DARTHVADER

yeah i wanted a bike that would do lots of things well and bill nailed the geometry and fit. excellent frame and fork, he did it in a very reasonable timeframe too.

rothenfield1

Currently stripped to frame and fork and work in progress.

Sixty Fiver

Let me wipe away a little drool here...

retrofit

1980 Bianchi Super Corsa (with Pt. Pinos Lighthouse in the background, from today)

stan

curbtender

Go for it DD, you've got some nice ones.

Dyermaker

Jeeze Louise,

Now me, I really am just in love with those metallic charcoal Austro Daimlers'...

rat fink

Maybe not the most high end in comparison to a Rensho, but my Super Strada was possibly the best offering from Univega: lugged frame/triple butted tubes with chromed stays, Full Dura Ace 7400 groupset, Atax bars, etc. I have changed a lot of things to suit my personal taste/fit:

bikingshearer 

Here's my three. The dates are for the frames - none of the componentry is period-correct. So sue me.


1993 Fuso - Built by Russ Denny very shoretly after taking over Dave Moulton's operation. Combination of Columbus SLX and SPX.





1982-ish Ron Cooper. Don't know what the tubing is. From Ron Cooper, I don't much care.




1967 Paramount. Reynolds 531, natch.

rothenfield1

I'll take a novice stab at this: Yes, the simple answer is that they are the bikes that most of us can't afford, but I'm beginning to think that there was a golden era of road racing bikes that set the standard in people's minds of the best combination of function and form. For this thread, think Ferrari and Porsche, & others, iconic for their proven history of speed & quality, but also their beauty. Some road bikes of the 70's & 80's seem to have hit the sweet spot for the combination of the best technology available at the time which has translated to a certain beauty of the form. For example, I never was attracted to the color Bianchi "celeste" until I began to understand the heritage of hand-made frames and top-of-the-line components. Now, "celeste" has a whole new meaning to me. It's like your Granddads old Meerschaum pipe, it may have looked funny and stank at the time, but you may think that it's was pretty "high-end" today. OK, I'm destroying this explanation. Would somebody help me out here?

Sharkish

Here's a picture of my current project and ride............ very odd paint job, but actually a LOOK 753, La Vie Claire model that was professionally repainted with the "tongue in cheek" reference top the old LVC paint underneath. It appears that a pump peg and additional water bottle cage mounts were added at the time it was repainted. I'm still researching the history of the bike and keep crossing off dead end tips......... still waiting to run across that "big break". I am currently running a Shimano 9 speed cassette with campy rear derailleur and campy Victory friction shifters......... Fulcrum wheel-set. Hopefully I'll have it back the the correct 1986 campy group at some time, but for now it is a speed rocket and my favorite of all my "old bikes".

banjo_mole 

Well, Mike, no Varsities or Contenientials or Sears bikes. I'm talking Paramounts, Cioccs, Cinelli's, etc. I want to see Reynolds 531 and Columbus, no gaspipe. Eye candy.

High end bikes are definitely handmade.

Lugged would be fantastic.

High-quality tubing.

High-end componetry is great. (Not Simplex Prestiege or Falcon, okay?)

Other people seem to think that riding a bike every day, like that tandem, makes it high end.

Umm... Not what I'm going for here.

That doesn't mean its not a great bike! My bikes definitely aren't high end. And they're not posted here. I love them, I ride them a minimum of 20 miles every weekday, rain, shine, thunderstorms, EVERY DAY. But you know, high end. The bikes all of C&V usually drools over.

If that came off snarky, I apologise. This thread is pretty much all snob appeal.

Like I said, I have no reason to post my bikes in this thread, it's ok.

-Nick

javal

since banjo mole defined "high-end" in this thread I´m in for an over-kill, but high-end in my meaning must be bikes built in its days to attract high-end buyer, which means made to be raced in a professional or semi-pro way. But high-end means "can afford it" aswell...

miamijim

High end means either the first 2 pages of a catalog or the last 2 depending on how it was arranged......
High end is Shimano Dura Ace or 600
High end is Campy Record (Nuovo, Super or C) and whater was 1 level below (chorus? athena?)
High end is Columbus SL, SP, SLX, TSX but NOT Tenax
High end is Reynolds 531 and 501 if its lugged

High is NOT a bike most of you/us cant afford.

calamarichris

Are you still in contact with the person who bought this Peloton? I've been looking for YEARS to find one of these in my size. I just bought one on Ebay and the seller mistated the measurements.

shrinkboy

yeah, in late 70s, early 80s, the standard race kit was an all campy group set on a ciocc/colnago/guerciotti/masi/grandis frame, with 36 hole high flange hubs on mavic tubulars. the kinda stuff that makes people tumescent nowadays. we treated 'em like the race tools they were, and only later did we recognize that we were at the high point of paradigm that is now gone, and therefore glamorous, collectible, oooh and aaahh-able. i would love to have some version of the all campy italian steel i raced on back then...

shrinkboy

yeah, in late 70s, early 80s, the standard race kit was an all campy group set on a ciocc/colnago/guerciotti/masi/grandis frame, with 36 hole high flange hubs on mavic tubulars. the kinda stuff that makes people tumescent nowadays. we treated 'em like the race tools they were, and only later did we recognize that we were at the high point of paradigm that is now gone, and therefore glamorous, collectible, oooh and aaahh-able. i would love to have some version of the all campy italian steel i raced on back then...

kpeezy

What about Marinoni? I'm not sure what people think of them. I have an interesting looking one with celeste rear stays/headtube with a white body. Columbus SLX tubing. Really great looking. Should I finally take some pictures of it?

ScottRyder 

Can we add Suntour Superbe to that?

Scott

DARTHVADER

there are still plenty of builders that will build you a classic looking (KOF) sorta frame fork. only it will be nicer than anything from ciocc, colnago, merckx, guerc, marinoni, grandis or whatever other bikes were handbuilt in factories during that era.
one huge reason is simply because there is a crapload of really nice IC lugs available from shen, e-richie and pacenti...
the era is not over, and as an added bonus, you can have the frame built specifically for your purposes and you can choose what lugs you want, the paint, the braze-ons, the fork crown, sometimes the tubing, so on and so forth. you'll have to pay though...and thats what i consider "high-end".

gomango

+1 Darthvader. I am on two waiting lists for custom bikes, and when they get close, out goes everything but the DeRosas.

paulkal

These are my two high end bicycles.
A 2007 Nagasawa with a complete C-Record group, Campagnolo saddle and bottle and Shimano Dura Ace handbar and stem.



And a 1992 Duell, with a mix of Record and Croce D´Aune. Duell is a small Dutch builder.

Rabid Koala

My Paramounts, lined up on an overcast morning. Front to back: 1991 Waterford, 1971 P 13 Chrome, 1972 P 15 Chrome with updated drivetrain, 1973 P 15 Opaque Blue.

bigbossman 

This is the one that more or less started it all - 1980 Swiss Mondia, 531 Reynolds:

rothenfield1

Well; when you do get your custom bikes, I'll be a good Samaritan and help you clean out that garage. Especially help you get rid of that ugly lime green one

Sixty Fiver

Love the Cooper... these bikes were never pictured in a catalogue, made to the highest standards imaginable, and every one of them is a one of a kind.

Here's mine... my guess it is a seventies model frame and fork.



And I think that at some point...this middle of the road bike has become a high end bike due to the sheer rarity of the model and the parts hanging off her.

My 1957 PLx8 Grande... "Edith"