Looking for something old enough to have down tube shifters, but new enough to have aluminum 700c rims. These bikes from the mid 80s are in my size and arranged from lowest asking price to highest.
Can anyone who rode back then fill me in on which brands were low end and which ones were the shit? Which ones have better steel, and how do you tell if they’re 27” or 700c?
Curious about this Raleigh Technium. It has a hybrid steel/aluminum frame so I bet it’s light, but my retro nerd friend said he thought they ride kinda jittery and maybe a simple steel frame would be more solid.
by MrPlunger
1 Comment
The Davidson! Awesome small builder from the late 80s, early 90s. Easily the classiest bike of the bunch. Davidson is right up there with Serotta and Bruce Gordon among 80s American low production frame builders.
The Raleigh isn’t all that light despite the aluminum main tubes. Worked at a shop that sold these back in the day. Also, they’re prone to failure of the epoxy holding them together.
The Centurion, Bridgestone, and Schwinn are all decent. But the Schwinn and Bridgestone are way overpriced.
Stay away from the Peugeot…even in the late 80s early 90s, French bikes sometimes had French thread headsets, or used 22.0 mm quill stems, or some other uniquely French nonsense.
The Bianchi is just a meh, made in the far east model.
The Panasonic is just OK too.