I know this has been posted before but i need to vent....

Went to pick up a bike for sale on craiglist today. The ad said it was ridden once and never again by his wife. So i'm expecting this thing to be in really good condition to say the least. I speak to him on the phone asking about overall condition, he says it's like new, no rust or anything. I make arrangements to meet up with this character in the same day.

When i got there i do the normal inspections. I find about 7 dents along the top tube, rusty chain and cables and whatnot. I'm not worried about that stuff cause it can be replaced but the dents on the top tube and fenders definitely started to to annoy me. If it was ridden once then what the hell did you do with it?

I tell the guy that i'll give him a certain amount cause i'd just use the parts. He says everything is fine and that he deals with bikes all the time. Unfortunately we all know he does because he's already lied about the condition. Also i find out that it was passed down to them and that his wife had only ridden it once. So it's not exactly that new and he totally mislead me.

Well in the end i guess at least it was only 11 dollars of gas and about an hour of lost time, but i still don't like it when people waste my time by trying to sell something it's not.

I"m gonna go work on some bikes to relax....

I hear ya man. But you have to think about how much more we pay attention to condition over "Normal" people. To most of them if it can carry them down the drive way and back its in great shape. And dents and scratches? Its just a old bike to them and Im sure most dont understand why someone would even care.

I frequent yard sales, CL,flea markets. etc., and have come up with some terms for the novice buyer:

Mint: Well used, some rusty parts, tires rotted, paint scratched to bare metal in a few places
Ready to ride: all of the above plus rusted beyond use chain, missing parts, frame dented/cracked
Restoration project: barely recognizable as a bicyle
Vintage: Rusty Walmart bike from 2 years ago with asking price at or near current store price

My favorite quote from a french flea market

Tout c'est campagnolo!

It was all simplex, right there infront of our eyes.

This might be Italian..

maybe it was a special edition of simplex that was made by campagnolo in italy

That is horribly depressing.

I've only bought two bikes via Craigs, a 1994 Stumpjumper M2, aand an 88 DB Apex. Both of those were under described, in better shape than the ads stated.

At least when you got there, they still had the bike. The ones that piss me off totally are the morons who respond to your request, give you their address, agree to a time to meet the same day and when you get there "Oh you just missed it, we sold it to someone else."

^^^ +1...but even this does not seem to be able to limit me to n, I always seem to find a way to n+1.

I spent an hour of my time going to pick up a set of lightly used celeste vittoria's for my bianchi project.

Tires were old, dried and cracked to oblivion.

Idiots.

Sorry to hear about your trouble.