Affordable vintage Italian road frameset?

[cycletothesea]

A friend of mine, has tasked me to source and build something vintage, Italian and racy for him to pose with on sunny Sundays. I'd figure about £600-700 worth of bike frame and parts should keep him happy. So that rules out Colnago or deRosa frames, and might have to do some scrubbing/polishing if I buy any old Campagnolo parts. But to to narrow my eBay search, what would you folks say was the best 'value for money' classic Italian racer frame that I could pick up on ebay for between £200-300?

 

[lewisfoto]

There are lots of good quality Italian makers that are not very colletible and so the price is lower: Ciocc, Battaglin, Benotto (only the 3000 was made in Italy) Basso etc. Look for a complete bike that needs a gentle restore, rather than piecing one together.

 

[cycletothesea]

Thanks I'll have a search for some of those marques, see what comes up. However, it's the piecing them together from scratch that's the fun bit, otherwise I wouldn't have offered to help

 

[bedraggled]

Not easy building up a nice bike from scratch using vintage Campagnolo for £600-700.
The asking prices on eBay are getting laughable, a great deal of the stuff is only fit for the tip and almost everything that is genuinely nice is priced for lottery winners only.
Personally I've stopped using old components, I buy an old frameset but use a brand new groupset.
I've found that neo-retro is quicker to source, cheaper and (whisper it) works better.

 

[David B]

Cavallo isn't a name I'm familiar with but this example looks very good value at the price range you're thinking of, just by way of food for thought:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Vintage- ... 51b95c493b

Build and finish quality look decent, and Genius is a well regarded Columbus steel tubeset.

David

 

[328isport]

Not easy building up a nice bike from scratch using vintage Campagnolo for £600-700.
The asking prices on eBay are getting laughable, a great deal of the stuff is only fit for the tip and almost everything that is genuinely nice is priced for lottery winners only.
Personally I've stopped using old components, I buy an old frameset but use a brand new groupset.
I've found that neo-retro is quicker to source, cheaper and (whisper it) works better.

Agree with the above, you could easily spend £3-400 on just wheels, a crankset and derailleur's, not to mention other pricey Campag bits like seatposts, brake levers, calipers, DT shifters, then you'll need a nice seat, handlebars, stem.. don't get me wrong if you get a frame for a steal and get lucky on some of the other parts you might be able to do it within your budget, but it won't be easy.

I looked to start building up old Italian frames as high end singlespeeds a little while ago, but upon working it all out I'd have needed to get over a grand for each build to make it worthwhile due to the cost of some of the nicer second hand parts.

Your best options are;

A. buy a slightly tatty full bike for restoration
B. buy a full bike which has all the components you would like, but on a not so desirable frame, then strip it, sell said frame to get a bit of cash back, buy an Italian frame and rebuild

Also don't be scared of jumping on Ebay.it, it is possible to pick up some bargains and many Italians speak English/are more open to shipping abroad than perhaps we are in the UK.

 

[cycletothesea]

Not easy building up a nice bike from scratch using vintage Campagnolo for £600-700.
The asking prices on eBay are getting laughable, a great deal of the stuff is only fit for the tip and almost everything that is genuinely nice is priced for lottery winners only.
Personally I've stopped using old components, I buy an old frameset but use a brand new groupset.
I've found that neo-retro is quicker to source, cheaper and (whisper it) works better.

Also don't be scared of jumping on Ebay.it, it is possible to pick up some bargains and many Italians speak English/are more open to shipping abroad than perhaps we are in the UK.

Ebay is my prime source of parts, and I wouldn't spend more than £200 on wheels. I built up this bike (below) from a £250 ebay Pinarello NOS frame, the rest: about £200 worth of Mavic Open Pro wheels and £300 worth of VGC Shimano Dura-Ace parts, all separately sourced from various sellers over the last couple of months. It can be done, but it's not something anybody could ever make money out of I don't think. I think I got lucky with the frame though, either that or it's not as good as it looks (probably that).

 

[328isport]

Nice build that Is it me or does it have internal cable routing on the top tube but you've gone outside anyway? Might just be my eyes lol. Good luck with your friends build, i'm sure given the above bike you won't have a problem getting it done.

 

[cycletothesea]

No, your eyes are good. Unfortunately, mine weren't quick enough to spot a brake ferrule being pulled into the top tube while adjusting the brakes. And attempts at trying to free it have just pushed it further in, completely sealing the inner cable run in the process, nothing but gunpowder will dislodge it, it seems. Live and learn - never mind!

 

[606]

You can build a Colnago for £600-700, easily. Look for Super frames, should be £200-300. Try LFGSS.