B-Stone on CL

[Chris in Redding, Ca.]

Hey All,

Not mine. No relation. And in Riv HQ's backyard.

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/bik/4956548516.html

Chris

Redding, Ca.

[Jim Bronson]

Macro Fail on picture 4...

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Keep the metal side up and the rubber side down!

[Bill Lindsay]

$250?  Seems like there's an extra digit in the price.  Delete any of those three digits and we'll be in the ballpark.  

[Chris in Redding, Ca.]

Hah. I have seen these before with "Bridgestone" written all over them. I assumed they were B-stones. If someone has at the ready the best place to learn what I apparently don't know, please send it my way.

So is this guy taking a trip to Riv HQ for nothing? 

Feeling sheepish in beautiful Redding, Ca,

Chris

[Bill Lindsay]

I think everything you need to know is included in the phrase:

Guaranteed World Finest Bicycle Precision Mechanism

But seriously,1970s bike-boom bikes like that were about $100 new, and should depreciate from there.  They are bicycles, and as such worthy of being ridden.  They never were collectors items, and as such are not worthy of increasing in value.  In the 80s when you needed a beater for college, you'd pick up one of those for $20 at a garage sale and not cry when it got stolen. In the 90s when they rolled in as a trade in, you'd put straight bars and new tires and cables on them, and sell them for $80.  Now, no mechanics even remember cottered cranks, much less possess the tools to get them off, much less possess the cotters to put them back on.  

That one is a really really nice color and the chromed tips are pretty, but if I owned that bike, I'd give it away.  If Grant saw it locked to a parking meter, he might take photos of it and write interesting comments about manufacturing details of the era, but he would have no interest in owning it, possessing it, or riding it, much less giving any of his money for it.  The 1970s were a miraculous time in the history of cycling, that laid the groundwork for a lot of things that happened afterwards, but the cheapest bikes from the 1970s deserve to be collected about as much as the cheapest cars from the 1970s do.  

[Chris in Redding, Ca.]

Thanks Bill. Funny how stuff works. I know a place that has all the cotters you would want. He is a frame maker/shop owner from way back. I go there sometimes for what I need. I don't ride those bikes but I fix them. I know another place that has a store of the leather washers for Silca track pumps. Odd how each of us values things differently. Someone here (or a BOB) recently posted that he woud rather drive a second hand BMW rather than a new Corolla. That struck me only in that I feel entirely differently. 

Thanks for the perspective.

Chris

[Bill Lindsay]

It's the VAR cotter press that is worth owning:

VAR Cotter Press

I'd love to have one of those hanging at my workbench.  Not kidding.  

[Peter Adler]

Or BikeSmith's cotter press, which is both currently manufactured and way cheaper, because it's not an entry on a tool-fetishist wishlist. MUSA, and you can talk to the guy that made it. Mark Stonich (a CR member) stocks better quality cotters than most, too.

Okay, the French one (VAR #7) is fancier - one of the few occasions where one can say the VAR version is fancier than anything.

Peter Adler

Berkeley, CA/USA

[Joe Bernard]

250 is steep, but I think he'll find a buyer for 150. Sure, it's a heavy old bike-boom 10-speed with steel parts, but there's a small group of folks out there who have a touch of fondest for these things, and this one is in very nice shape with a pretty color.