You Know You Bought a Good One When...

[retrojon]

I always think that with eBay you get a good one if it still has the reflectors on the wheels.

The bike I just bought still has the warning labels!

 

[Harryburgundy]

Yup...and the cassette guard/plastic thingy. That looks super clean.

 

[mattbrown]

i spy a Karakoram, looks is very good nick

 

[ridevintagemtb]

Why are people so excited about these things?

 

[gibbleking]

they glow in the dark.hehehe

 

[retrojon]

Went for a ride earlier and got some very stange looks. No one is going to miss me on this.

 

[jango]

Why are people so excited about these things?

It's a good indication the bike is original and hasn't been 'messed with'....let's face it most of us would buy the bike new, rip those bits off along with the other bits we didn't like and 'upgrade' to our taste!

It's nice to buy something oe and work from a blank canvas....20 years on.

 

[utahdog2003]

I think the question was more about why folks get excited about Karakorams and other mid-level mass produced bikes.

I guess its just because for many folks these were the bikes that when you had little money, maybe as a college student or even younger, they were the bikes in stock on the shop floor that you parused when you went to buy tubes and stuff. Now the means is there, so the bike finds a home and somebody relives their youth!

 

[pinguwin]

Why not get excited? Not every bike is a so called "classic", most bikes aren't.

I was opening the box for a Klein that was described as having "been owned by an older gentleman who only rode it occasionally", yeah right. I was in a darkened area when opening it and saw something I couldn't figure out what it was in the box. I picked it up and said, "WTF? A kickstand!?" It probably was owned by an older gentleman.

 

[GoldenEraMTB]

I think the question was more about why folks get excited about Karakorams and other mid-level mass produced bikes.

I guess its just because for many folks these were the bikes that when you had little money, maybe as a college student or even younger, they were the bikes in stock on the shop floor that you parused when you went to buy tubes and stuff. Now the means is there, so the bike finds a home and somebody relives their youth!

That's about right...not to mention, that many of the "mid-level" bikes of yesteryear have more personality/distintiveness than many of the higher-end bikes you see in the LBS today.

I walked into a LBS today, and everything looked like everything else in the $300 to $1300 range, (perhaps cause the frames all originate out of the same plant in Taiwan), and even the color schemes are the same from one brand to another. This was not the case in the 80's and 90's...as the Karakoram above is a testament.

Why not get excited? Not every bike is a so called "classic", most bikes aren't.

I was opening the box for a Klein that was described as having "been owned by an older gentleman who only rode it occasionally", yeah right. I was in a darkened area when opening it and saw something I couldn't figure out what it was in the box. I picked it up and said, "WTF? A kickstand!?" It probably was owned by an older gentleman.

Haha, yep, I bought a nos looking 94 Gary Fisher Procaliber (OCLV framed), and thought it weighed a bit too much. There was a kickstand mounted on the bottom bracket shell that weighed as much as the bike.