CyclingFool95 

I like those 7-11 bikes, to be sure, and I would certainly buy one if one came along for a reasonable price. But, I'd love to get my hands on a DeRosa. And, when it comes to the best-looking 80s bike, this is the winner

BFisher

@ManekiNico, thank you.


Bike forums C&V: the learning never stops.

himespau 

Thanks to suggestions from folks in this thread and elsewhere, BB is out. Now I've got a lot of cleaning to do and then building up of a my first Merckx (and first Ti bike).

Rocket-Sauce 

Some say the last year in any decade is the X0 year, so the last year of the 80s is 1990.
Using that logic (which I never really bought...) then, this is the best looking 80's bike


Which is tied with


Both, IMO...

sincos

Blue bike ... Renault Elf bumblebee strip ... one of the epic rides of the last 50 years or more ... Can only be a Gitane!

What's not iconic about it? What, in fact, makes a bike "iconic"? A bike's just a bike, so to me if a race bike merits that description there needs to be something about taking its riders to the top step of the podium in the toughest races, preferably multiple times and in the worst conditions. How does the Renault-Elf Gitane not qualify?

There are other metrics. I might also add the Carrera Battaglin, for its Triple Crown. The Cafe de Colombia Alan Record, for introducing Al and CF to the professional peloton and for being the chosen ride of the first South American team at the top level. The Ti Raleigh and Panasonic Raleighs for their record in the classics and stage races. The Vitus 979 (though that's mostly Kelly's doing)

What makes the 7-11 Merckx iconic to you?

merziac

In the end it was all you, I'm assuming you won't be taking that sort of thing to the LBS anymore.

IME and from threads here, you're lucky they didn't forge ahead and end up having make the

"we're sorry, we really tried but only managed to strip, mangle, break, scrape or crack......" something call.

norskagent

From wikipedia:"While it was not the first professional cycling team in the U.S., 7-Eleven was responsible for an overall increase in bike racing interest in the U.S. The team claimed a win in a Grand Tour, when Andrew Hampsten won the general classification as well as the mountains classification at the 1988 Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy). It also claimed a handful of world championship medals and US championships, as well as Tour de France and Giro stage wins and one more Grand Tour podium (Hampsten's third in the 1989 Giro d'Italia). It was the second U.S. team to ride the Giro d'Italia (1985) (the Gianni Motta team was the first in 1984) and in the Tour de France (1986), where two Canadian riders on the team held the yellow jersey on different occasions (Alex Stieda in 1986 and Steve Bauer in 1990). Its Tour de France stage winners included Phinney, Jeff Pierce, Hampsten, Sean Yates and Dag Otto Lauritzen from Norway. In 1989 Brian Walton won the pro-am Milk Race (Tour of Britain). As of 2009, Team 7-Eleven is the only cycling team to have been inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame."

merziac

Agreed



And with any luck a 7-11 will be joining this one although it will likely be giving up its groupset for another project and getting a very close to original group from the way too small one that was traded for this tribute version.

DiabloScott

Better a biggarse cassette on a bike that you ride up mountains, than a corncob on a bike that hangs on the wall.

seypat

Or you can have both. So, explain to us why the bottom bike is the only one that should have a triple. Is it the rack eyelets?

Edit: Check out the corncob on the red bike. I was trying out different wheelsets to see what looked best.

embankmentlb

One thing is for certain. Their group has a wide range of interests. We do not like exactly the same things and it is great!