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1937 Schwinn LaSalle on Ebay

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Just to update history a bit. CyclArt is gone. They closed up in 2016. They were bought out by an Arkansas business that had / has carbon fiber bike plans. Basically he sold out and got a job in a cheaper place to live. He is out of the picture now.

I had an Ideor frame painted by Jim in the late 90's. It was agony to deal with him. Susan was much better. That was why she dealt with customers. He would come out from the back after eavesdropping and offer his many opinions. I had a restoration shop and did custom paint. The only reason I got involved was they had the EXACT Ideor decals. Beautiful but not for sale unless he put his color on the frame. Frame has chrome ends and he bitched about wanting todo the plating. I got my way and it was done by Christensen plating. Shut Jim up fast. I asked for him to not apply his CyclArt decal. That was the deal breaker for him. It is there buried under the clear. I did persuade him to put in under the bottom bracket! Who won that one? He got paid and I got a nice job! The good old days!


Their nitch I believe was racing bikes... the customer base was a different sort of client mostly.. and as you stated
he was able to recreate decals etc and do 'over the top' restos on the racing stuff where originality and sticking to
old school methodology wasn't that important.
Balloon bike jobs sucked...I've seen a ton of them...most were comical....yet sadly cost the poor owners more than
any other restorers would charge that I'm aware of in this field.
 
The OP said "I want to hear it all.....................the Good , the Bad.................the Ugly."


That's right Shawn . and It's been pretty much what I was lookin' for. There's so many directions one can take when " Owning " a bike. And During that time it's up to the " Current Owner" as to what to do with it. I have toiled many times as to what to do with a bike. There's a lot to be said about " It's only Original Once " and many we see are NOT . To each His/Her own . My main dilemma I guess would be................................If You have a Gem.............like this may have been when he got it.........................Why not try to represent a more " Stock " look , as opposed to a Over the top Custom ? I guess to each their own . I'm sure there was A LOT of money spent on his Bike.........................By my guess , he's probably taking a loss. Thanks for everyone's comments . It's helpful . ;)
 
A few years before cyclart was sold, Jim let me go through his parts collection and got a bunch of frames and schwinn parts super cheap! Had a bunch of really nice old racing road bikes in the front of his shop and slot car tracks in the back! Nice guys....
 
A few years before cyclart was sold, Jim let me go through his parts collection and got a bunch of frames and schwinn parts super cheap! Had a bunch of really nice old racing road bikes in the front of his shop and slot car tracks in the back! Nice guys....
You got lucky. I went in the back several times. Lots of cool stuff. Especially Italian parts. He was still working so not much was available. At least at reasonable amounts. It is all timing.
 
Their nitch I believe was racing bikes... the customer base was a different sort of client mostly.. and as you stated
he was able to recreate decals etc and do 'over the top' restos on the racing stuff where originality and sticking to
old school methodology wasn't that important.
Balloon bike jobs sucked...I've seen a ton of them...most were comical....yet sadly cost the poor owners more than
any other restorers would charge that I'm aware of in this field.
In his defense. He was able to jig up and straighten my bent Twin Bar frame. A couple of other guys tried and failed. Some even wanted to get paid!
 
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