Maybe, there were two members of classic rendezvous who showed any interest in even talking about the frame. No one else made a peep. There is only a tiny sliver of information buried on Jamie Swan's website and absolutely nothing else on the web about Corky or his bikes. I suspect anyone who knew about these bikes has retired and or does not have an interest in collecting. And corky is valuable to me (enough to have spent as much as I have on the bike) but I honestly think that the bike has little intrinsic value.

You are hereby designated the KOCF...Keeper of the Corky Flame. It's a slice of time/history and I appreciate when those sort of things get preserved.

The darker side of our sweet Lanky Lass comes out!?! Now we know why her family left England. She aspires to become a bicycle smuggler into the great nation of Canada. The Mounties better keep a sharp eye! Maybe a second career after retirement from that shipping organization you work for?

East Hill, if we buy a boat together we can go into business running them from a remote location off the olympia penninsula to a discreet location on the west coast of vancouver island.. oh wait, the fuel would cost more than the value of the bikes....

Here in PA, there is some nostalgia from my LBS owner, but there are probably few (if any) that would pay much for Corky. According to Tom, there was also another Corky that built frames in the mid-Atlantic as well.

I agree with the KOCF label Cyclotoine... You will definitely have a unique bike... and one that from what little information is available is worth preserving.

It does make me wonder what other regional builders have bikes out there with similar value and that are worthy of preserving... just awaiting discovery in some old barn or shed, for someone to make the effort to return them to their rightful state.

No problem, just buy a bigger boat & haul more bikes! (variation on an old joke about Eastern WA apple farmers unable master sound business practice)

I've often told Mr. East Hill that if he'd really like a boat, that he should get one. He keeps insisting that he doesn't really need a boat.

Perhaps he needs one more than he thinks, eh?

You know, I have been mulling over what I could do after I retire .

East Hill

I hope you wrapped the bicycle frame with micro fiber lint free cloth before shipping. I wouldn't want the decals to get scratched.......

Wind is free and people have been smuggling with that for a very very long time.

Good point. Say, you haven't done this yourself, have you ?

East Hill

Not personally, but it's a hobby/research interest. I wrote my MA thesis on smuggling in 19th century Central America.

https://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/search...ORT=D&1%2C1%2C

And I eventually plan on writing a book about a group of English Pirates who went before the Spanish Inquisition in colonial Mexico.

I think that makes you the expert!

Why the cutoff date of 1910? And if you can find any of my relatives in that group of English pirates, could you let me know?

East Hill

The U.S. invaded in the fall of 1909 and stayed until 1933. As you might imagine, they changed the local situation significantly. Among other things they took over the administration of Nicaraguan customs.

John Hawkins left about 100 sailors in Veracruz in 1568, most of whom ended up before the inquisition at one point or another. If you're really interested, I can probably dig up a list of names.

In return, you can send copies of all the old family letters and journals you have hiding in the attic

I am quite serious about the pirates! Much as I would love to help with family letters and journals, my relatives were apparently not very literate, and when we emigrated here, my parents left virtually all their material possessions in England . If the letters and journals exist, I don't have them.

East Hill

I should start a bike running business out of the north county. Maybe I could stick em in a canoe and take them up Ross Lake!

And actually, it is a heck of a lot easier to smuggle things into Canada then back out. I'm suprised you even need ID!

So where is Corky now?

I don't even know, I called this morning to see what the outcome of the customs was ($60)... phew!

And was told that it had left the receiving/customs place in Richmond, BC but that they "forgot" to do the departure scan. I figure if that were true it would have shown up at base of operations on the island, from which it would go out for delivery. All day that status has not changed, still scheduled to be delivered today, but apparently it hasn't moved. I have a sneaking suspicion it's still in Richmond.

Yeah, I had a crazy day at the PO the other day... I had never shipped something out of the country, and I had a set of handlebars I was swapping with a BF member. Part of the problem might have been that my box was wider than it needed to be...I really hadn't expected a problems.

Anyway, I got this huge* customs lecture with way more information than I wanted, and it ended up that the cheapest I could send it would cost $20! It was something about the size of the package, not the weight, and they said Canada would be really slow with it, too.

I'll bet the PO guy (very nice, but it sounded like he was reciting a shipping manual) spent 15 minutes teaching me about international shipping. I even got a lengthy explanation about the exchange rate and its historical significance.

It's good to know there are other ways to do it, but I ain't never* shipping something to Canada again. I'd rather drive up north and cross the border.

