Vintage bike advice/help please.

Hi

I know nothing about road bikes, but am about to start!
I am going to do the 100 mile L’Eroica this Summer and need a bike. The last road bike I had was a Carlton Corsa 30 years ago!

Ideally I would like a nice, very clean, largely unrestored example, preferably a quality brand/name that is British or Italian and I have a budget of about £500 but could go considerably higher.

Does anybody know of a nice bike for sale either privately or from a bike shop? I have trawled through ebay, but really don’t know what I’m doing!!

Any help would be appreciated. Thx

You've got mail.

£500 will get you a lot of vintage bike on eBay, particularly English ones with Reynolds 531 (or similar tubing). My own preference is for English built bikes, and they have to be Reynolds tubes. Components can be Campagnolo, if possible, or Shimano 600 perhaps, or even the original 60/70s components like Huret, Weinemann, Mafac.

I bought these two bikes a few months ago, and will be riding one of them at L'eroica (not sure which yet) - a Shorter and a Pollard - both for not much more than £400 (the Shorter with a full campagnolo record groupset). Are they worth it, I don't know, but I know I just love the way the look and they give me a lot of pleasure to service and ride, and both have given me scope to upgrade simple things like handlebars, brake levers, new cables, bar wrap etc. without any huge expense.

Look for brands like Mercian, early Carlton's (pre-Raleigh), Ellis-Briggs, Rotrax - all quality marques, which might turn a head or two at L'eroica, unlike a bog-standard Raleigh or Peugeot. There are many other's I'm sure, those just the ones I've looked at myself over the last six months. Currently desperately looking for a good{'ish) condition Sun Snipe as I just love the look of one I saw online.

Best site for researching Classic steel roadbikes is http://www.classiclightweights.co.uk
where you'll find a list of all the quality framemakers from the 60s, 70s and 80s.

cycletothesea

Thanks for the info - especially the link.

interesting is one font on the pollard incorrect ?

Well, don't want to hijack this post, but I don't think so. Seen other Pollards on-line with lowercase lettering on frame, but uppercase on seat-tube. Lowercase letters don't work vertically. Many old frames have the same distinction in their decoration. Presumably that's what you're talking about.

mm interesting thanks.another good place to view vintage frames for sale on line is 'hilary stone' because he has a lot.
i have never bought from him so the word is to 'view'

I still havn't found myself a bike so please get in touch if you have one you may consider selling.

I really would like a Colnago, but that's not set in stone if a really well specced beautiful looking bike comes along!

I thought it would be easy to pick a nice old bike up - how wrong I was.

Well, you'll be lucky to pick up a ready-to-ride Colnago for £500. It is quite easy to pick up a decent-looking, l'eroica qualifying bike for less than £500, so I'm not sure what you've been looking at on eBay. Depends on what size frame you're looking for though.

This is nice:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/vitus-rare-vi ... 417c62445a

This is a single speed, but it's bloody gorgeous.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-JT-Rodge ... 4acfeb0844

cycletothesea

I did say in my initial post I would be prepared to pay considerably more than £500
As you point out and I have discovered, that will have to be the case!

Thanks for the links - The Vitus is nice looking but too small for me - I am 6ft.
I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the Rodgers does nothing for me - but thanks for taking the time to point it out (and in any case, I will struggle to do the event with gears!! so fixed is definitely out.)