Where does all the NOS come from?
 

So many bike parts are identified as NOS on eBay, that I'm a little suspicious. However, all the NOS parts I've bought appear to be genuinely never used.

But where does it all come from? I just bought a neat-o downtube Shimano 600 Arabesque NOS shifter. Where has that thing been hanging out the last 35 years?

Sometimes items just get put into a drawer in the warehouse or on a shelf in the back room and just gets forgot about. Look for that stuff in an old bike shop or hardware store.

In the last few years I have bought a NOS 1980's Brooks saddle and a similar vintage Tange headset. My best find was a NOS 1979 Fuji Gran Tourer that my brother now rides.

Good Question. All the bikeshops I know were cleaned out may years ago.

Personally, I'm wondering where all my wife's lost Jewelry has gone to.

So maybe all the NOS stuff comes from the same place that lost socks go to?

Narnia.

I scour former East Block nations. There's a guy in Hungary* with a lot of VERY nice stuff. Components to screws to mint frames/forks. And I've found some lovely NOS in Scandinavia.


* - Don't even bother to ask. Do your own homework.

I remember visiting a warehouse in Winnipeg that had heaps - literally barrels of NOS bicycle parts that I am assuming came from the old Sekine bicycle factory in Rivers, Manitoba. They could still be there as far as I know!

It's easy to forget that the LBS was only the pointy end of the supply chain that was backed up by warehouses full of product from here to the manufacturer. 200 units of some Der that was hot last year and now out of production might not have been worth putting in a paper catalog that had to be laid up for printing three months in advance, but damn that's a lot of NOS rear der 20 years later.

Walked into a Seattle bike shop a few weeks ago; two gorgeous NOS Tommasini mid 1980's frames hanging over the service desk.

They told me a bike shop in Toronto went out of business, the frames were in the basement, the owner gave them to a long-term employee. Long term employee hauls them around a couple of years, planning to build them up, and never does. Ends up in Seattle, needs cash, walks into bike shops and makes a deal.

And one of them is in my size...

He shoots... HE SCORES!

If you don't mind me asking, which shop was this? I've been to quite a few LBS's in Seattle but I don't remember this one.

Back when I was working at Euro-Asia Imports (late '80's), Campy was doing backflips trying to keep up with Shimano, and Shimano was changing everything every 2 years. There were boxes and boxes of old Nuovo Record parts, old Regina freewheels, old Regina chains (heavy!). I bet they're still there.

a guess is bike shops that closed...but the owner has a bunch of stuff in the garage/storage etc.

I guy I knew in high school made a pretty good business of obsolete GM parts. He would go to every little town in Montana (remember there used to be dealers in even very small towns) and find cosed down GM (chevy, pontiac, buick etc) dealers/garages and make site unseen offers on every part. Many time the dealers had just closed up, but the building and parts were still there.

Recycled Cycles.

Theres a photo of richard sachs closet somewhere, old frame builders have alot of it.

Cycling is very, very trendy. Prior to 1985 when Shimano intoduced indexed gearing innovation was relatively stagnant.

As an example Campys Record/Nuovo Record/Super Record group was basicly the same from the late 60's through the late 80's. From the late 80's onward Campy introduced how mant groups trying to stay ahead? The end result is that any components made prior to the introduction of indexing became obsolete almost over night and its sat there on the back shelves of bike stores since. If it weren't for this resurgance in all things vintage and retro it'd still be sitting there.

What sucks is I've been in 2 shops that have a ransom on this stuff. A few yars ago they would have done back flips to sell this stuff, now its borderline extortion.

NOS stuff is out there and there's alot of it.

Speaking of NOS stuff, Cannondale's anyone? (http://hartford.craigslist.org/bik/1313620364.html)

It's quite a bummer all the shops in my area are all fairly new. No NOS for me

I have a co worker whoms neighbor used to road race (if I remember raced in an olympic RR even) and apparently has all kinds of stuff in his garage, some of which never used. He told me he broke his rear derailleur on one of his bikes and the guy gave him a dura ace derailleur in box (for his mountain bike haha!) I actually asked him about it and he brought it in, turned out to be an early 80s AX "aero dynamic" dealy, sure enough never used with box.

So im sure there must be quite a lot of old racers whom have quite a bit of stuff laying around too.

One of the things that has changed is that retro/classic/vintage cycle stuff is cool now and is bringing big prices. I work in music electronics and one of the things we saw is that years ago before, just one example tweed Fender amps, started demanding huge prices you couldn't find them. Especially not nice examples. Now they're easy to find and hard to afford.

The good news here is that bike parts are harder to counterfeit than electric guitars and amps.

Agreed. Cv people would like some of the bikes one can see in the streets in Budapest. Baltics also. High percentage of full suspension mtbs though. The bikes might not always be road bikes but there are some seriously classic timeless old bikes, often ridden by old people. When did you see rod brakes the last time?

Yeah, wish I had every piece of Fender gear I ever sold. Vintage guitar stuff makes bikes look cheap in comparison. Partly because the pros still use it, and partly because the beat-up look is fashionable. There's a vibe to it that can not be quantified, and is mostly in people's head, imo.

Now if you want to see something ridiculous, look at NOS tube prices, especially old european tubes. Of course audio has always been esoteric, and many of these tubes work in audiophile amps too, so you've got those guys willing to overpay.

My neighbor has a friend who had the leftovers of a bike shop that went out of buisness in the 80s in his back yard.They were'nt stored inside but they were ,for the most part, covered.I ended up w/ a couple miyatas and a few lotuses.Bike shops go out of buisness their stock goes somewhere-to me I would hope.