There is no end to the interesting things you learn about yourself from your parents. For example, my father did not get rid of / recycle television sets. Or telephones. Or computer keyboards. (In hindsight, I should have saved some of those old bakelite rotary phones and put them on eBay. Oh well.) Apparently, there was a bit of “hoarder” in my dad, and it’s something I try to work against, as I could easily see myself slipping down that slope.

This brings us to bike parts and bikes. (We we’ll get to watches another day.) Of course, to me, they all have a value, but also of course that’s 90% sentimental. No one coming along after me is gonna say, “oh wow, that’s special!” when it’s just another road bike that’s not particularly rare or even expensive. Even if it were, there just isn’t a big market for bike collecting – or if there is, I’m not aware of it. They might be cool enough, but nobody will value my bikes like I do. It’s a fun hobby, but not a potentially lucrative one.

To keep from following down the path of never getting rid of anything – that is, “hoarding” – some tough decisions had to be made.

Pedals, handlebars, bottle cages, seat tubes, shifters, brake levers, brake calipers, derailleurs, cassettes, crank arms, big and small rings, saddles… all have either been binned or put for sale. I think I had something like 30 ads on the local buy-and-sell website at one point. “Are you worth at least a tenner?” If yes, up for sale; if no, into the bin!

Bikes are down to three in Dublin (two road bikes and a mtb). I kept the value-less, but super-rare and super-cool to me, vintage mountain bikes; redundancies have been removed and parted out, e.g. the Fondriest frame & fork (with seat post and bottom bracket) are currently for sale.

I can only use one bike at a time, and these extra parts aren’t doing me any good in a box. I saved a 46cm handlebar (way too wide for me) for >20 years, all the way from Colorado… why? Someone local bought it for €20, they will use it as they wanted a very wide bar (very broad shoulders). That’s a better deal for me, than having it collect dust in the shed!