Vintage Road Bike Wish List
 

Hey there. I am new to bike forums, but I am an avid thrift store/flea market/garage sale bargain hunter. Considering the reasonableness of coming across a vintage treasure, what would y'all say would be the top vintage brands to be on the lookout for as far as road/racing bikes. I realize "top" is relative, but being new to this, any info would be helpful. Much thanks.

"treasure" where you're shopping will most likely be anything with a cro-moly frame and alloy rims. the reasonableness of coming across a Colnago, etc, is like expecting to win the lottery.

these modest treasures can yield some nice flip opportunities, however.

Look for bikes with names ending in a vowel. The exception would be Magna.

Cinelli, Masi, De Rosa, Colnago, Pinarello for seconders.

Anything with parts on them that say Campagnolo.
Read this site for starters:
http://www.classicrendezvous.com/

Brands include Schwinn Paramount, Colnago, Pinarello, 3Rensho, most anything with Campagnolo or Dura Ace components, quite a few Raleigh , most any Merckx, many Bianchi.

Someone came across a Ciocc in a thrift store for $40 a couple of years ago.

I already have my dream bike, trek 2100 from 1991 completely rebuilt custom by me for me. I wouldnt mind getting ahold of more old bonded trek carbon.al frames for building fun though.. I can see myself collecting them, the one I have now will always be my number 1 though. I doubt these bikes were sold in Canada though so Id have to go to ebay to find em.

I wouldn't worry about brands too much because the odds of finding one of those top tier vintage bikes is low. With that said though it does happen as I have found some nice bikes for cheap. I would pay more attention to the frame and parts quality to indicate bike quality. Like mentioned above anything Campagnolo, Shimano (Dura Ace, Ultegra, 600, or 105), and upper Suntour (Superbe, GPX, Cyclone as examples). The easiest sign of a higher quality bike is forged dropouts with a separate derailleur hanger, down tube shifters, and brakes without safety levers. Also, tubing stickers that indicated double butted frame and not just main tubes is good as well. And with the prices I have seen lately on Ebay for touring bikes I would keep a good look out for those too (triple crank, tons of braze ons, long wheelbase, racks, etc.).

I look for the shifter location first to see if I'm interested. If the shifters are located on the downtube, the one going from the handlebars to the crank, I'm very interested. Shifters up at the handlebars means the bike is of lower quality, generally.

And, read what others say here. Certain part names mean higher quality.

And, if the bike is clean and pretty, especially without much or any rust.

look for a 3-piece crank without a pant guard and shifter locale

There was a guy who posted not long ago with an Alex Singer he bought at Goodwill. Really.

Your best bet rather than going by brand is to look at the components. If they're high end it's unlikely they're on a junk bike. If they're low end it's not likely the bike is much to write about. If you can find tubing decals to describe the frame materials that is also a good thing. If not, and it looks well made, it might be worth something.

Karl

Alright. Thanks everyone! If I come across some rocking deals, I will certainly let y'all know. :)

Works for me -- Bianchi, Capo, ... . :)

Also Fuji, Miyata, Univega, Bridgestone. Although there are other Japanese brands that are good, too.

I like bike that end in "eh"... it must be a Canadian thing. :D

Found my Raleigh Gran Sports in a thrift shop for $10.00 then rebuilt it with Shimano 600 components I had salvaged off bikes I paid less than 40.00 for.

Acquired my 1955 Raleigh Lenton Sports Reg Harris by pure chance and paid a whopping 100.00 for a completely road ready and complete bike... all I had to so was top up the oil and check the tyres before I rode it home like I stole it.

I also like bikes that end in "oh".

My 1957 Peugeot PLX8 is the jewel in my collection and cost me nothing and my 1962 Pug was saved from the dumpster.

:D

An old De Rosa is always on my mind.

what if "pant-guard" is Campagnolo?

Probably the best sign of a quality frameset is the presence of axle adjusting screws on the rear dropouts. Sometimes the screws are missing(like on the pictured Celeste Bianchi) but the threaded holes are still there. I have never seen these screws on a low quality frameset, however they are not always found on high quality frames, just a reliable indicator of quality & easy to recognize. Quality or ornate lugwork is another good sign. Don

Don't limit yourself to thrift shops.
A 1.99 local trader mag yielded an unridden 1989 Pinarello Montello for $801. Money well spent.

Under $500, Older Treks, Schwinns, the decent Jap bikes of the late 80's are great values.
Over $500, think pasta. And on individual Raleigh's, come back to the forum and ask the experts.

Good one, Otto. You never know when someone will dress up a wolf in sheep's clothing.
I know a guy that did that. :) 25 miles today on that carbone....

All of them, every stinkin one! I know, I need help.

When the wife finds the latest one, I fear an intervention.................

A chap went into a thrift store on Hawaii and saw a Bottecchia with full Campagnolo for sale for $60. He was a student and didn't have much money and told the woman working there, asking if it would go any cheaper. She screamed across the shop to the owner that there was a student with no money, causing him some embarrassment, and could he have the bicycle any cheaper. He shouted back, Okay then, he can have it for $30! He only had $20 so he asked the friend with him if he had $10. His friend only had $9 so he asked if they would take $29. She screamed across the shop that the student only had $29 and the owner said okay. As the chap wheeled the bike out of the thrift store time stood still and he kept expecting someone to shout, No, there's been a mistake! But no one did.

That was 8 years ago and the frame is now in Tokyo and the ex-student from Hawaii is offering to sell it to me. I shall be going to look at it this afternoon. I was very interested when he offered it to me a couple of months ago. Less now as in the meantime I've bought a Hetchins and all my thoughts are on getting parts to build it up.

I'm thinkin' $29 would be a fair offer. :lol:

I think that's derisory. I offered him $50 straight off. :D

Don't forget about the old Schwinn Stingrays.

A man after my own heart. I love the challenge of finding a good deal or diamond in the rough. I know you are looking for road/racing bikes. Don't forget the MTB segment though. Vintage road bikes, especially Campy equipped, prices are soaring. It's getting harder to find quality vintage Campy equipped bikes at reasonable money.

OTH, vintage MTB's are just starting to climb in price. It's still relativley easy to grab an early XT or XTR equipped hard tail for a couple of hundred bucks. http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39

Whatever you do, good luck

Tim