Sixty Fiver

The racks are Blackburns... one of these days I will build some custom racks but these have been serving me really well.

Rear is a pretty standard mount with the rack and fenders stays having their own eyelets, at the front the upper rack uses one set of eyelets and the lowrider shares an eyelet with the fender stays.

The rear fenders also mounts to the frame with eyelets at the seatstay and chainstay bridge which eliminates the need for a second rear fender stay.

The Cascade came with 6mm eyelets instead of the more standard 5mm which makes them much stronger by about 50%, the Blackburn racks had to have their mounts drilled out that extra mm to fit.

One of these days I will add another bottle mount under the downtube and another on the seat tube and then the bike will see some new powder coat... at this time I will probably build an integrated rear rack and a custom front rack.

Teon

Not sure if you could term anything 'vintage' with drop bars here in Oregon as being under the radar, as the market , in general, is quite spendy for anything vintage on 2 wheels. Maybe some of the Mizutanis, Zebrakenkos, and Takaras. They seem to be under the radar.....altho you don't see them very often. When I have, they seem to be very reasonably priced......and some of the better models are quite nice riding bikes.

Shoguns are also quite nice. You can find some of the standard framed ones for very reasonable. I have a triple triangle Samurai, just Tange Infinity tubing, but a super sweet riding bike. Not sure if I would call it under the radar, though, as they're super hard to find. Altho did just see a Samurai frameset like mine on Ebay for less than 150.......not a horrible price.

Here's mine......glad I decided not to sell it, as I would have regretted it greatly.

auchencrow

I'll bet you would have too. Cool bike, Teon.

Teon

Thanks. That's a pic from when I had it for sale. That junky cheap gel seat has been replaced with a nice Terry saddle. The bike currently has all original 105 gear on it, (including the biospace crank). I have been considering updating it with some stis or barends, a nicer wheelset with a 9 speed cassette, and possibly some newer used ultegra gear. (Or at least putting some standard rings on that crank) I really love the bike.....definitely a keeper.

Steve Whitlatch 

I have one mentioned. My 1986 Schwinn Prelude. It has a Tenax frame but unlike its big brothers, the Tempo, & Super Sport it came with 27 X 1 inch wheels and Suntour Cyclone shifting. I rode it that way all last year. Great ride but I got tired of the seeing the comments about Preludes not having 700 C Wheels and mid level shifting so it was not considered a real bike. so here is my upgraded 1986 Superbe Prelude ready for Spring. Take that!! LOL



Upgraded to 700 C rims with Suntour Hubs, Suntour New Winner Freewheel, Suntour Superbe Pro shifting and Suntour Superbe pedals. I love my bike.

spacemanz

Miele (the best ones were made between 1982 & 1996) probably fits in here nicely. It says Made in Canada right on the headbadge, so nobody thinks it's anything special. Which suits me fine, it's a "sleeper", especially mine, with a paint job that looks like a few million cheaper bikes.

otherself

- Late 70's / early 80's Motobecanes
- Later 80's MBK (formerly Motobecane)
- Andre Bertin (70's/80's)
- Albert Kotters
- Mercier
- Diamant
- Centurion Dave Scott Iron Man frames (80's)
- Zullo
- Zeus (Spain)
- Allegro (Swiss)
- Specialized older steel models (80's Sirrus etc)
- Late 80's Carrera (English make not the Italian brand - they produced some decent budget models with 501 and 531 w/cool paint jobs)
- Fondriest

Also Japanese sourced Bianchis--especially the Professional. The true Italio-philes don't like them much, but they are well made Ishiwata tubed bikes.

vitaly66

And she is a Bee-You-Tee! Great job, Steve.

kroozer 

Zeus in the under-the-radar category? The ones I've seen for sale seem to gather a lot of interest and fetch solid prices.

rekmeyata

I saw a bike on this forum the other day called a Columbine from Italy with all Campy stuff in mint condition and a very handsome bike for just $600. Miyata's are way underrated, I see those go for less than other bikes that weren't as good. I disagree with the Schwinns being underrated, those I see going for a lot of money unless you get lucky. Other bikes like the Nishiki and the Centurion were great decal brand of bike (decal meaning they weren't a true brand). Some other vintage bikes like the Falcon, Fuji, Univega, and Windsor. There are a lot of small brand bikes built that have very little following to them, but if you see one just look at the components, if the components are high end you probably looking at something important. I had a friend who ran across a 10 speed Huffy, he bought it for $50 in a garage sale, he knew what he was looking at, the owner didn't seem to care too much about it, it was custom built bike with all (7 speed) Dura Ace stuff probably worth 10 times that? I don't know, but Serotta made the bike because there were small Serotta decals on the stays.

Michael Angelo 

1983 Super Mondia.
I think you don't see many of these, took it out for a ride today. It's surprising how smooth and fast this bike is, Oh that ROllS saddle has to go, it's way too narrow for me. It's been a while since I've riden it, put some Super Record on it, have the crank too, just not on yet.



Had nothing to do so I built a set of wheels, for it. NOS MA40's, wheelsmith Spokes, Record hubs.

