Greetings all!

I'm huge on vintage steel roadbikes, but living in Western Oregon, I find that simply finding them can be difficult. Its clear that C&V bikes are everywhere here - just go down to the coffeeshop and I guarantee you'll see at least a Bianchi, a Peugeot, and a Schwinn even in the summertime - but trying to buy a used bike here is a NIGHTMARE.

Corvallis' Craigslist is a nightmare most times for bikes. The good stuff is gone instantaneously. I have only scored one decent find, a bike boom Peugeot for $50, which I thought was a decent deal until I came here and read some of the scores. For this town, however, it was a good find (sadly). I plan on fixing it up and flipping it for the next school year, as it is far too small for me (53 and I ride 60-63). Eugene's craigslist is better, but more competitive. Being an out-of-towner (even though I'm 45 min away) usually means I miss out on the good stuff.

Anyways I am just stuck for ideas...all garage sales, estate sales, and "junk shops" I've been to either have been cleaned out of bikes, or have the conventional Huffy's for $75. I'm now broadening my approach, looking at some smaller more rural towns. I figure the likelihood of me finding a steal at a junkshop will be much higher in a place not voted "most bicycle friendly" for some years.

A note: my repair skills are fledgling, to say the least. But I figure that if I can find a nice vintage bike for a good price, necessity will become the mother of invention. I also came of age riding my dad's '86 Tempo and like many here I have a warm-spot in my heart for certain Schwinns.

Your advice, good will, and good luck are appreciated!

At least you have good stuff to get gone instantly. Believe me, you are in a hotbed for C&V compared to Birmingham, AL. Very little that's any good shows up on CL, and I've never found anything at a thrift store here worth buying. In addition, it seems like everything I buy or sell on ebay is coming from or going to the west coast.

Make sure your LBS know that you are looking. Many of them want little to do with C&V. I've had 2 good bikes given to me by my local favorite. They needed lots of work, but cleaned up nicely.

Patience is the key. It could take years to find that 1 great bike. While you are looking, you can always pick up some lesser bikes to work on your wrenching skills.

I feel your pain, friend. I have a craigslist tab open at all times and refresh every 30 minutes or so and I'm still usually too late on the good deals. There are gems that come up from time to time between the $200 rusty UO-8s and Varsitys, but you definitely have to be quick. You can try the garage sale route but I haven't had much luck there either, and it's a bit more time consuming.

You can network to folks 2-3 hours away, get someone to help out, and meet you half-way, return the favor in kind. BF is pretty good for that.

Or, you can consider shipping to be a built-in cost of doing business, and surf CL in places like here in NC, where certain BF members have been known to pick up and ship bikes....Then it's a matter of "no bikes" vs. "bikes plus shipping." Not a bad trade-off.

Think outside the box, surf CL in some place you think may be a good market, and find an BF member there who may help you out. PayPal makes it a lot easier, too. Generally, if the bikes are being snatched up in your area, parts are widely available, and reasonable, so you can help someone else by getting parts and shipping them,.....

+1 on the LBS idea, too. Mine notifies me of trades, even lets me look at them and make an offer, so he can give a trade allowance in kind to a potential new bike buyer. I picked up a pair of his/hers touring bikes that way, for $125/pair. I had time, cleaned em up, sold them for $125 each via him. He kept 10% and I got my time out of it, almost enough for an Ironman fix...

One thing that may help is expanding your search outside of name brands. What I mean, is use cl's search function to search for things like "men's road bike" or "men's bike". This will open up the market a little, to include bikes whose seller doesn't know what they have, either that or are clueless about how to market it. I got my Peugeot mixte this way. It was listed as "lady's bike" or something like that. I used to do pinpoint searches, like Bianchi, Peugeot, etc. But everyone does that.

Nevertheless, with most of the cl bikes I've purchased, I was the 1st responder and I showed up immediately with the cash. And the seller usually had backup offers, before I even got there.

Craigs List in a hot market is just about a waste of time. Get to the yard sales super early, hit the garage sales that don't list bikes. Be prepared to spend the better part of a day going to garage sales. Repeat for a few/several weeks. You'll find some. Don't worry if it fits or not, keep trading up and then use the proceeds to buy the bike of your dreams, even if you have to pay full market for it.

We had so many vintage bikes around here (kansas city)-they got turned in for scrap because nobody wanted them.

About 3 years ago before the fixie craze started and before all the 20-somethings wanted 70s and 80s bikes, there was an organization here called Bike and Trikes for Tykes. People would donate their old bikes to them and they would be fixed up for under-privileged kids and given to them for Christmas.

Well, the only bikes kids wanted were BMX and Mountainbikes. You couldn't pay a kid to ride a 10-speed road bike. So over time 100s and 100s of old 70s and 80s entry level road bikes like Peugeots and Nishikis (along with crapola from Huffy) piled up.

The organization closed a couple of years ago and were giving away for free all the leftover 70s and 80s 10-spds. There weren't many takers and probably a semi-load full or more, got hauled away to the salvage yard for scrap.