Picked up this gem for almost nothing from Craigslist.Too bad it doesn't fit. Here's the details:
Beautiful vintage Centurion "Super Le Mans" bicycle. Paint (Blue w/ Gold Highlights)in near mint condition. Decals in Mint Condition. Frame size is 25in. or 63-64cm (C-T) Here are the rest of the specs:
Model: Centurion Super Le Mans
SN: TA771472
Tubing: High Tensile Ultralight (Double butted top and bottom tubes"
Fork: High Tensile Ultralight
Derailers: Suntour SL in front, Suntour V-GT LUXE rear
Shifters: Suntour bar end shifters Brakes: Dia Compe with hoods (hoods worn)
Hubs: Sunshine on Araya rims with IRC "High Racer" 27 X
Cranks: SR Apex 52/40
Color: blue
5-spd Suntour "Perfect" freewheel
Dropouts are forged.
Saddle: Avocet Touring W-II

Hey Mike -- e-mail coming your way.

Just back from the Seattle Swap meet: besides lots of clothing & 1/2 price tires, my big catch was a Campy Scirocco wheelset for $70 & the seller threw in the front & rear Campy derailleurs! Also caught a set of Sachs 8 speed brifters on a size 40 bar for $20. There were some great buys on complete bikes which I resolutely fought off until the very end when a nice Austro-Daimler Olympian (Reynolds 531 frame & fork)followed me home. I think it was the Nervar crankset that won me over. I had time to give it a quick ride around town when I got home. Nice.

Well, this isn't one of my greatest finds, but it sure made me happy.

Fuji Grand Touring, tiny frame, all-original, right down to the funny-feeling foam-padded saddle. $20.

It looked disgusting when I got it (see pic #1), and shined right up after a few minutes of basic cleaning (pics #2 and #3). Have yet to polish the rims.

It isn't the lightest thing in the world, but it's a nice entry-level VLW. Love the Fuji-marked Sugnio alloy crankset.

Bought it to fix it up and resell, but I'm sorely tempted to keep it in my rental fleet, just as an excuse not to permanently part with it.

Take care,

-Kurt

What does VLW mean?

Vintage Lightweight! :-)

-Kurt

Aha! I was guessing "very long wheelbase" since it was a tourer

I like my boatanchor. It was donated to me, I put about $75 into it, and in the end it lost some weight.

Count me in as another happy owner of a Schwinn Boatanchor.

P.S.: The 24" frame Continentals have odd similarity in their frame geometry (save for the fork) to the Raleigh DL-1s, of all things...

-Kurt

A 1984 Peugeot PSVN 10 (I think?) followed me home from the co-op yesterday. It must have known it was my birthday :-). I haven't had a chance to do any cleaning on it yet (obviously), but I have high hopes that it's still got some life in it. Hopefully, this will be converted to a fixer eventually. Only major problem, aside from some minor surface rust which should be easy enough to remove, is a dent in the top tube. I'm fairly sure that it's not a big structural risk, but isn't the prettiest thing to look at.

I think it's getting along well with my Centurion.......it's starting to look like a sick bikes ward in my apartment!

I really like the deal I got on my current ride. I found it on Craigslist. There's a lot of junk there but this was exactly what I was looking for. I think it is a early 2000's Mongoose Mountain Bike. It's nothing superlative, but for $50, it has already saved me 2 or 3 times that in gas in the 4 months that I've had it. My girlfriend drove me over to the aparment of the guy selling the bike, and I rode it home :-)

And I am wondering how such an obvious similarity has escaped me for so long. It shouldn't take much to make a tatty garage sale Varsinental into a nice approximation of a vintage roadster.
Of course I have most of the ingredients on hand...

Riding my SS yesterday and the streets were sloppy so went to Yellow Bike for some fenders, only found one good one but came home with Nishiki fixte. Suntour shifters dated 1979, dia-comp brakes, cro-mo frame, no wheels, total cost $5.00. Going to fix it up for the wife, maybe a SS.

bought a 1976 vintage huffy SE roadbike for 20 bucks, it's in mint condition, new tires. I think i got a good deal

Being a newer bike, this doesn't really belong here - but......

A few years old Lemond Reno for $150. Aluminum frame, carbon fork, 9 speed Tiagra group. Everything seems to be in working order except the RD and derailluer hanger. Get this, though - the guy gave me what he swears is the original rear wheel. Trouble is, it has a 6 speed freewheel on a Suntour LePree hub, laced to a 700c UKAI rim. Front wheel matches, so wherever this wheelset came from, the originals appear to have been separated from the bike.

The frame is cosmetically excellent and seems to be sound. First blush is that I need, at minimum, a RD, hanger, and bar tape. I might need a rear wheel, depending on the answers to my questions, below.

Questions:

1) I have several seven speed wheels with cassette hubs. Can I drop a 9 speed cassette on, or is the spacing/dishing different?

2) I have a nice Campy rim laced to a Exage cassette body hub that I picked up at a swap meet. How do I tell what speed cassette it is dished for? It slips into the rear dropouts of this bike, so the axle/hub seems to be the right width.

