Hetchins,Colnago,Schwinn,Malvern Star--- We are all proud of these marques but if you could only pick ONE bike as "a must have" the one you would swap your whole collection for,what would it be ?

an unmolested 1974 bevel head ducati 750 GT...

in light metallic blue, thank you very much.

My whole collection?

Miguel Indurain's Pinarello Montello, one second before he rode it, but in my size.

Oh snap, no he didn't just say Ducati!

A pristine 1977 Schwinn Volare in orange and in my size. Just cause I have one thats not original or pristine and its my favorite bike

nothing, having a whole pile of bikes is fun.

Either a 1950s or 1960s curly stayed Hetchins; or a 1930s Mochet Velocar recumbent, preferably Francis Faure's 1933 hour bike.

A time-machine and a pile of cash.

Gee, it pays to read the question some times.
There's NOTHING I would swap for my Pinarello.
Nothing.
Except maybe an original Degas. One of his bronze ballerinas.
Jeff

I,m with you gnome,orange Curly Hetchins I,ll even swap the wife for it !

over the years i've owned many of the "classic" european road bikes and have ridden many more.

(ie: colnago's, pinarello's, chesini, viner, rossin, guerciotti, battaghlin, basso, olmo, vitus, bertin, etc. + poghliaghi, cinelli, ciocc, scapin, merckx, masi, grandis, gios, bianchi, rigi, AlAn, mondonico, tommasini, etc..)

I very much liked a number of them , but most of them I could take or leave.More than a few were dissappointments and a surprisingly high number of them downright sucked.
My all time favorite after nearly 30 years of ownership has been a 1980 DeRosa Professional SL Strada and I wouldn't sell or trade it for any other bike save possibly a DeRosa EL-OS.
In a pinch, I could be relatively happy with a late 70's sante poghliaghi italcorse strada, an early web-btm bkt de rosa primato(genius os) or a merckx 753 but without question, I'd always miss and be comparing them to my DeRosa.

I would trade all 29 of my Roadbikes for my 1979 Red Honda CBX.

Lament is a terrible thing ...


JohnnyBee.

A few years ago a friend let me ride his red 1979 CBX. There are not enough ooooooooooooooo's in smooth to describe that engine. The look on the face of the two young guys on their GSXR600's who couldn't lose me was spectacular.

There is no single "best," of course, but I wouldn't mind an early 1960s Bianchi Specialissima.

I'm quite happy with the ride quality (and the looks - which take second in priority to ride quality) of my Schwinn Paramounts.

-Kurt

Caterham: Your deRosa was my second choice

Which ones downright sucked? I find that interesting.

A lugged titainium pino maroni with all the custom components he made.

No, a 900 SS but same color.

Better check the bills to ensure they were printed in the years before your arrival time.

hahahahaha...... yeah,...right.
(hate mail and death threats just aren't my cuppa tea )

i must point out that i ride a small frame(49/50 c-c). my experiences may or may not apply to medium and larger sizes from those same builders(ie-YMMV).

ime, most builders can put out a medium sized 700c /27" bicycle that handles & fits reasonably well but when it comes to very small and very large sizes the builder is faced with compromises to make, primarily toe overlap, reach & wheelbase.

to my way of thinking, the choices made by the builder to accomodate the challenges of the small or tall rider says much about the builder's fitting experience, his design skills & particularly his priorities.

ime, de rosa was one of the few builders that didn't attempt to fudge his geometries & the bike's handling charateristics in order to fix "problems" that rarely ever present themselves or can be easily accomodated by the rider's technique.

from my personal experiences, I've come to really question the merit & validity of the praise given to many of the so-called "masters" and legendary companies.IMO, a lot of the accolades heaped on those had more to do with self-promotion/marketing skills and/or foo-foo detailing/bling rather than a mastery of bicycle dynamics, design and fitment.

k

Actually it would be pretty hard to beat what I already got, so I stand pat. There's a lot of bikes I would like to have, but nothing I'd give up my Tommasini for. Its classic, rides sweet, looks beautiful and just a general all around geat bike.

I pass