jm1na

Totally smitten with old Italian road bikes, I want to experience the mystique, history and perhaps the quirks of old Italian bikes(are there any?).
I'm a big sucker for looks, long time vintage car fanatic(mostly British) and Italian roadies really get me going. With all the reading I'm doing on the web about getting fitted for a bike am I crazy to even consider a used road bike let alone a really old one?
Is it going to be nearly impossible to find one for my 5'5" height?
Should vintage road bikes be left for riders that have something else modern to ride?

thanks!

hxzero

5'5"? Not a big deal. You'd probably ride about a 50-52 cm, that shouldn't be too hard to find.

Stacey

No, that is why we are here.

kpug505

I'm 5'6" amd prefer a 52cm. I started riding on 50cm bikes and could never get comfy. Just don't be scared of stand over height. You're supposed to ride it not stand over it right? Like me you might need to run a shorter stem though. I usually run a 90 but sometimes if the top tube is shorter I run a 100.
I loves me some Italian! Do it!
And no.......Vintage road bikes are not just for people with modern bikes. I don't have anything newer than 1990 or so and ride everyday.

cyclotoine

In my opinion, Yes.

A girl came into the shop yesterday to have a flat repaired (front tire lucky for her as she was still running a tubular probably glued 10 years ago on the back).

The particular bike she was riding was sold out from under me on a classified. It had a full 1985 C-record groupo (cobalto brakes mising stones)... she had already replaced the front wheel and was unsure whether she'd relace the back or not (thus having mismatched wheels and hubs). Of course the bike was dirty and a little beat-up, but many of us would rebuild and restore it. She on the otherhand was riding it as found, no overhauling of bearings, and using it as a general get around bike to commute. It was agressive too about a 52cm bike with 120mm stem and cinelli criterium bars (can you think of anything more uncomfortable than commuting on a racing bike with a backpack?). In anycase, no offense to her, she was obviously young and hip and probably stoked on her schnazzy vintage ride which exudes style. But little known to her was she was riding an italian classic with C-record parts deeper into the ground. It saddens me.

Another example, girl who works at a clothing shop downtown rides a Limongi with super record/c-record part and rides with the seat on an insane tilt and the original look pedals with street shoes. The bike looks like hell and the hardware is all beginning to rust, I see it locked up downtown.

In my opinion it's a crying shame that vintage bikes have become so cool and people are buying them up to use as daily riders (I mean bikes like the particular examples above, not the pedestrian junk, I'm currently riding a 531 Jeunet into the ground daily). There is a finite amount of these parts and the pool is shriking. No I think the bikes should be ridden but if you are serious about your riding you will appreciate the performance enhancement of a modern rig, there is just no competition. Vintage bikes are fun to ride but they should be reated like classic cars and taken out in nice weather and preserved.

hxzero

I think you can definitely use your vintage bike as a daily rider - just make sure to take really good care of it and love it like a child.

vinfix

No, you're not nuts, you like what you like. If the aesthetics are more important to you than modern "enhancements", it's your perogative. Just starting out, you wouldn't benefit from a bike that's a couple of pounds lighter. The best bike is the one you get excited to go out and ride.
Myself, I can't get used to bikes with compact frames and bolt on stems, let alone shifting with brake levers. It's just weird.

jgmacg

Nuts?

Hardly. Just a little warped toward the beautiful, in the way most folks are in this forum. If you buy vintage for your daily rider, just be prepared to spend incrementally more time fiddling, tweaking and polishing. That's part of the fun.

My daily rider is a 30-year-old Motobecane, and my personal madness is an unhinged enthusiasm for old French bikes built to specifications no longer in use by anyone anywhere on the planet. You, on the other hand, are comparatively sane - given the fact that parts for Italian bikes remain much more widely available.

cudak888 

+1. I'd have no qualms about riding C-Record on a Colnago every day, provided I could be assured a nice safe indoor lockup wherever I was traveling to.

Gives you an excuse to give 'er a nice cleaning once you get back home

-Kurt

jm1na

https://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/bik/766331438.html

A little too big for me, looks like a very cool bike, but were there any bikes actually called a FELICE GIMONDI or some brand that Gimondi rode?

I don't need a ride for everyday. I only live a couple of blocks from work so I walk. Just like my MG, it comes out on nice days. I also have a rocky mountain mtn bike as my errands bike.

CardiacKid

I would much rather see someone take an old bike and ride it than do a Chip Foose on it.
I was really hoping that Lance would have taken one look at what he did to his Goat and just kicked his ___.

unworthy1

I think that Chiorda sold a Felice Gimondi model bike, not one you see very often. Probably the top of the Chiorda range, maybe built for them by somebody else (Bianchi?). Edit: did some research, depending on the year it probably is not their very top model (the all-Campy Professional), but very likely Bianchi-built, mostly Campy, and pretty nice "team blue" finish, might be a good rider if the price is right.
Can't tell enough from that CL ad to tell, but I'm surprised that the brakes are Mafac and the bars "French", that would be non-stock for a Bianchi in 1968, methinks.

mugatu

Just be prepared for when you crash it for the first time, especially if you're new to riding. Don't sink all your time and effort into one nice bike that you can't afford to repair.

jsmithepa

Would it be blasphemy for a classic frame with modern components?

