Narhay

If you wanted to tick as many boxes as possible in a 10 C&V road bike collection to span the world and only the top end component groups of the time how would you do it? I think I would do the following:

Japanese
Cyclone
Superbe
Dura ace ex
Dura ace 7400

Italian
Campagnolo Nuovo Record
Campagnolo Super Record
Campagnolo Chorus Record

French
Mavic
Simplex/stronglight
Huret/TA

Amongst those I would find a frame befitting the groupsets although I am finding there would be a lot of competition for the campy NR/SR groups.

Raleigh Professional/International
Peugeot PX-10 or equivalent French bike (Gitane, Mercier)
Motobecane Team/Le Champion
Vitus 979
Colnago Super
Bianchi SC/Superissima
Pinarello Montello/Treviso
3Rensho
Centurion Pro or some sort of Lotus?
Schwinn Paramount
Eddy Merckx
De Rosa

My list is certainly skewed to production machines. I am sure those that enjoy smaller custom builders would have others listed.

What are your thoughts?

bikemig 

I keep an eye out for bike from different nations. So far Japan, the US, Canada, Argentina, the UK, France, Belgium, and Switzerland. I'm keeping my eye out for bikes from Spain, Austria, and the Netherlands.

I much prefer finding bikes that are fairly complete. If I build from a frame, I try to build it with parts that make sense given the kind of riding I'd like to do on the bike and given the age/nationality of the bike.

That's what I'm doing with the early 70s Fuji Finest I'm rebuilding:

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...ld-thread.html

USAZorro

I have one of the bike boxes ticked off (twice). I think you've done a good job on your lists, but I can think of a few components that would be fun - as you'll see depending on the age of the bicycle.

Spidel, Maxi-Car, Harden, Chater Lea, Benelux are names I'd look to incorporate... though at least one frame on the list would need to change to incorporate any of the latter 4.

non-fixie 

Although some groupsets do look nice (Shimano's 600 "arabesque" and 105 "golden arrow" come to mind) I've always felt that they were a compromise from the user's POV. And as my interest is mainly in bikes from the era before the groupset concept became popular, my logic would be to build bikes around the old adage "the best available within chauvinistic limits".

So, for instance a mid-sixties French frame would have:
Cranks & BB: Stronglight
Transmission: Simplex
Bar and stem: Philippe
Rims: Mavic
Hubs: Maillard
Brakes: MAFAC
Saddle: Idéale

An Italian frame would have:
Cranks & BB: Campagnolo
Transmission: Campagnolo
Bar and stem: Ambrosio
Rims: Fiamme
Hubs: Campagnolo
Brakes: Universal
Saddle: San Marco

And a Dutch frame would have:
Cranks & BB: Stronglight
Transmission: Campagnolo
Bar and stem: Titan
Rims: Fiamme
Hubs: Campagnolo
Brakes: MAFAC
Saddle: Brooks

P!N20

Did you mean Corsa Record aka C-Record?

squirtdad

not sure I could get to 10 I think i would focus on country and frame

something like this very loosely

Japanese tubes
High end tange tubes and a Suntour superbe group (3rensho?)
Miyata spline triple butted with dura ace 7400

531
Raleigh high end with campy
Paramount high end with campy
Something french with Huret

Columbus SL/SLX

De rosa Molteni with period campy
80's de rosa with 7400 (common)
Pogliaghi just cause i like the name

so I got to 8

Kent T

On the 531 bike, lose the Huret dropout equipped models, please. Replace that with a nice Claud Butler, Jack Taylor or something like that. Huret will fail ye, and causeth much gnashing of teeth. Get the Huret on a notch lower end French bike with decent but not 531 grade tubing, something like a nice workaday Motobecane.

Kent T

This is an awesome, well reasoned, well thought out post. Bike Forums C&V logic at it's finest.

Vonruden

Herse cranks

cudak888 

Builders:

• Confente
• H.R. Morris or Bill Hurlow
• Alex Singer
• Toei
• Gloria

Components:

• Sturmey-Archer
• Mavic
• Campagnolo (admittedly overrated, but also a crime to exclude them).
• Precision
• Zeus
• Suntour

-Kurt

bikemig 

Yeah I'd dig an all Mavic or all Zeus bike. I've been a suntour fan for a long time. I have a cross suntour xc pro group (cantilever brakes, hubs, derailleurs, shifters, triple crank) waiting for just the right bike.

Other than that groups don't do that much for me. I do think a French bike with all French parts (simplex/stronglight/huret/atom/maillard/mafac) is worth owning, however.

cudak888 

I've had my fill of all-French stuff. Every single time, a disappointment. That includes my one-off Peugeot PY10 show bike, which was the bike that convinced me that French is not for me.

That's why I built my '82 Schwinn Superior as a Francophile road/rando mix with a complete mix-and-match of French parts (CLB-2 brakes with Spidel levers, Huret RD, TA Pro 5 Vis crankset, Mavic [Simplex] Retrofrictions) and a few Italian bits (Campagnolo Record hubs, Campag Triomphe headset, 3TTT stem/bars), combined with some neo-French bits from China (Velo-Orange fenders).

The result? The French look with minimal headaches about bits that break, bits that don't work, or a combination of the two. It also solved the problem of groups that are 50% gorgeous and 50% eyesores.




-Kurt

non-fixie 

Perfection.

RobbieTunes

Hmm. I've had 1/2 of the OP's list. All good.

Frame-wise, the builder and tubeset seem to combine well; i.e. really good uses really good, but the good frame builder can exploit the tubing, whereas good tubing won't elevate mediocrity.

My experience:

Simplex over Suntour over Campy for friction.

Shimano for indexed. Period. Especially 9/10. I will * the 10sp Campy conversion.

Ergo/STI goes to DA7700. 9000 is close, if the cable was direct routed, perhaps better. Centaur 10, first gen, not a bad thing.

Electronic? I yield to Riddle of Steel and my friend Mike who runs eTap. All I have is Mektronic, which is mostly a mystery to date.

I appreciate what Mavic has done for us, and Continental, and Brooks and VO and Phil.

John E

Did someone mention Austria? This predates my 1960 "littermate Siegers," which feature Campag. Gran Sport instead of the earlier Capo Simplex clone derailleurs shown here.
1952 Capo Sieger with Capo derailleurs

iab

You people and your moden stuff.

I'd start with a flip-flop
Vittoria Margherita
Cambio corsa
Gran Sport
Nuovo Record
Cyclone
Super Record EPS
Alfine di2
And end similar to the start with a pista

uncle uncle

I'd probably dig the really old stuff, if I could ever FIND the really old stuff.