Centurion handling???
 

I ride an '88/'89 Centurion Ironman Master (the white and marble grey one)
I loved the Ironman bikes the first time I saw one a couple years ago. Then I read all the good stuff Mr Sheldon Brown had to say about Centurions.
I now own 5 Ironmans.

I recently fell for a Pogliaghi(made by Rossin) that I saw but didnt get (cause of matrix tubing).
While discussing the bike it was implied that Ironmans have little riding character.
Now I spend 8 hours a day looking on craigslist/ebay for a new vintage. (its interfering with my health)

All I had ridden before the Centurions was a Schwinn piece of, and a SR that was nice but too small.

Whats peoples opinion of the handling on the Ironman? How does the ride measure up?

Am I ok staying with it or should I ditch it?
Sorry about the story, and thanks for the help.

Step 1: How do you like the ride?

Everyone has an opinion, but yours is the only one that matters. Sounds like you were pretty happy with the bike until some "expert" weighed in. Me, I would stick to my own opinion instead.

What happens if you get a Rossi and some "expert" implies it has little riding character?

There are a lot of opinions out there, but only yours really matters. Sounds like you do have a lot of overlap on your fleet, you might try letting one go and buying something different.

My fleet of road bikes right now is a Colnago, a Giant, a Trek, and a Lotus. All lugged steel. Variety is the spice of life!

I would gladly add a Centurion Ironman Master to my fleet.

Centurion's, particularly Ironman models are not really race bikes and do lack the absolute "twitchiness" of a full out race frame. That being said, it's still pretty responsive while maintaining a bit of comfort during a ride.

I think the best comparison in modern terms would be to think of the Ironman in terms of a Specialized Roubaix which can be raced quite effectively (and is in the Pro Peleton) vs a Specialized Tarmac, which is a full blown race geometry frame set.

In my opinion, an Ironman handles and rides quite a bit above what it's price range is. Of course, if you decide to liquidate your IM inventory they a re all junk and I'll make you a nice low offer just to get them out of your hair, lol.:)

Are Centurion catalogs / spec charts available online?

Actually, that page was not written by Sheldon Brown; it's written by BF's own A.Winthrop. He's a very pleasant fellow and would be happy to give you his opinion on the ride, I'm sure. RobbieTunes, another BF member and Centurion aficionado, will likely drop by and offer his feedback.

If you do acquire a new frame, be sure to use the same wheels and tires for the comparison.

This is the only one I'm aware of, but it predates the Ironman series:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/centurion1984/index.html

Haha!!

Wrk101, good point about variety.
I plan on selling all but my master and an expert my girlfriend rides.
But I'll have to get something to compare it to. Which sounds like a good idea to me!

So back to craigslist.... Im gonna get fired

Anymore opinions on the topic?

RobbieTunes....?

My fleet is not based on what I was looking for, but what popped up at a great price/value. I was looking for a lugged steel brifter bike with a triple when the Giant appeared, at a really good price. I was not looking at all when the Colnago Master Lite appeared, but it was January and the seller was in a hurry. I sent them one email asking for better pics, then passed on it. A week later, I got one of those: " Are you interested in it at this price?" emails. Oh yeah!

The Lotus was a $16 thrift store find, and so on. The more flexible you are on brand, the more often you will find a deal. And now is the time to find them, based on the seasonal slow down in bicycle sales.

Yeah not much season here in southern california though. A guy I work with that sales Kmart bikes (huffys ect..) said he sales less in the winter but Id imagine there'll still be plenty of fixie fans looking to get some beautiful vintage bikes and cover em in a crappy black spray paint job. So I'll have some competition.

The big plus of a Centurion Ironman is the value. They have an excellent frame, in my opinion, suitable for 100 miles or a triathlon. That's what they were designed for, to let a person train and race on the same bike, back in the late 80's when triathlon was starting to really grow. Combine that with excellent wheel sets and components much better than the price range they were in, and you have it.

The Tange 1 frame is really what you're riding, and it's a great all-around frame. I have raced triathlons, from sprint to half-Ironman, on them, and done several centuries on them. I've not encountered a better all-around bike, and a nice match of fork to frame.

My fastest triathlon road leg was on an Ironman, and my most comfortable century was on an Ironman.

The post about comparable wheels and tires is very important. Unless you run the same setup, any comparison is pretty much flawed.

They are light, well-balanced, and very accommodating of setups from 6-sp to 10-sp. The value in the Ironman is in the package; the frame and generally much better components for the money. I think txvintage has it the most accurate.

In my experience, they handle better than all of my aluminum bikes except a Douglas Motive, about the same as my Ti bike (it was a lot lighter, though) and about the same as my SL-tubed Cilo. The SL-tubed Cinelli/Centurion has quicker geometry, and my Pinarello Montello, well, there's really no comparison between that and any of my other bikes; it spanked them all pretty much.

If you want to sell them, and they're in the right size range, well, you know where I am.