever you want with it and don't sell it until it sits in your garage unused for a year. That bike has some pizazzzzzzz.

Sweet ride. The whole story kinda sounds like that episode of Seinfeld when George Costanza buys what he believes was Jon Voight's Chrysler Lebaron.*

Maybe you can contact Rock Lobster and verify the serial number w/ them.*

How much more money do you suppose you paid for the bike based on the fact that it was Paul Sadoff's whip?

id say it has no value because it was paul's ride-------unless.

Unless it was the first cross bike he ever built or something of that nature.

But if he built it for himself 4 yrs ago, rode it a bit and then sold it, its worth what a rocklobster is worth, which isnt cheap.

change it and ride it.

btw the soul of a bike lives in the frame not the bars anyway.