Where are sl the nice C&V bikes??.... I do see a good number of older steel and Al bikes being used for commuting everyday in downtown SF. Once in a while I come aross something kinda special, but a lot are low to mid level bikes that work pretty well for commuting. What's cool is, a lot of them are being ridden by people much younger than the bikes, so, I suspect that they are conciously taking on the C&V bikes for what they are and are thoroughly enjoying them.
I was actually quite surprised that I did not see any nice C&V bikes in Europe last fall, when I was there. Just a lot of well used townie folders and cheap looking obscure (to us) brand bikes. I hear from some Euro C&Vers in this forum that C&V bikes and parts are not as easy to find as we think it would be. Maybe it could be true that C&Vers from Japan and Souteast Asian countries are buying them and all the components up??
I say, hold on to your C&V bikes and components as long as you can still find and get them,.....as I don't think it's gonna be any easier to do so in the future.

Chombi