I'm takin the trash out this morning and the guy across the street is pushing this old bike to the curb. He sees me coming and pulls it back and says 50 bucks, the jerk. Well, I walked over to take a closer look anyway.
Raleighs were pretty common back then, right? So I don't figure it's rare but he says it was his dad's and he's kinda proud of his dad.
Here's the rundown on this thing;
The fancy little angle things that hold the tubes together (between the handlebar and the front wheel) are made out of chrome, kinda blingy. But then the rest of the little pieces on the bike all the chrome is worn off, leaving bare aluminum. I figure, why would they put chrome over cheap stuff, why not use some good steel so it will last.
I point this out to the guy and he says it's Italian and it's really campy. Last thing I saw that was really campy from Italy involved Clint Eastwood.
Then he points to this little sticker and says it's 531. Well, my Phillips is 1020. That's almost twice as much. Heck, my buddy across town says his Schwinn is 4130. That's nearly 10 times as good. I guess that's why he wants $500 for it.
He says it's still got the origional tires and I'd believe it. They're so old he had to sew then together and GLUE them to the rims to keep them from falling off. I'm not gonna fall for that old trick.
Finally, he points at the seat and says "it's a Brooks, honey." I told him they all look the same when you're sitting on them and if you call me "honey" again I'm gonna smack you.
It doesn't even have those nice brake handles that run along the top of the handlebars, so you have to reach all the way down onto the curvy part every time you want to stop.
I spit in his bag of lawn clippings and walked.
Now I'm thinking at least it was my size. Maybe I should offer him $25 for it. What do you guys think? Is it worth my time?
Oops, there goes the garbage truck. I'm probably too late.