Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Selling a bicycle, a tale

This beautiful, early 1970s Schwinn Paramount was seen at 2 swap meets this spring. First, it was seen at the Monson swap meet, where it was not for sale, the owner was showing the bike in the bike show.
The second time it was seen was at Copake, where these photographs were taken. I should add that this Paramount is original paint and chrome, and yes that is a Cinelli adjustable stem and track handlebars. The owner was showing off this beautiful, original time capsule bicycle, when a guy approached and asked how much. The owner first said it was not for sale, the interested party prodded more and he came up with a realistic value of the bike. Sold.
He didn't to sell it yet it sold for enough to make him forget his sorrow of losing the bike.
The new owner proceeded to dismantle the bike and attached to the back of this department mountain bike with upturned road bike handlebars. The original owner was stunned. When asked what was to become of his old bike, the new owner said he was going to paint it to make it look less desirable because he was going to ride it in New York City.


(I should also add, when I was driving to the swap meet that morning, I passed the guy on the mountain bike and thought he was just a small town hobo. A few hours later he arrived to the swap in upstate New York and I told him I had passed him. He asked why I didn't offer to pick him up. I said-"I thought you were a hobo."

11 comments:

Peter Hamtramck said...

Wow. Any idea how much the bike was sold for?

Anonymous said...

The bike with the upturned bars was actually a 73 NOS Eddy Merckx before he defurbished it

Via Bicycle said...

Peter, yes I do, it was a couple thousand. it is what one would expect a super clean Schwinn Paramount with Cinelli adjustable stem and beautiful chrome cinelli track bars to sell for.

Otherwise I would have bought it.

John said...

What motives people is always interesting. Something is only as valuable as what someone is willing to pay for it. A bike is meant to be ridden, old or new, pristine or beat. How nice would it be to eat lunch with gold utensils and crystal plates and would it taste the same if it were served on paper and plastic?

Via Bicycle said...

John, somewhat true. but something this nice was not meant to be spray painted black and have a coaster brake rear wheel installed. I think that is what was to become of the bike.

there are far too many bikes in need of paint to repaint this bike black. for a 40 year old bike, this was something that should be treated special.

Hal said...

Why would anyone pay that much for a vintage Paramount only to treat it like a Schwinn Varsity? I can only assume the buyer was trying to make a point, and a destructive, mean-spirited one at that.

Via Bicycle said...

he might have been just joking with us, and would bring it back to NYC and treat it like a work of art.

but something tells me the way he was strapping it to the cheap mountain bike milk crate, I think not.

John said...

Hmmm, for something to get that old it must have been well kept. It would have taken great effort and care, a lot of emotion would have been invested in the bike. Then to give it away at any price...How badly did the seller need the $ and how easily does the buyer part with the $. What they actually do with , after the transaction tells a lot about what went into the transaction...
Perhaps the price was too low?

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I bought a bike month ago, but it was stolen by the fucking thief. I hate him!

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