Dealing with reluctant measurers..

[bikeworkshop]

I am just amazed when someone can't seem to find a tape measure, or can't be bothered. What is it with people advertising things and then seeming like they care not about selling them? That goes for so many occasions; though this is local. I still won't go and do their work for them.

If they can't be bothered, I can't be bothered.

It's taken me years to learn this, but I'm never sorry.

Plenty of fish in the sea.

 

[PhillB]

It's strange to me, but there are many folk who have no concept of bike sizes. I often ask...but often they don't know or don;t have a tape measure. This happened with a frame I was particularly interested in a while back. It had the chainwheel attached (but not much else) so I counted the teeth to get the circumference and calculated the radius. Then I ratioed that to the size in the picture. Measuring the length of the seat tube in the picture and applying the ratio gave me the length in 'real life'. When I got the bike, it was 0.5cm out.

Which reminds me of another time. An old Higgins racer. It was against a wall made of breeze blocks which come in a standard size. I used the known height of a standard breeze block to ratio to the bike frame - didn't buy that one - it was too big

 

[The History Man]

It's strange to me, but there are many folk who have no concept of bike sizes. I often ask...but often they don't know or don;t have a tape measure. This happened with a frame I was particularly interested in a while back. It had the chainwheel attached (but not much else) so I counted the teeth to get the circumference and calculated the radius. Then I ratioed that to the size in the picture. Measuring the length of the seat tube in the picture and applying the ratio gave me the length in 'real life'. When I got the bike, it was 0.5cm out.

Chapeaux! I wasn't so lucky………

 

[PhillB]

Chapeaux! I wasn't so lucky………

View attachment 948292

That saddle is at shoulder height for me

 

[Frankenorange]

Some people have things to hide. If you sound like you know what you are talking about then they will start to think you might see whatever it is that isn't quite right. Something like a crack they are trying to hide, or a bulge in a tube from a prang.
Also could be that the seller is just lazy, or weird . I bought something off ebay recently from a pretty strange character. I asked a couple of questions, to which i got more info and pics than i asked for, but to a third i got no reply. It was all friendly and cheery between us.
After a couple of days I thought i would buy it anyway, but that is when i found out i had been blocked ,as a buyer, when i hit the BiN button. No replies to my messages asking what was going on so i may have also had my messages blocked and not just as a buyer.
How odd i thought so I created a brand new account and bought the item as a user with zero purchases, or feedback. Strange to block someone because they ask questions, as that must be too much hassle, yet will sell to someone who has no history and who could be a right pain in the @rse.

 

[pigman]

Some people have things to hide. If you sound like you know what you are talking about then they will start to think you might see whatever it is that isn't quite right. Something like a crack they are trying to hide, or a bulge in a tube from a prang.
Also could be that the seller is just lazy, or weird . I bought something off ebay recently from a pretty strange character. I asked a couple of questions, to which i got more info and pics than i asked for, but to a third i got no reply. It was all friendly and cheery between us.
After a couple of days I thought i would buy it anyway, but that is when i found out i had been blocked ,as a buyer, when i hit the BiN button. No replies to my messages asking what was going on so i may have also had my messages blocked and not just as a buyer.
How odd i thought so I created a brand new account and bought the item as a user with zero purchases, or feedback. Strange to block someone because they ask questions, as that must be too much hassle, yet will sell to someone who has no history and who could be a right pain in the @rse.

To a non cyclist they might find questions we feel important as being over-fussy and then see us as pedantic, awkward buyers.
After all, to them, there are only 3 types of bike - child's bike, penny farthing and adult bike. Their view is - it's an adults bike, if the price/condition tradeoff is ok, just buy it or leave me alone