Five steps of RetroBiking...(so far)

[Lid]

Not for NEWBEES!

1 Decide to slap some parts on the ole rig and....stumble across the site.
Glorious euphoric discovery. Hurrah people into old Mtbs.
Buying, selling, endless info at one's fingertips. Your children/work colegues are soon able to recognise the site on your PC from 30 ft away.

2 Enthusiastically leap right in. Step 2 is recognised by knowing Jez's home address. Gil's e-mail address and your new Paypal address.
Usually contains an E-Bay and booz incident.

3 E-Bay bumps. Learn to buy high sell low. Scammers, sharks and worse...
people with unlimited money to out bid you.
The end of phase 3 is clearly defined with "Bid Nip??? Snip!?!? You mean
people arnt even bidding?!?"

4 Learn Ameybrook is a Guy and Isaac_AG is a Girl.

5 Bike build gets stuck..followed by the purchase of another bike/project.
Realise you didnt ride that day so you could polish some 15 year old component.
Sell it for far less than your time cleaning/photographing/shipping was worth.

 

[Augustus]

LOL.

Oh so true. All of it.

 

[pete_mcc]

6 Realise that no matter what part you think will be the ultimate bling finishing touch to you latest bike, Scant'll have broken a number of them, Jez will have snipes set up on any on ebay, Rumpfy will already own 10 of them (NOS, obviously), Repack Rider will have been involved in the original company that made them (or have a photo of him will the original designer who he knows very well) and B3 will be able to build you one from scratch in his workshop (oh, and gil'll put the decals on it)

 

[retrobikeguy]

all so true

 

[Lid]

Should have sent this to you first Pete_mcc.

 

[Hilts]

crackin stuff ken.....

The other game i play is seeing how many of the bidder ID's on E-bay I recognise .. (starting to learn those ones that aren't the same as peoples user names..)

 

[mrkawasaki]

True

7. The significant other demands a random 'bike audit'.... apart from the above collection of rusting metal that'll never see the light of day, the audit reveals non-justifiable and frankly humiliating sidelines (such as the weird collection of old lycra, the unsafe helmets and tatty magazines costing three times the price as when you bought them 15 years ago...) - the realisation takes hold that you are both an obsessive and and a compulsive hoarder and a hopeless nostalgic to boot...

8. Licking one's wounds in front of the PC at midnight you hook up to Retrobike (and MTBR) for the reassuring warm glow that says - YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!!

Neil

 

[JustKev]

Great stuff Lid - all so true!

The other game i play is seeing how many of the bidder ID's on E-bay I recognise .. (starting to learn those ones that aren't the same as peoples user names..)

:shock:

 

[pete_mcc]

9 Realise that Rutteger is the Retrobike version of Osama Bin Laden, used to hear from him all the time, but now he only appears once in a blue moon, he probably lives in a cave in Afganistan now, there is some debate as to if he is alive or dead and his name is now used to scare newbies..... 'if you bid on that item Rutteger will come and steal all your Ringle stuff...'

 

[orange71]

I've caught myself collecting photos of unusual bikes on Ebay or different colours of some particular model Though to be fair, it's cheaper than buying them - I can recommend it as therapy - it's like catching a fish but throwing it back in the water.