very close, 1675$
Wilderness Trail Bikes Speedmaster Roller Cam
- Thread starter NeeLix
- Start date
A Cunningham sells for about 15.000$, vintage Potts frames start at maybe 2000$ and you got to wait in line for his newly build stuff. It's not madness, it's (small group) US craftsmanship from the pre outsourced mass producing era.
It was difficult to get your hands on that stuff even back then if you were not local, while it was theoretically available to order anywhere.
+ in the(teenage,twenties) days we used to work all summer to be able to buy a frame, part or whatsoever. Imagine that with your current income and general inflation, and you will see, these prices are not so much off.
Think it's just our priorities that shifted over time.
It was difficult to get your hands on that stuff even back then if you were not local, while it was theoretically available to order anywhere.
+ in the(teenage,twenties) days we used to work all summer to be able to buy a frame, part or whatsoever. Imagine that with your current income and general inflation, and you will see, these prices are not so much off.
Think it's just our priorities that shifted over time.
pw_pw_la
Senior Retro Guru
Just to clarify: I have no issue with the amount of money changing hands, here or elsewhere, and, as pointed out, as a key component to any perspective CC/SP build, it's a relative sum to the total value of any finished bike. It's also an amazing piece of engineering/art/history in it's own right.
You could put that particular brake on any bike and it would become THE bike.
I'm more just sad that this will continue to be an area/era I am all but a miracle away from being completely priced out of.
Not that that's anything new. Those builders/bikes have always demanded top dollar and/or a lengthily wait to acquire, and rightly so.
I'm VERY fortunate to be the new, very proud owner of something WTB related, that I never thought I'd ever get my hands on. And I fully intend to cherish every moment of building, working on and riding it.
That said, should I ever want/need anything else for it, or something to replace a component, the chance of ever being able to afford to do so diminishes by the day.
And the only thing that bugs me about that, is that Potts and Charlie, especially, always seemed like the kind of guys that just believed in the simple life: riding and enjoying the bike beneath you.
Those guys weren't ever in it for the money, to their own detriment. But without bucket loads yourself, you just really don't have much hope anymore of getting to experience what their ethos was all about.
And, as working class socialist, that's a bit depressing!
You could put that particular brake on any bike and it would become THE bike.
I'm more just sad that this will continue to be an area/era I am all but a miracle away from being completely priced out of.
Not that that's anything new. Those builders/bikes have always demanded top dollar and/or a lengthily wait to acquire, and rightly so.
I'm VERY fortunate to be the new, very proud owner of something WTB related, that I never thought I'd ever get my hands on. And I fully intend to cherish every moment of building, working on and riding it.
That said, should I ever want/need anything else for it, or something to replace a component, the chance of ever being able to afford to do so diminishes by the day.
And the only thing that bugs me about that, is that Potts and Charlie, especially, always seemed like the kind of guys that just believed in the simple life: riding and enjoying the bike beneath you.
Those guys weren't ever in it for the money, to their own detriment. But without bucket loads yourself, you just really don't have much hope anymore of getting to experience what their ethos was all about.
And, as working class socialist, that's a bit depressing!
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