jstewse

Went to go check out a 90's Trek hybrid for my mother the other day, and the woman told me she sold it already, even after making plans to have me come out to look at it, don't you love when that happens?

I would have been pretty upset had she not had a yard half full of bikes. As it usually turns out, most of them were junk. I did get a decent Nishiki mixte, and my very first 3-speed, which I'm pretty excited about working on. It's missing the shift rod that goes through the axle and that little bit of chain that goes with it. And the front brake too, but otherwise I think it's pretty cool, Humber Sports.

WNG

How wicked cool is that!!

rekmeyata

Despite all the weird comments you got, you have a nice bike, it appears to be in mint condition or at at least excellent condition. Find yourself some blue cork bar tape (the plastic tape is not comfortable to ride on, there's no cushion effect) and it will look virtually new. Throw out that weird blue water bottle holder, it doesn't match at all, find a nice stainless Cussi or King, stainless won't mar your bottles and they last longer then aluminum and don't look cheap like plastic.

A great find for the money.

frantik

did you call before you went over there? i always call to confirm before i leave the house

rekmeyata

+1 on this. I always ask them to hold the bike and give them a 1/2 hour time window when I'll be there on the initial call, then I call just before I leave to make sure their still there and the bike is there. Most people will hold the bike for whoever calls first, then second etc, it's just common courtesy...but there are a few who play to a beat of a different drummer.

jstewse

I didn't call her before I left, but we had set a time to meet the night before. Somehow within that 14 hour window she forgot and sold it to someone else.

cycleheimer

Good deals equate more to 14 minute windows. She may have just gotten pressured by a bunch of responders literally begging her for the bike, and wound up caving in to the pressure. It does look like she tried to compensate you in some way, however, if that is any concilation. The Humber has some possibilities. Try Niagara Cycle Works for parts. You might also be able to squeeze in a pair of inexpensive ("on sale") black fenders on it. If the leather on the Brooks is still good, and she gave you a good price, not a bad thing.

frantik

14 hours is a long time.. i would definitely call to confirm.

rekmeyata

14 hours is way too long to expect someone to wait. All the used bikes I bought or looked at off of Craigslist I called then told them I would be there in 15 or 60 minutes to look at it and to hold it till I got there. The longest wait was an hour and on that one I called about 15 minutes before I left and told them in the first call I would call before I left.

auchencrow

fify

rekmeyata

Sure glad there's an English scholar here to fix grammatical errors when they occur, thanks. Now I can make more errors and not worry about proof reading or taking the effort to think about what I write...I don't proof read anyways, I don't have the time to take the time, but you do, so thanks for taking the time. What time is it anyways?

Bikedued

I'm not sure if you meant to sound the way you just did,.....but you did.,,,,BD

tugrul

I don't think that that was a grammatical fix.

wrk101

Picked up a Gazelle Champion today. 531C main frame, nice wrap around seat stays. My size, so I have some pondering to do on this one.

+1 Expecting someone to hold a C/L bike for 14 hours is not realistic. 14 minutes is more the norm. On good deals, you need to move fast (immediately is always best).

FWIW: Seller told me he got bombarded with email responses to his C/L ad, and I was not first. But my response was the most straightforward "I'd like to buy your bike, here is my number, can we set up a convenient time to meet?", so he contacted me.

jstewse

I agree 14 hours is a long time especially for a good deal on a particularly hot craigslist page but.. it had been listed for a considerable amount of time, two weeks, and I had made arrangements with her the night before. I usually don't like to engage people in late night endeavors out of consideration. All is well though, the Humber is pretty cool.

Nice find on that Gazelle. Don't you just love/hate when their your size?

wrk101

Fortunately, 90% of what I find is not my size, and most of the remainder is a major step down from what I already have. But every once in a while, I find something interesting..

Roger M

Looks like a real nice Gazelle, Bill. Looks like a keeper....

I've had a good few months regarding Centurions. This was another free bike. An 87 Lemans RS that someone wanted out of their garage. It's a little dirty and a couple nicks in the paint, but will clean up real good.

curbtender

They must have bought a turd load of those white gummed hoods and then just matched the paint to them. By the way, got an extra white hood?

Roger M

No spare white hoods here. They look nice with certain colors, but they require cleaning after every ride.

BattleRabbit

Just scored a fairly minty Chicago built Schwinn Continental from my ex's dad. He gave it to me, and I spent tonight cleaning it. It looks good!

frantik

a lot of the time a "women's" version of a bike would get white hoods

curbtender

I just don't remember seeing an Ironman with black hoods.

VarVintg

Traded a set of bent steel rims, and old walmart seat and ten bucks for this Raleigh. Quite frankly I don't know much about it , but I belive it's a 77-78 model. It was rusting away and I couldn't take it so now I have another project. I dont believe the bars are original, but I have a set of Cinelli drop bars that would work nicecly. Other than the saddle, it's all there. Paint is not good, so this may be one for an attempted rattle can restore.

cycleheimer

It looks like a 1977 Raleigh Grand Prix with SunTour components. https://www.sheldonbrown.com/retroral...rand-prix.html

r0ckh0und 

Tonight I picked up a CL find.........Bridgestone RB-1, a '89 I believe. This bike was listed cheap on a CL board about 2+ hours southwest of Chicago on Saturday afternoon. I picked it up Monday evening. A CL board that sees very few bike listings and therefore gets little traffic. I did'nt have the heart to tell the seller that his bike would have sold in about 10 minutes on Chicago CL. It's original, it's been maintained and is still in pretty good shape. Has a full Suntour GPX group and Ishiwata triple butted EX 4130 frame............oh, and it's my size!