Hello Bike Forums
 

Hi everyone. Love the forum and I visit here every day but today I registered because I have a question as to what you guys think might be the better deal! I have been riding a Raleigh made in Taiwan road bike for a couple of years and absolutely love it, especially because I got it for free. I would like to upgrade to a better quality classic road bike. I have it narrowed down to 3 bikes right now, all of them look great and all original. If you had the choice what bike would you get and why? Here's what I have it narrowed down to.

Univega Custum Maxima $125
Trek Elance 400T $220
Motobecane $200
Schwinn Voyageur 11.8 $150
Puegeot UO8 $125

All bikes are clean and in very decent shape.

The ONE that has the Best Fit for your type of riding.

Welcome to our forums. My best might be your worst, so no one can make a good recommendation for you. Ride them and then decide which is the best value for you and make sure you adjust it for fit (assuming it's the right frame size)
Good luck OP

Commuting mostly but I also hit up the local greenway and ride about 40-50 miles a week. More or less leisure riding more than anything.

I'm average height around 5'10". All of these are for average height. My Raleigh is a tall bike, my seat is lowered all the way to the frame and rides great. I have sat on quite a few of my friends bikes and I actually enjoy a bigger frame bike.

I'm leaning towards the Trek Elanse 400t 12 speed
531 Reynolds Steel frame
Forte GT2 700c x 25 tires
31 inch standing heigh
25 pounds

But.....I love the look of the Univega!

Not to give you a hard time, but even still, not so average. Some have shorter legs with a longer upper body, or vice versa, arm length and tolerance of a bent over position is another thing to consider.
For now, make sure your "stand over" height is good, the rest you can adjust to suit your needs.
I like that old Trek, they last forever if you take care of them. I still have my Trek Antelope 800 Mtb, works perfect and I still take it on rides once in a while.

asuh dude

Ended up Getting the Univega Custom Maxima and couldn't be happier. The guy I bought it from replaced the shifter cables, and repacked all the bearings in the hubs and bottom bracket. Really nice guy, had a garage full of classic road bikes. He had a Schwinn Paramount with gold plated Forks that was to die for.

Congrats on the Univega! Sounds like it should be in good shape. Swing on over to the Classic & Vintage forum, and post some photos. You'll find a lot of people enjoy those Univegas and will be happy to help you sort through any issues.

u could not have gone wrong with any of the bikes.all were solid choices.congrats on univega:thumb:

Nice rides!

Nice choices. Bianchi are my favorite as they go up in value and the colour is what w!

From yOur list: motobecane as they were made near me in geneve.

Yeah, the Univega is really fun to ride! For what I paid ($80) I feel like I got a pretty good deal considering the condition and how it rides. I have since converted it to a single speed because I found the gears were jumping quite a bit on rides. After a close inspection of the rear wheel assembly I found the the hub and cassette would wobble just a little, and I feel this is what was causing it. I plan to convert everything back to 10 speed but I would also like to upgrade my parts for more modern or higher quality ones. I am new to road biking and bikes in general so I am undergoing a learning curve as to what I should look for when upgrading.

Congrats on the new bike and welcome to Bike Forums!