# The "Hunt" Part 1, 2 and 3



## Jim Barnard (Jan 26, 2020)

I could not really sleep last night. I had seen my favorite bike on a Craig's List ad and made contact with the owner. I have an appointment this morning. Knowing that the second buyer in line is not a good position, I was fretting about not creating a relationship with the seller and not letting the seller know I was 100% committed to showing up with the cash. I left someone else a way to show up late last night and be the first guy in line.

The ad was worded correctly, so anyone with a search set up like mine will get a CL alert soon enough. There was a poor pic, but I saw enough under the 15 year coating of dryer lint to know what year  the bike was. This actually lead to some additional apprehension. These darn first year Choppers are VERY likely to have frame breaks. The last 3 69 bikes I found ALL did. The guard is missing and that usually is not an issue unless the mount has been hack sawed off, I have has a number of these as well. The prop is missing. Almost 75% of the short mount props have sheared the their pins and are laying on the cul-de-sac by the curb (at least it was in 1971).

I cannot tell if this particular bike is a rare cable through frame 69. Not a lot were made and none were sold in the UK so they are very sought after. Luckily, my part of the US has quite a few of these compared to most places. If this is a "cable through frame" bike the value triples. If it is a low serial number you can achieve a weird kind of "instant fame" in a small and intimate circle. The stakes are high!

I have all the missing parts I need to make this whole again, but I keep eyeballing the sissy bar. The seat is mounted very low in the frame... like it has never been raised to accommodate an older kid. If a touch of grease was not applied to the sissy bar (and why would it have, this bike is a model before the seat springs provided suspension) then the sissy is stuck with 12 inches into the frame. This nightmare can easily lead to frame breakage at the fender mount and the drop out welds. These frames were already under engineered.

I see missing lever on one side and am hopeful that this is a "TCW" 3 speed. That means it is a skidder! I see some blue under the grey (gray?) dust coat. That year was a wonderful metallic blue like the color you see on so many ladies "Sports" for some reason.

After my initial phone call, I responded to the add with an email saying I am confirming and will be happy to paypal a down payment. I am now actively regretting not getting into the last night and driving the 90 minutes to get the bike right then. When there was no response this morning, I waited to a respectful time and called the seller.

Apparently, he has been badgered all night by callers for the bike. He told me that since I was first to call yesterday, I have first shot, but he sighed and told me "that he hates to do this but he needs to double the asking price due to the volume of calls and offers."

TO BE CONTINUED


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## fat tire trader (Jan 26, 2020)

Great story and Chopper trivia that I did not know. I hope you get it.


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## PCHiggin (Jan 26, 2020)

Yeah,All of a sudden he has something. Obviously not a man of honor. Dont do business with him,you'll probably get into some bs bidding war or he'll raise the price again once you show up. Let it go to the next guy, You'll find the right one.


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## Jim Barnard (Jan 26, 2020)

Part 2

I set the cruise control so I would not speed.I am likely to speed if I am drinking or excited (or pissed off). I 95 has a lot of Police presence and I will see 2 or 3 in the 100 or so miles I am going. Having agreed to the cost increase before I started driving I am still getting the bike for very reasonable. I am pumped and happy. I am excited about the potential of the bike and how I can save it. I envision a near perfect specimen after the dust comes off and I even get a wee bit psyched about painting and decal-ing the chain guard. My Wife has been talking the entire way and I am not sure I heard a single thing she may have said. I hope there will not be a test. I hope that I have not agreed to holiday in Cambodia (again).

This is where things get strange.

I show up at 20 min before the meeting and I knew he was to be at church until noon, but I kept having the weird "He sold it to the guy who lives around the corner for $15 more than my offer" feeling. I was bumming out that I had wasted my Sunday on this fools errand and that NOW I promised the Wife that we would visit her Brother on the way home and everyone but me would drink wine and I don't like wine and... And then the seller pulled up behind my car exactly on time.

I thought "Huh".

