It really bugs me...
 

I have been looking for a touring bike/frame tonight and I have not had enough Pinot Noir yet so please forgive the rant, but...

It really bugs me when people list older race-oriented bikes as a touring bike.

It it not a fregin' horse! It is still a race-oriented bike. If a race rig is to worn out to race what makes any think it's good to load up with extra weight and churn out hundreds of miles into the middle of nowhere? I don't know jack about horses if that is not abundantly obvious.

While I am at it, "RARE!" and "Collectible!" are not ever appropriate to describe a Huffy unless it is a Team 7-11 Serotta made Huffy.

Thank you and good night.

Sounds like you've had enough Pinot Noir to me lol

I'm not sure what you do/ don't consider a touring bike. There are some who think a tourer must have rack mounts, double/triple H2O braze-ons, and even Canti's.
Others list trad. sport tourers as "touring bikes" 'cause BITD that's all there was.

Then of course some sellers are just whacky. Especially the "rare and collectable" Huffy sellers... Pass the Pinot.

At least half the people selling bikes out there don't really have any idea what the hell they are selling. "Nice Old Bike - $50" (no picture) is, in my neck of the woods, a very common CL ad. I've called (and in some cases, bought bikes from) people who couldn't be bothered to take note of the various labels on their bikes. On the upside, these people are just as likely to take $30 for whatever it is they have.

Sometimes it's a Centurion Iron Man, sometimes its a cast iron Huffy. (In which case you can politely tell them their bike is worth more like $20, and drive the point home by declining to buy it at that price.)

...Talisker for me. ;)

I do get where you're coming from- CL generates a never-ending torrent of laughs hereabouts.

As an example, not too long ago I recall seeing a severely (and I do mean SEVERELY) beat up early '90s MB-5; missing cables, saddle, a canti or two, mismatched wheels, etc. (the whole nine yards)... listed as a "touring bike", with "Altegra" components.

It doesn't make me mad, though; I usually chuckle, then sadly reflect on just how far the folks at the Co-Op have to go when it comes to public bike education. I mean, it really just comes down to seller ignorance. And of course, that's sometimes a boon to those of us who know a thing or two- I snagged my Panasonic through just such an ad... for a mere $25.

The most abused phrases on craigslist:

Mint
Ready to ride
Rare
Hard to find
These are "going for" $___ on ebay!

Add to these

easy to fix
recently tuned up
track
High quality

With the exception of maybe ready to ride you will not see these terms used on better bikes being sold by knowledgable competant sellers.

"Classic" and "Vintage" lol

Speaking of rare and collectible Huffys.......

Memphis.craigslist.org/bik/4294781273.html

and make mine a Heineken Light.....

Huffy Aerowinds are considered collectable

Definitely there seem to be different demographics wherein each has a different meaning of "touring bike".

I've had knowledgeable cyclists just a few years younger than myself take a look at my Holdsworth Special and proclaim it a turing bike based on it's single pairs of front and rear mudguard eyelets and it's extra inch of clearance between rear tire and seat tube (heck, it has long horizontal dropouts and thus needs the extra inch there. Even the swap-meet seller described it as a touring bike on his description card, as it was also encumbered with a phalanx of Riv-style gear, including a standard XC Pro crankset.:eek:

True, the Holdsworth is a versatile bike with 73-degree angles, but it's from England and it rains a lot there.:(

Then again, they say the same thing about my Centurions, and even my Semi-pro has slacker angles and longer stays than the Holdsworth, so in truth it is really a sport-touring bike and not a racer. Tell that to the previous owner who outfitted it with a complete gen-1 Dura-Ace gruppo!:innocent:

Anyone whose idea of a race bike was developed during the '80's or later might also consider a pre-1973 PX10 to also be a touring bike, and with those 72-degree angles they are somewhat correct.

So I think that it's just that race bikes have changed, even if my 1952 E.Christophe road bike (nearly the same bike as the same-vintage Automoto Champion De Monde) sports twitchy 77-degree angles for some reason.

But, in truth, many of these Craigslist sellers are just plain loose with their descriptions, anything to get people to be more likely to look at what they have for sale.
It's kind of amazing all of the different kinds of bikes that are listed as "road bikes", which apparently be applied to even a K-mart mtb with stock knobby tires. After all, a road bike is supposed to be worth more.

You wouldn't ever want to go touring on this one, but it does have rear mudguard eyelets and long chainstays.
And BTW, it gives up very little in keeping up with a modern training ride.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7176/6...d0fa973e_z.jpg

Much more of a touring bike here (much heavier, too):
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7057/6...a0e42dc1_z.jpg

You mean people selling stuff online often don't know much about what they're selling, and make stuff up? Shocking!

Shrug and move on, man.

Most people are clueless, we had a guy around here selling a UO8 Peugeot in basic condition worth about 125 or so, saying I see these on Eflay for 1600 $$ grab it while you can for $ 1000!! nuts man, then we have some other guy with a decent looking Flandria listed @ 395 for close to a Year, you would thing that eventually they get why they don't sell.

I think of these sellers, some of whom know what they are doing, as basically cherry-picking their buyers from a time-extended (multiple listings, ad-nauseum) marketplace.
I think that PB-Bikes may have become the poster-boy (if not the inventor) of this basic practice, as applied to Ebay sales of less-common (esp. NOS) bike parts.

With enough listings (L) and enough new daily/weekly viewers (V) in the C'list and/or Ebay pool(s), their rate of success in selling (at overpriced multiples of market price) becomes (L) x (V), a much larger number.
Thus their chances of encountering an ignorant, hasty or price-no-object buyer is multiplied.

Other sellers resent them for their takeover of "bandwidth" in the C'list and Ebay listings, displacing sellers who list real auctions or who sell for prices expected on C'list.
I do wonder if Ebay loses money from these sellers, since many of us have quit using Ebay due to their presence making our searches more of a waste of time, even as their actual sales do bring in fatter transaction fees.

Please refer to this thread, now 321 pages long. You'll be right at home:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...t-and-eBay-Ads