IknowURider

LOL steel= real.

jjhabbs 

I have this exact frame. Its a monster.. Rides incredibly well!

Bikedued

Tenax Schwinns are high on my list too! Which is the very reason why I built this one from the frame up. Group is Sante from an 88 Circuit, with pearl orange powder coat. I even used two different colors of cable housing, to bring out the two tone brake calipers(white on one arm, and silver on the other) I don't ride it near as much as I should, but it puts a smile on my face whenever I jump on it. It was a single speed first, before the Sante. It was light, responsive, and floated for lack of a better word.,,,,BD

LOVE this bike!~ 1985 Schwinn Super Sport, originally white with gold pearl, and Shimano 600 IIRC?

buldogge

Many of the Dutch brands are probably more "under-the-radar" then undervalued…at least here in the US. We seem to be blurring the lines, given this age of the internets. Having said that, my Reus Criterium, Batavus Pro, and Vittorio Strada MAX are all great bikes.

My biased opinion is…Chesini. The Innovation model was (well) innovative, well-built, and EL-OS (nuff-said).

-Mark in St. Louis

easyupbug 

One of my most pleasant cycling surprises was how much my daughters love this bike when they visit us, it looks just like yours but is a 50cm.

wrk101

Nice suggestions, but as someone who sells quite a few bikes, many of the brands and models listed so far have been well discovered.

To me, on the under the radar list are some of the store brands from the 1980s. Performance Bike, Nashbar, and REI all had some nice bikes made in Japan that get overlooked by most buyers, and commonly sell for a small fraction of their name brand competitors.

While store brand bikes in the 1970s tended to be JUNK, by the 1980s this changed.

I've seen Cannondales mentioned several times. Maybe its just me, but I can get more $$$ from a 1980s Cannondale than most of the other LBS branded bikes from that era (other than Italian). I would not consider them under the radar. Anything decent with the Bianchi name is also an easy sell (heck, even the mediocre Bianchis sell well).

Second tier Japanese brands can also be sleepers, like Shogun mentioned earlier. Centurion, Nishiki, Miyata, Bridgestone and a few others tend to be well recognized. Meanwhile, an identically equipped Shogun can bring half as much.

Grand Bois

That's more like it.

Maybe there is some confusion as to what is meant by "under the radar".

Chrome Molly

Early specialized epic carbon bikes offer a nice ride on the open road, and aren't terribly expensive. Also as mentioned the allez with the fastback stays are sometimes sleepers if the seller doesn't know much about them. Some of the lower end early treks, like the 400's offer reynolds or ishiwata tubesets and can be had for about 200 clams. Cannondale ST series tourers are an unusual mix of quick yet extremely practical. Also agree that some of the Nashbar branded bikes offer pretty decent values for the performance level, as do other store import rebadges. Sometimes Gitanes slip under the radar, and on the high end Ciocc designers sometimes come along at reasonable prices.

auchencrow

As usual, Thrifty Bill nails it.
- I would add one more Japanese maker to that list of potential sleepers - Maruishi from the eighties. Sometimes you can get them dirt cheap.
Like this one here....

KonAaron Snake 

+1 to thrifty. Lotus was named earlier, and with good reason; they're built very nicely, the ones I've ridden were good riders and they have a lot of flair.

Higher end Ross bikes are a good one - they suffer a Ross branding value hit, but had nice parts and some were built well and designed by luminaries.

The smaller named builders are often great values and under MOST people's radar. Grandis, Picchio, Redcay, Bill Boston can all be had for less than a Colnago. You have to be careful with the customs because they were built specifically for someone else, but if it works, you make out well. The smaller named production stuff is often the best route.

Considering the quality, titanium is often the best value in a lot of ways...no patina, no worry about corrosion, and great detail from the better builders.

gl1000honda3

Hi ...My opinion mirrors Auchencrow's ....I have a 1978 Raleigh Super Grand Prix and a 1979 Pug UE-18...Very simple to own and a joy to ride, each having they're on charms...Thanks, Ride Safe

Chicago Al 

Is ANY bike really 'under the radar' when it comes to this group?

I'm seeing people list bikes above that have multiple threads here--like the Dave Scott Ironman.

Now this is not talking about a 'general audience,' but they don't know anything about bikes anyway, other than 'Schwinn' and maybe 'Raleigh.'

KonAaron Snake 

I don't know - all of us have our areas we don't know (well, most of us). I don't know squat about dutch bikes, except that people who I regard highly think highly of them - and they often sell pretty low comparative to your Italians and Brits. I wouldn't mind throwing a leg over a Reus.

Chicago Al 

Them's fighting words--let's have an argument! I'll see you in the playground behind A&S--I double dog dare ya!

Sure we individually lack knowledge/appreciation for some areas (many areas in my case) but as a group I think we pretty well cover it. As for your example of Dutch bikes, prices for makers like Reus or Ko Zieleman on eBay or the marktplats.nl site suggest they are very well appreciated. Even if just a few people are 'in the know,' that's a solid market for a bike that is uncommon. Lots more people know about the Centurion Ironman, but there are more of them around, too. Try putting a nice Ironman up on eBay at $125 BIN and see how long it lasts.