Well it's a really nice bike, and worth looking at as just that. But if Eric Clapton never took delivery of it, it's not really Eric Clapton's bike. And even if it was, who cares? I could see wanting to own a bike owned and ridden by a great professional racer, but not a rock musican. What's the correlation? The R&R lifestyle in the 60's and 70's would hardly fit into the world of cycling.

The seller appears to be a toy and memerobila collector (nice ez-bake oven there, sport!). He probably bought it for the Clapton spiel and never rode it. If he knew anything about bikes I doubt he would have chosen Sake bars for it. Anyway, I'm sure he has a crazy reserve price on it. Maybe some crap hole like the Hard Rock cafe will buy it. I really can't see the attraction to a hardcore vintage cycling fan.

Some people actually believe that he got his nickname "The Cannibal" because of his racing success. In reality it was the band he was in when he was in his teens - "Eddy and the Cannibals".


"Eddy! Get me a beer. The beer is in the cooler."
Back in the days of horizontal lettering on wool shorts.

well, it does add some historical importance, and Eric was a junior racer before he realized that he would make a little more money from his second choice of careers...It really would add value, i'm sure.

I believe Eric Clapton also collects bicycles, perhaps some of the CR list folk know more?

In any case, the bike is pretty cool, though I don't agree with the seller's way of handling an auction.

Transparency is as good in an auction as it is in government. You won't find either lately, looking at eBay or the USA, IMO.

Yep. The lugs are consistent with WB Hurlow's craftsmanship, too. From what I've read he built frames for Condor until 1968. Think he did special orders for them after that time period?

Supposedly this is his track bike.

/\ i would guess it is, its on his blog as being his

If Eric didn't take delivery, but perhaps just maybe he paid for it, and he could claim this ebay bike as his....????

hey, eric clapton didn't own any of my bikes either!

Bill of Sale from Condor (posted by Don Gillies to the CR list ... was emailed to him by the seller)

https://www.ece.ubc.ca/~gillies/000_0002.jpg

Bob

As for the pink bike, I think it's a different bike completely.
reread what the bridge guy said. Condor said they only sold 2 of this colour
and EC bought the other one. Doesn't mean its the EC model.
given that EC does indeed collect bikes as well as guitars it is conceivable
that he has more than one Condor?

marty

100 Pounds Sterling for a custom frame in 1975 seems pretty reasonable. As a point of reference, the Schwinn Paramount was retailing at $575 then.

Regards,
Alan

This is off the subject a little bit but I think you will like the story. I was friends with Rod Serling for many years and I went to his summer home at Interlaken NY on Lake Cayuga on business at least one a month during the sumer months during the 60's. He new I was bike rider and raced at one time. He was closing up the lake house for the winter and going back home and he gave me his bike a 10 speed ********** I can't remember what it was. It had flat tires and he didn't want to leave it there and he had not ridden it in many years. Rod was a very short person at least 4 inched shorter than myself. I have very long legs and he had short legs so the bike never came close to fitting me. My kids rode it,my friends rode it and I left it in the barn that went with my house when I sold it in 1972 at Port Crane NY. What do you think? Did I loose a treasure? Na it was not anything special as even then I new a good bike from entry level bike. I also new Carl Sagan when he was at Cornell in Ithaca NY and I saw a bike in his office so he must have ridden around campus. Parking at Cornell was impossible and even faculty used bike to get around the campus. I made a $100 bet with Carl that I could fly a model aircraft in side his lab at Clark Hall. I did it and still have the plane. I should have taken his bike instead of the $100.
EddyR

Now that was a factual article......I wonder if Cheryl Crow knew that she had married both Eric and Lance????


quote from the article:

"Eric Clapton's wife for a while was singer Sheryl Crow. Crow later moved on to wed Lance Armstrong. The point, which all cyclists present acknowledged with proper awe, was that "only three degrees of separation" lie between Doug MacDonald and Lance Armstrong."

She did date Eric Clapton for a bit.

Less than three hours remaining and Eric's Condor is at $2275. Reserve not met.

I'm thinking it isn't a bike made for Clapton, just a bike painted the same scheme. That would explain the original bill of sale.

Yeah, I'm thinking he probably ordered one, and while they were building it they made another, and later just sold off the frame. The only thing the receipt really says its a Condor with Eric Clapton lettered on it. Now, if they had an original build order for 2 frames...

dbakl, We agree on something!

See, we can all get along just fine.

About 30 minutes left and the Condor is soaring! $3K!! Anyone think there could be a shill?

No joytyme for toytyme! Reserve not met.

Reserve $3k and no one wanted to make the next bid?

Well, seller is probably kicking himself. That was a good amount of money for that bike, but didn't meet reserve. I bet if relisted it doesn't go as high.

I think he'll probably sell it off ebay now, maybe to one of the bidders.

Dang, we agree again!

Personally, I don't bid on a bike with a reserve, unless the seller is willing to disclose it. I can understand not wanting to sell a nice piece short, but...?

The market sets the price, and the market has spoken!

edit: should have been open to Europe/Japan, especially with the state of the dollar.