Classic and Vintage Bicycles: What's it Worth? Appraisals and Inquiries - 70s Orbea

Hi im actually new to here but i've been reading stuff on here for quite awhile. I have always been a mountain bike person but recently i decided to switch to road bikes for riding around town. I found a early 70s (I believe) Orbea on craigslist and bought it for $195. It had actually never even been put together till a week or two before i bought it. It has a few scratches due to 40 years of being in improper storage but its still in amazing condition for how old it is. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me a bit about it. Such as model and value. I'll try to answer any questions you have. It has all the original decals. I just cant make sense of them because of the spanish on it

Sounds really cool. Can you post some pics?

yes sorry i forgot to upload the pic. Here it is first day i got it. I took it for a quick ride around the lake to test it out.

no one?

Could you post some pictures of the other side? There's not much to see on the non-drive side... All i can tell is that it says Orbea. Pictures of the crankset, rear derailer, and other closeups could tell us a lot more.

When asking about bikes on here, the more you give (pictures) the more you get.

Could you post some pictures of the other side? There's not much to see on the non-drive side... All i can tell is that it says Orbea. Pictures of the crankset, rear derailer, and other closeups could tell us a lot more.

When asking about bikes on here, the more you give (pictures) the more you get.

Sorry i'm not that knowledgeable with bikes yet so i didnt know what pictures are needed. In the morning i'll get pics of the crankset, derailer, and what other pics do you need? also what are those hook things under the top tube? I havent seen them on other bikes

Those hook things are pump pegs. For the long frame pumps that used to come with road bikes. Today more people probably use mini-pumps.

The ones you mentioned should be good enough. But I almost forgot: if the bike has a sticker saying what type of steel the frame is made from, that will be helpful as well. Something like hi-ten, chromoly, Reynolds, Columbus, etc.

okay ill look over all the stickers on it. Orbea really does like to brand their bikes. Are this era of Orbea's even that common? i know that this was the Orbea vintage or modern within 250 miles of me for sale and i've had trouble finding any info on them.

Here are a few pics. I couldnt find the sticker that said what the frame was

Hello VintObrea, welcome to the forums. are you and the bike in the US? alot of the forum members here are US or Canadian with a healthy does of European members. dependig where you and the bike are it may take awhile to find some one who knows about it.


this is allegedly NOS? this is alot of shop or storage wear.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=221875&d=1317996620

the FD looks like some sort of Simplex or Campi Valentino copy

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=221876&d=1317996623

well thats not good to hear. I believe it is Simplex. I recall seeing simplex somewhere. Is simplex any good? Im from the US

I don't think it as simplex most of the simplex derailers are clearly marked simplex where this one says special.
If you go to http://www.disraeligears.co.uk/Site/Home.html they have detailed discriptions and pics of nearly every derailer commonly used for the past 60 years or so.

well this is turning ****ty. so pretty much what i thought was a good deal turns out to be a Orbea frame with junk components?

well this is turning ****ty. so pretty much what i thought was a good deal turns out to be a Orbea frame with junk components?

I bought a bent Raleigh Grand Prix for the same price when I did not know what I was doing either. At the same time, it did get me out on the road. Otherwise I would have been putting it off for months and months like I have been up to that point.

The most important thing is that you ride the hell out of that bike. Those components should work fine for quite some time, unless they were sold to you 'pre-broken'. The major difference with lower/older end components is durability. When they finally break, you can equip something you saved for this bike or have an excuse to go online and buy something shiny.

I still ride the hell out of it. I was just hoping it was something really nice but i can still say i have an Orbea and it being my first road bike im absolutely in love with it cheap or not. I think i might go fixie with it eventually. If they were higher end i was going to try to keep it original but i love the frame. I think the front chainrings are bent but thats the only problem with it and they arent bent enough to affect the way it rides but it does rub the front derailleur slightly because of the bend. other wise it rides perfect. the downtube shifters are harder to get used to though. any tips on how to shift them properly? im used to shifters on the grip. Everytime i go to shift i end up wobbling all over the place trying to grab it and move to the next gear so iv gotten to where i just keep it in one of the highest two gears.

well i noticed today that the crankset says Alfa on it which i noticed on another vintage orbea thread on here that those are the lower end spanish components. Any idea if 200 bucks was actually a good price for it if its a lower end Orbea? I finally took the time to figure out all the decals on it and it says modelo gran lujo if i remember correctly. i looked this morning so im a little hazy on it but i think it was lujo or something close to that