Originally Posted by
pgoat
Thanks Ben
I'm kinda torn, I love old bikes but at my age I've had my fun of refurbishing and frankensteining and so forth. I'm kinda at the place of having limited years of spirited riding left and so I'm more inclined to move away from the vintagey smooth rides towards the crisper new bikes. But i totally get what you're saying; I picked this bike up for $200 on CL ten years ago, and at one point had close to $2k in upgrades and whatnot into it. When I started locking it up outside, off came the Brooks and the clipless and so on, and thus lowered my overall investment.
I kinda have been getting the same feeling looking at all the other older steel bikes on CL and ebay. They're beautiful and I know they have a nice ride. But for me, it feels like a step backwards right now.
If I can't fix this safely, and cheaply as some of you seem to be saying, I may just have to suck it up and get something modern/flashy/fragile and just suck it up and lock it up and deal with the inevitable fallout.
Btw, I was fortunate in that for the majority of the last 30 years I've been able to bring my bikes inside my workplace. That is such a Godsend. Locking up on the street sucks.
Until this post, I thought you wanted a structurally sound but non-flashy replacement for your damaged commuter. Now it seems you are leaning toward a new and expensive bike. In either case, do you own or have access to a car? If so, I'd recommend expanding your CL search at least as far an northern NJ. I recently bought my (albeit low-end) 90's Bianchi for $200. Mechanically and cosmetically, it's in great shape. I also bought a Trek 800 mtb for $95. Again, not a high-end bike, but certainly a more-than-adequate commuter. Having never experienced the realm of $1000+ bikes, I'm unspoiled and am quite happy with my two CL finds. In my neck of the woods, no one asks $500 for an 80's bike.