The recent topic started here, https://forums.mtbr.com/vintage-retro-classic/do-you-have-collection-direction-1002138.html, reminded me of a related topic I've been pondering for a little while now. Admittedly, this isn't a common situation one encounters, but I'm not the only one here in this position either. Hopefully this doesn't come off as arrogance; it's just an unexpected sequence of events. Here is the story, which hopefully will be moderately entertaining.
I had been wanting to add a fillet-brazed Salsa to my collection after having owned a couple of TIG welded Ala Cartes. Maybe something built with WTB parts and some cool paint. So, I figured that watching the Bay Area Craigslist might turn up something interesting. One evening in June 2011 I find a bike with photos like this,
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It has cool paint but is definitely older than I was looking for base on the bi-plane crown. I contact the owner and express interest and am a little surprised that only one other member here has contact them. The price seems high and fellow collectors I talk to don't think it's justified. I learn that the owner was Ross Shafer's ex-wife and it's #18. I end up purchasing the bike, and in the process learn a ton about early Salsa history and how she designed the Pepperman graphics, and also that this bike had been ridden in the 1983 Pearl Pass Tour. I decide that it would be super cool and historic to ride it in the Pearl Pass Tour that year. The adventure was recounted in detail here.
Pearl Pass 2011 - Vintage Mountain Bike Workshop
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The original owner is thrilled to see it back at the summit again. Early the next year, Joe Breeze is putting together the museum show at the SFO San Francisco airport and he is looking for an original example of a Salsa. He actually remembers this very bike from the time when he and Ross shared shop space in Petaluma. So it is involved in the show and I get to meet lots of interesting people. They even take studio quality photos of the bikes. To think it had Pearl Pass mud on it months earlier and they were handling it with white gloves. Wow.
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Some years later I learn that the bike had been included in an article in Cyclist magazine about custom paint jobs.
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So when Joe starts putting together the display for the new Marin Museum of Bicycling and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, he goes back to the bikes from the SFO show and wants to include some of them on the permanent deck. It is an honor to have it on public display rather than in my basement,
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Very recently, it was featured on Instagram with his fantastic shot.
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So, after nearly 5 years of ownership, this bike has been places and it has taken me places and it has opened doors. I couldn't ask for more in return. Talk about getting your value out of a vintage bike. But here is the museum bike dilemma: it's now halfway across the country and I can't touch it and I can't ride it and I can't show it to people that visit. Some times I forget that it is there. Other times people ask me if I am aware of the museum and I can say one of my bikes is in the museum. But, based on the recent VRC discussion about what direction your collection has, this bike is in a different category and one I'm uncertain about. What does ownership mean? Will my family remember that it is in the museum when I am gone? Should I sell it before that time, and who would want to buy it?
Talk about living vicariously through a bike.
I had been wanting to add a fillet-brazed Salsa to my collection after having owned a couple of TIG welded Ala Cartes. Maybe something built with WTB parts and some cool paint. So, I figured that watching the Bay Area Craigslist might turn up something interesting. One evening in June 2011 I find a bike with photos like this,
It has cool paint but is definitely older than I was looking for base on the bi-plane crown. I contact the owner and express interest and am a little surprised that only one other member here has contact them. The price seems high and fellow collectors I talk to don't think it's justified. I learn that the owner was Ross Shafer's ex-wife and it's #18. I end up purchasing the bike, and in the process learn a ton about early Salsa history and how she designed the Pepperman graphics, and also that this bike had been ridden in the 1983 Pearl Pass Tour. I decide that it would be super cool and historic to ride it in the Pearl Pass Tour that year. The adventure was recounted in detail here.
Pearl Pass 2011 - Vintage Mountain Bike Workshop
The original owner is thrilled to see it back at the summit again. Early the next year, Joe Breeze is putting together the museum show at the SFO San Francisco airport and he is looking for an original example of a Salsa. He actually remembers this very bike from the time when he and Ross shared shop space in Petaluma. So it is involved in the show and I get to meet lots of interesting people. They even take studio quality photos of the bikes. To think it had Pearl Pass mud on it months earlier and they were handling it with white gloves. Wow.
Some years later I learn that the bike had been included in an article in Cyclist magazine about custom paint jobs.
So when Joe starts putting together the display for the new Marin Museum of Bicycling and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, he goes back to the bikes from the SFO show and wants to include some of them on the permanent deck. It is an honor to have it on public display rather than in my basement,
Very recently, it was featured on Instagram with his fantastic shot.
So, after nearly 5 years of ownership, this bike has been places and it has taken me places and it has opened doors. I couldn't ask for more in return. Talk about getting your value out of a vintage bike. But here is the museum bike dilemma: it's now halfway across the country and I can't touch it and I can't ride it and I can't show it to people that visit. Some times I forget that it is there. Other times people ask me if I am aware of the museum and I can say one of my bikes is in the museum. But, based on the recent VRC discussion about what direction your collection has, this bike is in a different category and one I'm uncertain about. What does ownership mean? Will my family remember that it is in the museum when I am gone? Should I sell it before that time, and who would want to buy it?
Talk about living vicariously through a bike.
