With a $5 price tag, Greg Estes of Owenton, Ky. was willing to overlook the broken pedals and flat tires and buy the bike he found at a yard sale. He figured he might fix it, flip it and make a small profit.
Well, it turns out that the bike has a pedigree: it was owned by Floyd Landis who rode it in the 2007 Tour de France. And those broken pedals? Not busted, but rather a $500 custom-design that looks odd but is used by professional cyclists. The custom-built Cyco-Path bike, in fact, retailed for $8,000 and Landis cycled to second place with it in the 2007 Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race after the Tour de France.
Before it turned up at the 127 Yard Sale, described as the “world’s longest” because it stretches along 675 miles of Highway 127 through six states from Hudson, Mich. to Gadsden, Al., the bike had been found abandoned on the interstate.
In 2008, Brad Cobb and Jamey Hurst met Floyd Landis at an endurance mountain-biking event and offered to transport his bike between races. They locked the bike on their rack, but when they arrived at their destination, it wasn’t there because a gust of wind had blown it off the back of their vehicle. They went back to search for it but never found it. The pair confessed to Landis they lost his bike. He was apparently understanding and arranged for a new bike through a contact. Now that the mystery has been solved, no word yet on whether Greg Estes gets to keep his find.
Initially, Estes had hoped he might get a couple of hundred for it. Now that he’s established its provenance, he’s asking $6,000. Just like at the Antiques Roadshow, provenance counts.
Photo by missingsaddle via Flickr.