miamijim

Not exactly what I said to my wife when I found the note on the front door but use your imagination.

I came home and found a note on the door, "Hey Jim, I sold your you the Merckx and Paramount last week, call me, we need to talk." Oh F

Reference:
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...nt*?highlight=

So I called and headed over to his place expecting his kid to be there (his kid is 1o years older than me) and to get an earful for last weeks highway robbery.

He says, "I told my golf buddy about you, he dropped this stuff off and wanted to know if you were interested?" So I asked, what's he want for the bike? $100. "A hundred, I'll pay that" I reply. And then he says, "he wants $20 for the wheels and $40 for the box of parts." I mean seriously, who am I to argue, besides, his buddy is probably the guy who took out the back window of my Camry with a golf ball.

Raleigh Professional Mk IV $100
Wheels w/ Record hubs $20
Box of parts w/ TA triple, TA BB, Cinelli Unicanitor seat and some other old stuff $40

Living in a neighborhood with a bunch of old people, PRICELESS.

Epicus07

o.O!

jhess74

That's it, I'm moving to Tampa!

But seriously, that's really cool - I love Raleighs, and I'm lucky to find someone around here asking $100 for a Grand Prix or Super Record in fair shape.

And of course, you need to post pics!

shoota 

Dang I thought you were going to have another Merckx in my size that I can't afford..

auchencrow

Here we all are, brimming with empathy upon seeing the title of your thread, and all ready to spew kindness and consolation, and you turn around and drop this bombshell on us.

Well thanks a lot Jim!
Next time you want some sympathy, you'd do better to look for it on the 41!

PS - Pics or it didn't happen!

spacemanz

LOL auchencrow, I was thinking something very much along those lines.

Kactus

I hate you, you know that?

I vote for banishment!

WNG

Hell, I live in a city full of old people, and that never happens to me. You lucky basstard.

Wildwood

You never know the value of a good connection you never knew you had.

ftwelder

I am done feeling sorry for this guy with his nice bikes and good weather.

pastorbobnlnh 

Define "old."

I'll double your money on just the T.A. crankset and BB.

TimmyT 

I read this with the typo, and I thought he took the Merckx back and resold it.

Then I figured out that you were anything but sc-x-rewed.\

It's good to have neighbors like this.

miamijim

The loot
The wheels
The bike

Somewhere a long the way the Raleighs were swapped out...it had Rigida red label clinchers with low flange Campy hubs and an old beat to death Avocet saddle

The wheels rae mis-matched, one Rigida red label, one weinmann concave, one low flange, one high flange Campy hub

The loot... TA triple crankset w/ BB, one dust cap and 3 pedal washers. Campy high flange hub 36h (I'll pair it with the high flange from the wheel set), 45T Campy chain ring, 48t Sugino Might Comp ring, Huret Jubilee RD, Avocet seat post, Campy pump umbrella, Campy DT double cable guide, Binda straps, VX Luxe RD, 2 Suntour freewheels, Cinelli Unicanitor saddle and some other small stuff not pictured.

noglider 

This stuff is going to be stuffed into the box-o-crap part 5, right?

miamijim

Old: I'm 45, there's only 1 household in the neighborhood that I know of that's younger than my wife and I. Most of the houses in my 'hood are lived in by the original owners...most of the houses were built in the 60's. 7 of my 8 closest neighbors could 'check out' at any time. We bought our house from the original owner....she was 92.

WNG...your old people retired there, the old people in my 'hood grew old here.

TampaRaleigh

I'm so glad that Raleigh is too big for me. Otherwise I'd be looking into a second mortgage to take that off your hands.

CenturionIM

does miamijim ever get screwed in the bike department?

ColonelJLloyd 

You mean a Professional Mk IV, right?

seedsbelize 

By way of comparison, this is what i picked up, recently, from an older neighbor down the street:
It had a Takagi crank with 165mm on one side and 170mm on the other, and over-size square taper. The decals say Campagnolo Victory, so you know it's a valuable bike. I did get some downtube shifters off of it, a Crane rd, and a couple other usable parts. Oddly, they failed to use Campy dropouts.

shoota 

Kinda

miamijim

As a matter of fact I do.....just took a $85 hit on a bike. But then again it waas bought with profits so maybe not.

miamijim

Yes...Professional!!!

Cache

Sweet Raleigh. I'd fit that, and would ride the wheels off of it too!

RobbieTunes

You need to quit breaking into people's garages and then making up stories about the stuff you steal.

dddd

Once I got done feeling sorry for Jim, I reflected on recent bike deals with older folks (than my own 52yrs), and feel pretty positive about their seeming (and actual) generosity.

I got a call from Joe Saturday night, he having just spotted a freshly craigslisted 1971 Gitane SuperCorsa time-capsule bike located 2-1/2+hrs away in the hills above Silicon Valley.

So I got the sellers (70-yr-old couple) to agree to hold it, and I offered a $50 bonus (seemed more than worth it) and also agreed to buy their entry-level Libertas, to really seal the deal.

I headed out at 7:30PM for a faster-than usual drive to the very hard-to-find location up in the hills.
Had a 1.5hr chat with the couple, about bikes and dirtbikes in the region around 1970. The bikes they were selling were bought new in Palo Alto, used a few times, then hung up for 40 years in the garage after they moved to their house in the steep hills.
While we talked, the guy's wife had to keep running to the phone taking all thefrantic and irritating calls about the bikes from distraught would-be buyers. (Always remind the seller to pull their ad immediately)
Had a really great view of the night time valley lights, and while closing the deal the gentleman then refused to take the extra $50 I had offered, saying "I don't do deals like that".
It seemed he was passing down his generation's ethics.

Oh, and as for the Super Corsa, It still had the un-worn, catalog-spec, French Dunlop tubulars, for which the woman apologized that they didn't still hold air, also acknowledging that the pump's rubber plunger cup had disintegrated. Amazingly, the seatpost and crank bolt covers weren't frozen in place (as would be normal), nor was either pulley cracked!
I got home at 1:30AM.

Can't wait to get this cast off of my right arm to do some wrenching, glueing, polishing and RIDING.
Oh, and thanks Joe!


And, just so no one thinks I'm lying: