Look at what I found today.....
 

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44...pseffd1871.jpg
It's the original receipt for my 1984 Peugeot PSV....almost 30 years old now....
I knew I had it somewhere in my stuff, but I was surprised it turned up as I was going through old paperwork.
It was quite a memorable purchase, as it was the first "good" bike I bought.
Funny how cheap the price for it looks like these days, but for a college kid back then, It took a lot of sacrifice of eating the cheapest, crappiest food and not buying any new clothes for about a year to save up for it..... It was also sad as I traded my much modded up and loved 82 PH10s to offset some of the cost.....
Funny how the shop owner did not even write the serial number of the bike on the reciept. I actually had to return the first one after a couple of months after the head tube started collapsing on me for some reason. The second one was good though.
Still have the PSV today and I think its going to be a keeper for good.....:thumb:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y44...R/DSC02364.jpg
Maybe I should laminate the now quite fragile receipt so it will last as long as the bike?:rolleyes:.....
It will bei interesting to see other forum member's old reciepts for their bikes Just to see how much prices had changed.
In my case, it looks like it did not change too much numnber wise, but I guess it did increase a little bit considering inflation and present value of the dollar.....

Nah, have it bronzed ;)

Your PSV is worth more now than you paid for it. Good show!

That is a beautiful bike. My PSV is grimy from daily commuter duty in the rain of Portland. It wants to come live with you.

I only have one bike bought new, My MB Zip, and that is definitely not worth what I paid. Maybe a third. No receipt. The store owner was trying to duck taxes so I paid with a bag of cash, just like a dope deal.

"...head tube started collapsing on me..."

WTF? I'm trying to envision this and it's just not coming!

While not quite as old, I have an old shop receipt for an overhaul of my first Italian bike (an Olmo Nuovo Super Sprint with Zeus 2000). I had the bike brought over to San Diego just after I completed Boot Camp and the shop was on Coronado. It's funny to read it today, because I now have everything to overhaul all of my bikes on my own. Receipt is from 1988.

Forget laminating it - that deserves a wooden placque with a protective Plexiglass cover screwed into place on top :)

DD

This is not quite as cool because I didn't buy the bike new, but my recently acquired Raleigh Competition GS came with the owners manual and this:
http://home.fuse.net/pieper/Raleigh/P9220462.JPG

The cool part is that I began to work for that shop about 3 years later. The handwriting was the owner Marty's, and I recalled it immediately. I filled out a fair few of those receipts myself.

In this case, I paid less for what the bike was sold for originally. Since I got the bike almost completely unmolested and with original documentation, it's making it hard for me to consider moving it along, which I'm considering now that it's nearing completion.

Chombi: I note line 3 states "with trade". Dying to know what you let go so that you could acquire the PSV :)

DD

I wonder if my dad still has the receipt for my first "fresh from the LBS" bike.

It was a blue 24" ATB, maybe one step up from being a BSO, but still I felt like the fastest two-wheeler since my great hero Indurain. The loop around the park was my prologue, the ramps of multi-story car parks, deserted in the weekends, were my Alpes and Pyrennnees.

The weekend after I got it my dad took me out for my first camping trip. It felt like we crossed the country, I couldn't imagine riding that far. It must have been at least a million times the distance I rode every day to school. The trip also taught me the worst feeling a bike lover can have. When parking next to a war monument to look at the cannons used against the English Navy somewhere in the 1600's. I dropped my bike againt a fence in the excitement and marred the paint. My shiny new bike, ruined!

These days I don't really feel like Indurain anymore. The campsite that felt like a million miles away is just my regular short training route and is only ten miles, one way. I still get that old knot in my stomach from scratched paint and broken things, but now I see it as inevitable instead of exceptional and avoidable misfortune. Bleak, maybe, but fortunately two things still remain: the absolute joy of riding and the joy of owning a fine, fast machine.

That's pretty cool, Chombi. Alas, the last bike I bought new, a Competition GS, is long gone. As is the receipt.

Not to digess, but your lovely PSV seems like a bargain compared to what an Apple Macintosh SE and Laserwriter set me back in 1987. Even with University pricing, IIRC, the SE had 1mb ram and 20mb HD. Package price about $5600.

I knew there were hoarders in this forum. What are else are you guys saving; egg cartons? gum wrappers? paper towel tubes?

:)

I miss the days of 5% sales tax.

5% Sales Tax? :eek:


I can remember when NC was 3%... it was that from 1933 to 1991... then they got greedy.

Aaron :)

After a few days of first riding the first PSV, my brother and I noticed a very slight bulge on the front of the head tube, right above the lower head lug. I also noticed that the headset was starting to loosen and made knocking noises on bumps...... I adjusted it, but the knocking came back after a few rides and the headset was loose again. We also noticed the the bump was getting bigger on the head tube. It was kinda like accordioning on itself. We brought it back to the shop I bought it from and the owner could not figure out how such can happen, so much so that he was almost speechless when he saw it, All he can say was the head tube was defective and he'll do a warranty exchange for me. He promised help me to pick out a good one for me on his next shipment coming from Peugeot a month later to do a warranty exchange. I was glad as I was able to find one out of the six he had come in that had much better build quality than the first batch he had (much cleaner lug brazing and finishing). The weird head tube problem never came back on the second bike. I suspect that the head tube was either damage by overheating when the lower head lug was brazed on, causing it to lose its stregnth....

The last NEW road-bike I bought for myself, was 1978, a little shop in Bridge City,TX. Takara, 58cm in metallic baby blue. Suntour running gear, STEEL cottered cranks, chromed steel rims. $135 on sale down from $155. I do NOT have the receipt any longer.

And to think that the bicycle is still exactly as useful today as it was then, whereas the computer...

The Avocet 20 computer I bought for the bike in the 80's still works perfectly.... You might have noticed in the pic that the front wheel is missing the sensor ring for it at the hub, but fortunately, I was able to find another one at eBay for this tubular wheelset a few months ago. I have a clincher wheelset that still wears the original sensor ring........ Problem is, the recommended modern replacement batteries you can buy now do not last as long as the original ones from the 80's. Last set I put in must have lasted only 6 months at most.

Eh, I still have my 87 Mac (in a box somewhere). It's still just as useful for what I bought it for. It's just the parameters of what we do with computers nowadays have changed considerably.

Move to New Hampshire! No sales tax.

While Chombi's PSV is higher up in the Peugeot lineup, it's rather unique that a utilitarian mass market item as a bike, not made of precious metal and not neccessarily a premium priced product, can retain or exceed its value from 30-40 years ago. UO-8, Peugeot Mixtes in general,Grand Prix, Super Course, PX10, Super Sport, Tempos, Sprite, Sportz, early Trek road bikes, are some very common examples. Even all those wheelie popping muscle bikes!

19% and rising, the tea party afficionado's should see this place.

You must have the hots for Sarah Palin!:lol:

I remember that; and it was "capped" at 4%; to be returned to 3% when the budget was balanced. Now, the state is at 6% and some counties have been given special permission to go to 7%. Not sure what is twice as good....

You guys probably saw me post this on another thread... 4% tax in '72. Only crept up to 6-8% locally now unless you're buying gasoline, cigarettes or liquor. C&V steel keeps me from contributing more to those coffers nowadays!

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=342255

I would be willing to wager your overall tax rate is about the same or slightly less than in the US and you get a helluva lot more for your Euros.

Aaron :)

Certainly not true in Scandenavia. You think Danes ride bikes in Copenhagen because it's cool. Sales tax on cars is 180% in Denmark. And all over Europe gas is 2x the avg US cost.

Nope! starting at 42%-ish way up till 52% income tax.

A car costs twice the sticker price because of all the tax.

Only one or two of my recently graduated college class have cars: back of napkin math says 9$ for a gallon of fuel.

However, there are some upshots: healthcare, minimum wage, and everything is infrastructurally miles ahead of the rest of the world. Cheap, world class education.

But now we're keeping the tax rate but dumping all the benefits because we need the JSF and pay for the bad behaviour of the other countries in the Eurozone. Ah well.

But let's not turn this political. :)