I think if you just want something cheap look at the vintage high end Fuji bikes. They're a dime a dozen and nobody cares a thing about them. Look for a late 80's Fuji Team. Should have a very nice Ishiwata frame.

Find a known good frame that's scratched and rusted, buy it cheap, remove the old paint and rust, and restore it with a powdercoat and decals. Or maybe a known good frame that's painted up in a really ugly color such as 1980's pink or purple.

Either that or save up your money for what you REALLY want. Only you know what that is.

Some of the best bargains in high-quality bikes are 1980's Japanese. Fuji, Nishiki, Bianchi, Specialized. Especially so with early high-end mountain bikes--anything with 76or 7 speeds and a rigid fork can be damn near stolen given the massive changes in mountain bikes over that time.

If you are not willing/able to launch immediately to grab a deal, you will miss out. Pretty much every city/area has others that will launch to grab those deals. I missed out on a fantastic deal, jumped on it as fast as I could, turned out to be another forum member beat me to it. Its how it goes. I've beaten people out on other deals, can't get them all.

The crappier the picture, and the worst the description, the better the potential to be a great deal. I bought a bike once, the add was: RACE BIKE BAD PAINT $50. It had one picture, of a pile of parts in a dark garage. I left skid marks! It was a Pinarello.

If you buy anything for a song, the bloke who buys it from you will also want to screw you to the floor on price as well. He will have heard that this make/model is 'great value for money'. That's the problem with the Internet. There just aren't any secrets any more.

Such is life...

Frames can be found reasonable. Once you start trying to add period correct group like DA, Campy....then its no longer cheap. Buying parts bikes in bad shape and harvesting parts helps.

Some brands are definitely valued less than others. Look at the values of Schwinn Paramounts, and you know there has to be an opposite. Bertin and Gitane and Centurion and Panasonic come to mind. We here on BF know they're good, but they're less famous than the big names.

Is the bike for showing, or for going? Follow all the good advice already given: 1) Edgamicate yourself. Knowing your sizing requirements (so you can pounce when something does present itself on C-List, or whatever the buy/sell source is available to you). Be able to spot good components and buy a whole bicycle (instead of just a frame), which is often cheaper than parceling together something piece by piece. Start to get a sense of the bicycle era that attracts you most, i.e, 70's, 80's, 90'? If you buy something from the 70's then find that you really can't live without click shifting, then you probably will just end up blowing a wad upgrading it. Really, the best deals are 50% knowledge, 50% creating opportunity, and 50% luck. For a go'er, I prefer something cosmetically challenged, something with a dent that I know is just cosmetic, but the seller maybe doesn't. The dent creates a paradigm shift in the assessment of the value of the bicycle... and uncertainty can spell opportunity. But, buying something pre-dented... that requires a lot of people to do some deep soul searching, to decide how much that dent is going to gnaw at their psyche, always sitting their like a little demon on your bike frame, forever reminding you of it's imperfection. Never to whole and perfect again. Which, I totally grok.

531 and Columbus SL framed bikes fo not seem to be as expensive as they were maybe just a few years ago. Just victims of the on going C&V market depression, or had everyone move on to 753 and SLX for their must have bikes......

Or really any Japanese product from that era. The Ironman is road race oriented, and there are other designs that one might want.

This is a smokin' deal on an entire bike. The frameset, tho not without some cosmetic issues, is worth the price of admission.

1988 Marinoni Special 57cm $250

DD

I found this 531 (mostly) Raleigh Super Course frame in a back alley scrap metal pile. Cracks at the seat post junction and a stuck seat post. Cracks cost $20 to rebraze, patience got the seat post out, along with lots of PB Blaster. Finished product turned out way better than I expected. Also cost more than I expected, but what doesn't?

As found.

This Andy Newlands frame and fork in our very own classifieds is a screaming deal in my opinion.
1985 Strawberry Racing Cycles - 54CM
Brent

80-87 Specialized Allez or Sirrus frame/fork are sometimes avail for reasonable $$, especially if paint in poor condition. Don

yeah, basically any higher end Japanese frame-set from the 80s from the usual suspects is high quality for its purchase point. By the 80s the Japanese had their steel tubing at equal or above the Italians and English, and had manufacturing processes that were more efficient so they could make more bikes with higher quality control. So they turned out tons of high quality frames for many different brands, and most of them pretty dang good, and can be had for a song as there are just so many of them. Centurion is one example- but lotus, univega, miyata, panasonic, bridgestone, etc. it seems like Panasonic in particular is easily overlooked- very nice bikes.

Custom maker's bikes, such as Nobilette, Cuevas, Smolenski and Limongi can stagnate in the classifieds, just because no one looking has heard of them. These have been real bargains for me, and worth some travel time!


Knowing the fine points of how frame angles affect bike fit can expand the range of sizes you could consider, while eliminating others before you waste any time and gas checking them out:

--Steeper seattube angles extend the frame's forward "reach" dimension to the tune of about .9cm per degree, and vice-versa.

--Steeper headtube angles will favor the use of a longer stem to restore stability in many cases, and vice-versa.

Best to know what toptube length tends to give you the best fit, and work from there using compensating adjustments based on the frame's angles.

Schwinn's long-running and modest Traveler model in 1989 finally adopted the same sporting geometry of Schwinn's other top models (74-degree seattube, 73-degree headtube). Older models have more-relaxed angles. I have both, and got both of them for well under $100 each in somewhat neglected condition.
A 1986 Tempo model, also found for cheap at a thrift store, has the same sporting geometry and rides well:


Why just look for a frame, get the complete bike!


Custom racing bike for $180. Steep angles, short toptube and long stem equal great handling and fit for this rider.

Oh yeah we might have forgotten to mention that the late 90's Schwinn bikes, from before that company's demise, were real sleepers. They looked plain, but they were every bit as good as everything else.

You can search for Ishiwata 019 or 022 tubing, or Tange Prestige. These are excellent tube sets, comparable to the top of the line Columbus, but don't have the Italian cachet. They generally sell for less than SL/SLX or even 531/753 frames.

When I was building a bike for L'Eroica, I found a dirt cheep Vitus 979. Great bike for that ride. That flexi tubing is very comfortable on the gravel roads, and came with top of the line Dura Ace. Which means it all actually works well.

I've got about $500 Cad into this 1978 Fuji Pro and I absolutely Love it.

I refuse to covet your gorgeous '86 Tempo, but the temptation to do so is quite strong:



There is a mint one for sale locally, but they want $500. This initially-outrageous asking price is beginning to seem more and more reasonable with the passage of time:

https://bakersfield.craigslist.org/b...665614097.html

Thanks Colnago Mixte, mine was actually one of those bikes that had been left outside for some years(?).
This neglected bike's original San Marco saddle's cover had come adrift, and had been essentially turned almost inside-out from exposure to the elements (see below). I had to take a picture!
Paint was flaking off the fork crown, which appeared to be plated, but the haze polished off of the remaining paint (these 80's Schwinns have a very resistant paint that takes a ridiculously long time to polish smooth/shiny).
Luckily the wheels were in good shape, not usually a given with these 80's Schwinns (that too often have over-tight Atom hubs and flimsy Weinmann rims).
In the end it was worth the effort because this crust-bucket bike was only $40 at Goodwill with it's saddle falling apart and with a rusted-solid chain.

Wileyone, your late-70's Fuji Pro is gorgeous, love the orange hi-lights and sure looks like a wheel upgrade! I also put fatter tires on my '79, which really calmed the handling.
For those unfamiliar with these bikes, the frame angles are very steep, 74/75 degrees iir.