10/10/13 8:00 AM

http://www.rapha.cc/ah-joo

10/10/13 11:13 AM

A friend and I went to look @ 158 bike to buy. We had talked to the guy a few weeks before and the wife called us back saying she would take a reasonable offer, he was out of state on business.

Some browsing showed he was in state, literally. Behind bars for smashing a cash register and assaulting the manager in a McDonalds over onions he asked not to be on his burger. And also had escorted a kid home on his street grabbed him by the hair after slapping him in the face, and the parents for some reason where not happy about this.

Got the impression she was going to take the money and run. And that when he got out he would probably seek out the owners of his inventory.

Anyway, we passed. But the two car garage was packed so tight with bikes you could not walk more than 10 feet in. The floor, the rafters, anywhere there was space there was a bike.

10/10/13 11:38 AM

I leave town for a few days, someone breaks into my garage!

10/10/13 12:34 PM

Between the bikes in the garage, and the guitars and amps in the house... I hate leaving the house. ;)

10/10/13 8:06 PM

Bikes and firearms here. At least the latter all fits in a safe.

10/11/13 6:48 AM

It seems he had a few left over that wouldn't fit inside:

http://whenonearth.net/120-bikes-stuck-storefront-german-bike-shop/

10/11/13 1:51 PM

I just hope the whole facade doesn't fall off!

So that rager's in a cage and his bikes are on the block?

I wonder if the woman is legally authorized to sell them?

I've been getting my own bike stash organised of late, feeling lucky to have the cellar space:

10/11/13 3:04 PM

dddd, I'd cover that dirt with some 6mil poly. I bet a hygrometer reading might cause you pause as far as
storing anything you like down there. ;) Or did you hose it down and it just ain't dry yet?


"I wonder if the woman is legally authorized to sell them?"

The guy is an expert in outwardly making a PITA out of himself, that seems obvious. If he showed up at my door hauling my kid by the hair [in the day] and my neighbors and kid said he slapped him.. you can bet there would be multiple people in custody soon after being treated and released. ;O

I would hate to have to deal with him if he thought he was entitled. And who knows how many said bikes are legit. He obviously has the demeanor of a criminal in that he has no respect for legally dealing with issues. I suspect he is, or should be on MEDs.

The inventory was mostly the kind of bike that sell here too. I have not done well with the high end stuff here. $5-800.00 seems the sweet spot. I have wheels I am asking that much for. Although anything with disc brake is hot with all the commuting.

the Ruben which we sold when Elaine got the Madone went for full asking, and it was still dry.
But good commuters are scooped up and the market is the only thing dry once the precip starts back up [or down]. My TCX is going to get a lot if use until...

But then again, you can count on getting a bike stolen here, closer to town just faster. The Craigslist is chock full of stolen notices generally. Homeless component accentuates it.

I saw an ad where a 'person' was selling high end seats and seatposts. He can make a good living with a backpack and a 5mm allen key if you think about it. I do my best to avoid hot stuff, but not sure I have not, although if obvious upon contact I walk away.


Common sense told us to walk away...

10/11/13 10:15 PM

I've walked away from more than one woman selling her ol' man's motorcycle while he was "away" (likely in the clink).

I did buy one though, although the guy turned out to just work really long hours and couldn't be around for the sale. It was an '89 V-Max, really tricked out with USD forks and about a million bucks in aftermarket parts on it. Oddly though, the bike was legally titled in the woman's name, and the pair were moving out of a high-end home to live in a senior-living neighborhood 20 miles away.

As for the wet cellar floor, indeed I had just "watered" it with another coat of cement mixed with 50/50 water and Sakrete Bonder/Fortifier, my home-made gunnite coating. The soil under this house never gets wet, although the prev owner foolishly had lined each of the several crawl space's walls with plywood, covering almost all of the outside vents!!! His home-made wooden flooring supports, intended to level the floor, looked like a stack of straws they were so eaten by termites, but I layed down fresh joists proper on treated ledgers and finished it off so as to store a couple of extra bikes, hanging the support pipes directly from the upstairs floor joists just as someone here had suggested back when I built my first hanging-storage rack. I got the laminate flooring for $1/sq-ft from Costco on clearance and was able to squeeze in a 6'8" ceiling height (see small step in ceiling behind where the hooks screw in, that's space for the plumbing/wiring).
For the layperson, that's 22 bikes along a 17' wall. Notice the two more-closely spaced hooks at the far end, not coincidentally where the "electroforged" Schwinns are hanging. There's just a foot of space under the bikes for storing bagged lifetime supply of 27X1" Paselas and other skin-side tires that aren't being made any more.

