Beggars Would Ride
Bargain Bin Reveries
“Dude, you gotta part that thing out! People pay good money for original White Industries stuff!”
Steve was trying to convince me to strip down that old Coconino in the opening picture, as we prep for an upcoming swap meet. His idea has some merit. One, the frame is an early example of Steve Garro’s craftsmanship and it holds far more significant value for me than it does for some random tire kicker at a swap meet. Two, those old White Industries hubs and cranks do have some pulling power of their own and are likely to generate some interest, but not many people are hunting for that kind of stuff attached to 26” wheels these days. Three, the old bike hasn’t been ridden in well over a decade, and I kinda need that 27.2 seatpost for another bike that I’m trying to flip at the swap.
Attempting to come to any decision at all about the Coconino is a tortuous process. Garro is a friend, and this frame holds so many memories of a time when we were both younger and rowdier than we are now. There is totemic power in this, in spite of the layer of dust. But still, it’s a steel singlespeed from the early 2000s. Mighta been around the 12th frame that Garro built. 26” wheels, geometry from the wayback machine. One gear. Not much call for any of that around here these days. I am comfortable acknowledging that my one speeding phase is behind me. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… Comfortable as I may be with that admission, I am not so comfortable completely excising all the evidence, all the memories, of that past.
So maybe Steve is right (Steve of the swap meet, that is, not Steve of the Garro. Steve of the Garro would probably tell me to suck it up and either put some proper miles on that bike or give it to someone more worthy). The cranks and hubs and freewheel could go in the “we gonna haggle some” bin, along with this collection of chainrings, Chris King singlespeed cogs, and that cherry old Soulcraft Convert chain tensioner. Keep the frame, though. Trying to sell it will only breed heartache.
And here we run smack dab into the reality of swap meet prep. So, those old Chris King cogs (mostly unused, one of them even made from al-yew-mini-yum) are OG singlespeed cool. They come from a time before Wolf Tooth, before even Surly had planted their flag on the one-gear firmament. They retailed for about $65 apiece, and are every bit as beautifully machined as any of the close to $80 cogs that Wolf Tooth is making today. I fully expect that someone, possibly wearing a pith helmet or some outfit comprised of three different camo garments and a fanny pack bulging with dollar bills, is going to try and haggle me into the ground, offering maybe $2 per cog, and will circle relentlessly like a vulture waiting for a prairie dog to die, in the hopes that I cave in completely. Same goes for that Convert tensioner. Sean sells them for $99 apiece on the Soulcraft website. They are machined right there in Petaluma, California. Fanny-pack-full-of-ones, who knows full well the value of these items judging by the ratty old Swobo tee shirt lurking beneath his triple camo look, has a hard ceiling of $5 for that tensioner. Maybe $20, if I combine the cogs, the tensioner, and that sweet little Paragon Machine Works “Beer Is Good” bottle opener.
"I'd give you more for those cogs if they had MY name etched on them, bro..."
Okay, so, working through the math here -
Chris King SS cogs: $65 new, $5 at the swap
Soulcraft Convert: $99 new, $5 at the swap
Paragon bottle opener: $10 new, zero at the swap
Using a Chris King cog as a throwing star and then opening a beer to sit back and watch the blood flow: Priceless
I’m moving house. I don’t ride one speeds anymore. I drink mostly canned beer these days. I do not need any of these wonderful objects. I never really needed any of them in the first place, but here they are. I should feel no attachment to them at all. But I do. Every single item in these bins represents some past aspect of my life as a cyclist. There are friendships and rivalries contained in these dusty old parts. There are memories in every half-worn out piece of metal. This all means something to me. Attaching a dollar value to memories is just going to end up making me bitter, and by the end of several hours on a moving blanket under a baking sun drinking canned beer, there’s a part of me that might be inclined to take insult to mister Fanny-pack-full-of-ones’ continued lowballing. That part of me might conclude that there is no dollar value to a Chris King singlespeed cog that would equal the visceral satisfaction of using it as an ersatz throwing star instead (best choose a steel one, since the al-yew-mini-yum unit is less likely to puncture skin). Caveat emptor. Damn right, bub.
