Weekenndwarrior

Hi guys, new member here and new to riding. I picked up this garage find for... well, for free. Its a basketcase, most of the parts are in a box. My question is, what is it? Its a cool looking bike, is it worth the restoration on it? Will it be worth the cost? Are these bikes even worth anything or fun to ride? Any input will be appreciated.

nesteel 

That is totally worhless. However, I'll gladly pay the shipping. Let me know when it's all boxed up.
On a serious note, it appears to be a composite frame. Have you tried googling Alan frames? What components did it come with?

Weekenndwarrior

Shimano accessories, Superb brakes, Stronglight sprcket, Sachs chainguide, and Cinelli handlebars.

unworthy1

looks like a standard ALAN frame but with gold anodized tubes...and some pretty interesting weight weeny parts...like the drillium stem.
They are certainly C&V, and have a certain following...you might find the ride not to your liking if you're on the heavy side, but plenty of folks love these.
Check the headlugs very carefully for cracking, this is a known weakness.
There have been many postings here about ALAN bikes, so do an archive search and read to your heart's content...you'll learn a lot.

Weekenndwarrior

Im 5'10 and 155. I did a little of research online and it seems like they made quite a few of these throughout the years. I hope parts are not hard to find. All of the small parts came in a box, im still not sure if they are all there.

unworthy1

I'd say GO for it, and folks here will be happy to help you with the process, as much as we can. From what i can see in pic #1 you have most of it all there and it's totally a worthwhile project...vintage parts are not too hard to get to complete this.

Chombi

Not a "composite" frame, but an all aluminum frame with aluminum lugs which the anodized aluminum frame tubes are screwed and glued into....
Alan composite Carbon fiber/Kevlar tubed frames came out a little later (mid 80's) in the company's history.
Not sure if it's true, but supposedly the company's name "ALAN" was derived from the two words, "Aluminum" and "Anodized".....

Chombi

Dang! Please fix the angle of those "hobo" bars to normal first, and give the poor old bike its dignity back!

cyclotoine

looks like you have most of the parts. the only "weird" thing is the seatpost. it require a 25mm post so hopefully you have that. The rest of the stuff is fairly standard to getting it on the road will not be difficult. Looks like a real cool set of parts too. i see stronglight cranks if I am not mistaken.

nesteel 

Thank you for clarifying that. Learn something new every day........

Chombi

Don't worry, 25mm seatposts aren't that hard to find. always lots of them for sale at eBay.........now the 23mm aluminum micro adjust seatpost on my Vitus Carbone, that's as rare as chicken lips.......unless one is willing to use a crude BMX straight post that do come in that size....

elcraft

I thought those bars were called DUI bars.......

shoota 

Ah my eyes! No more hobo bars!

non-fixie 

I seem to remember that the founder of the Alan company named it after his children, Alberto and Anna, and it's spelled AlAn.

Weekenndwarrior

Bars fixed! They werent tight so it was a quick fix, lol. im gunna take er down after payday and get er fixed up. She seems like a fun bike, if the cost isnt to high.

Chombi

Just make sure to check all the lugs for any cracking. The head and seat lugs are the ones that sometimes crack on these bikes. A good check of the lugs should be the first thing you do before you start buying stuff to rebuild it, as it will determine if you can even ride the bike.
Be careful when you tighten the seatpost clamp so you do not over tighten it, which then causes them to crack. Also check all the cable guides and cable stop at the chain stay to see if they are damaged (crushed or cracked.). They are quite fragile and sometimes gets damaged just from the bike being moved around. If they are damaged, do not fret too much as there are lots of fixes you can do with clamped-on stops and guides available out there.
Good luck with your resto-rebuild of your Alan, and keep us posted on your progress!

