look171

Like everyone sles, how can you go wrong with a Colnago. I have always wanted one when I first saw one in a group ride back in 83 with a bunch of pimples on my face. Colnago have looked nice especially the solid colored ones. That said, I have a Master hanging in the garage with a cracked hanger. But the one I really wanted was a early to mid 90s painted this tomato color just like the one I wheel sucked for the first time on my group ride. You could say the badge is not important, but it is for me to some extend. I am willing to pay or a custom job without having their name put on it but my own company on the downtube, but many wouldn't do that. So, a repaint is in the works. Over theyears, I bought some that I wanted, many because I needed it at a certain price point for racing and training. Can't race on a Schwinn, Sepcialized, or an SR for that matter. It had to be Italian back then. When I grow up one day, I love to own a Celo Europea, 3 Renso, Motta, and my old Gios Torino again. All will be wall arts for most part. I ride Carbon. I like carbon very much, since its early days with Look.

Gary Fountain

The grails I finally acquired - Colnago & Cinelli - why - because I could never afford them back in the 80's.

The grail I will never achieve - Hetchins curly - why - images in books, etc. Why will I never will achieve this bike - I think I'm past chasing bikes.

OldsCOOL

And so it happens.

Is it Christmas in July??

Trick fall

When I was a kid I rode BMX and lusted after Hutch's and Supergooses and Redlines. I stopped riding by the time mountain bikes were becoming common and didn't ride for a long time, but in the early 90's I worked with a guy who bought a Klein Attitude and let me take it for a couple of spins. It was simply the nicest riding bike I've ever ridden and if I ever see one for a reasonable price I will get it. At the same time we also worked next to Tioga bike shop and they had a beautiful orange Lemond that I would just stare at. Again if I ever saw one for a reasonable price I'd snatch it up.

TickDoc

I didn't need Tour wins, sponsorship, or a proprietary design trademark to make a brand feel more important.

Vaunted, rare, understated yet flashy, born from tradition and craftsmanship that was traditional yet refined.

Performance and feel honed down to a simple and classic design.

Craftsmanship from apprenticeship always appeals to me.

Those are things I always lusted for but couldn't afford when I was first bit by the road bike bug.

Those are the brands that meant something special to me and help to pin down the Marques gravitate towards.

OldsCOOL

I couldnt afford an Italian beauty with full Campagnolo and could only admire and be envious when first starting road biking as a 15yr old in '73.

With help from friends and internet comes a '77 Colnago Super. My dream bike dreams are fulfilled and now begins the reality of enjoyment. Grail bike? You could say that. From here on out I will always be searching for interesting bikes and helping others obtain theirs.

OldsCOOL

How about the SE Racing PK Ripper with the looptail aluminum frame and landing gear forks?

My son was given one by a neighbor (adult) that used to race them in his day, the bike came to us as a circa '81. He has kept it these past 18yrs.

Trick fall

Those were nice but I think I only saw them in the magazines. A friend of mine had a really cool Torker that I think also had a loop tail and a quarter pipe in his backyard.

Fahrenheit531 

Two years after buying an '85 Peugeot City Express so I could ride the MUP with my wife I've worked my way to a '71 Paramount. There's been a lot of learning in between and that process continues.

I wasn't looking for the Paramount in particular. But I was on a pseudo-grail search for a bike at that level: something with 531 or Columbus tubing and Italian components. Something great from the 60s or 70s, an era that I tend to romanticize when it comes to cars, guitars (and music generally), football, and now of course bikes. Probably the result of my birth taking place at the tail end of 1969.

At this point I'd like to get my hands on something 100% Italian -- I spent a long time in lustful study of @iab's Cinelli last night -- but I'm in no hurry. Every time I climb on the Paramount it's like getting on a race horse, and I'm gonna enjoy that for a while. At speed.

USAZorro

My single speed Raleigh Fireball was faster than all my richer friends' stick shift Schwinns.

Until about 10 years ago, I was pretty ignorant of what I hadn't been exposed to. I knew Raleigh best, because of the sentimentality of them being what was the most sought after in my uncle's shop during the 70's. The Super Course that I got when I was 18 was a revelation. Not the top of the line, but the best I could afford. With today's economics, having one of each model from Super Course on up seems an achievable goal. (the International is probably going to be the one that hurts at this point).

Sure, I'd love to have a French 650b rando rig, and it would be fun to have a Frejus, and if I could find a J A Holland bike in my size from the heyday of English club riding, I'd be exuberant, but overall, I'd be lying if I denied it was Raleigh.

