Road bikes

So I've been really enjoying cycling recently, and I'd like to get a road bike. I'm not looking for anything too fancy, and low end brand new they are minimum 500. I don't really like the look of new ones, much prefer the old 80s/90s style frames. I'd quite like to work on one as a little weekend project, learn some bike maintenance along the way, upgrade parts as i can afford it etc...

I guess my question is, do any of you know of anyone selling a road bike, or have some old bike sitting in your shed that you don't want anymore?

remember that sooner or later you are going to want to toe for road work meaning you'll want to add a few inches to your frame size.

for older style stuff Reynolds 531 is unbeatable, light and very strong, in fact proper 531 competition (proffesional even better) is still viable up to very high senior level. (back in the 1980's i used to have a Peugeot 531 pro c frame with mavic equipment and it weighted 13.5 lb !!)

as i remember it the weeklies were a good place to pick up nice stuff, often older boys would prefer their beloved stuff to go to a good home rather than getting top dollar all the time.

if touring is the path you'd prefer there is nearly 100 years of great experience out there, for example, 3 rings front 6 rings back on a light weight sturmey 2 speed box = 36 gear ratio's !!! (although not all would be strictly advisable)

carbon fibre is too inflexible imo for prolonged road work, expensive gimmick that weights much the same as tubing (it is much stiffer though and that is of benefit for top riders producing very top power outputs...but for everyone else ? hardly worth it)

look on ebay Italy for nice old campag stuff at reasonable prices (shimano is highly specified but won't last any where near the time of campag or mavic for that matter)

hope some of that helps

how tall are you,

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ellis-Briggs-24-5-Frame-Reynolds-531P-tubing-Campagnolo-Record-Headset-/110932554179?pt=UK_sportsleisure_cycling_bikeparts_SR&hash=item19d41871c3

iifc ellis briggs was a cycle shop in Cambridge (very shaky memory) could very easily be wrong but as i remember my wife's Romany was commissioned by these people, top quality only !!

same tubing as on my old Peugeot.

edit; west yorkshire is where the shop is, i'm sure we got the missus frame from cambridge, perhaps they had a second shop for a while or it could be my memory aint what it used to be (laughs very quietly )

Only bikes I can get hold of are new ones like.. GT's TREKS CBoardmans etc..etc


That went for 150£ ^^


That one went for 200 ^^

I got a batter'd GT I use to ride to work, it belongs to Suzi the spider now tho. xD

I'm about 6 foot, i figured i'd go for 23" or so

spotted this one, what do you think? - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110932503962?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

looks pretty well kept

My back would be fucked riding that thing! nice bike tho.

was gettin excited when i read the title but u on about doing the work yourself?????

this is me on my ROAD BIKE from a couple of years ago i was 20 at time of pic on my ZX6-R F-1 NINJA(Streetfighter)

Scotty i'll take a 21" for £150. Frame size not wheel size. Hybrid will be fine as im not going silly down hills. Just want a trail and road bike with good kit on it.



Midget, you shall now be known as MrKidd. As in Eddie.

Cool, the next one is yours!

can't see that staying near the £100 mark over the next 9 days.

rough guess that would have been £350-400 ish in '93 so realistically i wouldn't bid more than £160 ish.

you're right about the condition, its brand new (the sticker under the front diagonal tube is genuine) (i worked for Peugeot cycles Uk between '88-'90)

it's a little heavy mind, and i'm not sure why....105 stuff was pretty light, the frame shouldn't be overly heavy so i'm a bit stumped why it weights 20lbs ?

remember its fleebay, another one will be along shortly and you've picked a really bad time to buy a road bike hey !! (wiggins et al)

Yea i expect it to go up quite a lot. Ha thats true, might just wait til it starts getting cold and they all decide to sell their bikes.
Its not particularly light, but its a hell of a step up from the kona i've got right now, and the lighter they get, the pricier they are from what i've seen.

The one on the left is my friend Jordan's (full carbon, super nice)

The one in the middle, the Bianchi, is mine. 61cm, carbon fork, cromoly steel frame. I love it.

The one on the right is my girlfriend's. Zeus chrome frame, vintage bianchi fork, cutiepie basket... I like to ride behind her. >_>

Oh and that Peugeot is awesome. Great bike. Get it! It's so cheap.

note reserve not met

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bertin-Racing-Bicycle-early-1980s-/130742700327?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item1e70df4927

if you got it and its heavy sell it on, if its light i think (just maybe) he don't know what he's got (maybe...ish)

other than that its a nice colombus framed racer with nice lines imo

wrong thread dude

I like your road bike Scotty

WTF is that??

I posted that in Exe's topic arma screenies

how about this for 140? http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=215905

Beautiful, nice modern brake levers, classic tube shifters, beautiful white parts. That's a nice bike. I like it best of all you showed. Total bargain.

tad pricey for a Reynolds 501 frame, also i think Raleigh haven't made bikes in GB since '82 ish.

