Addiction...

[Skapegoat]

So on the 18th of March I purchased my first retro bike... a 1998 I think Kona hahanna.
A mate of mine back in our school days had one and I was forever jealous!
So I bought one and have gotten it back to a reasonable standard.

Then a cheap frame came up on ebay in the exact color and size my mate had back in the day and I bought that too to surprise him for his 40th, still trying to organise that purchase to be transported but that's a different story. He's not 40 yet so I started accumulating parts for that build but in doing so I opened a can of worms.

I pulled an old Raliegh female bike out of a skip, serviced it and sold it on for 50e. Those profits were spent the next day on a GT aggressor frame for which I have also accumulated parts for.

In accumulating parts I decided to look out for cheap parts in the form of a complete bike and ended up buying a dogs dinner of a GT timberline for a song but felt so sorry for the life it has had that I have ended up restoring this and not using it for parts.

So I am no new mechanic and have spanners and tools accumulating for 20 plus years by way of motorcycles which cross over to bycycles in alot of circumstances. Well apart from BB tools, headset tools, specific crank tools, cassette tools, bleeding tools, wheel alignment tools and ah feck sake I've just bought enough tools to cover most service needs into the future and if the oil does finally run out I'll make a packet servicing bicycles instead of my current day job.

Sorry where was I, oh yeah one parts bike shy of a project I came across a GT I Drive 1.0 in need of saving and now I am like Jesus to the apostles of all things GT and Kona as long as they have 26 inch wheels cos I've been buying up way to much 26 inch related shite since March I now finally can confirm I have a problem or maybe Jebus is talking to me in my dreams to try and build a strange arc of 26inch retro-ish bikes.

Any way no thread is complete without basket case pictures....

Kona 1

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/uiStgrKl9iAu
Kona 2, if i don't manage to get this picked up soon it may end up in a skip, anyone in Guildford Surrey I'd really appreciate this getting collected to get my mates 40th surprise finished.
Cheers in advance.... you have to admit that color is epic!

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/dC8nUcxf2s3P
Skip Raliegh

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/66OsWNGNjHvi
Gt Aggressor...projection

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/rcpdy7JjhSW1
Crossing the line with a Timberline/ donor bike

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/hoDpm9GPYXxH
Going modern with a 22 year old full squish GT that needed saving from previous owner.


https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/qArWtNMAXMDI
Well that's all my confession for tonight, I love working on bikes as much as I Love riding....watch out for perverts!

 

[TreaderSteve]

Congratulations on acquiring the 'bug'!

 

[W7Ford]

I've reached a point where I feel like it's gone too far for me. Lack of space means I'm at risk of damaging one bike when getting another out.

 

[Skapegoat]

Must be the Bug so... I'm glad I have a diagnosis.

Yeah space is now at a premium.
I already had some modern stuff.
I feel I may have to go through the stages of Anger, Denial, Acceptance and Change before I can start selling on!

 

[enc]

It’s a slippery slope

 

[Mickeyspinn]

I've reached a point where I feel like it's gone too far for me. Lack of space means I'm at risk of damaging one bike when getting another out.

I know that feeling ... I went full junky denial and dismantled some complete bikes in my deluded state I believed more space would appear....
Hence allowing the addiction to continue!

Hitting the wall is such an appropriate term when n+1 is squared by space!

Anyway don't panic all nurse usually swings by about now with meds!

 

[enc]

Recently sold my “modern” bike. Not to free up cash but to get it out of the way
Absolutely no more bike purchases until I finish some of the projects I have… honest now I just take my time (understatement) with a project and have one or two bikes complete and ready to roll. I haven’t even looked at bikes for sale since summer last year.

 

[madjh]

You have come to the right site ... that is nothing, you are still under control. Don´t look at the spensive stuff. Keep working on the bicycles, ride and enjoy them and that is all for the moment.

 

[Skapegoat]

I bought some parts off a guy locally recently who admitted to me he had 4 full sheds of mad 90s MTB stuff and there was not 1 room in the house including the bathroom without a bike in it....I initially thought he had problems now I just want to get most of that stuff our of his house and into mine.

I feel a divorce coming on!

 

[Lhatch4]

I have 4 or 5 bikes that I really need to sell. Then I can enjoy the other 4 or 5 that I want to keep. And maybe buy a modern bike just to see how it feels. Unfortunately everyone around me bought a bike at the beginning of the pandemic and now many of those people are trying to get rid of what they bought 2 years ago. It's now a weird place where it's a buyers market but people don't want to come down on what they are selling so stuff just sits on the sales pages.