I had quite a scare yesterday when I lost my Roberts. I found it this morning, it had been moved to another location in the building during a clean-up. I was a mess for a while. Lanie made a crock pot of sweet potato soup for crew (it always make my day better too) but we didn't any food eating tools, plates etc.
I figured we should head to the second hand store in Springfield. We could look for bear along the way (we have some 400# bull in the 'hood causing some trouble)
"I don't get many bikes" the woman at the thrift store answered but a young man browsing the goods spoke up and mentioned he had a few old bikes. He mentioned a JC Higgens and a Columbia. "I don't go for American cruiser type bikes (too many Columbia bike around here)" I mentioned and he replied "you have to glue the tires on".
He didn't have a vehicle so we planted him in the back of the mystery machine (my van) and headed up the Springfield/Chester road toward Chester with $1.00 spent on bowls, his dads auto repair shop was along the way.
We parked where he suggested and per his instructions we waited there. It began to rain and I was thinking more about turkeys we saw on the trip when he rolled out the JC higgens. It was an odd duck with what looked like a bendix hub but it was a three speed. It was a roadster sports model made in Austria. Then the columbia, a way low end sports . I am not feeling it.
He says "hang on, two more"
He rolls out an interesting Western flyer, not my thing but pretty cool. The frame is molded to look like a "billet fillet" frame with huge radi at the joints.
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He then produces another bike. The transfers mostly are missing but I see the Nuovo Record derailleurs and "milano" on the seat tube. "I like this one, I have $80.00" I reply. He shakes his head NO. I am thinking he is going to say $500.
"What will you take?" He replies "$100.00. We quickly close the deal and headed down the road. Curt was along for the ride and asked my what I though it was worth..
After hearing my my reply he said "see if you can hang on the this one".. we had quite a laugh
It's a Legnano.. holy cow, better than a bear for sure!
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