Originally Posted by
leegf
Greetings,
Is anyone aware of a quality vintage bike that was offered in a small frame? Ideally, I am looking for something reasonably lightweight (low-20 lbs weight range or less), a frame smaller than 50cm (e.g., a 42 or 44 cm frame), and 650C or 26" wheels. I realize I may be chasing a unicorn here, but I'd welcome any/all suggestions or leads -- especially if there are any currently for sale that meet some or all of these criteria.
Thank you!
Cannondale built some 650c bikes. Klein built some bikes smaller than 50cm with 650c wheels. If you don't need that much performance or prefer the ethos of the Bobish/steel cult my recommendation would be to source a vintage Centurion. Centurion's could be had in really oddball small sizes. There were small 650c bikes and even strange things like tiny bikes with 24" front wheels and 700c rears.
We've had lots of bikes over the years. From Pinarello, Olmo, Santana, Cannondale, Lemond, Mercier, Specialized, Gunnar, Curtlo, Klein, Libertas and even Schwinn. The bike label I'm absolutely the most impressed with considering everything I've ever seen is without doubt Centurion. They were really just a label for Western Importers something or other, but the reality is that the build quality on even the lower end tubing bikes was just freakin' phenomenal. Finding a Centurion from the golden age of low-yen strong dollar gives you just about the best craftsmanship you'll ever find, and I mean that even compared to a modern custom. My wife's Centurion Lemans is a thing to behold. The build quality on that women's mixte is better than I've seen on a Lemond Maillot Jaune that was built in Italy. If you really get lucky you'd find a Centurion Equippe which I believe was built for WSI by Cinelli, but please believe me when I say that even the lowest price point Centurions are still damn good bikes. The mid range stuff can be found with just stupendously stupid good looking paint and solid (some would say great) sensible components that are just epic but not cache.
They can be found, they aren't unicorns, and most people don't have a clue how good most Centurions really were. Reynolds 531 is a tube set that originally debuted in the 1930s. Trust me when I say that some of the middle range Japanese tube sets of the 70s/80s built "Better" bikes than some of the Italian stuff that was getting rushed through production during the bike boom.