I try to spend very little on my little hobby of finding, building and riding vintage road bicycles. In fact, quite a few of the bikes I have owned cost me between Zero and fifty bucks - tops. However...

Without really considering what I was doing, I allowed the investment in a present bike of interest to soar, without even thinking about it.

My 1939 CCM "Road Racer" was given to me for free, or was it? The cost of shipping, and I paid, was $80.00...



As found, the rear hub was miserably incorrect but the exact one I wanted was on Ebay when I got the bike. There went $120.00...



Then a lovely set of CCM Spear Point fenders presented themselves - shipping included, $85.00...



Next came the water bottles (not really needed) and another $120.00...



A NOS rear brake set me back the equivalent of $60...



Now, after getting the frame straight, it occurs to me that I will have to spend about $200.00 on chrome plating, something I have never spent one cent on before....




Of course, if all that gets done, might as well drop another $60.00 on paint and art.

Total investment will be a minimum of $725.00, for a bike I do not really intend to ride much. Funny how things can add up when you are not paying attention.

At the onset, had I considered the big picture, the bike would have been set aside, with no intention to build. That said, I am into it now and might as well finish the job.

Anyone else make the mistake of doing a reality check on one, or more, of their bikes?

Am I the only fool involved in the how it adds up syndrome?

Yep. A few years ago, I wanted to get my wife a bike. I thought it would also give me an excuse to build up a nice C&V bike. I bought everything used or as leftovers. I combed ebay, CL, and online sales. Every individual part was a huge bargain. It was a well used 1991 Bridgestone RB1 that I had stripped and powdercoated. I built it up with a mix of used 10speed Record, Chorus and Daytona parts.


In the end, I spent over $2000 on a bike she thinks is "pretty". But she does like the compliments from other bike nerds....

You said it!
I've been spending way more than I expected in the waning days of this year just to keep my Line Seeker and Medici projects going at least on a forward direction...but dang, just when I think I'm seeing the end of the tunnel, there's still yet a lot more things that come up to get and do for the bike projects.....and even if I take the budget approach with second tier components for the Medici, it still burns up the dosh as fast as I can make it.....BB, Saddle Cables, Handlebar, Handlebar tape/plugs, toe clip straps Headset, Wheelset (which I just paid for)......and dang!, refinishing the frame which a recent post noted could cost close to $1K if I have it done professionally!....If I'm not careful, finishing the Medici project alone will cost just as much as if I bought another whole bike!...and quite a nice one too!
That's it! five bikes total for my collection, no more after these two projects!.........That is, unless a Gitane Pro would suddenly land on my doorstep for some reason.....

Lucky for me I am poor, since my biggest splurge came out to about 500 total and that's for the bike I ride the most so it was a good investment.. if I sense a project is going to get out of hand I hunt for a cheap cheap cheap cheap parts bike and that usually drops the budget cost to the bottom again.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1972-Gitane-...item4d07f883b9

I hear you but my problem is I was not paying (pardon the pun) attention, and did not see it coming! When I started to think about it, I was shocked! None the less, in for a penny - in for a pound, I think I will go all the way, now that I have gone most of the way. Should make for a very interesting story on MY "TEN SPEEDS", if nothing else.

Yes it should!

Not the only one. Just think, though...riding your fully-restored '39 CCM "Road Racer": Priceless!

all the time, but I think it pays me back in many ways:

Current projects in that 'it's justa liittle add on" syncdrome.

Sons fixie project for Christmas:
* Rebuit an mid late 70't univega into a fixie for son a couple of years back....he is too big for it now so the story begins:

Found a soma rush frame and fork on local craigs list. with crank seat post and threadless stem. Cool just swap parts form current fixie to new fixie.

first purchase handle bars to go with stem.....bring them home and take a look.... just to big and ugly combined with stem.

so get new stem and new handle bars.

brake I can use on from my parts bin (dad's rule fixie stills has a brake). but as the brake on his current fixied is right for front, get no left side brake lever, (and cable and color matching housing)

start putting this together.......head set is rough......cheapest cane creek there is.....off to the bike shop and now bike is sporting a miche roller bearing head set.

Ok looking at color scheme....which is becoming white (frame), black (seat post,stem) and bright green (cable and handle bars)....oops need new grips (black) for handle bars, the white wheels and black tire are not doing it. Get a pair of green tires. Close but still not great.... oh what the heck.....new wheels in black. at this point the only thing missing is seat so add it (green to the list)

So a simple $250 get a frame and swap is now a $650 or so project. But kid gets a essentially new bike that looks good, keeps his old one (maybe will fit a friend for a ride?) and I get a cook gift for him that looks good.

my other project turning an abused torpado into a cafe/rat rod kinda bike isn't so bad, but included new handle bars, brake levers, cables, housing, tires, replacement seat post for the one sacraficed to the stuck seat post removal gods, freewheel, and seat. so that "Free" bike is at Around $200 or so.

Forgot to add...80's Gitane Pro, with the Columbus tubed frame.....and the ever elusive TT number tag.....
So maybe I may yet get to pretend to be the Badger, The Professor or the American PED-less(?) TDF champion before I die!
Thanks anyway!

One of the nicest RB-1 treatments ever.

J

Restoration work is for luv. We luv the CCM. Be interesting to see what it could bring on Ebay.

My most profitable flip was one of the worst bikes I ever ridden, a pseudo Schwinn Clear Creek. Bike was $20. Needed a pedal at $0. I sold the rear rack off it for $25. Cleaned lube-n-adjusted the bike and sold it for $95. It was miserable to ride. Ghastly ugly & cheap to look at. If it was the only bike I'd ever ridden, I'd never care about riding again.

The only satisfaction was the money. The CCM would cheer me up every time I saw it hanging on the wall. Cheaper than Prozac. And you can ride it.

