fearfactoryüberalles
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So I bought a bare 19", freshly painted '94 Breezer Lightning frame on here from member Giom6, - who is an excellent guy to deal with - in mid-2017.
Realizing all the hype about them seems well deserved (at least to me), I started thinking about the old retrobike dilemma: n+1 bikes are always better than n alone :facepalm:
Then the greed started taking control all over me. I was searching all around the continental net + ebay/Retrobike (me currently based in Hungary) for a similar or another modell, but they were either prohibitely expensive or unsuitably sized ones for me.
Autumn came and I casually mentioned during a looong phonetalk to my friend in Switzerland that I'm into old bikes and the like. He suggested that if I can find anything on Swiss online fleamarkets, he can help with the actual purchase & shipping. So a frantic searching ensued and after a couple of weeks I found a similar Lightning of same vintage advertised by an older, so-called (by himself) bike collector chap, as a full bike with mixed parts for a fair-ish asking price. The guy was also selling a mint Parkpre 825, sadly too small & highly priced for me.
Frame size & condition were paramount to me, but I was reassured by the seller & my friend that aren't any issues with it, being OK condition and 19". Sure it's been used, but comes with its original forks and does not look neglected or abused. The parts are mismatched, but usable and I already collected enough tat for it to dress it up properly.
Anyway the deal was done, and shipping it to my headquarters was the next big question. My friend is very busy and just started his family, changed flat, jobs and all that jazz. I was stuck due to work&family duties and did not want to risk it sending it to my place by courier, since my friend was simply too busy & unprepared-unskilled about packing it up properly for shipping. So I decided to leave it at him until the right time comes.
I've waited more than a year with no luck, then all of a sudden a very lovely Hungarian couple - touring around the Swiss Alps in their camper van - offered on Facebook that they could "smuggle" it on the back of the van into the EU - as if it was their bike - , since at the Swiss border the custom officers can be a bit cumbersome asking about goods purchased in S'land and sales tax, etc., at least I was told so. They were super nice not to accept anything for their favor at first, but I decided that they deserved a proper present and as the hubby is almost 6.5 ft tall, my freshly refurbished 22" Dawes Escape went to a good home in exchange for their kind help
I've collected it from them this Monday and pics are to follow soon
Realizing all the hype about them seems well deserved (at least to me), I started thinking about the old retrobike dilemma: n+1 bikes are always better than n alone :facepalm:
Then the greed started taking control all over me. I was searching all around the continental net + ebay/Retrobike (me currently based in Hungary) for a similar or another modell, but they were either prohibitely expensive or unsuitably sized ones for me.
Autumn came and I casually mentioned during a looong phonetalk to my friend in Switzerland that I'm into old bikes and the like. He suggested that if I can find anything on Swiss online fleamarkets, he can help with the actual purchase & shipping. So a frantic searching ensued and after a couple of weeks I found a similar Lightning of same vintage advertised by an older, so-called (by himself) bike collector chap, as a full bike with mixed parts for a fair-ish asking price. The guy was also selling a mint Parkpre 825, sadly too small & highly priced for me.
Frame size & condition were paramount to me, but I was reassured by the seller & my friend that aren't any issues with it, being OK condition and 19". Sure it's been used, but comes with its original forks and does not look neglected or abused. The parts are mismatched, but usable and I already collected enough tat for it to dress it up properly.
Anyway the deal was done, and shipping it to my headquarters was the next big question. My friend is very busy and just started his family, changed flat, jobs and all that jazz. I was stuck due to work&family duties and did not want to risk it sending it to my place by courier, since my friend was simply too busy & unprepared-unskilled about packing it up properly for shipping. So I decided to leave it at him until the right time comes.
I've waited more than a year with no luck, then all of a sudden a very lovely Hungarian couple - touring around the Swiss Alps in their camper van - offered on Facebook that they could "smuggle" it on the back of the van into the EU - as if it was their bike - , since at the Swiss border the custom officers can be a bit cumbersome asking about goods purchased in S'land and sales tax, etc., at least I was told so. They were super nice not to accept anything for their favor at first, but I decided that they deserved a proper present and as the hubby is almost 6.5 ft tall, my freshly refurbished 22" Dawes Escape went to a good home in exchange for their kind help
I've collected it from them this Monday and pics are to follow soon
