Originally Posted by
rwortman
How important is originality to a vintage bike? Is it like a car or motorcycle in that every part that is not original detracts from the value in a big way? I have a 1973 CCM Silver Ghost that I am going to be fixing up as my winter project. I am the original owner. The godawful original nylon seat never made it out of the dealership. I also replaced the cheesy steel cage pedals with some aluminum Atom's in the first year I had it. It also came with an steel stick for a seatpost and one of those funky looking clamps that grabs the post and the seat rails. Seat posts like are common now were pretty darn pricey back then. The steel stick is now rusty and uglier than it used to be. Am I going to drop the value of my bike by putting a decent post on it or should I just clean up the steel one?
If you will not ride the bike and just display it, you might want to be as original as possible when choosing your components. But if you do plan to ride the bike regularly, you should update some components that might be considered questionable when it comes to safety and reliability (drying out leather saddles, pedals or maybe even brakes). You might also want to remove and preserve any "unobtainium" super rare (and usually super expensive) parts that will be impossible to replace if they wear out or break.
JMOs
Chombi
84 Peugeot PSV
85(?) Vitus Plus Carbone 7