Reynolds tubing nomenclature relates to tube thickness ratio at the butted ends, 501 means that the tube has been swaged once (the 5 in 501) the rest of the tube is a ratio of 1 by comparison.

the tube needs to be strongest at its end where it is either brazed into a lug or but welded to another tube, the stronger the end of the tube the lighter the rest of the tube can be.

as its a ratio it doesn't follow that the 1 of 501 is the same as the 1 of 531 or indeed the 3 of 753 etc in fact in all those examples the lowest ratio is thinner in each example given because the ends of the tube are either stronger or the ratio is more technically accomplished (e.g made to more exacting standards)

501 is just better than plain tube but is still fairly heavy, get down to halfords and pick up a couple of similarly spec'd bikes that have different frame materials. (but don't buy there !)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_Cycle_Technology

the list given in the above entry will give you an idea towards the progression of quality that you can expect in Reynolds tubed frames.

note that some old nomenclature has been superseded by new numbers so old 531 pro is now called 653.

columbus tubing is similar but has fancy names to denote different specs, this you will have to research on your own.

hope this helps

that is helpful, but i am on a limited budget and this guy will post it as well for 140. seriously tempted

http://secondhandbikes.org.uk/peugeot-aravis-531-professional-road-racking-bike/

if you can stretch a bit this is the real deal.

at 22" its a little small for you but nothing a seat post wont fix, this is a bike and a half, i used to have one in my youth and its a proper racer (senior club level in its day)

yea i can afford that, s**t! i've been looking all day, i would have had that if i'd seen it

the forks are a little bent i notice and this would explain the price.

a decent old fashioned bike shop would be able to repair although i'd probably prefer to replace, as they are they will work and be relatively safe but after any repair the forks would need to be heat treated to professional standards.

however, if you go for replacement the weight difference between a set of standard 531 forks and a set made from 753 (531 pro) would be very small due to their physical size so effectively replace with any peugeot 22" 531 forks (which should be easy enough to find as they were plentiful) (remember that very modern forks incorporate the steering column and as such wont be appropriate replacements)

if the frame is bent (he implies it isn't) the fix would simply be to place the bottom bracket in a large vice, level it and then with a broom stick in the steering head tube bend until plumb to your pre-leveled bottom bracket) sounds daunting but it isn't.

maybe a lttle big for you if you are exactly 6' but...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PEUGEOT-ANETO-RACING-BIKE-REYNOLDS-531-FRAME-AND-FORKS-/180952987702?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item2a21a37836

nice bike very similar to the aravis

someones time trial bike here, nice basis for a road racer.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZEUS-LARRAU-RACER-BY-ORBEA-COLUMBUS-TRE-TUBI-AELLE-FRAME-/160857239817?pt=UK_Bikes_GL&hash=item2573d6b109

i grabbed that peugeot with the bent forks

they don't look too bad and it'll do as a beginning, just what i was looking for, cheers speed

pleasure to help no problems. very nice start to a project !

i'll see if anyone i knew back in '89 still works for Peugeot UK, hey you never know ?

any forks to fit a 22" frame from the period should fit straight on, slightly later forks had fork tubes that butted up to the steering tube (like early MTB forks) the ones you've just got have a cast steel yoke that the fork tubes are brazed to and at a rough guess will be rarer than the slightly later ones but other than the slight cosmetic difference theres nothing to worry about after a repaint.

but be assured you'll love the quality of this bike (better than pretty much everything but the most exotic custom hand made stuff of the time) and in todays prices, well 753 racing bikes have got to be £1000+ yeah

if i'd known you were such an expert i'd have asked alot earlier! guess the first thing to do is get the forks all sorted, probably go for a replacement.

Are you going to use this for sports or just to go from home to work?
If you will be cycling alot with high mileage please buy something good

You will have way more fun and keep in mind that bike fitting is of the utmost importance when cycling alot. You make sure you buy the right bike for your body/lenght.

I'm riding a customized Koga Kimera myself:



Best bang for buck:http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/bikes/road/product/review-koga-kimera-road-ud-team-12-46189

£2.2k for a beginners road bike...? Yea, i don't have the money for that. I also can't stand the look of modern bikes like that. Thick tubes, plastered with logos. Imo, the old steel bikes are 100x better looking and a hell of a lot cheaper! Think you just wanted to show off your fancy ride brad

the old steel stuff is almost certainly lighter as well

i remember riding the first carbon TT bike that Peugeot road team were going to use made by a company called Look, it was so horrible that when it didn't break it would rattle your fillings out, in the end they cut up the frames and put steel forks and rear stays on it then recovered them in carbon fibre to maintain the appearance, the riders hated them, but that was at the beginning of that technology, it was only just starting to being used in F1 then.

i would imagine that they've sorted most of those early design faults and comfort complaints now but at a huge cost to the consumer, £2K for a bicycle...hmmm.....must be getting old......in fact anything that costs 2 grand better have a minimum of 10bhp per 100cc

@ capitan, the old peugeot works in Bedford has gone so i can't get in touch with anyone i'm afraid but i'll carry on looking out for a pair of forks for you but it might be worth getting in touch with peugeot France, you never know, back in my day they kept a lot of spares for older bikes, they were a conscientious a company like that. (much better than their car division by a mile)

capitan send these people an email explaining your fork problem, i would be interested in their reply.

http://www.ellisbriggscycles.co.uk/renovations.php

£62 for a pair of fork blades or £92 for new forks complete.

i'm rapidly thinking this may be your best bet, i did find a pair of px10 forks on french ebay but the advert lacked enough detail to start a no doubt complicated and confusing conversation with le froggy selling them....

front forks are quite delicate and needy things and a trusted place like briggs wil make sure all parameters are set and met correctly and i will take this oppertunity now to say -----do not buy universal forks off ebay------it WILL end in tears------

when you get the bike post a picture here of the steering head and about 10" of frame back from the steering head so as i can see if your going to need any attention to the frame (probably not but worth a look all the same) but don't worry to much frames bend back and will be safe, its just forks that are a bit.......fussy ?

when does it arrive btw ?

here is a nice web site that has pdf files of most catalogues

http://www.cyclespeugeot.com/index.html

in the '88 catalogue is your aravis (mine was the chrome and pearl white one in the small picture, happy days)

yea i found these guys whilst looking for the possibility of repairing them. when i get the bike, i'll take a few photos and send them an email and see what they think.

should arrive next week sometime, bloke said he'd send it on Monday. Yea i found that website as well, the chrome one is a bit tastier haha