Dawes Edge - the sum of its parts

[bikeworkshop]

As a Dawes fan, this is too painful to watch. I think I need to live up to my name and take a break until it's all over.

I know @bikeworkshop you are in the bike trade but is buying a 30 year old rare bike and stripping and selling for maximum profit what Retrobike is all about?

Laters

I totally agree.
Please bear with me.

We usually rebuild older bikes and get them back out there riding.
They number in the 1000s.

I've detailed the thinking behind this at the beginning of this post and also in the purchase thread:
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/back-from-the-edge.489002/

Let me put it here as well:

I'm confident I can turn the 653 frame into a cool, sellable tour/gravel disc bike, get it out there on the road, in the woods, in the mountains.

And the components could be used on a restoration of a well-used classic.

The edge as a vintage piece might be ridden a couple of times a year,
but Dawes is not like a klein or rocky mountain,
There's little enthusiasm for the brand nowdays.

If we serviced the edge and put it up for sale, a realistic price would be £350-400
But you can't sell a bike as a commuting hybrid with xtr groupset can you?
Fillet brazed 653?

And we can't start asking our customers what they want to do with their bikes

I'm also interested in how the quickest way to lose money on bikes is to buy parts and build them up - hence the title of this thread -

Hopefully it will have a happy ending...
once I find my rear disc tab braze jig!

 

[slackboy]

But you can't sell a bike as a commuting hybrid with xtr groupset can you?

Not without the person buying it then splitting it and selling the parts. This is the unfortunate fate of high end but low desirability bikes.

See also all those xt equipped carreras where the frames get skipped and the parts used on a boutique frame instead.

 

[bikeworkshop]

It's my job to make a living with bikes.
No one else was prepared to offer over 150£ for this fantastic bike

I'm hoping to move the parts back into the vintage scene, but find a new, quality purpose for the frame

 

[highlandsflyer]

As a Dawes fan, this is too painful to watch. I think I need to live up to my name and take a break until it's all over.

I know @bikeworkshop you are in the bike trade but is buying a 30 year old rare bike and stripping and selling for maximum profit what Retrobike is all about?

Laters

The bike is what? The frame? The parts?

 

[bikeworkshop]

The bike is what? The frame? The parts?

It was "issued" by dawes in 93 as a piece.
There's a concept there -
British hand made frame, from British made cycle specific Tubes.
Built up with top end Japanese kit, photographed and put in a catalogue.

"For Top Competitors" it says.
This is obviously no longer true.

Imagine turning up to a serious pro mtb race 2025 on this!

Let's try to find a modern use for it.

The bike museums weren't bidding against me.

They could have bought it for £160!

 

[highlandsflyer]

I don't want to detract from an interesting thread; but for me a 'bike' from this era is the frameset, often shared among different 'models' or iterations, as well as stand alone. XTR may be what was on it at one point, but a different groupset would't make it a different bike. It's great to see it being, literally, recycled.

 

[bikeworkshop]

I don't want to detract from an interesting thread; but for me a 'bike' from this era is the frameset, often shared among different 'models' or iterations, as well as stand alone. XTR may be what was on it at one point, but a different groupset would't make it a different bike. It's great to see it being, literally, recycled.

I'm more attached to a vintage bike where the parts have been selected by the original owner and replaced over time - a bike like this wears its own history in the components, and taking that apart is losing something unique.

A catalogue bike can be remade with a catalogue build - and that's quite a popular activity amongst retrobikers - although all my personal bikes are built how I want - in the shop we'd try to keep parts reasonably in keeping with the frame period.