C16R keep or break

[2manyoranges]

I will move to 'how much it is worth; and then to 'for sale' depending on the outcomes of this post. Like many of my retrobikes my silver C16R (15 inch) is a working bike. For years -and I mean a couple of decades - it's been the bike I grab when I am not thinking, leaving much more esoteric and seemingly superior bikes in the workshop. In other words, for a long time it fitted like a glove or a favourite pair of shoes. It is still exactly as it was in 1997 - non-disc, judy's, orange bars etc, onZa barents, Fir/mavic rims, mainly STX. But also nice period touches like a period leather Terry saddle, rear Crudguard with stays (remember those?) etc. Jeeesh this thing has seen the miles. It is a labrador pf a bike, a bit heavily built, but boy does it keep going and with a happy smile on its face. It has never ever let me down, and shod with Porcs it has plugged mud and twanged through single track with a surefooted confidence - always predictable, always responsive. I have always prep'd bikes carefully, so they tend to keep going and keep going strong. The bike is still in rude health. So why the hell am I posting - the title says it all. We have moved to 'new geometry' bikes, and the C16R now feels a bit weird. I am now charging on slacker bikes, and it feels safer and faster. I don't reach for it in the same way now. I could break the bike and turn it into my son's next school bike, since he is on a 'small' C16R at the moment, and will need something bigger soon. But is this an act of vandalism? That's the worry. Now, it's a less used historical artefact, in perfect condition. What's the point of having it just sitting there 'being historical' in the corner of the workshop? Break it down and give it to Alex to go to school on but keep all the bits so I can restore it to original at some point? Sell it for a price I can then buy a P7 disc or suchlike? C16Rs are not exactly unicorns....it's a pretty middle-class dilemma, but I am fretting about it....any help welcome

 

[mk one]

if your riding modern bikes now, no need to fret about it. Im sure your son would appreciate a bike like yours not an old one you no longer crave for.

Just sell it on, plenty of people still enjoy riding classic geo bikes, and put the money towards some new fangled latest thingymabob

mark

 

[2manyoranges]

Re:

Thanks - the retroGrom is truly retro - even at 13 he appreciates and loves older bikes - indeed it’s him who has stopped me passing on some of the older bikes. He would be very happy on a larger C16R as a road bike - but I’ve grown in my appreciation of these bikes as preserved objects.

 

[Gruff]

Re:

That is the same reason mine is in the "For Sale" section :?

 

[2manyoranges]

Re:

Thanks Gruff....makes sense.....I’ll have a think. I am erring on the side of stripping it and making it into a road hack but keep all the bits (at least that will be a only be a large box and a couple of wheels hanging from the roof) so that I can reconstruct it at some point. But I don’t want it to be the start of a road into terminal decline. But I guess C16Rs are nice, but not uncommon....so it’s not a terrible crime against MTB history....

 

[2manyoranges]

Re:

...good God Mr Gruff....I’ve just been over to For Sale to take a look....that’s a very very fine bike. Mine is much more workaday than that. I am amazed that it has not been snapped up. A lovely thing.

 

[Retro Spud]

Re: Re:

...good God Mr Gruff....I’ve just been over to For Sale to take a look....that’s a very very fine bike. Mine is much more workaday than that. I am amazed that it has not been snapped up. A lovely thing.

Don't feel too sorry for him, he's got a very nice slingshot stashed away as well as his uber rare carbonlite
But agree its become the excepted norm to see Gruff on his Orange and without it'll be strange a bit like burney Clifton without the ostrich

 

[dyna-ti]

No harm in sticking it back into the shed rafters for another 10 years There really seems to be a glut of them, but thats always temporary, and they are too good a frame to use where a cheaper alloy would suffice

 

[Gruff]

Re: Re:

...good God Mr Gruff....I’ve just been over to For Sale to take a look....that’s a very very fine bike. Mine is much more workaday than that. I am amazed that it has not been snapped up. A lovely thing.

Thanks very much It's lovely to ride, a real whippet. It's just i can't ride it for too long without getting backache and numb hands so i tend to take out my Slingshot most of the time.

 

[2manyoranges]

Re:

OK.....that's it...it's a keeper...and I can't possibly keep my handle if the place is not dripping in Oranges....