Kommisar89

cyclotoine, you're describing clueless people abusing bikes. They'd be abusing their new bikes too. I ride my vintage bikes all the time but they are well maintained and I expect them to outlast me. I do worry some about the consumable parts - not that they won't be available but that aesthetically suitable replacements won't be available. Things like tires with tan sidewalls or polished aluminum box section rims (like Sun just discontinued their polished CR18 and M13II rims), or new freewheels and chains that aren't shiny nickel plated silver. Those don't tend to be the parts that the hipsters want anyway. Maybe if they did somebody would be making more of it.

Longfemur

There's a bit of a dichotomy here, because if you do find a nice, vintage Italian, should you ride it as your only ride or keep it for special occasions or display? They won't be making any more of them. Already, it's starting to be hard to find some parts even from the 1990's.

But on the other hand, they were made to be ridden.

There's no reason to have one of the modern Formula 1 style plastic bikes with Chinese-factory frames. The old bikes may be a few pounds heavier, but they have a special quality you can only feel when you ride them a lot on varied terrain. I don't know how to describe it, but they have a certain twang in the frame that can't be replicated with plastic or even aluminum. If you have the fitness and the legs, you would still be easily passing the new cyclists you see who have the right bikes and the right clothes, and even on the hills.

If you already love these kinds of bikes, then you must be someone who like me, loves the cycling itself, not the technology. Much about cycling in the longer term, if you're not racing, is riding what you love and being yourself. So, if that's what you want, go for it.

That being said, if I wasn't chronically broke, and I did have a vintage Italian, I would have a vintage something else for my every day rides. Something like a cheaper Peugeot, Raleigh or other popular make of chromoly road bike. There's someone I see every once in a while who apparently commutes on a Carlton, of all things. And unless it's a copy, it looks to be in beautiful shape. Now that's something I would never do. I also see some pretty nice, more pedestrian bikes like vintage Fiori's, Bianchi's, etc. being ridden as daily rides (some of them converted to fixed gear, which I consider to be sacrilege).

Yesterday, I walked past an old steel lugged Norco road bike rather carelessly locked to a post. It's an old Canadian brand which still exists. In it's pristine light blue with cream head tube and lugwork, it looked all the world like an expensive Rivendell. Now that's the kind of bike I need for my daily rides.

Chief&Champ

1)Natural cycles, pardon the pun. The popularity of the vintage bike will mean an increase in it's cost (not value) which will eventually hit a peak which will deter those half-heartedly interested in vintage bikes, thus bringing the price back down reasonably. True, if they're all mistreated and their parts become useless, the price of good condition parts will rise; but I think the ratio of good vintage bikes stored in garages everywhere versus the ones beat-up will definitely be in favour of prices remaining reasonable (just a guess). Sorry for the supply/demand rant.

2)If your vintage bike makes you happy, I say do whatever you want with it! Chances are that you'll take good care of it so that it continues to bring you joy. I don't think hipsters are as destructive/careless as you imagine.

The preferable compromise between hipsters and collectors should be this;
-Hipster gets UO8
-Collector gets PX10

This way, if you're such a dolt that you'll leave your vintage bike locked to a post in the rain all week, rusting and being tacoed by drunks, you'll be ruining one out of a million common bikes.

We shouldn't overvalue vintage bikes that were designed and manufactured to be used as beaters.

Just my thoughts.

Rabid Koala

I don't have anything that I can't ride. Unfortunately a "daily" rider or even a ride doesn't work in my schedule. I wish I could commute by bike, but owning a construction company pretty much precludes that.

John E

I own classics exclusively (see my signature), so I ride classics exclusively. I love the way they look, the way they fit me, and the way they ride. The performance enhancement available from a newer, lighter bike is so minuscule that I have absolutely no incentive to plunk down a kilobuck or two (or three) for one. I take care of my mechanical possessions and generally get many years of service out of every car, appliance, and bike I buy.

RobbieTunes

I'd love to ride a classic Italian job every day, but I can't, or won't. Some may be too pretty to ride, but they prove when you ride them that they are made to be ridden. And if you put it on a pedestal (or a high bike rack), that's where it tends to stay.

If you like the bike, buy it and ride it. Nothing lasts forever, and don't let someone else end up riding the bike you either didn't get or wish you'd ridden more.

The vintage bikes many of us collect are just the ones that didn't get used up. For every vintage classic out there in mint condition, someone rode the beetlejuice out of a hundred more just like it, as intended.

Luckily, for many of us, we can still pick what we ride, savor others, and we also can savor the ride.

Mickey

What do you think about a new italian bike with all the classic attributes?

https://www.tommasini.it/telai/tecno.html

"On demand custom measures"

John E

I love the frame. I hate the reduced spoke count wheels, particularly the radial lacing. I hate indexing of the front derailleur.

jet sanchEz

'Nuff said

frameteam2003

A friend is restoring a 1936 Mino (italian) so you not alone--old Italian steel is quite interesting.This one had the derailer mounted above the cluster and you back pedal to change the gear--sam

gridplan

Maino?