Glennfordx4 

I have two low end bikes in my stable & both are Schwinns, first is a Wally World beach cruiser that was such a pos I decided to have some fun with it. I built it with a bunch of random parts I had laying around. I really liked the way it came out and had fun building and riding it, built in 2015. The 2nd Bike is a 75 Suburban that I just finished a few months ago. I did a Resto Mod build using parts I had laying around & most were off of other Schwinn bikes I parted out. 700c wheels with 38's, 7spd SIS running a Suntour Friction thumb shifter off of a 70's Schwinn. It came out great and rides very nice although I am on the fence about keeping it. I have a 73 or 74 Super Sport that I got when I was 14 that I want to build the same way but it needs paint along with building it.

Chuck M 

My bike of the cheapest and worst quality is probably this 1970 Gazelle Tour del l'Avenir. The current condition is abysmal and I don't know how much of that is due to lack of care or it wasn't much to begin with. I'm pretty sure the seat-stay that is separated from the lug wasn't brazed well in the first place, there is too much Delrin in the drivetrain, the wheels are mismatched and I would imagine this was the bottom of the barrel for Gazelle's offerings. I had to get it as part of a packaged deal to get a Bridgestone mixte for my wife that I wanted.

Putting money into it will be as good of an investment as spending money on liquor and prostitutes but I still imagine I will try to make it ridable at some point.

mitchito

This is my grocery getter, a free Murray Baja 1000. does the job


When my wife joins me it is on this $10 Hiawatha

scarlson 

Cheapest? I don't know. The Trek was free...

Worst quality? Tied between the two I ride the most:
the Holdsworth/Claud Butler


and the Trek.

grant40

Lattz

That must have been an Epple Pinarello... my nephew has (or had until recently) one as well. Your description about the history of them matches to what the folks over here know about them. Some try to capitalize on the PINARELLO decal (not all models had Epple branding as well, e.g. nephew' had only Pinarello on down tube, but see pc below, where DT has Epple, and Pinarello on TT like it was a model name)


EDIT: sorry, saw your post, answered, scrolled on, saw your pics... so you know the drill... newphew's didn't have the seat tube foil decal

Lattz

Now it adds up. When I told my nephew its an Epple, he said the LBS "knows" those and says "no but some similar sheet" looks like both Epple and Gudereit (ab)used the name.

bikamper

Where to start?

This was free. It's a 1964-ish Dunelt Sports, affectionately known as the Tetanus Express. It had no wheels on when I found it in the trash. 559 rims, 2 speed fixed gear hub, Raleigh Sprite crank. Look pedals. I did alley cats on it in my 50s. I sucked but had fun.


This was also free. A Huffy Sportsman aka Raleigh Sports. The frame may be older than me. Fenders and chain guard are from a crappier US built Huffy Sportsman.


The Crappy Sportsman. The bare frame weighed more than the complete British version.


This was five bucks and a lot of fun. 1947 Monark Rocket with a manual shift Bendix 2 speed CB hub. It has nine years on me.


Last one. My oldest daughter found this 1970 Raleigh Super Course Mixte at a thirft store in Maine for fifty cents and gave it to me. There is nothing Worksop about it. I overhauled it and gave to my youngest daughter.


I call this the Maine Kickstand Holder. Cheap and worked.


I have a few more but I'll stop here.

albrt 

These Phillipsii were my introduction to C&V a few years ago (I wouldn't have considered my 80s road bikes to be C&V at that time).


They were originally a matched pair, but the men's bike was left out in the Arizona sun and lost most of its red. I overpaid for them and put a lot of work into them, but they will be cheap to the next owner. They just aren't a great ride.

daka

For me, cheapest and worst are not quite the same bike. They are both 1973 Raleighs - Cheapest would be the root beer colored Super Course that I picked up for $50. The stand-over height is just a little too high for me and the slack angles give the steering a "flop over" characteristic I don't care for. I'm using it as a repository for all the weird parts that have appeared on Super Courses over the years - Huret Luxe derailleurs, Capella lugs, Nervar Sport crankset, those long Huret shift levers, etc.... You can see the difference in the head tube angle between the '73 and '74 Super Courses in this photo.


The worst quality bike is this 1973 Gran Sport. I don't know how many pints the guy who brazed this had at lunch but several of the shorelines visible in this photo are recreated with touch-up paint. The front wheel has to be centered in the fork before closing the quick-release. However, this is one of the nicest-riding bikes I have ever had. I use it more than any other now. It's similar to a Super Course but a little lighter on it's feet (perhaps due to the double-butted frame tubes?) and since it is plain looking and I've only got $150 invested I don't feel bad about locking it up in front of the hardware store. It's a fun bike!

