Looking for a set of Vs on Brick Lane a the weekend - when I spied a Colnago frame at the back of the Oriental chaps stall. Was about to ask about it when 2 lads got there before me... I was a tidy looking metallic brown number with forks and chrome details, white decals. Didn't catch the price, think it was £65 (might be wrong) but it looked very nice, and most annoyingly my size! Was it someone on here who bought it?

You were a frame?

dicki saw it as well, it was like 80 notes

I was, but thankfully I was rescued from the pile by a kind Guipetto - and now, i'm a real boy! ha ha.

????

This "oriental chap" has been trading at Brick Lane for the last five or four years. The first few times I saw him at Brick Lane he was selling one or two complete bikes -no stall. He then got stall and started selling parts and few frames and wheelsets. He normally has pretty decent stuff at good prices. I have to admit that years ago I bought from him a riser and set of V-brakes for a bike I was putting together for a friend. I haven´t bought anything from him ever since, although I always have a look at his stall the few times I come down to Brick Lane. The reason is quite simple. The stuff he sells is fine and in good condition but I haven´t got a clue whether it has been legitimately sourced. Where can you get a regular supply of deore V brakes, Xt cranks, easton stems, (just to mention few things I remember seeing in his stall)? Ebay? A workshop? Police auctions?....I really doubt it but please tell me if you know better.

When I was recovering from my separated shoulder, I regularly walked past an abandoned bike on my way from the tube to my house.

It had been there at least a month when I first saw it. After a few weeks, the stem was withdrawn and it and the handlebars left dangling from the brake cables. It remained like that for another day or two. Then after the weekend it was just a naked frame.

I suspect that's how.

It may just be? I thought he was a bit expensive - considering the condition of some parts... He like to say it's worth the money because it's a name etc?

i think he's overpriced and kind of hides behind language a bit when you haggle him. i get the feeling his stuff isn't snide but not sure. i have decided that i won't buy from him just in case.

about a year ago i saw some guy turn up with the police and got back some stuff he said was stolen off his bike. but i have bought front wheels off him in the past.