Help me build up my italian steel road bike on a budget

if you are patient you can get decent second hand parts on the cheap but that requires time

As I love the 7400 Dura ace group, I would say this is a nice target possibly cheaper that some campa stuff
in France I managed to get a nice condition rear derailleur for 25 euros, a front one for 15
brake shifters would be more tricky to source on a reasonable price as would a pair of wheels.
Clearly a donor bike is the best solution
250 euros got me a peugeot with columbus slx frame with nearly full dura ace 7400 group and mavic ceramic wheels on the group hubs :mrgreen:
I stripped it and resold the frame for 200 !
But clearly that was a stroke of luck

ads from the local area are the best to find those type of deals :idea:

i reckon its a cool retro frame, looks to have a short back end in keeping with a lot of italian frames . colnago 's are indeed not that cheap are they? but is the ride worth it? perhaps one day i'll be able to buy a secondhand one and find out! i saw a guy walking in to ripley cycle jumble with a master frame , my size too , he was hoping to get £200. i was walking out skint . i reckon a saving could be made with nice aero brake lever.s and down tube shifter's , instead of sti .personally i reckon 8 speed veloce/athena/chorus/record ergo lever/s visually are much of a muchness but big on price difference.

TurboJ":2khjsfiq said:

The thing I just don't get, though, is how can the prices soar so much on ebay. Maybe I need to become an ebay dealer myself....

Click to expand...

You answered your own question here. Ultimately the only reliable way to get a bike cheap is to play the buy and resell game. And with eBay you are not limited to the local market but can sell to the whole world. Is it a pain in the arse? oh yes. Could you get ripped off, yes but it is infrequent. Is it for everyone? no way. But allow me to share a little secret: Not one penny of the money I earn at my job goes into my hobby of collecting bicycles and I have a few nice bikes.

For what it is worth,


Steven

A few nice bikes must be an understatement, having only been on this forum a few months im begining to recognise some hard core. do you fancy launching all the pics lowisfoto?

I plan to get them all up at some point. Truth is I have been so busy at work, and riding bikes, that I haven't had much time for building bikes.

Thank you guys for all your input!

I will look for donor bikes and if that fails I'll just go for new Veloce.
The problem with donor bikes is that mostly there's only the groupset, and things
like seat posts, stems and handlebars will still need sourcing from other locations.

Regarding those parts, can someone help me to find a quill stem, handlebar and a set post?
Trouble is they should definitely have a polished finish to go with the chromed lugs and forks on the bike.

Stem needs to be 100 mm reach and one that has some height adjustment room too, so not a very short one height-wise.
Seat post should be 27.2 mm.
Regarding the bars; I see Cinelli makes some new bars with the classic look (as so does Nitto) but can I use Ergo shifters without
cable grooves? I expect that might make the bars very uncomfortable. Any advice on this question?

So maybe you have a link (in Europe please) that has the parts I need, or maybe you even have suitable ones that you are willing to sell me?

Anyone have experience with Ergo shifters and bars without cable grooves?

I have not done ergros with a round bar but BITD we used to run our brake cables under the bar so it would make kind of a ridge that seemed to increase the comfort of the bar. With two cables under the tape that might be a bit much though

some pro peleton riders in the 90/s did ride with the ergo cables bulging under the handle bar tape, personally i dont like the look although dis comfort is prob negligable.
Some <one?> also used a right sti shifter left brake lever and left down tube shifter probably in an effort to shave off gram/s in the mountain stages.This i will do one day , well where i live the 42 is used much less and its much cheaper to buy an odd half pair at a cycle jumble or on line.
ive never really checked up on quill stem lengths down into the headset, i suppose the thing to use is a head set with a reasonably standard stack height .
stems,bars, seat posts < whether original era or retro /modern> can be the cheapest stuff of the lot!
once i have the year of my next frame, then the thing for me to do is find what group and components
came out about then,wheel rims,number of spoke holes,headset,bars, everything. nos would be nice , but i cant see it in my bank balance somehow!
buying a doner bike and transfering the bits is by far the best way i agree. If there/s one or two bits your not happy with i would keep them, bide your time then flog them and replace with what you want :idea: