palladio

I used to work in a bike store when I was in high school in the 1980's. I couldn't afford any of the high end Italian bikes we sold but always lusted after them.

I'd like to find a steel track bike from that era and am wondering what makes are considered tops in terms of quality and/or design. For some reason Ciocc bikes have always caught my eye, maybe because I hardly ever see them on the road. What about Cinelli, DeRosa, Pinarello, Colnago, Basso, Guerciotti, etc.? How would you rank them?

anomaly

Honestly it depends on your taste. There were MANY good ones though out of your listed options I would say De Rosa. There was recently a very nice Merckx from 88/89 that went for $2k on ebay. You are going to easily spend $2k or more even in this market for a good example of any high end 80s track bike. I'm just waiting for the neon Paramount to pop back up, hopefully it won't go for $2600 this time...

Scooper

Schwinn Paramount.

cyclotoine

Almost any steel track bike made in the 1980s is a good steel track bike. I can't think of ever seeing a crappy one.

Shifty

Serotta and 3Rensho

palladio

I didn't mean to limit things to my list, those are just some of the makes I am familiar with. I didn' realize these bikes were going for that much. Saw a nice Ciocc in my size on Ebay in December but got outbid at the last minute. Wish I had pursued that one harder as I am not finding much for sale in my size (58cm). This vintage of track bikes seems to be much more scarce than I would have imagined.

palladio

The 3Renshos do seem really nice, but I have yet to see one (or just about any Keirin bike for that matter) for sale in my size (58cm). Is this because the Japanese racer dudes are generally shorter or they use smaller frames for stiffness/aero considerations maybe?

Shifty

I'm sure they are rare. The designer is still building frames in Rifle, Colorado. Yamaguchi Bicycles are beautiful made to order frames, he has a frame building school there too, make your own under supervision of a master.

https://www.yamaguchibike.com/content/Index


Also look for Pinarello or Colnago track frames from the 80's.

redxj

I have only seen a few big 58cm+ keirin frames/forks for sale and most often they had an extremely high and overpriced price tag attached to them. I can say I will never own a Keirin frame and I am fine with that (I ride 62-63cm frames). My vintage and not so vintage track bikes are just fine with me.

Of the Keirin frames the 3 Rensho frames/forks are among the upper end of them I would say from the few I have seen in person and what they fetch on Ebay/interwebs. Yoshi Konno stopped building frames when he was paralyzed in an accident. They were still made under the same name for a number of years after that though. Also, two of his former apprentices still make frames, Makino and Yamaguchi mentioned above. I also believe Cherbium is a relative of his as well. With all that said I think most NJS frames are way overpriced and many of them come with some nice dents. And, with all of that said a coworker has a 3 Rensho track and it is absolutely stunning in person.

If I wanted a really nice 80's vintage track frame I would seek out something from a U.S. brand/builder (Serotta, Nobilette, Spectrum, Paramount, etc.) or go Italian (De Rosa would be first choice if I had the money).

Elev12k

I had a RIH Bustraan. Now I have a Gazelle Champion Mondial track. No idea whether they are the best, but they are great. The RIH is the most all time succesfull in Worlds and Olympics, so you would think they know their stuff.

Gary Fountain

Down here, in Australia, you would probably get a local frame builder to build you a track bike in the 70's and 80's. Locally built track bikes were the norm for many years prior to that as well. I still have 7 track bikes dating from the 60's to the 80's that would perform just as good as the day they were built. My favourite Aussie built track bikes were built by Hillman cycles (local builder).

I would say that most countries would have their specialist track bike frame builders and, as Cyclotione said, "I cant think of ever seeing a crappy one yet."

I would say that most track frames of that era were custom built for the rider.

That being said, If I had the choice of a local frame or an Italian built brand, I would choose the Italian frame because of the name. (I'm as shallow as that.) There would probably be no difference in the ride though. I have a Colnago built track bike from the 80's and I can't tell the difference between that and a locally built frame.

T-Mar

My favourite three were Marinoni, Limongi and Team Miyata. The Miyata Pista was an excellent, economical track bicycle. Lots of other good ones, as previously stated.

lotek 

Personally? I like Pogliaghi for italian track steel, but by the 80's who knows who really
built them. Sante was known for his tandems and track bikes.
I'd also put in a second for RIH, very storied marque out of the Netherlands.
And Scooper is right a Paramount is also an excellent track bike.

Marty

palladio

Thanks for all the helpful input guys. Lots of names here to add to my list that I was not familiar with. Of course all of this stuff seems pretty rare, so the search for the holy grail continues....

lotek 

they are out there, and they're not always high dollar if you're willing to look past the blemishes.
I picked up my Pogliaghi for less than $250. I had small dent and horrible paint job.
Just be patient your holy grail will show up.

Marty

soderbiker

De Rosa .