I picked this up for £400 a while back, Columbus SLX tubing, diamante chainstays, mint condition Campy Chorus… Was a proper bargain and is a very sweet bike to ride, fits me perfectly 😀

DSCF4083 by ten_sim, on Flickr

The weight thing Is mainly down to lighter modern kit ,unles you go really high end with carbon the steel frame will be a pound or 2 heavier at worst .Its fairly easy to get even 531 sub 20 pound with good kit on .Which is significantly lighter than mine is currently

That DeRosa is nice ,its the old school paint jobs that I really like.

I picked this up for £400 a while back, Columbus SLX tubing, diamante chainstays, mint condition Campy Chorus… Was a proper bargain and is a very sweet bike to ride, fits me perfectly

I know- I remember your first post on the bike. I was very envious. This sort of thing would be heaven.

The weight thing Is mainly down to lighter modern kit ,unles you go really high end with carbon the steel frame will be a pound or 2 heavier at worst .Its fairly easy to get even 531 sub 20 pound with good kit on .Which is significantly lighter than mine is currently

Yup reckon this is true, though it can get expensive quickly and there may be limits. I found most of the weight to be in the components on mine (BB and cranks for example will likely weigh a tonne if they are original.) Then there’s the wheels. Then there are things like seat post (which might be some weird old standard diameter and really limit choice of lighter replacement) and saddle. Then there’s quill stem and bars.

I did work out that I could get my old 531 well under 20 lbs, though it would have cost me a few hundred quid to do so (wheelset, chainset and BB, etc.)

Oh and depending on the frame you may need to spread it to take a modern rear wheel. Not really a problem but you may need to do some hanger bending to get indexing on the shifting working properly.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CICLI-MONDIAL-italian-Road-Bike-Columbus-Tubing-Gipiemme-Parts-Engraved-3ttt-/111095281156?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19ddcb7604

Retro road bikes are lovely, but they don’t ride then same as modern plastic/alloy frames. I ended up selling my Graham Weigh Columbus SLX as it was rather flexi. Beautiful though.

That Coppi that DezB linked to 8) Shimano RSX100?

One thought… having recently rolled my 1997 Lemond out of storage in the first few weeks of riding it I’ve had to replace all the spokes in the rear wheel. The tyres were replaced a few years ago when a friend borrowed it so they were good but the tubes were shot. Chain and drivetrain were fine and the cables only needed a lube. There was a problem with one of the shifters but a lube and fiddle sorted it… but I know the history of this bike and its been looked after through storage… secondhand bikes may not have had such an easy life and could require more cash thrown at them.

RSX is what you would expect with Columbus Thron it was a cheaper tubeset

Hora,

I picked up an old steel Harry Hall a couple of years ago for peanuts.
Columbus SLX tubing with chromed fork and seat/chainstays.
Mavic rims, Duraace hubs, mixture of Duraace & 600 with some later 105 bits.
£80 will spent! 😀

Ecky-Thump quit willy-waving 😀

The weight thing Is mainly down to lighter modern kit ,unles you go really high end with carbon the steel frame will be a pound or 2 heavier at worst

Yup, my 531c frame and fork weigh about 2lbs more than my carbon Wilier.You could still build it into a light bike if you wanted to.

Always keeping any eye out on here

http://www.pedalpedlar.co.uk

and enjoy ice cold snacks too

Hora is this any good 60cm c to top or is it a bit big looks nice right price?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bellabici/sets/72157633994443658/

Im 6ft2. It looks a good resto project

Edric 64 is that yours? The forks look like they’ve been walloped.

Here’s one………

cost me £400

Oldgit I thought that but the listing reckons not

Surprised no one has mentioned http://www.hilarystone.com yet! Personally I think a lot of it is over priced but I’m not up on old roadie history and I’m sure there is some negotiation room there.

