I joined this forum because I'm planning to get back into bicycling now that my kids are a bit older and gas prices keep going up. I've owned three bicycles in my (adult) life: 1972-1977 an inexpensive Schwinn, 1977-1980 a Motobecane (at least I think that's what it was), 1980-present a custom-made racing bike that I bought from the second owner.

The Motobecane was stolen off my front porch by a gang of organized bike thieves. They staked out the house to learn our habits. One day, as soon as the last light was turned off in the evening, we all heard a loud ruckus on the front porch. My apartment-mate, whose window looked out over the front porch, looked out the window and saw the thief ride off on my bike.

I liked the custom-made bike very much. I rode it a lot before I moved to NJ (in 1984!). I haven't ridden it in probably twenty years, except once a year or so ago. It was still very nice but I only rode it around the development and very quickly one of the sew-up tires "rolled" making the bike unusable until fixed. Ever since, I've been debating whether I should invest a small sum to fix up the old bike or just start over with a new bike.

I think a fix-up would involve getting new wheels and new tires and having a general lube job and tune-up. Not sure how much that would cost. The original wheels had tubular rims and radial spokes with sew-up tires. I guess any replacement should be fairly nice stuff. BTW, I don't know much about the components. The derailleurs are SunTour Cyclones. The bike is VERY light.

Last weekend, I went to a bike shop and test rode two Specialized road bikes. One was an Allez Elite. Sticker price was $1300 but was on sale for $900. The other one was a Tarmac Elite. Sticker price $2100. Based on my fading memory, my old bike is a lot nicer than the Allez and I would say even nicer than the Tarmac. I'm wondering if I should just fix up the old bike. I'm afraid there might be some hidden gotchas in sticking with such an old bike. Any advice would be most welcome.

--Bob

Hi welcome to Bikeforums.

I would suggest checking out the Classic & Vintage forum for help on making your decision.

One warning, they will ask for pictures and drool a bit if it is a nice bike.

Also, you may want to check out theFifty plus (50+) forum for some of us mature riders...

There are a lot of other options too.

What part of New Jersey are you from?

Hi bob, there are not many pitfalls in sticking with your bike, especially if it was a custom built bike--that means someone spent a fair amount of money in the first place. As LD suggested, come on over the Classic & Vintage, and we will work on helping you figure out what you need to do.


Welcome to BF!

East Hill

Hi Little Darwin and East Hill,

Thanks for the tips. I'll mosey over to Vintage in a bit. I live in Montgomery NJ and work in Princeton.

We'll see you in C & V!

East Hill