Nevertheless, we remain optimistic. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Engage in the haggle; try to appreciate it as a nuanced artform, and not a daylong procession of personal insults. Assign bins; here be treasures. List prices, then slash through those prices and write something lower. Expect to sell for half that again, if lucky. Practice non-attachment. These are just objects, they have served their purpose, time to find new owners. Money is just like water; sometimes a river, other times nothing more than a brief shower. Set out the buckets, funnels, cups, whatever it takes. Bring a hat. Bring a cooler. Continue sorting into piles, and remember.
Can you really put a price on a well used Dura-Ace crankarm and chainrings (left arm sold separately)? What about a brace of 120mm Truvativ stems from 2007? 26" tubes? How about these pristine white Ergon grips?
Ahhhh, Time ATAC pedals. There was a decade where those were the only pedals I rode. What about these lightly used hand-bent NomadFab titanium rise bars, complete with resin SRAM 9.0 brake levers? Straight up Unobtanium. Can’t put a price on that. But there they go into the $10 bin. Probably won’t get a nibble. What about a few more of those damn first generation Joplin seatposts? Dear lord, I coulda sworn I tried to get rid of them all at the last swap. Not even the gravel riders were interested. Maybe the $5 bin for them this time. NOS SID rear shocks and Acros 1 1/8” headsets, where the hell did they come from? Jar upon jar of brake mounting hardware; cantilever bolts, rotor bolts, brake adaptors. I swear they breed. Whenever you need one, they are nowhere to be found and a bike shop will absolutely hurt you if you need to purchase them. Time for some tiny Ziploc bags, prepare to reverse haggle. So many brake rotors. They went pretty good last time, but the deep toolchest excavation unearthed more, along with a cache of front derailleurs. Bet the rotors do okay again, and that the front derailleurs won’t even fetch a passing glance.
Wheel bags, backpacks, old team jerseys; a profound pile of stuff that I was certain I had purged down to the bare essentials just a year ago. All of it imbued with some sentimentality, some talisman of memory attached. All of it, all of those memories, now being reduced into either the mass of physical burden or the cold analytic of dollar valuation. Remember, move on. Remember, move on. Out with the old. Bring out your dead!
Until finally, my cold shoulder to sentimentality collapses. A Mafac patch kit tin, unearthed alongside that little titanium bottle opener. I know exactly when I got this patch kit, as a gift, when working at my first ever bike shop job. Velo City, San Francisco. 1989? Holland Jones, may he rest in peace, had a massive stash of NOS Mafac stuff that I suspect he had managed to wrest from Oscar Juner at some point when Oscar was shutting down and selling American Cyclery just up the block. Holland’s stash of Mafac cantilever brakes found their way onto an entire generation of Bay Area cyclocross bikes.
This patch kit, probably from that same transitional, transactional piece of a whole cycling community tapestry, was part of my initiation into the rites of bike mechanic life. It’s empty now, of course. But crack it open, and it still smells ever so faintly of butyl patches and skunky weed, of full moon derbying, of hot laps through laundromats, of freshly opened Anchor Steam beers, of rallying through Golden Gate Park on fixed gear beaters and of lurid skid contests down the top block of Stanyan Street.
Not. For. Sale.
The patch kit stays.
Comments
Velocipedestrian
8 months ago
The biggest success my pile o'hoard has yet brought has been building up bikes for my kids.
Many friends have had a last minute save from the crate, but the wrench of letting go is still harder than when the parts stay in the family. I really need to prune though, there's (a little) stuff there still worth selling, but having space to better move around and put things away is priceless.
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fartymarty
8 months ago
If only The Radavist had a Buy / Sell section...
I do know of someone who could Min / Max the frame and the King SS cogs... Maybe lend it to him as a loaner to see what could be made of it.
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Mike Ferrentino
8 months ago
Never say never about that min-max idea...