GIOS I have one of these its a lovely ride

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gios&id=F516A1CDB23BF0E6A1BA9092A3CD18587B077ABD&FORM=IQFRBA#view=detail&id=F6C6A0677CC4E83BEC716DE9210EFE5B73AD539F&selectedIndex=495

Here are ours, a steel 80’s 12 vitteses Peugeot, and a ti GT 🙂

Some more steel porn sites;

http://www.ebay.it/sch/Bici-da-corsa-/7297/i.html

http://www.hilarystone.com/frameset.html

http://road.cc/content/news/77852-icebike-2013-volare-range-and-new-853-equilibrium-video

I have two older steel bikes. A 653 Dave Yates from 1995 and a another Yates from 1998. The 653 is a little flexy but lovely to ride (hand built wheels Record 10spd groupset). The 853 is a fair bit stiffer, much nearer to the ride of my Carbon bikes.

Some cool retro bikes out there. I love mine and they are staying with me!

Far from top end but could be a cheap way to test the roady waters for somebody (possibly too small for the OP).

Peugeot Virenque

15 years ago (when I was a lad etc) I went out with the local roadies/triathletes on an ancient borrowed race bike. It was a 1970’s thing with light wheels and kit but it looked like a POS with a red Hammerited frame and downtube shifter etc. I managed to stay with the fast group for all the long climbs but on the flats I was woefully undergeared and had to wait for the next climb to catch up. At the end of the ride it was commented that I needed a “decent bike”. I bought my 853 Lemond the following week and stayed with the group on the next ride.

Some of the older stuff available is lovely as museum pieces but as with mountain bikes there is an age beyond which bikes become a bit less usable (IMHO etc).

tinribs that Ritchey *swoon*

eviljoe – that Ti GT is sex on wheels!!! I love it. 😀

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=260928

A friend rescued a near mint one of these from a council tip recently, lucky sod 🙂

Peugeot UO8

eviljoe – that Ti GT is sex on wheels!!! I love it.

My Mrs had one of those Ti GT’s and a matching MTB too, they were ‘skip finds’ from a mate of mine who used to work at GT in California 10 years ago or so, chucked because they didn’t have frame numbers on them!

Sold for a pittance a few years back as it was always a touch big but god I wish we’d kept them!

😯 Skip find!!!???

My best skip find was a complete kids apollo bmx for the bairns!… Probably weighs more than the complete GT! 😀

If you dont mind stretching your budget(£499) for a new bike take a look at the ‘Scout’ from Bobbin bikes.

Keeppedalling on Hilton St in the Northern quarter have one in(not your size though) if you want to see one in the metal.

@sas78 Yes it is rather nice… though you do rather feel the odd seatpost angle on the climbs.

@Blazingsaddles – I didn’t buy yours did I? Would have been about 2010 I bough it on here

Steel is fine for decades my oldest is a 1947 Hobbs Of Barbican bought from Hillary Stone for about 90 quid

I have a late 70’s LeJeune and my wife has a Serth Ifrikan Zini from the early 90s, both nice steel frames with original or period parts, both cost less than £300 to buy.
I just love using down tube shifters, takes me back to being a teenager on my Dave Marsh, bombing around Barnsley…

Meh…

I can’t get my head around the love for old/retro steel frames. It’s nice that people like them, but when I started riding, that’s all there was. I had a number, both stock and custom, and they really weren’t all that good.

I moved on to aluminium frames and never looked back, then carbon came along and things were even better.

I gave my last one away, a 753 custom job…

eviljoe, No I don’t think so. ours was quite small and sold around 2008 I think.

I’ve had fancy Ali, it and carbon frames, silly lightweight bits and bobs on 15 lb bikes. I don’t race, I can’t justify having that sort of money tied up in a road bike that I only use when it’s sunny and I fancy a spin, or on the turbo in the winter.
Plus I just like old stuff. Guess that’s why I also own an early Klein, and have had 70s and 80s cars and vans more than modern stuff.
Each to his own though. If you didn’t buy the modern stuff, the future retro geek wouldn’t have anything to scour eBay for in 10 years time!x

http://www.hilarystone.com/

It just takes a little time to find the bargains Somtimes
I’ve got a nos vitus alloy frame from the early 80s
It’s very light and nothing remotely to do with crc lol

Just need to save a little more for some retro campy

So far I’ve got frame/ fork nos £50
Mavic screw on hubs and campy strada rims used but useable £23
Modolo bars £6