10/11/13 10:40 PM

Nice work. You should still have a hygrometer so you know where it is at IMO.

I have a crawl space with closed [by me] vents and reflective foil insulation rolls covering the concrete walls with a one piece 6mil poly on the floor the foil rolls [unrolled] overlap like 18" onto the dirt/floor. The poly is under the pier posts so totally vapor barriered. Dirt also dry, but of course you still have evaporation and the need for the barrier.

A HD dehumidifier and some circulation fans and I keep the relative humidity @ 41-2%. I have 60s-70s Fender Amps stored down there, and some guitars too. It cost me in electricity, but the floor temp in the winter went from around 50^ to 62-7^. Oh, I opened up a small heat duct down there too. ;)

I suspect the heating bill is lower, but probably not more than the juice cost for the dehumidifier and fans, which are on a timer and 10 hours a day IIFC. And the dehumidifier cycles in and out of juice sucking mode. ;)

We would not even walk around in socks on the oak floor the first winter. The floor was so cold with the vents that would not close all the way. We added attic insulation to 2' deep up top too.

If I had more space, I'd have more bikes/amps/gits probably.

Hey, picked up a NOS Ultegra 600 Aero Seatpost today. The guy had a sweet T700 Bridgestone partial build [3/4 the way maybe] in my size I managed to pass on. ;)

10/12/13 4:36 PM

Back in the late 90's and while spending summers in Santa Fe, NM., I was in need of a replacement commuter frame.

Somebody in SF mentioned this guy named Laurence Malone. Apparently a former US Cyclocross champ, 5 titles from '75 on.

He's in the phone book, I call and he invites me over to look at some frames.

His garage, house, yard, casita, shed, etc.... were just overflowing with bikes in all sorts of conditions. Rusted, new, beaters, Colnago's and Basso's, you name it. Hundreds of bikes. I could have spent a day there, it was like the museum of cycling.

Laurence sold (and still does) bikes from his garage. A quote from a SF Reporter article in '08 said this "I have a business restoring bikes, I’d say I sell $600 bikes for $250, as good as new."

He's a very nice guy.

Article here with a photo of Laurence and part of the garage.

http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-568-summer-guide-08-spoke-spokesman.html
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10/12/13 7:17 PM

Laurence Malone, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

He schooled the euros on how to jump 1' obstacles in the world's, passing riders shouldering their bikes. They schooled him on some of the other parts of the course. His career might arguably define the start of CX in the US. Not that I want to start an argument.

10/12/13 8:06 PM

Sparky, is the hygrometer for the air or put in the ground?

What kind of % numbers will be at/near the limit for storing things in these basements?

The laminate IS resting on poly sheeting, I cheaped out and used the thin stuff 3.5mil, but there's now also a wedged-shape vented crawl space under it.

10/13/13 1:10 AM

AIR, more than 55% mold can flourish for example.
So 45-50% is preferred. Cool surfaces which any moisture will condense on is problematic, for the metal. ;)

10/13/13 2:45 AM

Thanks for the info, I guess I look on Ebay for an air hygrometer since I've seen what happens when a dusty metal surface attracts moisture from the air, it rusts.

10/13/13 9:32 AM

what is the temp like down there? Is there open vents to the outside?

10/14/13 11:14 PM

Yeah, just the usual ~5x12" vents covered with screen, to only let small bugs in. The spiders set up camp just inside.

10/14/13 11:28 PM

So you understand when you get a high reading on humidity you can not use a dehumidifier without closing the vents.

Your cold steel frame are not going to fair well when moisture in the air condenses on them... With the vents open the inside will get moisture from outside whenever the air outside is more moist than the air inside.

10/15/13 3:46 AM

http://youtu.be/nOZYkqqADaI