He got out of the car and introduced himself to me while his (rather his friends car) idled in the road. We went to the house where he found a key under one of those hollowed out rocks and entered the garage. As a man of my word, I handed him the cash and wheeled the bike into the sun lit dirt yard where I looked at it and yabbered on about what I am seeing to the seller. "1969 check, June 69 TCW check, covered the fudge in thick cat fur check, Uniroyal slik check, missing shifter sticker check, no knob check, no prop check, more scratching that I could see check, Schwinn grips check... but no frame breaks! Mostly purrrrfect.

I loaded her up and thanked the guy for doubling the price and went on my way. The Wife looked at me and said she thought the sale had all the earmarks of a drug deal or a robbery. She said she bet this was his X wifes house and SHE is the one at church and he knew it. House key in a plastic yard rock... get away car idling in the road... sold it way below value... shady melon farmer extorting me at the last moment...  But all I could do was to think that my Wife does not seem to be very trusting.

We started to drive to the oncoming winefest and I felt the stupid smile slowly drip off my face and get replaced with a desire to breathe. It was 51 degrees in Massachusetts at 12:15 today, so us New Englanders had the windows partially open the the Jeep. This caused the fur, dust and dander, previously encasing the old bike, to become airborne and circle the cab of the Jeep. I must be allergic to Ex-wives prehensile polydactile felines as I had to pull over and get out of the car to live. I also pulled the bike out to beat it with leather work gloves until it yielded most of the grunge left on the paint, fenders and in the spokes.

After a long stop at a Winery, where every bottle was tasted twice by the everybody but me, we said bye to the Brother and brought the bike home. It is too late to start on her, but I will soon. I am still eyeing how far the sissy bar is down in the sissy tube.

More soon


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## rfeagleye (Jan 26, 2020)

Great story! That was the best read I have had on here in a long time! And congratulations on the bike! It looks like a nice project and I know you'll bring it back to life.

I think the best part is that it was sold from Vin's, what a great name for a shop!


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## SteveF (Jan 26, 2020)

Loved the story! Can't wait to see what you do with it. You do great work.


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## 1817cent (Jan 26, 2020)

Great writing style!  Your talent goes past putting old bikes back together...


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## JLF (Jan 26, 2020)

Great thread and nice bike!


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## PCHiggin (Jan 26, 2020)

Happy it worked out for you


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## Jim Barnard (Jan 27, 2020)

Part 3

Well... instead of going to bed like a normal person would have, I sat in front of the Chopper with a glass of Scotch. I mentally went over the wrong and missing parts and tried to remember what I have in the boxes, shelves and bins in the bike shop part of the garage. I was able to find quite a lot of the bits, some used and some NOS. Since I have a Blue TCW from 69 already, I will likely make this correct without using the best of the best. I have a NOS slik and perfect seat that wants to be on a "Keeper" so I will not use them on this bike. A Keeper is a bike that will be thrown into my grave with me along with my Mosrite Guitar signed by Johnny Ramone, Eerie Magazine #1, a George Dickel Powderhorn signed by Leonard Nimoy and my OJ Simpson rookie card. Or more likely, the Keepers will all be brought to Salvation Army as soon as I begin to drool and can't remember who the Vice President is.

Anyway, I took this pic after the third glass around 11pm. The lack of focus was not limited to the subject of the picture.


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## rfeagleye (Jan 28, 2020)

One more glass and you would have had it finished


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## Jim Barnard (Feb 1, 2020)

Part 4

I had some hours available last night and wanted to get the Chopper back together, at least as far as my parts would take me. I had the opportunity to spray the chain guard (I did 2 of them as the old lacquer candy paint varies with the thickness of the coats) Oddly, one matched the bike before I cleaned the paint and the other matched the color better after a good cleaning. I ran out of white frame decals, but I have plenty of the chain guard ones still here. 30 years ago I had a few hundred of these chain guards welded up. The order my company placed with Matheson Metal Lab (somewhere in Michigan) said "Printer side covers" to throw the taxman off. Still got 50 or so left.

