Antique/Vintage CCM Bikes on Auction this Sunday! (with link)

To be picked up in Montreal?

not much there, most bikes are a mish·mash of parts

+ 19% buyers premium,

odd choice to put those bikes for sale at this auction house

I think yhat it is unfair to say that most of these bikes are "a mish-mash" of parts. Although I do not know about all of them, the higher value bikes are basically original. The wooden rims on the early "motorbike" were refinished.

Unfair to who?? It's a public auction that someone posted a link of. Nothing wrong with commenting on what is being sold. I don't know the bikes and I don't know that collector.

On the CABE Forum:

https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/ccm-flyer-projects.82958/

The same poster made very disparaging remarks regarding my CCM Flyers.

He told me that the 1926 was not a CCM and that my restoration was a waste of time.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/moonm/sets/72157651072960577/

After I proved him wrong on all counts he removed his disparaging remarks from the CABE Forum.

Well, I will let the auction results do the talking .....

To be honest Max (bicyclecollector) a lot of the stuff I have seen you trying to sell over the last 5 years has been completely overpriced junk! There is an old saying "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones".

ok, thanks for your honesty

I have finally decided to put in my two cents’ worth regarding the vintageccm website……I have used the website a lot and learned valuable information, since discovering this site, a few years ago. Unfortunately though, I have found it to have a lot of members with unpleasant attitudes. I have read many negative postings by some, who are regulars on this site. It is not the Canadian way to be folks! I have written very little on the site myself due to the bias manners of other community members. Literature is important, but is not the end all and be all. For instance if a wealthy “dude” back in the “Roaring Twenties” went out to purchase a bicycle for their wife or “better half”, who really knows, maybe she wanted a different saddle, bars or pedals that suited her comfort or style. With racing bicycles, they were pretty much customized to the racer, even if they came fully loaded to the retail shop. Antique bicycle should not be defined by a sales catalogue. Do not get me wrong, I do realize there are standards set for correct paint restorations at professional competitions/shows, and frames needing period correct components. As for myself, I prefer going to local parades and special events that are community friendly that I can share my passion for vintage bicycles. I am working on too many projects at the moment, but will call it a win with whatever one gets completed first. To mention a couple of them, I have a 1948 Claud Butler track bicycle that will be 90% period correct when completed. The 48CB frame had a very bad history of a paint job. The frame is being restored and painted by a professional at a cost I can afford, yet it will still look amazing when finished! If the original paint had still been there and had aged well with a nice patina, I would have left it alone. I have a fondness for UK lightweights from 1946 to 1960 time period! I also have a 1971 CCM Grand Prix that I am making into a one speed coaster ride. I picked the frame up very inexpensively and have learned a lot about restoring and building it up. The education I have learned has outweighed any financial cost. I will use it as an everyday riding machine, if I do not feel like riding my other daily rider which is a fixed gear (& cross training workout) bicycle. The 71 Grand Prix project is a tribute to all the hard working middle class Canadians who worked at the original CCM factory from 1899 until its demise in 1983. Canada as a country would have been in serious trouble if Canadian Cycle & Motor Co. Ltd., had not come to be……I strongly feel there should be a serous overhaul of the vintageccm website to make it more community friendly and update its format. It seems to be a bit out of date. I would gladly get involved in it, but I am not tech savvy and I have a lot of other matters in life to deal with at the present time…….For all that take the time out to read this message, there are for sure a lot of grammar mistakes, but I tried my best……I am definitely not an academic, but do believe in lifelong learning……

I want to give a shout out to Dave Brown, Rick Wolfe, John Williamson & Glen Norcliffe for all your help over the past year with all my bicycle projects!

Regards,

Alex (aka Runner Alex)

Alex:

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

I quite agree with you that, at this point in time, Vintage CCM is a little tired & out-dated.

It was launched in 2011 when my technical knowledge of CCM bikes was limited and my knowledge of websites was even more limited. What I did know at the time was that there were those out there with a deep knowledge of CCM bikes who needed a dedicated platform upon which to share their knowledge.

To that extent, I believe Vintage CCM has been successful with 1238 members now currently registered in the Forum. Unfortunately, when you bring that many people together, some will, as you say, display, an “unpleasant attitude.” That's probably more a function of human nature than it is a website.

That being said, I do believe it’s time for an overhaul and update of the site. 10 years is a long time in tech time.

The challenge, as always, is a function of time & money.

In some ways, it’s not as simple as 2011 when we started from scratch. Now there’s a vast trove of information contained on this site that needs to be successfully integrated into a new site.

I will do some investigation. If there are those of you out there with a technical background who could offer advice I’d love to hear from you.

In the end, however, we must remember that it’s not the website that makes a community friendly, it’s the members.

In that regard, stay safe. Stay positive. Let’s continue to ride down this road together.   

John