A few months ago, I was riding my beloved Raleigh Carlton Grand Sports (61cm) when I was in a collision with a motorcycle. Luckily, I survived, but the bike did not. I was making do with another bike I had (Ross Professional Super Gran Sport – 58cm and a bit too small for me), until one of the spokes broke and I decided I needed to find something. I'm looking to spend a maximum of around $700 – I have insurance money of $575 for the bike replacement, but I would probably also want to do a fitting, tune-up, etc., so leaning towards something more in the $400 range, which I think would probably be a comparable quality to the Raleigh I was riding.
Use: commuting primarily (~6 miles each way, 5 days a week), also for exercise and I enjoy longer 20+ mile rides when I have time.
I'm not opposed to a "new" bike but something about "vintage" just sounds nice to me – while I'm sure STI or disk brakes are amazing, I like the "idea" of being able to adjust brakes, shifting, etc. myself if something goes wrong or if I want to make a change. That said, I've never used a modern/new bike so I could be totally wrong lol 🙂
If it's helpful, I do have the Raleigh parts, which was upgraded in a few ways to include 3×6 stronglight cranks, or I could snag the Shimano 600s off of the Ross.
I'm in the greater Boston USA area and have found these few on Craigslist in my initial search. Are any of these "stand-out" options?
https://boston.craigslist.org/nos/bik/d/medford-cannondale-30-series-road-bike/7889604558.html
https://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bik/d/cambridge-motobecane-10-speed-commuter/7890356941.html
https://boston.craigslist.org/sob/bik/d/foxboro-miyata-610-touring-for/7884283414.html
https://boston.craigslist.org/nwb/bik/d/bedford-italian-de-bernardi-columbus/7875236777.html
by Reasonable_Phone7431