In the wrong hands.....

[marc two tone]

Well, im smarting here.

Yes, bitter. I have it that i/we aim to salvage and restore, thus preservation is a key target.
The subject below was a bike I owned a few years back now. It wasnt mint but, very good considering age. I bought from a couple that were getting rid of stuff that didn't suit them anymore yet, owned the bike from new, chevin cycles in otley. In my care i lightly upgraded and kept the paintwork happy and clean.
It was a knock that i honoured a 34.00 ebay sale back then but now its back around i cant believe my eyes. The guy i sold it to did the canti swap and did away with the amberwall. Therapy has got me to this point....

Ive gone over it all with a spy glass and its my old bike. Or the RB sticker on seatube, 400lx front mech, chainset (500LX) and the ring layout, etc....is purely coincidental.
Its been some kind of work-beater and left outdoors, look at the flouro! No stem cap either. Marin lite qr gone. You sometimes only get one chance to keep originality where, a repaint is un wise and a balance has to be found between what you want as the owner and, the wider community wish for. Below is knackered now.
Of course i hold no disdain to the current owner-seller. But c'mon, message to previous'.

My day....



And now.....

 

[The History Man]

It’s a bike. It’s been used. The end.

 

[Frankenorange]

It looks better now.

 

[greencat]

I think I lost all sense of any emotional connection to a bike when I was mugged and badly beaten for one of mine. These were mass produced items, and it is the nature of things for them to be altered, used, worn out, bits replaced etc. Those that aren't haven't fulfilled their purpose.

There is a role for preservation, but we must accept that others will not share our aspirations for what is to them, a cheap mode of transport. I feel quite happy to see that it's obviously been put to regular use - even if only for a time. Hopefully, it will bring value to its next owner. Those who feel emotionally attached or don't share those purely functional aspirations for their possessions, also rightly, erect barriers to ownership in the form of high prices and/or trying to find out more about a future owners' plans before parting.

It's great that you care for it, and perhaps even feel deeply enough to mourn its prior condition. But eventually all things change, and are returned to their constituent atoms to become something new. Let it go, mate.

 

[al-onestare]

It’s a bike. It’s been used. The end.

Exactly this.

 

[Splatter Paint]

I feel your pain. I remember vividly the day in the 90s when I sold my Yamaha DT50 - which I’d spent a lot of time tidy-up. The new owner’s Dad dumped it on the back of his flat-bed on top of a load of builders junk. It was just lying in a pile of crap, digging in the paint and drove off.

My Dad saw my face and how gutted I was it was being treated like that. I think he said something like “you got your money, it’s not yours anymore, you’ve got to forget it”. That was ~30 years ago! Still, I did learn the lesson: once they’ve paid for it, it is physically and mentally gone. On the flip side though, if someone cherishes it, it is nice to hear what they’ve done in their ownership. The new owner of my wife’s old car still sends us a photo every so often of it at car shows and club meets.

 

[Tootyred]

Im a bike user....ok, I don't abuse them either...but I do use them.....I don't have wall hangers. So I can kinda see both sides of the argument.

In this instance, the guy obviously wanted it to use as transport....he has no interest in period correctness or condition....it just got him about.

You bought it for completely different reason...as a bit of history, for its originality, for its retro-ness .

Same bike different things to 2 different people. Neither wrong.

But as its been said above. Once you have the cash in your paw, if he decides to cut it up into an art installation.....its his choice.

Still a bit galling to the small group of enthusiasts we represent!

 

[Tsundere]

We all die alone in the end. Everything turns to dust. In a few million years this planet and all the others will be consumed by the sun and all will be reduced to cosmic dust and blown across the vastness of the ever expanding universe, itself destined to reach a state of heat death before it implodes to a singularity.

Perhaps some of the molecules that make up that bike will meet again in new forms, on new planets in a new universe? although frankly that is incredibly unlikely. Just appreciate the fact that you and that bike once shared a moment in time and space, each of your gathered molecuar structures interacted in ways that seemed to resonate on a deep level, and the energy that was generated will contribute one day to the birth of a new universe.

 

[Tootyred]

. Just appreciate the fact that you and that bike once shared a moment in time and space

Sounds like several of my previous partners......

Metal and human.....

 

[Stressed]

It doesn't look very much different- a little bit older, a bit more tired- but I expected something wildly different after reading the post!?
(maybe a rattle can respray and a 1x12 groupset!)