So far the project has:
4 wrong fasteners
repro guard and grips
NOS cable, dome nut, kick stand, 2 "R" nuts, pull chain and S/A positioning washers
Used but correct: hook pads, TCW console, knobs, lever cover, rear RL knobby (actually a 71 or 72 Holland), spray line front tyre

This old girl needs some touch up. There are lots of scrapes and dinks that have corroded. I may hit the Hobby place to try to get a single stage match. I will try not to make things worse.

At this point in the project I am happy. It has been fun and some good progress was made. If I did not already have the parts, things may have been less fun. It is kind of funny, I laid down all the bits that would go into the bike and then wanted to put them back on the shelves. Its like I don't want all the old stock to disappear... but what, if not this, am I holding them for? Perhaps I doubted I would end up keeping this one, since I have another same year, same color and same model in nicer condition. That did not stop me from putting my last set of R nuts, front fender and hook pads on this bike or from using the last of my candy lacquer (can we even buy lacquer anymore?).

I suspect I will try to trade this for  a color and model I don't already have. I never have any luck making that kind of a deal, but I am willing to try.


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## SteveF (Feb 1, 2020)

Looks great! Thanks for sharing.


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## Frank and Pam Skid Kings (Feb 1, 2020)

You really nailed all the emotions and thoughts that go into a "find". The before, during and after purchase feelings are exactly what I think most of us go through. Keep us posted on the further adventures of this find. I think I know the short term outcome, I'll see if I am right ! I know if it was me, I'd "step back" from it for a while and let  things settle. Thanks again for the great story !


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## Jim Barnard (Feb 7, 2020)

Part 5

Pretty happy with the stickers. They are slightly smaller than the stock screen... or what ever Raleigh did back in 1969 - 1972 for the MK 1 bikes. The simple "Extended Eurostyle Bold" font is Sooooo important to the CHOPPER look that it was hard to sleep with the bike missing the name. I remember spring 1970, being 9 years old and walking down the stairs to the basement bike shop in our town. I always walked down slowly as the first thing you saw was a redline "Vinylon" CHOPPER tire. As you descended you would see another behind it... and another. There was about 15 Choppers that appeared in a perfect row when you cleared the doorway and stood in the room. These were all on the left and the counter was on the right. The shop went back about 60 feet but somehow I don't remember what the other bikes in there. I would guess there were DL-1, Sports, RSW, Rodeo, Fireball, Mountie, Records, Gran Prix (?) and all the Raleigh bikes but I only had eyes for the Choppers. 

With all the front tires lined up perfectly, it was easy to notice the different models in 1970. Some had no front brakes and were the Single Speed coasters. Some had tall sissy bars (HBR) and these were the the new 10 speeds with french derailleur and front changers mounted on welded brackets on a unique frame or 3+2 twin sticks with an S5 hub on a normal 3 speed frame or the derailleur 5 speed with the front facing drop out. There were the odd ball girlie model that came in 3 speed or single speed. You got hosed pretty good with the single speed bike. It cost a little less, but you did not get a front brake, shifter (just a blank console saying "Coaster"), no springs (new for 1970! the left over 69 bike in the line up had none), no spoke protector (Came on the three speed bike for purely aesthetical reasons) and what was usually old school pedals. Some of the bikes had the Slik tire. To me and my pals that made you a "Cool Cat". In that year there was Chopper Yellow, Space Blue, Brilliant Orange, Emerald Green, Carmine Red and Black with orange letters.

All my neighborhood pals had Choppers. It was a very big thing. I can't remember how the word was passed or what ad we all saw or if one kid got one and we all saw it in person, but it was the thing that year. The bikes cost about $100 when the average Dad made $800 a month. Some where there is a pic of me and my sister sitting on Blue Raleighs by the Christmas tree. Me on my Chopper and her on her Space Rider. She never did recover from not having a Chopper.












If there is someone with an Brilliant Orange any model (NO Pumpkin) or perhaps a S3C, 10 speed or coaster boys bike looking to trade... let me know.

Thanks
Jim


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