Latest Garage Sale Find: 16-speed Aquila Strada Max
 

I've mentioned my wife and her tendency to bring home strays.
She does it all the time.
Today she found this little (56cm ... 22 inches) Aquila "Strada Max" bike hanging from the rafters at a garage sale.
It was dusty but not dirty & obviously had not been ridden in a long time. I know it looks blue in the pictures, but it is purple.

It has Shimano 105 brake callipers, grifters, head set, cranks, front derailleur and rear derailleur. Handlebars are Sakae Modolo Anatomical and forks are Sakae Littage FX. Chainrings are Shimano SG 39 and 53 teeth. Rims 700C on Shimano 600 hubs. 8-sprocket rear cluster. Heat-treated 7005 aluminium frame. Tires look like they have zero miles on them.

Included with the bike was the original wheelset - 700C alloy Wolbers mounted on Shimano 105 hubs - that are also dusty but appear to be low usage.

Any thoughts as to age & score ::: B, B+, A-, A, or A+ ??


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Nice! I think the brifters up the value a bit. I think the frame is a pretty run of the mill aluminum frame, and the components are mid range. I'd say 250-350 because of the nice condition it's in. Maybe more in a "hot" market. Good luck!

Your wife gets an A+ for effort. Agree $300-ish on the bike.

I wish my wife would come back from garage sales with bikes......she is more apt to complain about the # of bikes in the garage, storage, etc.

She used to try to explain to people why she needed 9 bikes.
Then it was 15. Now she doesn't even try.

Question about this Aquila she found :::
Anybody have an idea of how old this bike is ?
I'm guessing about 20 years old, from the early 90's (based on the depth of dust that was on it) but ???

Binky

I would pay 600$ for this bike. That purple color is beautiful!

look for the 2 letter date codes on the back sides of the components. They won't all be exactly the same but within 6-9 months.
vintage trek dot com has date code charts for many brands.

Binky-

You might want to try the guys at Racer Sportif on Bloor St. in Toronto. Aquila is their house brand bicycle.

As noted, Aquila is the house brand for the Racer Sportif bicycle shops of the GTA. The brand goes back to 1987 but the Shimano 105SC component group places it 1990-1998, with the brifter option being introduced for the 1993 model year, so it should be circa 1993-1998. The Look compatible 105SC pedals were replaced with SPD versions for 1996 but those don't appear to be 105SC and most bicycles were sold without pedals during this era, due to the incompatible clipless systems, so I wouldn't use the pedals as an age criteria. The serial number may provide a clue to the actual year and manufacturer. Alternately, use the component date codes, as suggested. Original price would have been in the $1000-$1500 CDN range, depending on the exact year. I could easily envision this selling for $500 CDN in the GTA at his time of year.

I would date it 93-95 based on components. While not super special that is a great looking frame I really like the cameleon purple/blue paint .