I’m going to start putting away money for a geary road bike.
70s to early 90s lugged steel is what I want.
I’m partial to Italian stuff (for no real reason), but I would also ride something Japanese if it is awesome.
I would want a complete group, with a modern brifter setup (which doesn’t necessarily have to be part of said group if the group is old). Don’t need a whole lot of speeds. A 5-7 speed cassette would be totally fine.
What frame and group would you recommend that meets my criteria?
As I’m typing this I feel like I’ll probably have a lot of options, but I just want to get some ideas.
Waterford - too much money
Paramount - much desired, hard to get cheap
Trek - I see 'em get a lot of attention, especially the 520, thus more money
Miyata 910,610, or 1000. These are awesome and sometimes go cheap.
There are also bikes from Nishiki and Univega, some of which are decent.
I got the girl an '88 Specialized Allez. Obviously, i would endorse one of these. Look for anything that’s double-butted.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the group. I’d opt for something that’d take an 8/9/10 speed cassette, cold-set the frame for 130mm and throw some 105 (or cheap Campy) brifters on there with the existing front and rear mechs.
Your probably going to want to look for a UJB (ubiquitous Japanese bike) from the 80s. Centurion, Fuji, Miyata, Panasonic, Shogun, Nishiki, Univega among others are pretty easy to find. They’re cheaper than Italian bikes and will have standard sizing and threading unlike French bikes. Look for a bike with a nice Tange or Ishiwata tube set since everyone else will be looking for Reynolds and Columbus.
Either that or a 90s steel road bike built in Taiwan or whatever. These will also probably be a bit cheaper and less sought after since it’ll probably have vertical dropouts.
Univega for the win.
They pop up all the time in great condition. They made a double and triple (i think i remember seeing such a sticker on one) butted frame that were great.
Get one way cheap. If it’s your first road bike get something with barcons or down tubes preferably friction. This is a great place to learn about working on geared bikes, and they are incredibly classy looking. Also: there is something undeniably awesome about the feel of a well tuned downtube friction bike. I miss having one.
[quote=“frankstoneline”]Univega for the win.
They pop up all the time in great condition. They made a double and triple (i think i remember seeing such a sticker on one) butted frame that were great.
Get one way cheap. If it’s your first road bike get something with barcons or down tubes preferably friction. This is a great place to learn about working on geared bikes, and they are incredibly classy looking. Also: there is something undeniably awesome about the feel of a well tuned downtube friction bike. I miss having one.[/quote]
Triple-butted tubing is not inherently better than double-butted. Let me 'splain:
Double butted tubing has a thick section at either end of the same wall thickness. 8/5/8 for example has .8mm, .5mm, and .8mm walls. Triple-butted means that there are three different wall thicknesses, like 9/5/8, for example. Often it can be cheaper quality tubing.
Tri-color 600 is cool. The girl-bike has some tri-color 600s parts on it.
I really wish I had this one early 90’s magenta Miyata road frameset that a lbs had hanging from the rafters. It would have been great built up as a regular roadie with STI, or with risers and downtube shifters. Probably do something like 32h Aeroheads laced to 105 hubs, Flite saddle, etc. Too bad it’s gone
Mad love for Japanese steel. So much so that when I sold my 80s Miyata 912, I had to get something to replace it. Luckily I found that Paramount PDG ('92 double butted Tange Prestige, built by Panasonic) for 1/2 what I sold the Miyata for.
The '92 Paramount PDG came in an even more tarck paint scheme – white with neon splatter. There’s one on eBay right now, with brifters, I think, for $400.