I rescued my old juvenile Peugeot ten speed, powdercoated it, new decals, all used components from the bike co-op that were decent (600 tri-color etc) but not high-end (no Campy), built the wheels myself. By the time it was done, I'd spent $1,000 on a kid's bike. I was my childhood bike and is destined for my someday grandchildren, so that was okay with me, but basically the cost was ridiculous.

I have been working for a year on my Vitus 997 project, it will be all Campagnolo Record, some bits given to me, others bought at the co-op or on eBay at the best prices I could find (snipe 15 auctions for 4 months before winning one, that sort of thing). That will be a $1,200 bike all-in.

Starting to collect bits for my Peugeot PY10FC. That looks like it will be a $1,400 or higher bill - vintage Mavic bits just aren't cheap. And yet there is a PY10FC which is full period Mavic in nearly faultless condition, that repeatedly goes unsold on eBay for $1,900. I should just buy that one and sell off my frame and the bits I've bought.

If and when I ever do the Bianchi, that will end up a $1,500-2,000 project, I fear. I'd be struggling to fetch the low end of that cost if I ever sold.

It is just unavoidably expensive to piece together a mid-to-higher-end project by buying individual parts, no matter how carefully you shop for each part.

Figure it this way. A bike has about 25 individual components (just count: FD RD crank cassette Fhub Rhub Frim Rrim spokes Ftire Rtire shifters Fcaliper Rcaliper chain Rlever Llever stem bar post saddle headset BB cableset and I'm sure I've forgotten something). Suppose the average cost per piece is $20, which is too high for some but way too low for others. That is $500. Add frame to get to $700. Cosmetic stuff - decals, powdercoat, pait - is extra. Then if you start specifying very particular bits - get the I-must-have-a-black-Pelissier-Pro-hubset-because-nothing-else-matches-my-artiste-vision syndrome - the cost takes off.

Until you have an "Old Shed" stuffed with free or paid-for take-off parts, or luck across a donor bike equipped exactly as you envision your project bike being, or you do enough profitable flipping to support the few spendy project bikes . . .

I think you have to like working on bikes, polishing and dreaming, and have limited cash flow to make putting together a project bike preferable to simply buying someone else's project bike.

I would love to be wrong about this . . .

Very few hobbies are as inexpensive as bike building. Think about cars, photography, travel, home renovation.

I consider my hobbies (bikes & gardening, mostly) to be quite affordable...even when they range into the "higher priced" side of things.

It really catches me on frame up builds! I can get good deals on the components and frame, but the little stuff always creeps on me...spokes, rim tape, chain, housing, cables, brake pads, etc.

shhhh your making me dread my new build.

Cables, bar wrap, brake pads, Chain, tires/tubes, about the only thing I buy new....yup, costs can pile up quickly! What ever happened to that $3 bar tape? Oh, Yeah, it was thin, unpadded plastic and ROTTEN! :-) but it WAS only $3! Fighting with my Torpado Project to keep costs down, it has been an AWEFUL year for Architectural Illustration (on top of 3 other bad years)...Did pick up a pair of sweet high Flange Campy Hubs (Grand Sport)....just haven't decided which wheels to rip apart and TRY to relace!

Anything that has to do with Architecture seems to be mostly in the dumps for the last few decades.
Then Yahoo tells us the obvious a few days ago....
https://education.yahoo.net/articles/....htm?kid=1NQM0
We, in the business, never seem to get any breaks.......

The tires ALWAYS get me...I'm not sure when paying $50+ for a single tire became fairly normal (without tubes!), but those get you...and cassette/freewheel costs are insane.

i don't even want to think about how much i've spent on my $80 Univega doing a drop bar conversion. i didn't go totally crazy but just trying out three different dirt drop bars was pretty expensive

I had three hobbies running concurrently, two of them very expensive, and one only moderately expensive. I finally abandoned photography and model railroading as being too expensive to continue at a meaningful level. Bike restoration can cost a lot of money, but I'm also seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. I'm buying the necessary tools as I go along, and I'll only have to buy them once. I'm making fewer mistakes as my knowledge expands, so there are fewer butchered parts that must be replaced.

My first foray into C/V involved going out and paying top dollar for a bike that was already 75%. I just didn't have the patience to wait for a 'bargain'. Before I could get started on the first bike, I found a deal on Craigslist, and that one will be done first. My '$100 bike' has already doubled in price with the purchase of correct bars and levers, and will cost a bit more for proper-looking skinwall tires. With the addition of bar tape, cables, brake pads, and a few other miscellaneous items, I'll be into it for about $350.00 plus a bunch of sweat equity, which in my case isn't all that valuable.

Is it worth it? From a purely economic standpoint, probably not. On the other hand, I've had more fun with that $350.00 than I ever had with cameras or model trains, and when you compare the quality of my $350.00 bike to ANYTHING being sold these days for under $1,000.00, it looks like a steal. Will I do it again? You betcha'.

You can ride a 1939 CCM without much fear of wrecking it or having a priceless & rare component blow up. When a vintage car or motorcycle crankshaft lets go, it's a major catastrophe. Bikes are more rugged in the real world.

Consider it entertainment,
but it is good to break even when the time comes to re sell.

im slowly building a bike the expensive way, bit by bit.

Randy, I just got a wheel set, so it's getting closer .

still missing seat,handlebars and stem.
Freewheel and chain. Then to paint or not .
it all adds up!

yeah i try never to buy anything at a higher rate than I think I could resell it.. but sometimes you have to buy new parts and you always lose money there

on bikes i plan on flipping I spend as little as possible to get them road worthy and in an easily resellable condition (eg i replace cables and tires even if the old ones are ok, just because it looks better and is an easy way to hike up the asking price)

ya, but just look at that bike!