3) If anyone has a decent 9 speed rear wheel and wants to trade for a 7 speed wheel, drop me a line. I can put together a set, if need be.

OK - regarding the Lemond in my previous post.....

I called Trek and chatted with their customer service dept. It is a 53cm 2004 Reno, Womens' Specific model. Pretty cool. I have ordered the derailleur hanger, cassette, and 105 RD, and I think I've access to a spare rear wheel. All I need do is clean it up and re-tape the bars while I'm waiting for the parts.

Since I was rebuilding the rear end anyway, I almost popped for a 11/34 mtb cassette with a Deore mtb RD. I thought it might be fun to have a road bike with a mega-granny to climb Diablo with. After I found out it was a WSD, I opted for the more traditional gearing for enhanced flippability (should I decide to move it along). My wife has a better bike than this, and the daughter is still a couple of years away from a 53cm frame.

All told, I'll have about $200-$250 into it when I'm done adding up tape, tires, tubes, and possibly a saddle. I'm happy with it.

Here's one I picked up a couple of weeks ago for $30. A 1987 vintage Trek 900 - hot pink (it doesn't look like it in the photo, but rest assured it is!). It was a wreck, and needed cleaning, tubes, tires, saddle, chain and cassette. I also had to re-pack the bearings. I had all tha parts in the bin, so it was just a matter of about 2 hours elbow grease to get it shined and ready to ride.

I've ridden it to work a couple of times, and one day during my lunch hour managed to knock off 12 miles on the local bike path. It is a nice, stable, sedate ride - but compared to the road bikes I ride it is like driving a bus. after the 12 miles, I was fairly beat and my quads hurt a little. Keep in mind - I regulary ride centuries. This thing took some effort!!

This one was going to be for the sister in law, but I gave her a chioce between this and a similar blue Univega and she chose the Univega because is was a tad smaller.

Anyway here it is - my pretty pink little princess:

You might want to take solace that the Trek weighed "just a bit more" than what you ride on your centuries.

Not to mention those big squishy balloon tires that buzz-buzz-buzz all the time.

Ohhhh Yeahhhh!

Just scored a Faggin frame/fork from the 80's. I have been searching for 10 years at least for the right configuration.

I have been buying and restoring all of the bikes of my youth, and my 2 brothers as well. Luckily the Paramount never left the stable, but the red Faggin did.

The Faggin was my older brother's bike that he bought while working at a silkscreening place in Santa Barbara. He bought it one part at a time.

It had a full pantograph Nuovo Record group (including the seatpost), I have written that find off years ago. Ambrosio Synthesis Durex 28 spokers (word?), silks, Rolls saddle etc.

My brother sold it to me, then I sold it to a very happy cyclist in '88 I believe. It was a 55, but we were just kids.

The one I got is a 56! My size now. If a bike is not my exact size I will instantly pass. Period.

That modafrack is going to Cyclart (nickle and dimers from HELL, but not much of a choice) ASAP for a freshening up!!!!!!!

Not much but I just scored a sugino 26.6mm seatpost with flutes painted blue for 3 bucks. it needs some polishing but is perfect for the '86 Schwinn Tempo coming my way (I think it should be 26.6, it's a 25" frame columbus tenax which is the same as my '88 premis which takes a 26.6 and my 85 norco takes a 26.6, not sure if it was the era or the fact that thicker tubes were used on large frames for stiffness).

I snage a peugeot PH10S from 1983 for 1$. It was at a fire house nud auction. the bikes got sold late in the day and the pug was last in line. By the time it got down to the last 3 bikes no one was left biding so the auctionier didn't even bother starting his fast talk he just said to me " do you want any of thes for a $" I got a schwinn world sport for a buck also.pased on the thashed out huffy kids bike. nothing wrong with the peugeot just dirty no rust or nuthin, rides great. the schwinn needs shifter cable (rusty) and tires are dry rotted.

Not sure if this is really a "catch", cuz I gave up some stuff to get it, but I scored a nice 9 speed wheelset tonight. Mavic CXP 21 semi-aero rims laced to Shimano Ultegra 36H hubs. Nice and clean with tape and skewers (but no cassette!), and the hubs spin butter smooth.

I had to give up a "vintage" 700c 6sp wheelset, black UKAI box rims laced to 32H Suntour hubs, two 7 speed Suntour freewheels, and $50 to boot. All the bike parts came out of my bin, so all I was really out was the cash -

I needed the 9sp wheelset, and am satisfied with the deal.

Katrina bike-picked it up last night.One month under water-6 months in yard-unridden since 1990(bought in 1980 he thinks).I tossed it in the pickup-sprayed it with handy chain lube.This am everything works-hub-shifter-brakes(as good as new,ha,ha).GB and Canada(built in Canada) are wet climates,but I'm surprised the hub-and cables-still work.
Who paints a bike brown-colorblind Brits??Thanks.Charlie

That's not brown, philistine; it's Coffee, thank you very much.

Looks like about a '78 by the chainguard and reflector. That's about the end of the line for Raleigh Sports.