Oh, there's been some good stuff since I awoke sane and sound this morning...

Yep, I awoke and looked again at the auction. The feeling was still there, but nowhere near as strong as the initial pull. I gave it the rest of the day (raking leaves, dropping the car off for its winter detail, riding one of my bikes) and just took another look. Just not doing anything for me at this point.

Reminds me of a relationship I once had; lasted only 3 days but was very intense

Additionally, there were some comments here that made me look at this bike with more of a jaundiced eye. First of all, it was listed on Ebay UK and sold for about $400. I wonder why he still has it, and of course why it's listed $200 beyond that winning UK bid. I love the bars, the frame is neat with the internal routing, and it just screams to be outfitted with a basket or daypack and be used as a cafe bike or grocery getter.

But! Tires would have to be sourced - I believe that's the reason for the gap between the fenders and the rubber. And I know myself too well: instead of leaving it pretty much as-found I'd be wanting to convert it all over to NR or SR and then it would pretty much be just like any of my other bikes. My apparent reason for wanting it at the beginning was because it was so different.

So, in the end, this old dog cannot be taught new tricks. Sorry to disappoint those who were hoping I'd cave and use the BIN (in particular Catmandew52 - that post must have taken 45 minutes to craft!), although I'm sure a few here are happy I came to my senses.

Maybe ten years from now, but not today. I'm better now

DD