It's three years old. The seller has listed the wrong size. Why pay $1,500 for a bike you can buy new for $1000. (OK, it has nice wheels and extras... but still).

https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...93#description

Too Late, he sold it.

That bike is set up nicely. The seller did not even mention the B-17 Brooks is the titanium version that retails for $365 (US).

Looks like there was a bit of a bidding war. I doubt I would have bid that high. Aside from that the bike has some additions and upgraded parts from the stock $1,000 price. Fenders, seatpost, handlebar stem, seat, front deraileur, rear rack, kickstand, rear panniers, handlebar bag (with mount), and Dura Ace bar end shifters (if they truly are DA, I can't tell by the picture). All it needs is a front rack and panniers.

If a new LHT is purchased for $1,000, $500 more for what is on this bike seems a bit high. Especially in light that some of it is not necessary, like the upgraded shifters. My LHT was about $100 or so higher...bare naked. I put less than $400 more into it and came out with a better equipped tourer. But other than swapping the 26T to a 24T granny ring, I left the drivetrain components alone. I did change the seat post and seat. The handlebar stem was exchanged at the bike shop during fitting free of charge.

Oh! I didn't notice the Ti seat. That does make a difference in the bid war. Personally I would think to originally install a Ti B-17 on a LHT is a waste of money, I certainly wouldn't leave it on the bike when I put it up for sale. The buyer probably came out on top. Especially in light of the cheap, cheap shipping cost.

High dollar wheels, saddle, pans, fenders. German mirror. Handlebar bag.

You couldn't buy that set-up for no thousand dollars.

Plus, the high bidder might've had "auction fever".

I'm pretty sure the wheels are stock, at least the hubs are.

I guess I stand corrected. I didn't know it came with XT hubs.

auction fever-good way of putting it. In the past I had looked at Ebay for buying some equipment, and in the end, it just wasnt worth it and I seriously wondered the judgement of buyers who bought things I had looked at....I mean, the stuff is used, you cant see it in real life, there could be hidden problems, no warranty--it often just isnt worth the few hundred you save....

you could be lucky and all is fine--but you might not be.

it also came with The Arkel panniers, in addition to the ti brooks.

I dont think the XT/mavic wheels are what comes stock, but i might be wrong.

The stock wheelset is XT laced to Alex AdventureRims, at least it has been for the past couple years. The A719s are not an insignificant upgrade.

Shilling is rampant on ebay.

It's a simple method for the seller to encourage bids, and escalate the ultimate selling price.

eBay, despite their claims, does little to discourage this practice. This is probably due to the fact that the more an item sells for, the more money they make.

I don't understand all the hipe for a LHT.....They are a decent bike put clearly not a top end touring bike....

the bike mentioned was likely a bare frame purchase, the owner made all their component purchases retail.

Now QBP imports them partially assembled in Asia, with a pre selected parts pick,
most bikes are offered in the same process, then,
assembled and tuned up for retail sale by the Bike Shop You Buy From.

I just paid a little under $1,300 for this LHT. With all the extras, I think it was certainly worth it.

Rusty, as a Montrealer I see that and think, "will it be worth it after someone steals your wheels"--this is not a good city for leaving a nice bike semi-locked, heck even fully locked....

djb, at this bike stand, so long as you aren't leaving it there at night, there is little-to-no chance of someone trying to steal the wheels.

good, Im just jaded because bike theft is pretty bad here, one has to be pretty darn careful and I tend to use two locks just to deter as it would take a bit more time than a bike with just one lock.
Oddly enough, LHTs arent seen that much here in Montreal. It would be nice to ride one once to see how they feel (although I appreciate them being more suited to loaded riding, or to get a better idea of how they ride is to ride them loaded)

How can you tell?

I have a honey B17 Champion Special that looks just like it. It has the large copper rivets, skived edges, and copper clad rails. Unless I'm missing where titanium is specified, I'd assume the lighting is making the copper clad rails look like that.

The Champion special still costs more than a standard B17, but more like $150 versus the $90 or so for a regular B17.

That's about a $90 seatpost, though. I use Thomsons on all my bikes.

Also, while it has nothing to do with this sale, maybe. But you could build an LHT from parts, and add a ton of value. You could for instance go to a shop that has a lot of frames and beat them to death for a frame with good alignment and other perfections. I used to sell flyrods that I "made" from blanks. This isn't making as much as assembly for the most part. But I had a very long list of details that I attended to that where never handled in factories. The mere fact that parts are involved does not mean commodity results. I mean, I think I would far rather an LHT pulled together by Bruce Gordon, if he was so involved, than I would one made by QBP. Think of Peter White wheels, four pre-made components that are assembled by a knowledgeable person. Yet a bike has hundreds of components, outside of the wheels, and it sometimes sounds as though people think there is no way to differentiate the results even if completely different parts are used.

Concrete examples of stuff that can vary is frame prep, the quality of tools used there. The alignment of parts facing and cutting of stuff like hangers. Matching and quality of screws is big. Knowledge of what components play together, etc...

I'd be more concerned about what happened that damaged the rear derailleur badly enough that it needed replacement?

Seriously- ti Brooks saddle, King headset, Thompson seatpost/stem, and... Deore derailleur?! Not XT, not XTR, just plain old entry level hybrid bike Deore. Me thinks the person who picked the other components didn't pick this one.

It's called value. Hype is what people do to incite interest, like marketing. With the LHT the interest is already there because folks bought the bike. If "top end" is defined as the upper end of the cost range it's not that but be real, there isn't a functional difference between a LHT and limited production bikes that are built with heavy tubing and more expensive components. Custom bikes can fit a particular body proportion but if it's meant to carry weight it's going to be heavy and a large part of "top end" is light weight, limited production and high cost not better function.

Plenty of stupid people on Fleabay. In general, auction is a scam. Logic is overruled by emotion as the noobs try to out-bid each other. It's all about instant gratification, then regret when the object is sitting in your house.

I guess the highest bidder bailed!

The bike has been relisted, with a $2000 buy it now price: https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...:WNARL:US:1123