Not MY pick, but I had to pass on this story: I was riding alongside another commuter yesterday in downtown SF traffic and he initiated the friendly "nice bike" chat, so I complemented him on his very high quality ride, a Medici with some "patina" but nothing I'd ever sneeze at. He says, "Yeah, you won't believe it but I only paid 50 cents for this frame from a local shop..." Right, says I... what shop would ever sell a frame like that for such a pittance? According to him the bike was in for repairs at this shop (he wouldn't name cause he didn't want to embarass them) and the owner (a lawyer) got into a beef with the shop over the safety of the frame given the fact that the chrome fork and complete chrome rear triangle was covered by surface rust. The shop couldn't/wouldn't give him a warranty that the frame tubing wouldn't fail due to this "dangerous" rust condition, so he refused to take it back and got the shop to give him a new, unrusted replacement. The current owner, who was on friendly terms with the shop happened to be there when this all transpired and offered to buy the frame off them and never to sue them for damages resulting from tube failure due to rust. The result was a beautiful handbuilt frame with a little rust on the chrome for a token price of 50 cents...he's still riding it, of course. Why can't we all be there to take advantage when idiot lawyers run amok?