Thinking of retro road.....

For a multitude of reasons I've never dabbled in a retro road bike, this year I really fancy getting something together and I've compiled a short list which includes

Eddy Merckx SLX or Leader
Concorde (PDM) Squadra or Astore
Gios Torino
Colnago Master

Now my knowledge of most of these bikes is fairly limited, some are bikes I wanted BITD and some from association with certain teams and like the Gios through seeing them on here and being quite smitten. But none of what I know covers how they ride and suitability as a rider. So any comments or opinions on what I've included? Anything stand out as being very good or very bad? I'd like a rider and a comfy one at that (I've been lazily cosseted by modern geometry). So folks any help or further readin would be really appreciated.

Only ones I have had are the Concorde Squadra and Astore (not in PDM though otherwise I'd still have it!).

Compared to the others I'd say you're much more likely to pick one up at a reasonable price, build quality is absolutely superb with the Squadra having many nice finishing touches in the form of pantographing.

Ride fantastic, light and responsive. Perhaps a less obvious choice than the others although I am sure that any one of them will be a fantastic bike/ ride.

Tel's really said it, but the Concorde is the poor relation there.

I am a complete newbie to road bikes, I built up my Raleigh a few months ago and have been cracking in the miles ever since. Last week I managed to finish a late 1980's Concorde Astore. Other than the paint scheme, it is not that exotic, but has built into a sub-20lb bike and my first brief ride the other day was very pleasant.

Watch the bay for Concorde frames and also LFGSS, where they regularly turn up at under £200. There are a couple of nice ones on the bay right now.

Good luck with your search.

My Astore

Good stuff Neil thats a cracking looking bike, I reckon you've achieved a good mix of retro and modern The Concorde's are the bikes that pull at the heart strings, it was Robert Millar that got me off a BMX and into road bikes but it was the PDM team I backed. The LBS had a Concorde promo poster up and it was the PDM ones that I wanted the most. I'd probably say the Merckx bikes and Concordes are the front runners. Both seem to use columbus tubing so I'll need to do some digging on the tubesets they used.

With Concorde the tubesets are a real mish-mash, but as far as I can see, always Columbus.

My Concorde is in Aelle R, you will see others, probably later models sometimes in SL.

I can't date the changes, but later Astore have the rear brake cable through the top tube, mine's not. PDM team finish frames come up on a regular basis, especially if your happy to buy from Europe.

All of that said, I'm very happy with mine, although I would have liked SRAM Rival levers that had alloy levers, I missed two pairs, both at sensible prices, the rest of the chainset is SRAM Force, all of other parts are very European, but I did not go with Campag simply because I know nothing about the different models, as my background is entirely mtb's.

I'm just reading In Search of Robert Millar now, interesting stuff and more than a few similarities between Robert and Marco Pantani.

Concorde

Concorde Squadra's will either be SLX or TSX,as mentioned it is a really superb handling machine. I find the Merckx Corsa a bit better for longer rides, handles and rides brilliantly.
Mine, both in 48cm



Jamie

I forgot you had both! I reckon this has narrowed my choices down to 2. I just need to get my head round the ranges of both.

A PDM Squadra was the bike to have at my local club in the very early 90s (the TSX one), that or a Basso Lotto, another very underrated frame. Saying that, a Motorola Corsa Extra is nice but a Squadra will probably be better value.

I've looked at photo's of a couple of Basso's and compared them to my Astore. I wouldn't be in the least surprised to find they both came from the same frame builder.

IIRC Ciocc made Concorde's top end frames.