It all started when I was looking for a very cheap bike to cruise around the neighborhood with the family. Very cheap meant …… under €180. After searching the market, I realized that cheap brand bikes don’t usually make large frames for my height (1,92cm). That meant that I had to start from €280-€300…… then I saw that for a bit more cash I could buy a bike with disc brakes….. then I saw that I was pulling myself to a higher level…… so I stopped, cause I felt that I was creating a bigger “need” than I actually had planned for.
Now this is where the story becomes weird; I went to this bike shop to take a look and saw that they had some nice brand name bikes with nice prices, but unfortunately, they were one size to small for me…… at that point the owner of this old family business who was this old fellow (no employees… just him and his wife) took me downstairs to the basement cause he said that he wanted to show me something. So we went down, he opened the lights, told me to wait and then came back with this big 58cm mtb which seemed it came out of another era.
It was brand new but left over……. Actually it turned out that it was very very left over. He told me that he had it stocked up for 10 years and back then it cost something like 80.000 Greek Drachmas (who knows…) but that it was hard to sell because of its size and colour……. At that point something went click inside my head…… maybe it was the retro brakes, or maybe the old Shimano gear knobs or even the 2 tone tires, but most of all I think it was the thought that after all these years nobody wanted it and it was sitting there, first in its box, then in the old man’s show room (when he was a young man) and now in a basement of his old shop……. I knew it was outdated but something told me that I just had to have it …...
So I went home, thought about it again and again, then went back, bought it and rode home…….. that night I started searching the net for a clue on what decade it was manufactured.
RESULTS: The bike is not 10 years old…… its not 20 years old……..the bike seem like its an early to mid 80’s model mountain bike. I came to that conclusion after looking at some details which didn’t exist on bikes in the 90’s and 00’s (i.e. gear knobs, frame type and geometry, hanging brake calipers, etc)…….
The brand sticker on the bike reads: “FEDERAL CYCLES” and the model is “Jaguar”…………. Apart for some comments in various forums concerning 80’s FEDERAL bikes ……I can’t locate the brand anywhere…… who cares though …. The guy sold it to me for €130......... I’m wondering if its too much….. but then I ask my self….what are the chances of finding a brand new 25 year old bike that I can ride daily around my neighborhood with my wife and son? ….slim…right?
p.s.i purchased the bike the previous thursday
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