Condition Guide

Putting a condition label on a part is one of the most difficult things we do.  Different people have widely different ideas on what constitutes a "good" condition part or a "#7" part.  For our parts, the scale we use is below.  I try to be slightly conservative on the grading and often get comments like "it was as bad as you made it out to be" but I would rather you be pleasantly surprised than disappointed.  Also keep in mind that as parts get older, the condition scale will change some.  A Very Good Part from the 1920's might only be classified as Good if it was from the 1970's.  The condition guide does take expected condition into account.

NOS (New Old Stock):

 New Old Stock, never installed but will likely have some shop wear.  Please keep in mind that most of our parts are a minimum of ten years old and have probably been shuffled around numerous times which may result in some wear marks

Excellent:

Excellent parts usually fall into one of two categories.  NOS parts that have, what I would consider, excessive shelf wear or parts from a very lightly used bikes.  In the "Bike Boom" of the 1970's, quite a few bikes were purchased and hung in the garage.

Very Good:

Very Good parts would be parts that have obviously been used on a bike but still are very presentable and would have a good amount of use left in them.  An example would be a crank that has some shoe rub marks and some ring wear but has relatively few miles on it.

Good:

Good parts will still have quite a bit of use left in them but may have one larger flaw.  Something like a rear derailleur that has a large amount of road rash or a seat that has a cut in it.  The flaw may not affect the usability of the part but does affect the cosmetics.

Fair:

Fair parts will be heavily used and may have some life left in them but not much.  These parts would work nicely for a cosmetic restoration where you would want the period correct part but won't be using it much.  Fair parts may also be lightly used parts with really bad cosmetics

Poor:

Poor condition parts have little or no useful life left in them or may have multiple large flaws.  Something like a brake lever that is missing hardware, doesn't have the hoods and has been scuffed in an accident would qualify as poor.  Often, these parts can be used for small hardware pieces or combined with a second part to make one usable part.