I get stuff shipped to Canada all the time, I got a rim the other day and the post was under $30.. most packages are under 10, declared as a low value gift there is never much of a problem and I send to the US all the time with little hassle, things do get more pricey when you get into the handlebar and rim size range but still not that big a deal as long as you are using the postal service.

Anyway, UPS doesn't seem to be able to give a straight answer, I got two different stories today, the latest is that everything past san pablo is the scans on the paperwork!?!?!!!!??? And that the last physical scan of the package was getting on a truck on the 20th which hasn't made it to Canada yet? Whaa? Will corky make it? Scheduled date of arrival is passing as I type this.

Package Progress
Location Date Local Time Description
RICHMOND,
BC, CA 01/22/2008 5:38 P.M. A HOLD HAS BEEN REQUESTED. PAYMENT MUST BE MADE PRIOR TO RELEASE / THE RECEIVER HAS AGREED TO ACCEPT THE DELIVERY CHARGES
01/22/2008 5:38 P.M. REGISTERED WITH CLEARING AGENCY / RELEASED BY CLR AGENCY. NOW IN-TRANSIT
01/22/2008 3:27 P.M. REGISTERED WITH CLEARING AGENCY / SHIPMENT SUBMITTED TO CLEARING AGENCY
01/22/2008 1:45 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
REDMOND,
WA, US 01/22/2008 5:43 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
REDMOND,
WA, US 01/21/2008 11:13 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
PORTLAND,
OR, US 01/21/2008 7:30 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
01/21/2008 5:07 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
ROSEBURG,
OR, US 01/21/2008 12:20 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
01/21/2008 11:29 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
SAN PABLO,
CA, US 01/20/2008 11:32 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
SAN PABLO,
CA, US 01/19/2008 2:24 A.M. EXPORT SCAN
01/19/2008 12:41 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
RICHMOND,
BC, CA 01/19/2008 12:25 A.M. A HOLD HAS BEEN REQUESTED. PAYMENT MUST BE MADE PRIOR TO RELEASE
MONTEREY,
CA, US 01/18/2008 8:40 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
01/18/2008 6:24 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
01/18/2008 3:49 P.M. PICKUP SCAN
US 01/18/2008 7:02 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

Rescheduled for the 30th! Ha WTF! in a major way. how can they tack on an extra week! Lost? Wouldn't surprise any of us.

Here's a crazy UPS story to help keep our minds off Corky until it arrives safely into cyclotoine's hands and Dr.D can breath easy.

A year and half ago in 2006 a BF member (who posts mostly in 50+) talked about a leaf peeping tour of New England. Since his best airfare from Denver was to Manchester, NH, we worked it out and I lent him two bikes for the duration of his trip. In order not to carry all his bike gear on the plane he shipped his stuff in a big suit case via UPS to my house.

Now, fast forward one year to this past Fall 2007. One day I come home and there's this big suit case by the door. Where did it come from? It looked familiar. I soon realize it belonged to the same BFer who visited me a year earlier.

So I PMed him and find out he and his wife had recently traveled to CA. Once again he shipped the suitcase via UPS. When they returned to Denver the UPS suitcase never arrived. It was over two weeks late and UPS couldn't locate it. So he contacted UPS, and the next day my regular driver stopped by and retrieved the lost suitcase.

Story over? Not quite!

About a month later I receive a bill from UPS for $95! So I call them up, explain the whole story, and they tell me not to worry about the charge.

Story over? Still not!

Another month passes and a second bill comes, this time with a penalty and interest so now it's $120! I call again, put on my best pastoral tone, and this time start escalating until I get to the U.S. billing director. He agrees to drop the charges and puts this in an email to me.

The moral to this story: "Remember to remove your year old UPS shipping labels or your suitcase might end up in NH and not Denver!"

I had something similar happen. The day Fedup was supposed to deliver a bike from California, I checked the tracking status and it showed it was already delivered! I walked all around the house, checked with my neighbors... no bike.

I then went back to the Fedup website and was able to find the address it was delivered to, then did a Google search on that address. It was delivered to the Bikeology LBS just a few miles from the seller's house.

Tear off those old tags!

Seems UPS doesn't really know where it is. I talked to someone on the phone -AGAIN- and they said it was very strange that it should be scheduled to take an entire extra week. Apparently they are looking into it and will get back to me in 24 hours....

Seems Dr.Ds prophecy may come true after all.

I neglected to mention that I ship $300 kites to Canada, I declare them as $100 gifts and insure them for $100 and hope for the best.