Advice.
 

I am in the market for a road bike and have talked to a couple of bike shops and friends and my friends say that I should buy and older (vintage) road bike to save money, and it would give me a project to work on. New road bikes are extremely expensive for a college student like me and just wanted some advice on what kind (brand, year, etc.) of bike I should look into?

The only suggestions I have recieved so far is maybe a Cannondale (sp?), Raleigh, or a Peugot (sp?) in the late 80's models, but I really have no idea.

Figure out what size you need. That's more important than the brand.
Read sheldon Brown's article on this;
http://sheldonbrown.com/frame-sizing.html
then read the Rivendell article on this;
http://www.rivbike.com/article/bike_...g_a_frame_size
I llike Raleighs, mostly because they come in that nice shade of green.

I am sure that I need a 21". So other than just the sizing factor, really the only other factors are pricing, what I can find, and brand?

I don't really think it matters what brand it is as long as it is high quality. You could do a search on Craigslist and ask about potential bikes here - the people here in C&V will likely be more than glad to help you out.

Cool. I thiink next week I will maybe go to some pawn shops/older bike repair shops in the older downtown area of my town to price an older bike and maybe I'll get lucky and find a good quality brand bike to start on as my first bicycle project.

I did a couple of searches on CL and found some great bicycles but a lot were out of my price range and I don't want to have to have someone to send me a bike from another state, especially off of CL. If I was going to get a cheaper bike off of the internet I would have to go through eBay.

Be patient,check out the sticky above craiglist finds. Look for an 80s Japanese bike with chrome moly frame.Stick around here and read the posts and check out the sticky classic and vintage rides, and you will see some quality rides. Ebay will add up to $100 on your purchase ( shipping). Most major cities have a bike for your needs. Good Luck

I appreciate all of the pointers right off the bat. Thank you.

After doing some research just within' the last hour or so I found one bike that really stands out to me, but I will not get my hopes up about getting that exact one right away. That bike just happens to be a 1984 Trek any where from a 500 - 600. That bike just stood out to me a lot.

Yes, I will heed the warnings and not buy anything off of eBay just because of the high shipping costs. :)

Check Lincoln Craigslist there is a Shogun for 95 bucks. The thing is it is quite large you must be 6ft 2 to fit that one. If you are tall go get it its a good bike and a good price.

Dude you are not taking any advice here. Assuming you live in lincoln nebraska, youre local CRAIGSLIST is a field day. You could be riding an 1988 Bianchi CAMPIONE D ITALIA in Celeste (thats a colour) this afternoon for just $175 or best offer. That my friend is called around here the catch of the day. Run now before its gone. That is a true Italian classic machine and is coveted by many

That Bianchi is listed on Wed. June 4 under Road bikes. Maybe someone can paste the link. Also there was a Swap meet yesterday in Benson, that you missed out on.

It would help to know what you are planning on using the bike for; commuting, group rides, centuries, triathlons, or just exercise.
Also, how much work are you willing to put into fixing it up. If you need to start buying tools, the cost quickly adds up. There is probably a co-op in Lincoln that will allow you to use their tools.
When you say you need a 21", I assume you are basing that on your mountain bike. You really can't compare the 2. While I ride a 21" mountain bike, I ride a 60 to 63 cm roadbike, which translates to around 24".

I plan on using the bicycle for commuting and for a "fix up project". As for the amount I am willing to put into it... quite a bit... I have nothing to do in my apartment other than sit around and wait to go to work. I have a large tool collection that my father left me when my parents got divorced so I am good in that department.

As for fitting, I read the fitting manuals that were sent to me on this thread and I used my friend's dad's road bike which is a 21" and found out it was too small, so I would assume that a 23" - 24" would be ideal.

I did take CL more into account and I apologize for being so naive. I am new to this. :(

No apologies needed. Looks like you are in a decent area for bikes. I think I saw I guy in CList with lots of bikes for sale, out of his home, those guys usually come by some nice ones.

If you would be willing to build a bike up from scratch, there's a very interesting and rare frameset for sale in Lincoln, currently on eBay and not attracting much attention (although that may change with last second sniping). It seems to be about your size, although it's really a cross bike, rather than a road bike. You could definitely use this as a road bike, and as an offroad bike (for cyclocross-type riding), but it's not what is typically thought of as a "road bike."

That said, it's an awesome bike, and IF it were in my size, I would be placing the winning bid on it. ;)

Because you're in Lincoln, you can "afford" (hypothetically, assuming money is not an issue) to bid higher than others, because you won't have to figure in shipping costs.

Here's the frameset (I'm almost certain it's a 1990): Bianchi Equinox

http://i6.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/f6/ea/4371_1.JPG

And here's what that bike looks like built up (another bikeforums member has the same bike):

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/m...e/DSCF1209.jpg

A beautiful bike I will admit.... but im in no financial situation to be building a bike from the ground up. I have to money to buy and repair a bike but not do a complete rebuild. Besides I still need to ease into this new hobby of mine, I'm still new to the whole "rebuild" aspect.

I struck a bit of gold today, finally. One of my sister's friend's mom has a bunch of old bikes in her shed (and when I say a bunch I mean literally like 15 of them) and I am going to go talk to her tommorow or sometimes this weekend and look at them and maybe cut her a deal. :) Cross your fingers for me.