the story of my old brave-UPDATE w/part 2

[weps]

i used to ride a brave warrior in college. traded in my grove innovations assault for it. i think i had the brave for about two years before selliing to a friend. he pretty much hounded me every week about it...even though it was likely too big for him. by that time i had moved to the beach, about 100 miles from anything resembling a hill, and all i was doing was riding 20 mile loops around the island. (of course, i still appreciated the bike over every mile.) so i sold it to him. eventually we lost touch and i havent seen or heard anything about him or the bike in at least 10 years.

several months ago i decided to find out what happened to it. wasnt able to find him with the internet, but i did find his parents. decided i'd give a call. we talked briefly and i asked her to pass along my contact info and that i was interested in the bike. she paused and told me that it had been stolen from the bike room of his condo in chicago. :shock:

even if he wouldnt sell it back to me, i was hoping to meet so i could take it for one more ride. i didn't even own the bike, but the thought of it being stolen and trashed or parted out was quite hard to accept. as i keep seeing stolen bikes turing up on ebay, i often think of that conversation. the brave had an experimental/test paintwork which i don't believe was ever used on another grove product. it was somewhat subdued for that era and i think it would still look pretty good today and be very easy to identify.

wish i had taken some pics.

 

[Elev12k]

Hi Weps,

After that you decided not to get in touch with your friend again :mrgreen: Would have been a fun conversation if he still he had the bike: Friend; 'He hello, long time not heard of eachother.' You; 'Well, uhh.. actually I am after your bike.'

Bummer it got stolen, weps. I posted a Warrior review on the board some months ago. Maybe it brings back some of the good memories:

Warrior review

I guess it wasn't that paintscheme, right?

- Melvin

 

[weps]

thanks for the kind words. i did see your review and it brought back some memories. and as it turns out, he did get in touch with me! emailed me a couple days later. we've traded emails and got caught up and its been as if we never stopped talking. felt rather good actually.

i know what youre saying about the conversation though. i figured he'd be thinking the same thing so i was upfront about it. no reason to beat around the bush.

in talking to him, i also learned that it wasn't the brave which was nicked (note my first use of british slang). it was his tricked out ti-everything klein. his mother wasn't up on the details.

 

[Elev12k]

So the story isn't over yet?

You are still thinking of acquiring it?

 

[weps]

there will be a part two on monday.

 

[john]

in talking to him, i also learned that it wasn't the brave which was nicked (note my first use of british slang). it was his tricked out ti-everything klein. his mother wasn't up on the details.

Fine use of some slang me old china, hope you manage to get the brave back.

 

[weps]

part 2

earlier i had mentioned that my friend had emailed me. also told me that it wasnt the brave which was missing. the brave was still in philadelphia with one of his friends. over the next few weeks, we got back in touch and worked out an arrangement for the bike. he wasnt quite sure how much of the original components were left or what conditioin it was in as it had been with his friend for several years. id have to wait until i got it to find out.

either way, it was kind of exciting to think of the bike i had ridden 10+ years ago coming back. especially if it had all the vintage goodies on it that i remembered. mainly xc 9000/pro. campy pedals. dia compe levers. some ritchey stuff. aero bar with skull head tape. power grips. was a nice early 90s machine. it would be like going back in time if i could ride that again!

well, it was picked up by a friend of mine early saturday morning and transferred to me later that afternoon during my visit to philladelphia. it was kind of a hectic weekend so i haven't had a chance to give it a good going over, but it is safely in my garage.

unfortunately, i did get a good enough look to know that nearly all of the original components are gone. replaced by some crappy bontrager stuff and that mega 9 drive. ugh. i hope they got that on there without spreading the frame. :roll:

 

[rody]

Weps,

Irony is so sweet. I just had an old brave find it's way back to my house after being gone for close to 13 years...frame is still mint (not even a scratch) but it too has updated components put on. As this one is going to my son and got it back for free, it'll stay put. I'll try to snap a pic or two this week.

rody

 

[john]

Weps and Rody,

both great stories, look forward to seeing pictures.

Shame about missing the original parts but as someone once said "the frames the thing"

 

[weps]

Weps,

Irony is so sweet. I just had an old brave find it's way back to my house after being gone for close to 13 years...frame is still mint (not even a scratch) but it too has updated components put on. As this one is going to my son and got it back for free, it'll stay put. I'll try to snap a pic or two this week.

rody

i'll be looking forward to the pics. im assuming it is grove built? hopefully i can get a couple pics of mine soon. just this morning i realized the brooks saddle was gone too. :roll: