Here, Here Tom,
Seems some of the listers have never read the wisdom of Mark Twain
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. sail away from safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
For some of you I might add to buy your wife flowers and take her to dinner and dancing before she next walks through the shed and discovers your new found passion for Twain and the message he implores.
ciao,
Ben Kamenjas Sydney, Oz
On 09/05/2006, at 7:41 AM, classicrendezvous-request@bikelist.org wrote:
>
> Folks are grumping about the $900 opening bid. I would say that if
> one can
> buy it for $900 they would be doing very well.
> It is just about perfect and it is original...ride it or hang it...it
> is is
> a damn nice bike (All West Coast aspersions on its' finish quality
> aside...this was pretty much the norm in that time period...folks not
> liking
> it need look too other sources of satisfaction, I guess). It is in the
> state it should be, and for for $900, I repeat.
> I have restored a lot of bikes and that price looks good to me.
> Take my latest venture...I bought a '74 Chris Kvale frame for $250 ( A
> number of folks have remarked that I practically stole it) . On that
> frame
> I intend to hang $500 worth of wheels and components. Saddle, bars,
> stem,
> tires, bar wrap, and similar accessories will add a few hundred more.
> This is after a $250-$350 paint job and $45 worth of new decals (Bet
> you
> folks can tell I am not sending the bike to the California refinishers
> by
> that price, huh?).
> When done I will have a minty but not original bike that is probably
> worth
> at least a couple of hundred less than I have paid for it...Would I
> like to
> have got there for $900? Hell yes!
> Every time some NOS bikes come along some folks scream about the
> prices...the $1500 Paramounts of about three years ago...the $3500 Masi
> bikes in original boxes of two years ago...Know what? Now lots of
> knowledgeable folks are thinking "Why didn't I buy the darn things
> when I
> had a chance?"
> If a NOS bike of collectable interest that you like is available at
> anything
> even approaching a common sense price, it will just about always prove
> to
> have been a bargain in retrospect! Forget ride or not ride it...just
> buy it
> because it is great...and original...and what you really want, and
> don't
> dance around playing mind games with yourself over it. Life is
> short...then
> after that you don't buy anymore bikes...
> Tom Sanders
> Lansing, Mi