![\"ccs-62657-0-12241600-1457009394.jpeg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-12241600-1457009394.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nOver the years folks have gotten used to picking up dirt-cheap bargains, mostly from sellers who don\u2019t know what they have. But that landscape is changing, and South Africans are getting wise to the value of these beautiful vintage machines.<\/p>\n
Ah, and the truest statement of all – he won\u2019t sell anything! Well, no, that\u2019s not true. Ron will sell you almost anything you might be interested in, but it won\u2019t be easy. See, the thing is, he loves this stuff, he has a wealth of knowledge about it all, and he has spent years and years amassing his collection. You can hardly blame him for wanting to hold on. It would, after all, dissolve his legend if it all disappeared.<\/p>\n
We hear of these vintage-only cycling events start popping up. First the madness that is the Tour of Ara\u202c – the 6-day all-gravel stage race open exclusively to South African-built steel frames only. Now Eroica is coming to South Africa<\/a>! People are learning about vintage bikes, vintage parts, and all that goes with it. As you can imagine, Ron is in his element. His collection suddenly becomes the focus of such scrutiny and desire. He really has some unbelievable gems in there! And at the centre of it all – Saint Ron \u201cGrumpy Dude\u201d Thompson, surveying all that is his.<\/p>\n All jokes aside, a few months ago in all the excitement of the possibility of Eroica coming to South Africa, I somehow convinced Ron to let me put up a small selection of his more affordable Eroica-legal bikes up for sale on the Internet. With little faith in the online classified format, it took a bit of doing to get him to take photographs and send all the vital information I needed. We got it done, and there are a few up on the Bike Hub<\/a>. Check them out, or if you\u2019re looking for something specific, look Ron up. He just might have what you\u2019re searching for – just be ready for some serious negotiations!<\/p>\n Thanks Ron! We salute you!<\/p>\n Eroica South Africa is a celebration of road cycling culture – bring your classic racing bicycles, and come ride with us through the beautiful Karoo around the dirt roads North of Montagu in the Western Cape. Set aside the weekend of 23 April 2016 for bicycle-talk, lots of riding, wine-drinking, great food and music. Find our more on the website here<\/a>.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you spent a bit of time digging around for a vintage bicycle part in South Africa, one name always comes up – Ron Thompson. The legend, the infamy, the stories. You\u2019ll hear things like, \u201che\u2019s got seven garages piled to the roof with old bikes\u201d, \u201che\u2019s got parts in there worth millions\u201d, \u201che\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62,3038,3039],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-eroica","tag-ron-thompson","tag-stan-engelbrecht"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18599"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\nAbout Eroica South Africa:<\/h2>\n