Free Ross Professional
 

Here a pic. it was by the curb, nothing wrong with it. some old people were moving. it has new tires and Shimano 600 components

i aired it up, it rode OK. Worth keeping, or just pitch it to the curb?


http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=524228

Dunno about the bike, but it appears to be wearing a very nice Eclipse rear rack - the one with the proprietary slide-mounting system. I would think a vintage touring person would drool over that bit. You might remove and sell it and keep the bike around for fun - or a loaner when company visits.

DD

Free is good right? Looks pretty clean to me. If it fits keep it, donate it, or sell it, but don't curb it!

Cheers,
Chris

Nothing wrong with that I can see. It would make a great commuter.


Ride it, iif it stinks get you money...well, it's free. Take the rack if you like but pass it on to somebody else if that's the case. Unsafe, don't.

What 600 components are on it? The 600 Arabesque? The 600 EX with the scallop headset nuts?

Either way, 600 stuff was pretty decent. I have a bike with 600 Arabesque on it and another with the N600 groupset and love the shifting on both of them.

Cheers

Refurbished bikes with Shimano 600 go for a conservative $300+ around here. If you don't like it you can always leave it in front of my curb.

Wish I lived in BC. I have two 600 Arabesque bikes sitting in my barn I can't give away.

Top

It's worth it for the components alone, which appear to 2nd generation Shimano 600EX. However, I'm not sure about the frame. It looks like it may have stamped dropouts and that's an incredibly long wheelbase for a Professional model. Still, the best indicator of frame level, lacking a tubing deca,l is the diameter of the seat post.

Is it your frame size? Some of the bikes from Ross were pretty good. This just might be one of them.

it's fairly large. I'm 5'10 and the seat is raised about an inch off the frame for me

is it marked? i

Unless you are really long in the legs, I suspect that frame is indeed too tall for you. Everyone else has pretty well summed it up -- decent commuter / beater, definitely too good to be scrapped. The rack is indeed a keeper if you have a use for a rear rack.

Worst case, you got a bunch of components and a really cool rack for the time it took to haul it home. :thumb:

My Ross Super Gran Tour Professional was the worst bike (in my size) I've ever ridden. Very heavy, stiff and dead-feeling. The only bike I've ever ridden that I would describe as having a 'punishing' ride. Tried three different wheel/tire combos, all pretty meh on this bike. Turned it into a parts-bin fixie and sold it cheap. Sold the pristine Arabesque parts (crank, both derailleurs and shifters) for about $120 on eBay.

Since the bike's too big for you, you could do the same with yours and get another good chunk of change for the rack. The odd-sized seat post and stem might bring a few dollars at auction too, since they are not that easy to find. I kept mine on the bike, to make it easier to dispose of the frame :)

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d.../rossfixie.jpghttp://www.zoominto.com/zoomapi/ZoomButt.gif

how little seatpost is exposed before a frame is judged too small for you?

The top tube length is more important than the seatpost. Racers back in the day rode with surprisingly little seatpost showing.

Revisionist Theory of Bicycle Sizing

The bike looks to be around a 23 inch which means that at five foot ten this bike is probably on the large side for you but very rideable; certainly you have more than enough seatpost showing assuming the bike is set up for you.

A few pics of the drive side would help to determine the parts and quality of the bike but this bike has a value. If you don't like it, you can sell it or donate it to someone.

Here's a thread on the ross professional

http://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...road-bike.html

FWIW I'm 5'9" on a good day, with 30" inseam, at least going by my trousers, but 23"/58cm is the sweet spot for me, and yes I know the TT length is the critical parameter. I have bikes over this size, still with a fistfull or more or seatpost showing. I realize I'm a freak, but isn't everyone? :)

Looks like a fun fixie project. Except those swaged cranks are known to fall apart.


Too MUCH seatpost means the bike is too small for you. I tried this once with a free bike - fun but awkward:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s...so%2BFixie.jpg

As mentioned in another thread (Commuting forum??), I successfully adapted to an undersized bike, as a stopgap for a 6-month assignment overseas, where I didn't want to ship any of my keeper bikes. I stopped noticing it was too small until I got back to my home fleet of bikes.

https://i.imgsafe.org/5329eb0.jpg

...and yes, the seatpost was safely inside it's minimum insertion depth!

FWIW, I'm very satisfied with my 86 Ross Gran Tour in fully optimized commuting trim, and the ride is the smoothest of all my fleet.

https://i.imgsafe.org/ba21a42.jpg

LOL. Sounds familiar! I was planning on putting those Arabesque parts on a Lotus frame until I realized it was too small. Got rid of the Lotus frame and put the 600 group on a Peugeot U08.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j2...eed/ross_1.jpg

Swaged cranks? Are you looking at FXjohn's picture?

If I had come across this, I'd convert it to a fixed gear or single speed (including changing out the crankset), clean up and sell off the 600 group, and hold onto the rack. There are actually some places in the country where Ross bicycles are well regarded (some pockets in Pennsylvania for one). My wife rides around a Ross Centaur that someone abandoned in a small town in Illinois, and she is quite pleased with it for the type of riding she does.

Yeah, isn't this swaged? It looks like one that I had that unswaged on me... maybe I'm mistaken - school me.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...p;d=1464654068

This is Shimano 600. Recessed Allen fittings. Not swaged.
Certainly, there have been some models of Ross bikes that came fitted with swaged cranksets, but this isn't one of them.

???
http://i.imgur.com/jh1nE8X.png