For Sale: Cinelli Laser pursuit

What was the connection between Cinelli/Rossin and so on and the former Soviet Union countries/Warsaw Pact?

But Americans rode Rossins as well in the 80s. Cold cycling war - everyone wanted the best and more aero (Soviets even developed their own disc wheels) and at that time people believed that lo-pros with mounted bars are the shit. Do you remember a Czechoslovakian Favorit of the same type which surfaced on the forum a couple of years ago?

What was the connection between Cinelli/Rossin and so on and the former Soviet Union countries/Warsaw Pact?

as far as i know, Rossins in that white color-scheme with red stripes were like team issue bikes for Soviet Cycling team in mid-80ies. closer to the end of the decade, top cyclists got those Cinelli Lasers. but what is strange, they also should've come in white color scheme - just like the two that hrrundel has/had, or the one ridden by Nikolay Kovsh in his famous match against German guy in Seoul Olympics in 88.

so why these are all of a sudden blue, not white, escapes me. i am not sure Soviets could import team edition Cinellis and general issue Cinellis along the way.

So simply a case of purchasing the best technology available at the time?

yeap

Probably.

But Russians (or rather Soviets) being Russians also tried their own attempt - our lovely Takhion - to supply to the teams of the Republics. Brought people from Columbus and 3TTT over.

Lovely thread! Good read :)

As for putting a price on a laser like this, pfff. It's worth whatever someone is willing to pay, it has a certain historic/iconing/design value but what's that worth?

Lovely thread! Good read :)

As for putting a price on a laser like this, pfff. It's worth whatever someone is willing to pay, it has a certain historic/iconing/design value but what's that worth?

I believe the answer might be:

It's worth whatever someone is willing to pay

:)

which i am sure you guys have all already emailed to the guy, so he's having some ego party there in Russia, while in reality, none of you is willing to send him *anything just because of his location...*

You'd have to use some sort of an escrow service.

I have to comment on this interesting thread with the following points:-

1. re payment I wouldn't think that Russians were any less honest than anyone else but if I was going to buy this frame from anyone from anywhere I'd want it in my hands for a close inspection first.
   
2. Examples of rare and unusual bikes are, of course, nice to have and so command higher prices HOWEVER some of the examples quoted have been owned/raced by important international medalists - this makes a huge difference. ie You cannot base the value of a used Bianchi frame on the value of one ridden by Marco Pantani !
   
3. A complete original bike with provenance is going to be more desirable to the collector than one assembled from parts many years later.
   
4. One or two very highly priced items do not mean all examples are worth the same figure. An item at a top London auction may fetch 10 times one day what others make a week later. It all depends on who wants it and how much they want it at the time. What ever anyone wants to pay for this frame on the day is what it's worth ON THAT DAY.
   

Yep, and today no one wants to pay.

I state it again as I did in my own sale thread "free will" the one who buy it buys it. The only thing puzzling me here is that there is still no fixed price for it..
Forum police going strong, yapping only.

Are you a shill as well?

I'm no native English speaker, but I think you got my point? I can try explain it to you in Finnish or Swedish as well.

Yeah, I get it ;-)

Let's say price fishing is a no-no over here. And seriously, if someone want to catch a "collector", eBay is their better bet - let the market decide the final price.

I do think the cycling market has a big enough audience with money for them to pay a pretty penny for this. How many brand new BMWs or Mercedes have you seen with a bike rack and a expensive road bike strapped to the top? Yes something like this won't get GTO money because for every sports > cycling > track cycling fantastic there is, there's probably 10,000 car fanatics and let's face it, pretty much everyone loves car porn!

You've got to be a bit careful with the car analogies. As nice as bikes are, a track bike is about as complicated to make as a car exehast. Cars will (and should) always carry a premium just because they're more complex pieces of machinery and cost a shit load more to start with.

I have to comment on this interesting thread with the following points:-

Good post.

I just need to add tuppence to this...To see this kids face on the bus with the Lasers is classic...and whatever he gets for the frames, is well deserved.
Those that have started the the hate campaign already...'paid nothing, transported badly'...'wouldn't buy from a russian'....fucking hell, please stop whining, WTF? most of us don't give a fuck that you are so down about it, if it was you what difference would it be?

I once scored a 1961 mini cooper that had been sitting in a garage for 28 years and came with a shed full of super rare spares ...for £600...I sold the pristine works H4 carbs for that, and nearly the same for a set of magnesium minilites...I had the same face as the kid in the laser photo, and was nearly the same age....21...then wow...last year...the mini cooper loaded with super rare spares and a 5k engine-100bhp motor, that I had spent nearly a thousand hours restoring and I had owned since 15...was fucking stolen...

Whatevers...

He got the Lasers, he also got the Rossin...at the moment 'the kid' is on fire and he can feel the pull of rare steel whenever he walks past an old building...you focus on something and it appears, you desire old bikes...they appear...

Lets show him some love...and thank him for dragging these into the sunlight, and them not ending up getting sold for weight on the back of a flatbed destined to end up as a recycled steel ingot...?

It will end up being ridden and built and Enjoyed which is the main thing...

Let's say price fishing is a no-no over here. And seriously, if someone want to catch a "collector", eBay is their better bet - let the market decide the final price.

This. But as long as the rules are not enforced by the mods, clever move to post it here and generate a lot of interest and speculation, lfgss being the busiest/most watched bike forum on teh interwebs

I had a roadster which was being neglected. Sold to someone for £600 and added loads of spare parts (new doors and anew mohair roof). Thought it would be nice to be nice to someone who apparently wanted to rebuild the whole thing and cherish it. The cunt sold the whole lot the same week on eBay for over £2000. So, here's my story...

it's all bulshit. No fixed price. Western Union transfer. Waste of time. At least the OP linked to the detailed photos. Good luck with the sale regardless.

You've got to be a bit careful with the car analogies.

that is actually quite a good analogy. you got the same sort of collectors' market, history to each piece and some design story behind it too. with the steel bikes being not used anymore in writing the cycling history, you will get less and less of them, and the prices will reflect that.

As nice as bikes are, a track bike is about as complicated to make as a car exehast.

here you are trolling right?

Cars will (and should) always carry a premium just because they're more complex pieces of machinery and cost a shit load more to start with.

did he say that this should cost as much as a particular car? no. he used the car market example to illustrate how much can one pay for a rare piece. Is laser a rare piece? it is, it actually started to be rare couple of years ago.
is a fork mounted pursuit laser a rare piece? no, its not. its rare as fuck.

Same frame as the pista but with different forks, or totally different frame?

^^ that's why I said you've got to be a bit careful with the car analogies rather than saying "cars are a shit analogy". There are lots of similarities, but those apply to plenty of other collectables - guns, watches, cameras, tea chests, etc. One of the advantages of bikes is that you can buy good examples relatively cheaply and they don't take up a huge amount of space or require much care or upkeep.

Even though we see the bike market as being massively distorted from where it was I think with the increase in bike use, ownership, Interest etc. I'd say its still a very good time to get in if you wanted a long term diversified investment. Plus as james 1234 pointed out its a relatively cheap game to get into.

Obvious the exhaust comment was tongue in cheek. But I don't think anyone's going to dispute the point that a bike costs a fraction of the equivilent car to design, purchase and make.

there are bikes and bikes :)

Very true.