Original bikes will soon be a thing of the past....

[66 triumph daytona]

I have to get this off my chest,I am loathe to give advice(not that its worth much)on a bike`s monetary value to newbies who have the sole intention of stripping it on ebay.No problems with guys looking for values on single parts or obscure items but no,I wont have a hand in having original(especially rare)bikes being stripped and flogged.What do you guys think?

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

I hear ya. It's only original once. And yeah, when a bike is original it would be nice to see it kept that way instead of parted out.

Thing is, not many bikes stay original for long. Something gets replaced either because it wears out, something lighter/stronger is available, to get a better fit, or simply to bling it up. Sometimes that happens and the components are period correct, but sometimes it's a bike that has been owned and ridden for years and ended up upgraded to 9sp when the original 8sp stuff died, for example.

Not a lot of us thought to keep things original, especially in the boom times of the 90s when every man and his dog had a CNC machine and a purple anno dip at their disposal.

And a lot of high end bikes were sold as frames only and built up from there.

Am I disagreeing with you? No. Because all those factors make a rare or original spec bike even more special.

I think an original bike should be kept that way as much as possible, same with bikes where the parts may not be original but are period correct.

On the flip side, if stuff didn't get parted out then we'd have more trouble that elusive rear derailleur to finish a build.

Enough of my musings...

Grumps

 

[secret_squirrel]

Realistically how many newbies are going to post about valuations for stripping. . Pretty few I would say. . Most newbies won't have the tools and inclinations to strip down a bike. Counting the newbies part I think you're describing a problem that doesn't exist. . As as for regular RB members - I wouldn't presume to judge most of them - he who casts the first stone and all....

As for the professional flippers and strippers - most of them seem intent on pricing themselves out of the market afaics.

 

[jimo746]

Each to their own. Personally I dislike seeing an original complete bike being broken up, yet I have done it myself in the past in order to use a few parts that were otherwise hard to find.
Grumps makes some good points about many original bikes not staying original for long bitd, my Orange Prestige I bought as a frame only in 1994 and so it was never "original".
It seems a shame when a lovely original catalogue spec bike is split down for sale, but without this happening then the pool of parts for other people's builds would be quite a bit smaller, and parts much harder to find, and searching out those parts for your next bike build is part of what makes retro bikes fun for me.
Ultimately it boils down to money, a bike is often worth more as parts than as a whole, and its often easier to sell & post the parts than a complete bike , you'll have more people interested in the frame and parts than the complete bike.

Agree with the above 're: newbies, most seem to want to sell complete bikes for a quick sale, splitting it down is too much time/ hassle.

 

[clubby]

Problem is no-one wants to buy complete bikes, or at least complete original bikes. Generally the kind of person buying bikes on eBay don't care if it's original, they just want a cheap running bike.
In the 90's can't remember keeping a bike more than a month before changing something.
Next stage is getting annoyed with people riding original bikes incase they wear something out or break it.

 

[dyna-ti]

I have to get this off my chest,I am loathe to give advice(not that its worth much)on a bike`s monetary value to newbies who have the sole intention of stripping it on ebay.No problems with guys looking for values on single parts or obscure items but no,I wont have a hand in having original(especially rare)bikes being stripped and flogged.What do you guys think?

Ive only done this the once but not really to sell. I like completing things.
70% of a mint XT groupset from a mint,totally original lucky find top end full sus Marin. Its stripped off but its now complete at another ton twenty or thereabouts.
Had the bike been a large and not a medium i might not have flogged off the white industries or the marin lite bits.
Probably would have swopped out the fork though :facepalm:
But had it not been complete and i wished to complete it ,where do the parts come from? Not made any more and unless its a lucky find in an old warehouse the only way is to strip for the parts market.

Thing is. Once the bike is completed you either strip to see the bits or keep it and unless you have lots of space or lots of money thats not possible. The initial outlay to get everything cannot be recouped by selling it whole.

Further musings suggest we're the cause of it all. We created the market....... IT WAS JOHN, BLAME JOHN :shock: :shock:

 

[secret_squirrel]

I agree with clubby - the best complement you can give an original bike is to wear parts of it out - they were meant to be ridden after all.

 

[mikee]

I often wondered with the bikes on here , how many parts meet up on different bikes
Bit Shakespeare monkey typewriter thing

Mike

 

[mikee]

To be honest tho , it's our fault , we don't sell complete bikes at high enough prices
A 100 quid cockhopper is worth 150 quid in parts add the cheeky postal sweepstake in and you at 200 , baaaading and its 100% profit
Easy money

Mike

 

[Silvergoat]

Re:

It's great to see a wholly original bike kept complete with original parts (as much as possible) rather than stripped of all meaning and identity in the cynical pursuit of making money. Trouble is, the bikes from our era were not meant to be kept as mint in box museum pieces but to be thoroughly enjoyed, ridden hard and upgraded as parts wore out/broke or new improved trick bits of kit came along. In the early days of mountain biking, we weren't to know that the internet would come into existence, throw up the creation of eBay and eventually a nostalgic movement called RetroBike, sparking wistful longing in men of a certain age (like me) for the heady early days of mountain biking in their youth and a market for collectable classic bikes.