Here’s a couple ARCs I am working on … similar story with both, but different builds.
The first one started off awesome. I was at a baseball tournament crazy early in the AM and strolling through ebay … within about 40s a ARC pops up and a scorcher of a deal. No cracks, dents, etc. BIN … BIN … BIN!!! No Canadian shipping so it went to my buddy in chicago. It arrived quickly. My buddy opened it up to check it out … cracked headtube and dented . Seller was cool about it, I got a $$ back, but a drag nonetheless.
Off it went to FTW for a new headtube. Frank was in the midst of moving and a huge frame order so it sat there a bit, but he did a flawless job. From there it was off to Ollie at Dark Matter … again … it sat there for a bit. Ollie was busy with show bikes for the Handmade Bike Show.
Round about the same time another ARC appeared on ebay … my fav paint scheme and another scorcher of a deal. The seller said no cracks or dents. A @#$% it … let’s roll the dice. This time it came straight to me and good news, no dents … headtube was cracked to heck though. Ugh. Seller was cool and refunded me a bunch of $$$.
This time I borrowed an idea from a buddy and decided to send the frame to Dekerf in BC for some epoxied titanium rings to be installed on the headtube.
And the original ARC was painted and decaled within a couple weeks. I hadn’t actually held it until almost two years after I bought it.
So now I have two. The one is a garage queen and missing a few bits, the other is a rider …
The first one started off awesome. I was at a baseball tournament crazy early in the AM and strolling through ebay … within about 40s a ARC pops up and a scorcher of a deal. No cracks, dents, etc. BIN … BIN … BIN!!! No Canadian shipping so it went to my buddy in chicago. It arrived quickly. My buddy opened it up to check it out … cracked headtube and dented . Seller was cool about it, I got a $$ back, but a drag nonetheless.
Off it went to FTW for a new headtube. Frank was in the midst of moving and a huge frame order so it sat there a bit, but he did a flawless job. From there it was off to Ollie at Dark Matter … again … it sat there for a bit. Ollie was busy with show bikes for the Handmade Bike Show.
Round about the same time another ARC appeared on ebay … my fav paint scheme and another scorcher of a deal. The seller said no cracks or dents. A @#$% it … let’s roll the dice. This time it came straight to me and good news, no dents … headtube was cracked to heck though. Ugh. Seller was cool and refunded me a bunch of $$$.
This time I borrowed an idea from a buddy and decided to send the frame to Dekerf in BC for some epoxied titanium rings to be installed on the headtube.
And the original ARC was painted and decaled within a couple weeks. I hadn’t actually held it until almost two years after I bought it.
So now I have two. The one is a garage queen and missing a few bits, the other is a rider …
