Classic & Vintage - Decent bike?

Just picked up this Allegre over the weekend. RX100 Group, 700c, 7 speed. Triple butted crmo. Seems like a pretty decent bike. Cable guide on bottom bracket partially obscures serial number. Anyone give me an approximate date manufactured? Also, what is that which appears to me to be an extension of some sort at the top of the head bearings? Comments/info appreciated. thanx

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Looks pretty good, as most bikes with CrMo butted tubing are ceratinly worth consdiering. Looks like a late 80's/early 90's Giant with maybe some good updating (double pivot brakes) on some of the components. A very safe buy at a minimum but most of these Taiwanese(?) made bikes from that era haven't really hit the radar of most C&V collectors, so the value does not always reflect their usually very good quality (the lug work, although on the palin side, looks very well done on that bike and the triple butted tubeset is certainly nothing to sneeze at) of these bikes.
Just wondering though if that is the final saddle height that works for you as the "slammed down" state it is in could mean it's actually too big for you and amybe you might need to look for a smaller bike?

Chombi

Funny you should mention the seat post. After I bought it, said to myself why not ride it back to the van parked about 1/2 block away. Tried to ride it, seat way too low so walked it back. Picked up the bike to put it in the van, noticed the rear wheel qr was in release position! Probably nothing would have happened but it reminded me never to ride a used bike until taking a few minutes to inspect! (2 others were eyeing it up so I purchased with very little inspection as the price was great)

I should also mention that unless you might have something like a Nitto Technomic stem on the bike, you might check real close to see if there's not enough stem in the steerer tube to ride it safely. as that thing looks pulled up real high and possible past its minimum insertion line.......At least I don't think you'll need to worry too much about a stuck stem on that bike as there's probably not too much in tere to get stuck in the steerer tube.. Don't know about the seatpost though....:rolleyes:
Have fun with the nice Giant, I hope you can get it all adjusted all right.....:thumb:

Chombi

I did pull the stem out and the minimum line is just inside the hold down nut above the word Giant on the headpiece extension....Is that ok and what is that "extension" anyway? Haven't had time to tear it down yet.

Another forum member has a couple of these (monsterpile I believe,) he posted some photos of them in the commuting forum recently. Nice score!

What are your plans for the bike?

Nice bike!

Have you checked for component dates? That's the easiest method of checking for approximate date of manufacture. Look at the hubs for date stamps usually appearing in two digit configurations denoting year. If there is an 85, that is the year your hub was made and a good guess the bike is an '86. Also you can find the date stamps on crank arms and sometimes on the backside of RD's.

This will get you in the ballpark and help confirm what you find in brochures found elsewhere on the web.

Nice bike!

Have you checked for component dates? That's the easiest method of checking for approximate date of manufacture. Look at the hubs for date stamps usually appearing in two digit configurations denoting year. If there is an 85, that is the year your hub was made and a good guess the bike is an '86. Also you can find the date stamps on crank arms and sometimes on the backside of RD's.

This will get you in the ballpark and help confirm what you find in brochures found elsewhere on the web.

I did a little research on the RX so that narrowed it down a bit. Thanks.

What are your plans for the bike?
tried to send you a PM but you don't have enough posts....if you care to post your address I will email you direct...I am about 1 1/2 hours from your location

I did pull the stem out and the minimum line is just inside the hold down nut above the word Giant on the headpiece extension....Is that ok and what is that "extension" anyway? Haven't had time to tear it down yet.
I've seen extensions similar to that from Stronglight. I'm not quite sure how they work, but I do suspect that it may extend the structural support coming from the steerer tube and top race assembly. I can't think of another purpose for it. If that's the case, as long as the limit line is below the extension ant top nut, you could be OK. Maybe someone else that rides with a tall stem like maybe, "Bianchigirl", can chime in to clarify further.
If you really require a tall stem and you ant something that looks like a classic quill design, you can also look into Nitto's "Technomic" stem. It has a very long neck so you do not have to worry about having it out too far.

Chombi

I had one of those Technomic stems years ago....really long. Stem height is ok as shown, but I was concerned that it wasn't anchored in the head tube itself. Anyway I'm not really sure what I want to do with the bike at the moment as it is a bit small for me.