Hello from Cleveland
 

Hi friends, I am a new-ish cyclist living on the outskirts of downtown Cleveland. I often go on 2-5 mile walks around my neighborhood, and wanted to expand my range a little bit and still get some exercise in.
Since this is a new hobby, I don't want to dump an entire paycheck on a brand new bike, when I'm not sure how often I'll even end up using it. But I also want something that's built well, reliable, and will last long, and that line of reasoning has led me to look at older steel road/touring bikes from the eighties.
I've looked at a ton of different bikes on CL, offerup, Facebook marketplace, and am glad this forum exists because finding info about these bikes would have been so much harder without it.
And so, last night, I found an 88(?) Raleigh Marathon being sold for $100, met with the seller, and bought it. I can't find a ton of info about it, it seems to mostly be lower-tier shimano components, the frame seems decent though as it's listed as "575sl triple-butted chrome-moly main tubes." Honestly I'm not experienced enough anyway to appreciate a top-quality bike anyway.

Well done on getting out and biking. Cleveland is wonderful city and Ohio has some great biking. There are forums here that will answer your questions, but also seek out a local bike shop to check out your new purchase and tune it if necessary. And also check out local bike clubs. They will embrace new members and assist you.

I grew up in Erie and saw many baseball games in the old Memorial Stadium. Even saw Satchel Paige pitch there as hard as that is to believe.

Mike

Small update, a year later. Trying to get to the ten post minimum so I can post pics and interesting Craigslist finds

I now have:

1986 Marathon Raleigh. I take this on short rides, grocery runs, etc. Its got saddle bags for carrying stuff, it's the bike I ride. It's okay, not really anything to write home about. I'm using it as a test like to learn bicycle maintenance- planning on working on the bottom bracket soon, but most everything else has been done that needed to be done.

1983 Lotus Classique: I got this shortly after the Raleigh. It's in great condition, almost too nice to ride, and honestly I don't really ride it often, partially because most of my riding is to-and-from stores, and I don't want it getting all dinged up chaining it to light posts and stuff. There is an occasional, irregular ticking sound I need to sort out, and I've had three chain "slide" while going up a steep hill, but not sure the cause of that. Unfortunately, I think it might be sliiightly too large for me.

1990 Diamond Back/Centurion Venture. Tange infinity frame and Shimano Exage 400 group. I got this because it was listed for $60 on FB marketplace, and the lady selling it dropped the price to $20 before I even tried to negotiate. Unfortunately, the rear triangle is bent pretty badly. I'm hoping I can transfer most of its parts to the next bike:

1981 Pro-Miyata. This would have been one of the finest bikes of its day, but time has not been kind to it. It has been used, abused, and turned into a fixie. The derailleurs and original rear wheel are long gone. The rear brake is MIA, and the handlebars have been flipped around and chopped in half. It's paint it heavily chipped, only one sticker remains to identify it as a Pro-Miyata. It still has its original Shimano dyna-drive pedals, although they don't rotate freely and will probably be the first thing I address. It also has of course the dura-ace AX cranks, original Gran Compe 400 front brake, inner front chain ring, and quill stem, but each of these components is so banged up that I doubt they could be removed and sold for much.
I'm not sure what the end goal is with this bicycle, but it'll be a slow process. I'm hoping that I can simply transfer a bunch of parts to it from the bent Diamond Back.


1986 Fuji Sagres and Trek 700 multi track. These two were a package deal for just $75, from a really cool older lady who hadn't ridden in many years because of poor eye sight, and it was primarily her ex-husband's hobby. I am mostly interested in the Fuji, I didn't have to purchase the Trek mountain bike, but the seller just wanted to get rid of both bikes, and I figured I'd do her a favor and spare her from having to deal with any more prospective buyers. The Trek will probably be ridden twice and then donated to a local Co-op

The Fuji Sagres is in absolutely phenomenal shape, based off of just three blurry photos I wasn't expecting much, but was blown away upon seeing it. I haven't had time yet to get it cleaned up, but it looks really really clean. It has Fuji's quad-butted 1769 VAL-lite frame, which seems to be a big mystery, but it is the same material as that year's Club Fuji, so hopefully it's decent enough. I'm new enough to cycling that I probably wouldn't notice the difference between a quality and economy frame, anyways. It uses Suntour LePree derailleurs, which is something I was specifically looking for as I've heard most Suntour derailleurs were very good. All in all it seems like a good quality bike, built well but not really anything exotic or special for the time period. It will probably replace my first bike, the Raleigh Marathon, as my daily ride-to-work and pickup-groceries bike.

Lotus Classique and Raleigh Marathon https://imgur.com/gallery/K19YKin


Fuji Sagres and Trek 700 https://imgur.com/a/NFWsylb

Pro-Miyata https://imgur.com/a/RfAVVON

Wow, you’ve been busy! Thanks for the update. :thumb:

Glad you bought the Miyata pro...
 

It saved me the drive to Shaker Heights 🤣