Protips / reading for a new buyer
 

I'm looking to replace an old Fuji Gran Tourer (late 70s-early 80s) that I fell in love with but whose repair and tuning costs exceeds its value at this point. A quick glance at CL in my area shows a lot of inexpensive options for road bikes of this style whose prices would be about less than the cost of replacing the - most notably a bent rear wheel rim that I believe to be the culprit in a bumpy ride.

In the course of about 5 years of beating the hell out of it (not bad for $5 garage sale) my old Fuji taught me how to configure a derailleur, what fixing a wobbly hub entails, how to true a wheel, and many other small maintenance quirks that make me feel more comfortable than I would have been without it. And upon research I've found the optimal sized frame.

Yet it's a daunting task. What would you impart to a relative newbie looking to buy a used bike from this era? And are there any extensive reading guides anyone could recommend?

The search function in the Bike Forums C&V Subforum is by far the best resource I know on this topic. A lot of time spent on the internet, Craigslist, Ebay, etc combined with the reading of appraisals and remarks by forum members is really all you need. But, there are some key features that might help you narrow down your potential buys. For me, some big hints as to bicycle quality (or at least their position in the hierarchy for that year) are the dropouts (stamped vs lugged) and the tubing (Reynolds 501/531/753, Tange Infinity/#2/#1/Prestige, Columbus Cromor/Tenax/SP/SL/SLX. I'm not as familiar with Ishiwata, Fuji Valite, or Vitus. Miyata had their own tubing. Another hint as to quality is the groupset. Information on groupset hierarchies can be found on this forum on via Google. Lastly, pick a few favorite bicycling marques and learn about them. Read some vintage cycling catalogs. Then you can get an idea of where a model might fit in the hierarchy and what you premium you should expect to pay for it.

Right, got a few more things to look into now