I thought I was done

Sly Wily · Sep 2, 2019

My best friend passed away back in 2011. The only thing that took my mind off of it was tearing down old bicycles and rebuilding them. I would find them on Craigslist flip them for whatever I had in them and get more bikes. I had a plan or a goal to do this until I could find a 26” Schwinn tank bike. As time went on I would convince myself that I needed a 20” muscle bike, my kids need bikes, my wife needs one for the swap meet. Every time I turned around I would find another reason to keep something.The thing is I would fall in love with some of the bikes I rebuilt, some of the ones I sold haunt me. I’m pretty sure I have around 20 bicycles right now.
About five years ago I put all my stuff up. I just didn’t have time to mess around with my bicycles. About a month ago I thought maybe someone would have the time. I posted about ten of them on Facebook market. I started talking bikes with me to work and would tune them up on my lunch break. I got a few bites but I quickly realized that nobody wants my bicycles as much as I do.
So I guess I’m back.

Klunkruiser · Sep 2, 2019

Welcome!

I bought most of my bikes just to get a part or two or four or eight. A hub here, a wheelset there. Internal gear stuff and a few nice rims mainly. Stems and pedals and seatpost on others. And on one, basically everything but the too big for me frame.

I have no intention of keeping them all.
And most aren't worth the value of the tires and wheels as a whole. But I'm going to try and piece together a half dozen to sell cheap.

Plan on keeping just three or four. All 26" frames with a bit of BMX style.
A couple of old cruisers and a couple of de-deraileured mountain bikes.
Maybe one with a banana seat and one with 700c wheelset.
And I'll probably have a hard time letting go of the feet forward Fuji, even though I didn't count it in the three or four keepers.
Here's the present lot of five

(front to rear: '63 Schwinn to house Bendix kickshift, '93 Kona AA w/SS freewheel, Fuji 3-speed IGH, mid-modern Schwinn 4-speed IGH, '83-ish Shogun Prairie Breaker II Tange frame with 700c 8-speed IGH) Not exactly the typical "rat-rod" stable. But they suit me alright.

I don't know that I'll ever stop looking for a super deal on something a little bit better. But I've put buying any complete bikes on hiatus until I unload all that are not one of those three or four or five keepers. Just an upgraded part, seat, or bars here or there, and a set of new tires or two.

Good luck to you with your journey!

Bike Bum · Sep 4, 2019

Welcome! I have a barn full of bikes that I promised myself that I'll restore or customize someday. I completely uprooted my life in the last year and I've come to realize that working on these bikes are a great stress reliever.

I have a serious problem of not being able to sell anything so my stable keeps getting bigger. RRB is my favorite site for this hobby. Just be careful, you'll come here just to look up something and the next thing you know, 3 hours have gone by.