I publish MY "TEN SPEEDS" to help people who are new to the interest of vintage bicycles. My hope is to help others avoid making the mistakes that I made as I stumbled through learning the ropes. Might I suggest that you start there and seek out pertinent topics that target your concerns and questions.

You can figure out the year by applying the information contained in How Old Is My Bike? You can figure out how good the bike is by applying the information contained in Vintage Bicycle Quality or Buying On Ebay.

I would suggest you start by getting a feel for the bigger picture and then graduate to details of the restoration attempt.

And when seeking inspiration, I tend to look at the Bicycles I have found , restored and ridden over the years.

Hope this is a help and welcome to the Bike Forums.