hey guys,
picked up this miele alfa for $55 @ yard sale
has shimano components
its my size
and its certainly not a bike you see too much
very light - think its gonna be a nice ride
feedback...?

WHAT THE........!!!?

Every Jersey Yard sale I hit up is full of cloths, white bedroom sets and Mongoose bikes withthe Walmart installed inverse forks. I must got some bad Juju or something.

Nice find by the way!

thanks - its funny - i didnt need another bike - stable is too big (in wife's opinion) - but anyway - i had gotten an offer of a free bike to pick up that morning - details about the model werent available so i let my mind wander - maybe a diamond in the rough - wrong - a rusty crusty huffy - i was disappointed but i also spied a craigs ad about some old schwinns and a miele at a yard sale - no prices - but local to the free pickup - so i swung by - the seller wanted 60 and wouldnt budge lower than 55 so...i figured it was too good to pass up - i hope i'm right - cause i caught some H3LL for it haha

oh the huffy - i gave it away to my favorite local flipper

There has been one for sale here on Charlotte CL for months $600. I just checked the add and he dropped the price to $450
https://charlotte.craigslist.org/bik/2612862089.html
Ed

Very nice! Standard overhaul, maybe change the saddle, make some wind chimes out of those steel chainrings.

i could imagine our biggest CL NJ flipper throwing this up for that type of $ - of course - making the sale is a whole different story right

wish i could get a year on it - but from what i looked at sounds like they can be tough to pin down in that respect

The thud you just heard was my head slamming against the corner of my desk. I read that Schwinn/ Miele ad last night and blew it off cuz it sounded sketchy.......thud, thud, thud.....crap, now I need stitches!

The Miele even has the Biopace sticker still in the chainring....looks like it's never even been out of the drive way. Lucky you!

listen - i almost blew it off too - and i live 10 minutes away - mainly because i didnt want to 'buy' another bike w the stable being at max (i have achieved hoarder status w family and friends ya know )

but when i saw it - well - i knew we had to dance - he had 2 old schwinns (middleweights i think?) going cheap - but i dont know shinola about old middleweights - anyway - he was a nice fella selling this bike for his buddy who had hurt his back and could no longer ride it

Phenomenal score on that Miele! I went out this weekend, there were a ton of comm garage sales, was able to be at 4 of them, but no road bikes util my last house. I bought a Trek multitrack 820 mountain bike for $10, as I did not want to come home empty handed, and I justed flipped it for 130. :-) Hpefully next weekend will be a better one. That Miele is a beauty, nice job!


Flash

You can't go wrong when you pick up a bike with a chrome fork, they just look coool.

the guy in this craiglist ad actually stole the pic off of my site.... i've had 1 or 2 instances where there's been someone stealing pics from my site here in toronto and using it in their ads, but this guy is from charlotte

about your bike.... miele was based up here in toronto and ran by Jim miele. He immigrated from Italy and started miele in toronto. He made pretty solid bikes, i've flipped a lot of his bikes and i can't say i've ever come across a really crappy one, even the bottom end models were still way more decent then the compared models.

Yours looks like a mid - low end range due to components, but in saying that it's still a pretty good bike. for 55 bucks i'd say you did really really well, in toronto that would fetch pretty good if cleaned up with new tires, and wraps and so on.

My brother rides a really nice Miele SLX frame, but it's not one of the toronto made Miele's, we believe it was one made by colnago due to the details on the frame.

You still see a lot of Miele's in Toronto, they were very popular around here, and that should tell you something about their quality. unfortunately he sold the rights to the name and whatnot to another company and everything made under the new company was utter crap. But you can definitely tell the difference from the older stuff under Jim Miele and the newer stuff under whomever.

I actually got the chance to meet his wife before and she told me interesting stories about him.

just clean it up, new wraps, redo the BB and hubs, proper greasing and you have a pretty good bike

Just picked up a Miele for $100, Golden Arrow calipers, Light Action 6sp, Shimano hubs laced to Ambrosio Elite rims, SR Laprade post, SR Custom stem/bars, SR cage pedals, Tange 900 double-butted. Nice lugged frame, paint is excellent. 57cm x 55cm, so I'll keep it to loan out or flip. Appears indoor kept. Pics when I get time.

Yes, I know this is a 2-year old thread. Just sayin....

That's interesting- I thought it was the vacuum cleaner company branching out (or maybe the bike company branching into vacuums...)

Not only that, the small ring is the hard-to-find 130/40t.
Top

I was not aware of Miele as a bike brand until moving from the States to Toronto. Sounds like a scant few of them made it south of the border, but up here, they were clearly some of the best selling road bikes in the 80s. Seems like by the late 80s generally they were quite nice frames, with lower end models differentiated more by components than the frame. Mine is a strictly middle-of-the-line model with exage or light-action components, but a really nice Ishiwata frame that stands up next to Tange 1 and 2 frames IMHO.

I'd say if you find any south of the border, pick them up and ask questions later. Chances are that most folks haven't even heard the name (as opposed to like an old Trek), which means you can probably get more bargains.