Pompiere

It is between these two. First is a Takara Advantage that I found at Goodwill. I wanted some of the parts for other bikes, so I figured I couldn't go wrong for $5. After I took off the parts I wanted, I built it up as a flat bar bike with parts from the bin. Flat bars work better for the small frame. I didn't have a spare long cage derailleur with a claw, so I just locked out the small chain ring.


Takara Advantage

The other is a Kabuki Super Speed. Also a thrift store find several years ago. My first ten speed was a Kabuki, so when I saw this one I had to have it. It's kind of a trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear situation. I have swapped the cheap steel components with alloy. The crank came from the Takara above. The wheels were gifted from a friend cleaning out his garage. Brakes were from the Box 'O Crap. Overall it lost about 5 pounds. With an old mismatched set of Paselas, it actually rides okay.


1975 Kabuki Super Speed

RandolphCarter

I've dragged home various basket case bikes over the years. Drainage ditches, curbside trash piles, thrift shops, whatever.

I've posted before about this spring's, um, "gift". It's a bike boom era "Allitalia". No model or tubing brand.



The frame has some of the worst welds I've ever seen on a bike, stamped dropouts, no braze ons, no derailleur hanger, and an exposed seam/weld on the underside of the BB shell.

The parts on the bike are a baffling assortment.

No idea how it rides yet.

But it was free!

nlerner

Well, you can start with a cheap bike, but with some creativity turn it into something cheap-but-interesting. This one was $30 (and I probably overpaid):



I figured the vaguely British-sounding brand—Claridge—called for a barber poll seat tube:


That’s also “chrome” spray paint to achieve the proper fork ends.

smd4

This game only works well of you have two or more bikes. What if I only have one bike? Then my cheapest/worst quality bike is also my most expensive.

jamesdak 

For now I guess it would be this slightly tattered Raleigh Team USA. Picked it up as a frameset for the paint scheme. Had to do a lot of paint touch up on it and then polished the heck out of it. Then of course to make the bike feel better about itself I hung a pretty much mint bunch of Suntour Superbe parts on it, a NOS crank, and some nice Fulcrum Racing 1 wheels.


First I had a nice tubular setup on it.

Then I swapped out the wheels and added some wide CX tires for light gravel duty.




Second place would have to be the ol' Peugeot Tourmelet. Another "nothing special" bike that's actually quite good. A bit of a mess when I brought it home but I sorted it out quite nicely.

nlerner

And that's a problem why?

jdawginsc 

It will likely be my Favorit, if I ever get through the first 8 bikes in my retirement queue.

Trying to decide how cheaply to build that one up...

It WILL NOT have cottered cranks, or simplex derailleurs on it, that is for sure.

BTinNYC

Motobecane Nomade. BOTL road bike bought during my junior year of college, hopped up and now the grocery getter.

jonwvara 

That's true, hypothetically. But how likely is it that that anyone here actually has just one bike ? From the way you phrased the above question, I'm guessing that you also have more than one.

smd4

Everything about the question phrasing indicates I only have one bike. Which I do. In the minority, of course but I bet there are others.

jonwvara 

Well, I was being a wise-ass. Your use of "what if" made me think you weren't including yourself--I jumped to the wrong conclusion.

But l salute you! It's good to be happy with one. I have been whittling away at my bikes for the past few years. I don't know if I'll ever get it below three--a touring bike, a winter beater, and a cool French bike, just because. Right now, I still have two beyond that, but I hope to move them on in the coming months.

BFisher 

So, then your Cinelli is simultaneously the slickest machine you own and the biggest piece of crap you own. Up to you which virtue to promote.

smd4

It’s a real Schrödinger’s cat conundrum, for sure!

USAZorro

OK - I actually got quite a bargain two+ years back when I picked up this C-ITOH locally for $20.00. I was going to pass, until I noticed it had new tires on it - in a size I was looking for to finish out a project I had then.

Since then, I've adjusted the gears, replaced new, good tires with crappy, won't pop for another month ones, and it had been pulling trainer duty until I acquired a mixte. Whomever owned it apparently had a love for stickers and somewhere along the line, the handlebars got "adjusted". Plan is to make the brakes work again, see if I can un-freeze the seatpost, and pass it along next spring. I wouldn't be caught dead riding this thing in public.

SurferRosa

Sorta wanted to keep one of the lower level bikes as a beater, but I never liked anything well enough that actually fit. The mid-level bikes were kind of too nice, and the lower level ones were just too clunky.

I only have five now. Two are not "full" (531/SL) in the rear triangle, like this '72 Torpado. If it still had its original cottered crank and Universal brakeset, it would more easily fit into the theme of this thread.



The plan was simply to flip it. But then, during that first ride, something just absolutely clicked. Y'all know how that goes.