First Vinage Buy (maybe) ... Little Advice?
 

I've been looking off and on for a nice vintage road bike to convert (no mutilations, grinding etc) to SS to be my about town / social events bike. I've recently come across a 1971 Bottecchia which is beautiful ... ok, it could be beautiful. It's certainly flashy with chrome lugs and chrome chainstays. The parts are a mixed bag of vintage Campy stuff, most of which I would remove / replace during the rebuild. I have access to good advice / tools / help for the build up, but have no expereince with this bike maker. I understand that some of Bottecchia's frames are nice, and some are crap. Any idea what this chromed out 1971 might qualify as? I have another bike for road use, so its ability as a racer isn't important. The guy is asking $300 ... some of which I might be able to get back by selling the components, but I'm not banking on that. I'm pretty sure it's over prices, but even that's Ok as it could be so dang purty when finished.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Pictures?

The pictures I have are not fantastic. But, here they are.

http://flickr.com/photos/12688636@N0...7603341098769/

Looks low end, but maybe that's all you desire?

It's a very pretty bike, but the pictures aren't detailed enough to tell much. Are there any tubing (Reynolds, Columbus, etc.) decals on the frame anywhere?

I'm cool with low end, I just want stay away from crap.

All this bike has to do is get me around town - hopefully stylishly. I have other bikes that handle other tasks.

Pretty sure I had another pic somewhere with a "Columbus" sticker re: the tubing.

Is $300 waaaay to steep, or an OK trade off for the chromed bits, (which, with the build I have in mind, will look very nice indeed)?

$300 isn't insanely overprice but it is overpriced. $200 is more reasonable, I am sure it is a nicely constructed frame, perhaps a little heavy, but sometime full reynolds frames came with steel cottered cranks and low end parts, so it may be a very nice frame. If it fits and the frame is in great shape and it will serve your purpose then go for it. If you are fixing or SSing it, it's also great that the shifters are clamp on... and perhaps the cable guides as well. Try and talk it down as much as you can but again, your size, and works well for your project means something too. i have paid steep prices for bikes that I absolutely couldn't let get away from me. For example my 92 marinoni special frame, it was exactly the lugged steel frame I wanted to put a modern group on it, i paid over $300 for the frame and fork, some might think it's a little steep but again the frame was perfect for me.

Ok. Thanks everyone, I'm more or less sold on it ... I was more or less sold on it when I posted this, I just wanted to make sure I was doing something truly stupid. Kinda stupid I can live with. :p

We would NEVER call anyone stupid for enjoying a vintage bike--this is C & V after all.

But we'll need better photos when you drag it home :) .

East Hill

Photos for sure, and likely many questions and calls for advice as I rebuild it. It'll be my first build, and I'm really looking forward to it. New paint, and then a SS conversion that leaves the bike able to go back to geared later on if desired.

Thanks everyone!

For that much money, make sure it fits you perfectly. It's really hard when you're standing in front of the bike to convince yourself that there will be others, but $300 can buy a patient person a lot of bike. I've had the problem myself, I bought three (flipped two) bikes before I found the perfect one, which I'm currently restoring as my "nice" bike.

for a single speed/town bike, I don't think it really matters if it's high end or not. As long as it fits, I'm sure you'll love tooling around on it. $300 may be a little steep. Troll craigslist and I'm sure you'll find something for half the price. But, like you said, you are already sold so go buy and post pictures:)

Is it sad that I'm sold on the chrome lugs? :o

My heart longs for a bike with chrome lugs. The best I have is a cheep jeunet with a chrome fork crown.

No; it's cause for rejoicing. :D

One last noob question .... will I have a hard / impossible time finding a new wheelset to fit this bike, or are 1971 specs still common?

Thanks

I just bought what I hope is a nice rear wheel with a flip flop hub, that is a fixed cog on one side and a single speed cog on the other for 79 $. Over locknut distance on this hub and for most other rear wheels for fixies is 120mm which is what your frame has. Front wheel on most modern bikes is standard 1oomm.
Ebaysearch for flip flop wheel and see what you get.

Ok thanks - so the translation is no, I shouldn't have too much trouble, right? And yeah, that exactly what I'm going to do - flip / flop rear hub, running SS to start.

It should be easy to find a flip/flop hub on ebay, although it may be expensive do to the fixie craze.

If you don't care about matchy/matchy, keep your front wheel and lace your rear rim to the new hub. You will probably need new spokes, you need different spoke lengths for different hubs. That should be your cheapest option.

Yeah, thanks for the advice. I'm going to keep what I can, and I doubt I'll run this bike as a fixie, but I want the option left open.

The question I was really asking was about wheel size ... the wheels on this Bottecchia are a standard, easily replaceable size? I am a vintage NOOB, and it's my understanding that some older bikes have an antiquated wheel size ... from the general tenor of the responses, I'm going to take it that this is not the case here.

Thanks all for the help. I expect that this vintage bike thing can become contagious.

Abandon hope all ye who enter this forum...:p .

You should not have problems with the wheel size. I'm sure someone with more experience will chime in, but I think you would have 700c wheels on that bike. Does it currently have tubulars?

East Hill