Originally Posted by
daka
This may be a sensitive topic and, if so, I apologize in advance. But when I see a frame that has had its serial number obscured or removed and is repainted with or without different decals I immediately think that a transaction took place with that bicycle where the "seller" was unaware and went uncompensated. There was a thread here recently where a guy was asking about his repainted "Cinelli" with no serial numbers and the wrong seat cluster and the specter of theft, disguise, and resale never came up despite the thread continuing for several pages.
Does the C&V community have a position(s) on how to deal with collectible cycles that may have been victim to an illegal transaction somewhere in their past? Is it just not talked about? In the art and antique world some provenance can be expected with items of value, are C&V bikes reaching a similar level?
Plenty of red flags on the "Cinelli" to be sure but the seat cluster was definitely not one of them, The "B" model used that and that's where we use the collective to do our best to get to the bottom of things.
We all hold each other to a pretty high standard and when warranted the alarm will sound. Most here are well enough known that the process supports the genuine intent most of the time.
We do regularly question many things and will call BS when we think we see it but the level of knowledge and discussion usually sorts it out.
Provenance is very hard to come by on most bikes as they are very transient, break, get damaged, repainted, reworked and much else.
Theft is one of those things, if you can't prove it, it is not going to be the first road you go down, you better have more to go on than lack of evidence and knowledge or just confusion and speculation.
Theft is not something we encounter with the bikes we deal with, most of us know a sketchy seller, situation, etc. before the bike ever gets here.
Your concern is certainly valid but not as much so here, IMHO.