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Cooper Quinn
8 months ago
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-2iZjxSGca8&si=FMXYZgcjQBgdzj2-
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Andy Eunson
8 months ago
At what point does keeping things as keepsakes become a hoarding problem? Asking for my buddy that looks just like me. My mother-in-law is a hoarder. "someone could use it". Oh does someone want a broken coffee maker? "it could be fixed" she argues. By fixing, she means dismantling it partly on the dinning room table and leaving it there for a year. I guess it will fix itself the same way dishes clean themselves in the sink. "I’m soaking it". A water glass needs to soaked???
We saved a Kona Explosif for way too long. My wife rode it at speed into the side of a ditch. The fork looked straight as did the head tube but all other tubes were bent, some at acute angles with openings in the tubes. But hey, a one inch head tube was good slide hammer to seat 1 1/8 crown races. I’ve got cantilever brakes. Any takers? Front derailleurs including one with that weird direct mount that Santacruz used for about a week a while back. None of these things have any sentimental value that’s for sure. I can see holding on to a special rare bike, but I’ve never owned one. That’s a lot different than hanging on to useless crap like my buddy. Who looks like me. Did I mention he has front derailleurs for free? And bb’s that are only a little gritty. But someone could use them.
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Tjaard Breeuwer
8 months ago
I have a buddy like that too. Except he doesn’t look like you (assuming we don’t look alike).
If only someone could find a use for mtb front derailleurs, narrow range cassettes, and 9 speed 53/39 road chainring sets.
No sentimental value, but they are not actually broken either.
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Steelisideal
8 months ago
Love this, especially as I’ve done just the same recently. Clearing out a whole load of projects, and 26 inch bikes.
A lot of the parts I just gave away. A few bits and pieces sold for a little on eBay, but most of it just went to my local bicycle charity. Can’t recommend that route enough, as keeping older bikes working isn’t an easy job.
It’s hard when the items you have remind you of money spent, projects completed (or more like, not completed) but I try to take the approach that sometimes it’s ok just to let go of bit and pieces if they no longer serve you, and the bike charities do good work.
Still got my old .243 racing frame though, that’s not going anywhere.
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Velocipedestrian
8 months ago
Yes to the local keep-it-rolling wrenches.
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Mark
8 months ago
A rather timely piece considering some of the chatter going on in Uncle Dave's latest article.
There is definitely a segment of people for whom the value they get from nostalgia and refurbishment outweighs the benefit (joy?) that comes from buying shiny and new. JW often says something along the lines of if you're not having fun you're not riding fast enough. A corollary to that is to ride a smaller bike - less travel, less grip and less brakes. Its entirely plausible to have as much fun, nay more, on an older and less capable bike that it is on a wondersled.
A ride that sticks out in vivid memory was years ago when one of the guys (Trevor) brought out his old school rigid hardtail with rim brakes for a ride that included Grannies and Lower Crippler. The sight and soundtrack of Trev hitting the point of no return and plunging into the drop that lead to the bridge over the creek crossing was amazing. Anyone who rides hard knows that chorus of deadly anticipatory "Ohhhh's" sliding into silence where every witness holds their breath for a brief moment until they erupt into howls of laughter and holy shits when the rider comes out the other side unscathed.
When that happens on a "big bike" there's often a sense "the bike saved your ass on that one", but when it happens on the "little bike" there's a heavy dose of street cred thrown the riders way. Keep the bike, go ride it and then put it away for another 10 yrs. That one ride will be worth far more than money gained from selling it off whole or in bits.
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Onawalk
8 months ago
Oh man, this hits deep.
Couple friends and I bought an old Rocky RM-7, with the intention of building it back up, and trying to host a "freeride" race. Life has gotten in the way recently, but I have been meaning to get back to building it up. Its not a little bike, but it is "period" correct for a 2001 RM-7, complete with Hayes brakes, and Marzocchi triple clamp. None of it works well, and the angles, and bb height are on the verge of terrifying compared to my Spire. But I hadnt had as much fun (while being terrified) as going out on a group ride with 30 or so groms, trying my hardest to keeps up.
