sailorbenjamin

Oh, I see them now, on page 6 with the obituaries and the help wanted ads.

Maddox

Haha...sometimes it takes the OP a while to post photos - no harm done.

sailorbenjamin

They are nice pics. Caught all the important details.

cuda2k

Picked one up a few years back. Flipped it after a quick once over for $220. Won't tell you what I bought it for though. But will say you got a pretty darned good deal on it regardless of what I paid for the one I had.

critofur

Some people might say vintage bikes aren't worth inflation adjusted prices - here's what I have to say about that: tell me how much it'll cost me to buy a bike today with a handmade in the USA nice steel frame? I bet it's more than $775!

I have an old (1984?) Trek 400 that I got new. Sadly, the frame bent a little, where the down tube meets the lug, when I tried to hop a pothole coming down a mountain. It's still ride-able. I just dropped it off at the Trek store last weekend to see about warranty repair/replacement. In the meantime I just bought a 1987 Trek Elance 400D. It's so light compared to other inexpensive steel road bikes, I can't wait to take it out for a ride (came with a flat tire). I couldn't afford to buy a nice CF or Ti frame, much less a high quality new steel framed bike so I'm psyched to have something as good as my old Trek w/o bent frame This Elance even has some kind of chain tensioning mechanism which I didn't know they had on these older bikes?

I was planning on putting a gear hub on the back and changing to a single up front - not sure, will have to see how nice it is as is first.

mapleleafs-13 

same here, flat blade screwdriver, the big flat blade, just be careful and you'll be good to go...



i sell vintage bikes anywhere from 300 to 2000 depending on what it is. I get the odd schmuck who complains about the price. What i say is, oh you don't like my pricing eh? take your 400-500 and go to a bike shop, see what junk you get set up with there.

BluesDaddy

Captain Blight

Shoot, I got a 81 Trek 616 for... I guess five bucks last week.

A month ago, my much-loved Centurion LeMans was stolen from a friend's backyard while we were in the house having a beer. Dammit. But a week later, my neighbor shows up with a vintage Trek that's WAY too big for him but just my size. So I offered to trade him for something that would fit him better.

I'd previously done some trading and had a Trek Antelope MTB in my posession; I paid the five bucks my boss wanted for a set of used fenders, installed them, and the exchange went forward.

Turns out it was a '82 311. And a total dog; wouldn't even get out of its own way. Not optimal.

Then, three days ago, a 531 label caught my eye. Our buyer had scored another great find! A quick flurry of wheedling my boss and a frame swap later, and now I have a bike that rides as smooth and tracks as straight as the Centurion.

I did have some fork issues-- it came to me with a Dimension replacement unit--so I swapped in a fork from a Motobecane Grand Touring. PERFECT.

Paint's kinda scabby, though. I think Molteni orange would look pretty good.

randyjawa 

In reference to the original thought. I agree 100%. Pictures are a great way to share, or discuss, the technical and aesthetic aspects of anything, including vintage bicycles.

To that, add that some of us are not all that good at sharing our thoughts in the written form. But many of us, who wish to take the time to post one, can easily get an idea across with a single picture.

Anyway, just an old guy's opinion about that.

As for deal of the century? As one other astute poster suggested, why bore everyone with repeated stories. I have hundreds to tell and I invite anyone, who is interested, to have a look at some of the deals of the century that have come my way...

For example, I have less than $10.00 invested in this found at the dump 1978 Motobécane Grand Jubileé...


An a complete stranger, from the USA, sent me this 1958 Carlton Flyer, free of charge, and even paid for the shipping as far as Duluth. Deal of the Century stuff? Close to it, for me anyway...


All that said, I can relate to how the OP must be feeling with his new Trek. Almost every time I find something really interesting, and that can be a different thing for everyone, I tend to think about what a great deal I just got. And I cannot wait for my own next Deal of the Century.