Gary Fountain

Another ALAN frame problem that is often discussed is that the bonding between lugs and tubes releases and causes the frame to be spongy. The tubes are also threaded into the lugs so they won't 'fall out'. Personally, I've never come across an ALAN frame that has suffered this problem. I do love the ride of the ALAN frame and they are not like the harsh riding aluminium frames of the 90's the ALAN's were more compliant. The ALAN's had a very glorious history in the sport of cyclocross winning many world championships so they must have had a pretty good structural integrity. Some may suggest that the riders of such events changed frames regularly but I wonder why a world class cycling team would want to put-up with frames that were unreliable even if they were being sponsored by the frame builder. 20+ years of wins at the elite level still impresses me.

I think you have a very nice mid to late '70's gem and it should build-up to be a desirable bike.

Here's mine and I love it . it's slightly different to yours as mine is an '83 frame I've owned it for well over 20 years and I still enjoy riding it. I did commute on it daily in years past and it never let me down - I'm 6' 1" and 95kg.

There are plenty of ALAN owners here and they all own great bikes.



Please excuse the red wheels - I just couldn't help myself one day when I had little to do.

Bianchigirll 

Take her down where? Simply dropping this off at a bike shop to be rebuilt may be prohibitively expensive. If all the parts are present and it just needs things like a chain and some cables your better off finding a co-op or a willing forum member to help you get it into running shape.


Certainly an interesting looking bike the dropouts look a bit unusual. I like how the rear brake is mounted in a reversed style.

Italuminium

Hello weekendwarrior, welcome to the forums.

Great ALAN you have there. Chombi and Gary covered most ground already, let me just narrow the year down for you: it's either a 76 or a 77. In 77-78 the dropouts were different and the downtube had bosses for the shifters. It's a competition model, per the bolt on seat stays. The gold colour is great.

One thing though, you have the old fork with the alloy steerer tube and round fork blades: these forks have a reputation for breaking. On one of my ALAN's, I swapped it out with a comparable steel chrome fork made by Columbus, just for peace of mind.

Chombi

The "reversed" rear brake mounting on that bike is just a personal "mod" done by the previous owner. I don't think Alan ever meant it to be like that. The brake caliper should mount conventionally from the back. You can keep it that way if you want, but make sure everything works on it

rbaisa

I have been looking for this frame in this color for years. I had a Guerciotti in the late 80's with Glued lugs like this, but I always wanted either a gold alan or vitus. I do often wonder how long the glue will last on these lugs. I know that one of the companies???? that produced glued luged frames had problems with them coming undone at some point. I raced the Guerciotti and the downtube pulled out of the lug of the head tube and cracked in half during a sprint. That scared the crap out of me let me tell you.

Weekenndwarrior

Beautiful bike you have there Gary. I have checked the bike over and I see no cracks. Unfortunately rebuilding it myself would be impossible due to my work schedule right now. So, I will keep you guys posted and thanks for the great responses guys!

Weekenndwarrior

I took it down to the local bike shop. Im in a small town so everyone knows each other. The owner told me for $125 he will have it back on the road as good as new by tomorrow afternoon. Good deal. I will have pics to share tomorrow. I am getting excited about it now

Chombi

Make sure he remembers to flip the rear brake caliper to the rear face of the brake bridge where it belongs........

Campagnerdo 

Italuminum,
I am interested in why this is a 76 or 77 model. Was this gold color introduced as a response to the Olympic gold win, which if I remember correctly, was 75? I thought this model was an "Olympic" model. Do you know what the difference was between and Olympic model and a Competition? [

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, we all appreciate it.

QUOTE=Italuminium;16714769]Hello weekendwarrior, welcome to the forums.

Great ALAN you have there. Chombi and Gary covered most ground already, let me just narrow the year down for you: it's either a 76 or a 77. In 77-78 the dropouts were different and the downtube had bosses for the shifters. It's a competition model, per the bolt on seat stays. The gold colour is great.

One thing though, you have the old fork with the alloy steerer tube and round fork blades: these forks have a reputation for breaking. On one of my ALAN's, I swapped it out with a comparable steel chrome fork made by Columbus, just for peace of mind.[/QUOTE]