The HA on the damn thing is steeper than my buddies XC bike, what on earth were we thinking?
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Bli33ard
8 months ago
For anything that might be of value Ebay is your best bet I think, not swap meet vultures. Oh, there could be gold in that Tupperware bin of old parts to be sure, if you can find the target audience. The rest should be donated or binned, they're not worth the 20-minute stories some old bastards have to yammer on about, never mind money. Yes, no matter how well machined one of those old block stems are I don't think they're worth much because they were just as stupid then as they are now, except maybe to loop a chain through to pull an engine. Sometimes I find things I didn't know I had then I know why I kept it, priceless! To me at least... And don't knock 26" wheels, at no time did I ever say "I think I need bigger wheels" in 40 years. (Well maybe next year.)
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Mike Ferrentino
8 months ago
eBay have turned the dial all the way up on shitty practices, I feel like I am being abused when I try to sell there now.
But, for the record, this upcoming swap is a non-profit that does a huge community work putting people on bikes and making bikes accessible to less than well heeled members of the public. It is ironic that this non-profit is smack dab in one of the most affluent parts of the entire country, but so it goes. Anyway, in spite of my tone in the column, I really enjoy seeing the people, and the broad array of characters that come together for these things. Had some really cool conversations about bike polo and Phil Wood spoke cutting machines last year... So I'll throw out my blanket and see what sells. And then donate what doesn't.
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Perry Schebel
8 months ago
those PW spoke machines are sick. saw one in use, but never had the opportunity myself (though have spent entirely too much time spinning a hozan threader, much to my chagrin).
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Andy Eunson
8 months ago
I used one to make a batch of spokes back in the late 80s. It worked but you had to watch that the length didn’t change incrementally as you cut and rolled the spokes. There was a sliding thing that the uncut spoke hooked on but if you weren’t careful, it could slide a tiny but every cut and the last spokes were shorter than the first.
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Onawalk
8 months ago
Oh man,
I love those old stories, theres something to be said for taking the time to reminisce with people, and swap meets are the place to do it.
I cant be frigged one bit to try and sell something for $5-10 on Ebay, but an afternoon drinking room temp beer, listening to someone relive their glory days aboard some silly AmpResearch flex machine of hospitalization, once in a while, sounds great!
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cxfahrer
8 months ago
Luckily your memories are not into old cars or tanks - whatever that is big and heavy and smelling.
As long as you can stuff those parts into a cupboard, I would not mind about them and leave it as your heritage to later generations of hoarders.
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mrbrett
8 months ago
I had a similar experience but on a smaller scale. Years and years working at shops meant I had a sizeable pile of parts. Not many as interesting as your collection though!
Before moving across the country (when I had to ditch a lot of possessions) I took all the totes and drove them over to a not for profit community shop. Left those hordes of Ringle bottle cages, XTR cassettes, all kinds of good material. I think they sold the good stuff in store and used the less good stuff to build bikes to sell in store.
A weight was lifted. Not sure if the guy on the fixed up junk bike needed a Ti cassette but at least all that old stuff is getting used.
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earle.b
8 months ago
Dear lord hold onto that Coconino. Steve is a legend of legends. I spent countless hours pouring over his early frame building blog and posts on the MTBR framebuilding forum in trying to teach myself how to build frames in the garage. If you are looking for content, write up the history of Garro for those newcomers to the sport that don't know of him.
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Mike Ferrentino
8 months ago
A few years after his accident, some folks were asking me to work up a script about a documentary on mountain biking, that would follow several key individuals Errol Morris style through their own personal mountain biking history. I asked Garro. He wanted nothing to do with it. A few years after that, I asked if he would let me write a feature about him. And he refused again. When he wants to publish his story, if he ever wants to do that, he will do it in his own way on his own terms. Lord knows he's got some incredible stories to tell...
