old 2nd hand road bikes

u05harrisb

hey guys and girls!

im looking for an old road bike, the sort of ones with down tube shifters and such like. im looking to spend about £150 max including the little bits and bobs that need to be changed i.e. brake blocks and cables or there abouts. im gonna use it as a hack bike that i can then use to ride to school 20 miles all round or to work which is 25 round trip. any suggestions for things to look out for when buying a bike of this sort of predicable age? and where would be the best place to look for these types of bikes?

many thanks!
Ben

Monty Dog

Try Retrobike forum for advice. The best place for good deals is your local paper or even the municipal dump.

unixnerd

Loads on ebay and gumtree.

The weight can vary a lot on bikes that look similar. The grade of steel tubing used is the thing to look for. Also, a lot of bikes used heavy steel rims even into the '90s. I had a mid '80s 10 speed Raleigh I bought new, it was a decent bike and I did a lot of miles on it. But with hindsight it was undergeared and weighed a ton.

I remember the first day I took out the modern steel tourer I bought as a replacement, I couldn't believe how fast it was! And my current road bike weighs about half what the tourer does.

There's a definite retro attraction for those old bikes and I often fancy one myself, Puch Mistale maybe? But you can pick up a half decent modern road bike for under 200 if you watch the ads and it'll be a lot easier to cycle and get parts for.