The one that got me started...
 

Found this pic, forgot all about this one. I found it in the trash, did a cleanup and a respray. Ebay decals, before I new what Velocals were. I am fairly new to the classic and vintage road bike scene. I have a long history of vintage cruisers, tank bikes and prewar.



http://i1134.photobucket.com/albums/...70/bianchi.jpg

That was a good start! You even had the staging down, and knew to take a proper drive-side pic. :thumb:

I've been into bikes for a long time, but new road and mountain bikes and vintage cruisers. I was that guy riding the newest carbon road bikes I could get. After I found this one, I found this forum.

^Gotcha. I raced as a teenager, but then hardly rode at all from age 19-35. Eventually, I decided to fix up my old race bike (thank god I still had it!), found this place along the way, and now I'm hooked again. This is the one that got me (re)started:

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This bike wound up being my wife's. It was my first total rebuild since the 80's. A scrapper gave it to me off his truck because "those skinny tire bikes ain't heavy enough to make no money!"

http://http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...Nishiki004.jpg

After....


http://http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/g...psee3agjk2.jpg

Nice job!

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Currently my town bike/all rounder

What happened to the Look pedals ?

This one re-baptized me. Bought it off a female union pipefitter, nice tough lady, and it was in terrible shape. Taco'd wheels, no grease to be seen, rusted chain. I took time with this though, and it took forever to clean, repair, replace, scrub, grease, etc. The wheels actually pounded back out, and I was able to get them true and round. Helicomatic hub, too. Anyway, you wouldn't think it would be that rewarding but it was, it was therapeutic. When it was all done, I had just replaced a few components, I think a chainring, handlebar tape, brake pads, tires, and a seat without rips in it. Turned out to be a fantastic rider, and really just a nice bike. I sold it 6 months later, but rode it everywhere for awhile. It's like I rehabbed it and set it free back into the wild, and it appreciated it. Very rewarding sometimes. I can hardly pass up a lugged Trek ever since (or really anything lugged).

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4071/...812caa28_b.jpg84Trk504

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4063/...b8d82e1d_z.jpg84Trk508

Sorry for no "before" photo...
This 1969-ish PX10 came out the dumpster one Saturday morning behind The Off Ramp bike shop in Mountain View, and I carried it home on the bike that I rode there on. This was my first Peugeot and the first vintage bike I ever restored, though the paint only received touch-up and the rubbing compound did most of the work.

I knew little about vintage bike valuation so originality took a back seat, but I ended up with a bike that I used to do quite a few serious rides on, even some 80-mile rides on these Roval tubulars that turned up at a bike swap meet in Davis for $20.

The U08 behind it came from Salvation Army just a couple of years later, in 1999, for $20. It didn't need so much work and remains nearly all-original.

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This is what got me started. 73 Raleigh Competition with the original Jubilee front and rear derailleurs. I actually got this in a trade from a fellow C&V'er that I can't recall. I wanna say Mkeller. I got it as a frame/fork/headset/derailleurs and I did the rest. I remember meeting John Thompson for the first time when I brought this over and he noticed due to the size of the frame that they actually had to cut part of the Capella lugs due to the shorter headtube length. He also hooked me up with the Cinelli bar and stem and possibly something else I can't recall. that was about five years ago I believe. I sold it before we moved to Oregon three years ago along with a few other bikes I regretted getting rid of.
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