However, when you're selling a certain caliber of bicycle, a commensurate level of attention to detail is required. I'm not talking about typos, or errors in punctuation. I'm not even talking about evergreen mistakes like using "break" instead of "brake," or "petal" instead of "pedal." I'm talking about being able to reproduce the maker of the bicycle in print accurately at least one time in the ad.
With this ad, it's not about the bike. It's about wanton cluelessness:
RICHARD SACKS, Circa 1980 - $2000 [original URL: http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/bik/390742323.html]
Reply to: [deleted]
Date: 2007-08-06, 4:04PM EDT
Racing bicycle, hand built by Richard Sacks circa 1980. Built for a 5'10" man who treated it like his own child! He even had it repainted by Sack's shop shortly before he had to to stop riding it, about 1994. Frame meassures 22" (55-6cm) from center to center along the most vertical side of the frame. Most of the equipment is Campagnola except for:
Dura-Ace brake levers
Cinelli headset and axles
Flyte (selle Italia) seat
Look pedals
Wheel hubs are Campanola, rims say Araya Aero 1 World Champion
For more information call [deleted]
OK, what kind of blissful plane of ignorance must you reside on to misspell Richard Sachs' name so consistenly despite not only having access to the bike, but also having included a pretty decent photo of the downtube with the correct spelling in bright yellow? (If you don't know where the downtube is, that's the one next to "the most vertical side of the frame.")
It's unclear from the ad whether this guy actually owns this bike or is selling it for someone else, but if it is his and he did "treat it like [his] own child" then this bike must be a home-schooled idiot. Of course, you'd expect that this is also the kind of person who for some reason is compelled to feminize Campagnolo, and true to form he does not disappoint. There's also the subtler misspelling of Flite as "Flyte" in reference to the saddle, which almost wouldn't be worth mentioning if the actual ad didn't also include a close-up of the saddle itself, with the word "Flite" right there on the nose in yellow letters.
I don't know, maybe I'm being too hard on this guy. Maybe he's color-blind and can't see yellow. But on the off-chance he's not and is simply an idiot, I'd act now. You may be able to get a bargain on a real live Sacks!
