Originally Posted by chimblysweep
i know we're not supposed to "discuss" items- just post and drool- but i'm absolutely heartbroken over the san rensho i bought, and had to share. i didn't want to start a new thread, since i have a feeling one of the philly kids knows the woman who sold this to me...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWN%3AIT&rd=1
it was advertized as "nothing that would impair the strength of the bike," "no rust," "great condition."
i unpacked and built it last night and was just heartbroken to see that both wheels don't sit straight. the frame has obviously been crashed, the fork and dropouts both bent. the fork's so bad that the tire rubs, and by the dirt built up, it's clear that this didn't just happen in shipping. Plus, it's clear that the previous owner didn't take care locking it up, since there are tons of little dents and dings on the bike that suggest a krypto chain and throwing the downtube over a rack carelessly. And it's clear from the photos on ebay that she avoided showing the rust spots/missing decals/bad chips on steatstays/bent fork. (You can tell the fork thing if you look real carefully, but the photo's taken such that it's hard to tell.) I have photos that look very different.
i don't know what to do. i emailed her, and said that i don't know what to do, but if y'all have suggestions, i'm open. i really want this bike, but i want it as advertized, not all f'ed up. it's sort of barely (and not real safely) rideable with the little fork/dropout problem. if it was anything else, i'd send it back and demand a refund. but i want one so badly... help? anyone?
Chimbly, I think you should try to get your money back. But if you really want to keep it try taking it to a framebuilder to see if it's fixable. The dropouts can be replaced pretty easily, but probably not with the fancy yohsi konno superends it came with. The fork sounds like a different story and would probably need to be replaced alltogether. Was it packed/shipped poorly? If you still have the box take some photos of it to show that the damage did not occur in shipping and that the seller misrepresented the item in the auction. "overall great shape!!" is what it was described as, and it's certainly not what you've got.
If you don't know of a framebuilder in the area there's a guy in Baltimore named Bruni who did a repair job for me a few years ago. Really nice guy and fair pricing as well.