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Old 01-14-21, 05:46 PM
  #23767  
oldspokes
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: USA
Posts: 139

Bikes: more than 20

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I bought a ladies model Sports with Endrick wheels at a fleamarket over the summer for $40US, the wheels were good but the bearings all had to be gone through. The grease had all but petrified over the years. The guy swore up and down it had the original tires on it but I don't remember them coming with 'CST' branded tires back then. They were rotted enough to be that old but not original.
The chrome on that bike looked like brand new. I stripped it down, hung the frame in the garage and built up a clean old Robin Hood men's frame I had gotten a few years earlier. I listed the rather clean ladies frame on CL all summer for $20 but didn't get so much as an offer on it. I pulled the headbadge and hung up the fork for future use and tossed the frame. The bike had been bought new in Montana and somehow made its way to PA. The guy who had it said he had sold the matching men's model that morning for $300 but no one even looked at the ladies bike. I fully agree, they're basically just donor bikes, usually with decent wheels so long as they didn't come from the shore areas or the bottom of the local pond.
I've been messing with old three speed bikes for 40 years, in all that time, I think I've had one ladies bike with a leather saddle, and that bike was from the 30's. I had two road bikes with Brooks saddles, but never found a Sports with one. I've probably had 30 Sports models over the years, and three times that many 'other' brands from England.
I only buy them when their my size and cheap, with the thought that any 50+ year old bike is going to need a lot of work, whether its cleaning or a full overhaul, it all takes time, and money in most cases.
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