OldsCOOL

As a family we would park our motorhome on Saturdays at the Waterford Oaks Track to watch our 11yr old son race. The older teens (this was back in (99-2000) would drool over it...before making offers.

MiloFrance

My desires are more themed. I would like to have a 60s 70s 80s bike from reputable builders in the UK, France, Italy and the USA. Thats 12 bikes already. Going back further to the 50s and adding in more frame builders, (people like Hetchins, Bates, Cinelli, Guerciotti, Merckx and the like), the numbers get silly. So, one modern and one old? Team Sky Pinarello, and an early 70s Holdsworth Campagnolo Professional Team bike. With provenance... . The brands like Hetchins and Holdsworth I remember from when I was at school, so that may have a small bearing too.

The Golden Boy 

TickDoc

Dream fulfilled, how cool is that!

I notice you have an 88 cannondale ? My first real bike was an 86 black lightning with gold suntoursuntour superbe pro.

I'm still trying to buy it back ;-)

jimmuller 

Interesting comments here. It looks like almost all the C&V regulars have checked in.

The concept of "grail" means something that is long sought after but not yet attained because it is so danged difficult to do so. By that definition I'm not sure I have a "grail" bike.

I bought the UO8 new and the rest have been acquired opportunistically, not by being sought after. I've come to love most of them and adore a few. But I did not seek them out and some I did not even know existed until I stumbled on them. Perhaps the Motobecane qualifies as a grail because I knew it as a quality French brand pretty rare where I grew up.

A grail bike now? Perhaps a bike actually made in Italy. I am Italian on my mother's side, you know; her maiden name was LaFratta. I like to think of both the Bianchi and the Masi as Italian style (and I love their handling) but they weren't made in Italy. But hey, I'm not out looking for anything. Another lovable puppy will follow me home one day and when that happens there will be yet another language babbling away in the basement.

orcas island 

Bikes I've desired or owned as an adult seem to be a combination of things that I saw in the local shops and couldn't afford as a teenager (Centurions), or reviews I read in the pages of the Bicycling magazine I would leaf through at the newsstand (Motobecane and Gitane). I don't recall seeing many European bikes in the local shops while growing up in San Diego in the early 1970's, so I never developed an 'in person" attachment to the high end Italian, English, or custom bikes that so many of us lust after. I must have been visiting some pretty pedestrian shops back then!

OldsCOOL

Interesting choice of words.

I would have walked on by.

himespau 

I'm not sure I have a grail bike. Sure there's lots of bikes that I think are very attractive and would like to own, but I don't have one that I just NEED. Maybe it's a financial situation thing. I have a fast steel road bike and my next build will be a steel touring/commuting/gravel bike, and that's enough for now. If we get further ahead on our mortgage and kids' college funds, then I might think about looking. I love shiny things, so it'd probably have lots of chrome, or fancy lugs, or mxl tubing.

Zoku620

I was 15 and working in the local shop after school. The head mechanic had a Tom Kellogg and I wanted one ever since. I have one now and it's the best riding bike I've ever had, and I've had a few. Currently I spend too much time looking at Pegorettis on line. They look awesome, supposedly ride awesome, and as a Zappa fan and cancer survivor myself I like that he's still at it. Now if I could only swing 10k for a new bike....

Fahrenheit531 

This is really a great thread. Always interesting to hear everyone's ideas on such an open-ended question.
@The Golden Boy re: football: Yep. Something like that. I find the 21st-century game abhorrent and stopped watching more than a few years ago.

KonAaron Snake 

I haven't ridden my TK enough to have an opinion, but my kellogg designed Merlin is the finest production road bike I've had under me.

gomango

After riding/owning a fair amount of bikes over the last fifty years, I know what I like.

There are some brands I still go gaga over.

For example, I have been looking for a McLean for six years.

I am picking my 1980 McLean up in a week and couldn't be more excited.

jr59

That's what I get for being away. You got a Spectrum? Steel?

ncrnelson

I have no specific brand or model bike, but I desperately need to own an orange bike. I recall seeing a bright orange and chrome Schwinn Le Tour on craigslist a few years ago and loved the look of it, though I'd be looking for something a little nicer and sportier now.

gomango

btw My next Easter egg hunt has begun in earnest.

My wife's family in Bayern knows I am very interested in a few French bicycles in particular.

They have located a few possibilities in the Chiemsee area that I get to cuddle up to on our trip next year.