The CABE CONFESSIONAL Bike Skeletons in the Closet - Share Your Tragic Bicycle Decisions, Regrets

[Livmojoe]

@Chadillac I feel you on that one. We all make dumb decisions. To this day I regret trading in my 70’s BMX bike as credit towards a new “beach cruiser”. It was 1979 and I had kind of outgrown the 20” bike, and I wanted something like the new Schwinn 26” Cruisers since they were the hip cool thing to have. The Schwinn shop wouldn’t offer any discounts or trade-ins, so I went to the other bike shop in town. They had some Schwinn knock-off made-in-Taiwan beach cruiser bikes and were willing to take my bike as trade in towards the new bike. I can’t even remember the brand, but it was a red cantilever frame with a tubular BMX style fork, and it said Bun Runner on the chainguard. I think they gave me like $75 credit for my bike. The night of getting the new bike, I was out in the garage and I was looking it over and was like WTF have I done? This POS cruiser bike is horrible. I want my BMX bike back.
I went back to the bike shop the next day to try and get my BMX bike back, but they said they already sold it as a used bike. Uhhgg. My heart sank into my stomach. The BMX bike I traded in was one that I had assembled over years by scraping my paper route money together and buying individual parts. I had the forks and wheels earlier on my Sting Ray, and finally bought the frame in the Fall of 1975 to complete the setup. It was a 1975 nickel plated Redline squareback with Gen 1 nickel plated Redline forks, and Gen 1 Motomags. It’s prob not worth the crazy Cook Brothers kind of money today, but is still a rare and valuable bike in the BMX collector community.

 

[Schwinn Sales West]

I was a Junior (14 to 17 age) ABL racer in 1963. I qualified to race at the 1963 national track championships at Northbrook, IL. I placed an order with Schwinn for a new P14 Paramount Track bike, and they told me they would pull some strings because my family was a Schwinn dealership, and it would be completed in time to ride at the Nationals. I took a Greyhound Bus from Phoenix, AZ to Chicago by myself at 15 years of age. Friends and family picked me up and hauled me around. We got to the track a few days before the Nationals and my new bike was sitting in the middle of the infield. It was beautiful! Flamboyant Lime Green, with all of the fine line white "arrow" pin striping. Frank Brilando (Schwinn's chief engineer) delivered the bike from Wastyn's with an extra set of wheels and told me to be careful because the pinstriping was still not fully dry. I raced the bike, and the fast boys (Alan Greco) showed me how they ride a track.

Schwinn offered a special discount program to dealers. They would repaint your Paramount for $25 if you paid for the freight. I had that 1963 (#N27) Lime Green Paramount repainted into a Kool Lemon paint job. My horror was that between the time the bike was originally built in 1963 and later repainted around 1970 they eliminated much of the hand pin striping on the frame tubes. They still were doing the red striping around the Nervex Lugs.

I still have that bike and I will never sell it. But I sure wish I did not have it factory repainted. I sure wish it was still the original Lime Green with all of the nicks and scratches it earned from being shipped around the country in a Schwinn bike bag for bike races. It always comes down to just the memories. Who knew patina would be cool some day?

John

 

[Major Taylor Archive]

Any pics of the lime green Paramount John ?

 

[Chadillac]

Holly crap that’s sadly hilariously unbelievable …

It gets worse because the weed and beer was for our first teenage "rager" and a friend brought a bottle of peach schnapps he stole from his dad's stash and this was before we knew about beer before liquor...complete and utter regret.

 

[Thee]

Oh you're talking about the 85 Californian Mongoose I inherited from my older brother and then traded it for a bag of weed and... I poop you not... a twelve pack of Red dog. Worth a little more than that these days.

I traded this holy grail 2nd gen redline stem for a bag of weed or some red Lebanese hash (omg 🫨) I forget , luckily I got it back later

 

[Robert Troub]

2 weeks ago I took 15 ladies frames to the recycler.....the horror......

 

[Jon Olson]

My first swap meet, (Long Beach, California), I thought I was going to be a bicycle collector/seller when I sold a $25 thrift store bicycle for $700! It was a rusty old bicycle but it was the smoothest shifting ride I ever rode. That bicycle was a 1934 Colson Hi-Lo 26” ballon two speed transmission. At least I can say I rode it around my neighborhood a few times… how many of us can say that? I would like to go back to that day with what I have learned on this website.

 

[Andrew Gorman]

I scrapped out an English Indian Scout in the 1980s. Brake calipers were rusty, seat was shot and boy's english racers wouldn't sell at all. I kept the dynohub and headbadge. Someday that will go on a motobike to astound the gullible. A co worker whose brother was into antique motorcycles ca 1990 did talk me out of repainting a distressed Hiawatha tank bike. I'm glad they did! And of course, it's still hanging in the garage...

 

[New York Pope]

Holly crap that’s sadly hilariously unbelievable …

I just thought about it… Who wouldn’t wanna be best friends with a guy who traded his mongoose in for a bag of weed? LMAO I’m sure you’re a fun guy to hang out with like Thevl

 

[CURTIS L LINDGREN]

When I was in High School I had a 1964 Right Hand Drive Lotus Elan. It wasn't in the best of shape , but would keep pace with many a fast car of the time. I also had a 1975 Firebird Formula 400 AND a 1967 Datsun Roadster . I had these all at the same time . I was doing pretty good compared to many of my High school Friends. One day a person came to my house and asked about the Lotus. He proposed a trade............straight across for his old Volkswagen bus...............you know, the kind with lot's of windows and the windshield flips up. His Volkswagen was in REALLY good shape. BUT...........my thoughts at the time was this thing would be too slow to drive . Just not enough horse power. So I passed. I would have had the better end of the deal had I not been thinking that way......... I drove the Firebird for a good long time and loved it , as well as the Datsun roadster ( Many good memories there ) I regret getting rid of these vehicles as all of them are now Classics and worth some real money. Oh well, live and learn ! Here's a picture of me with my Firebird .I sadly don't have pictures of the Lotus or Roadster on my computer.