So I’m looking for an old steel frame bike to do a custom build for touring. Something with plenty of room for bigger tires, something that I could upgrade the drivetrain/components fairly easily…ect.
I found this on Craigslist for $100 it seems to have been garage kept for the past 10 years, the owner doesn’t seem to know much about this bike so I’m looking for info (at least what you can tell from the pic) and what I should look for when I go see this bike.
by Traditional-Peach722
2 Comments
Perfect – it’ll do another 50000miles of loaded touring.
It has all the standard braze-ons and I cant see anything obscure. It will just work :).
Yeah. Looks good. The rims look almost new: the slightly wavy edge to the silver strip means the brake pads have only just worn through the anodising. Plenty of spokes and they look stainless?
There’s no braze-ons for mounting bags on the forks, but you can carry a lot on a rack.
I would swap the handlebars for something with more positions, or at least add bar ends/bullhorns. You’ll probably want to swap the saddle too.
Some of these bikes have a really short seat post so if it’s too small you might need to buy a new seat post.
Things to check: cracks. Look at every joint and all around the headset. If it’s cracked, don’t buy it.
Bearings: spin the cranks, the wheels the headset, give everything a wobble. Bad bearings can usually be fixed/replaced.
Spokes/ wheels. Make sure the wheels are true and round and the spokes evenly tensioned before you go on a long ride, don’t let a slightly crooked wheel stop you buying and riding it.