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Fat_Tony_NJ
8 months ago
When I decided to ditch my old parts bin (lots of 26 stuff, a Psylo, long stems, narrow bars, first year fox Vanilla fork, plenty of blue ano, etc.) I debated Ebay, but in the end, took them here:
https://www.bgcmercer.org/bgc-bike-exchange
The (volunteer) mechanics were happy, some kids will be happy, and I think I may need the extra karma points some day.
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Koelschejung
8 months ago
I'm really not messi but I find it difficult to separate myself from things with history. whether it's bikes, t-shirts, LPs etc. I'm very romantic about it, but what good is it if the stuff just lies around in the corner and isn't used when others can still do something with it. Charitable institutions are particularly pleased with bike parts in good condition. eBay sucks anyway, so give it away and feel free.
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fattirerider
8 months ago
I almost started a thread about older bikes and what people are doing with them. Trying to sell something that has sentimental value but not a lot of dollar value is a tough one. I have a couple Chromag hardtails (26" and 29" but dated geo) that I don't ride but can't get myself to sell them when I know I won't get much. Do I make the 29" into a hip ATB or gravel bike? Throw some street tires and a basket on the 26" and use it to go to the store?
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Mark
8 months ago
Yes.
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Velocipedestrian
8 months ago
Yes.
My DMR Trailstar has become my grocery hauler. I still get to ride it, but don't have to go OTB. Win win.
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cheapondirt
8 months ago
This is my 2001 Brodie Evolution with no sentimental value (just got ahold of it a couple years ago) and a parts bin build intended for pump track use.
It turns out the fork is busted and the geometry sucks underforked anyway, and I ran out of enthusiasm to find or spend on another fork, and I really lost interest in the pump track... so what I'm left with is a grocery getter.
But, here's the dumb thing, I can't even bring myself to ride it to the grocery store because it will get stolen.
At an intellectual level, I realize its theft wouldn't affect me. I'm not riding it, I don't need it, there is no resale value. Yet I'm not willing to just give it to the first substance addict passing by after I go inside that grocery store in downtown Chilliwack. I mean, that's one of the last stems Straitline sold! And a Mag 30, and a pair of DMR Vaults, and a saddle I happen to like!
What do you really do with a bike like that?
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thaaad
8 months ago
The blue surface? Love that frame. Don't get rid of it, turn it in to a badass grocery bike.
Or don't and sell it to me lol
;)
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93EXCivic
8 months ago
If you need to get rid of the Chris King cogs, I would happily buy them off you.
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Grant Blankenship
8 months ago
Gah....that bike is like Proust's Madeleine for me, too, and it's not even my bike. That was my era of top (for me anyway) speed and occasional podium placement.... Why not hook up with whatever Sterling Lorence equivalent you know locally and shoot a super classy portrait of the thing so you can really turn it into the art it is. Then let it go.
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XXX_er
8 months ago
No mention of Vintage in this thread, its usually a lot of old shit that should have been thrown out
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KavuRider
8 months ago
Love that Coconino! I built up a Rocky Mountain Hammer not too long ago with mostly vintage parts. It was a blast seeing what I could ride on it. Unfortunately it was a medium and just too small for me to be comfortable.
I love vintage stuff. I try to keep myself from buying more of it, I don't want to end up with even more piles of stuff in my garage.
But I also ride that stuff, even though it is probably borderline suicidal sometimes (metal fatigue, cracks).
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DancingWithMyself
8 months ago
Assuming the new house has a sufficient back yard, I think you've overlooked the obvious solution to your problem: you clearly need to build a man cave / bike barn / workshop big enough to display the most precious of these treasures so that they, and the memories they represent, can regularly be appreciated.
Seriously, don't sell that frame. If it were me, I'd probably sell or give away most of those parts and hang the frame on the wall like the work of art that it is.
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Sven Luebke
8 months ago
LOL, I just helped an ex-bikeshop owner empty out their den for the moving sale going on right now. Anybody want a 23-3/4" (600 mm) Syncros Gain CF handlebar?
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