And now for some thoughts...
Something to mention right off the bat is that you'll notice some of the selections have a full brand name and model listed, where others simply list a brand. Some of the posts were a little cryptic. Some listed only a brand, one word. Others posted a picture with no words, leaving the reader to either deduce through features or try squinting really hard. The worst offenders were absolutely the Bianchi, Eddy Merckx, and De Rosa crews. They would simply post a picture...'Bianchi'. Or a beautiful De Rosa...but what is it? What model? I'm making an assumption that probably a decent number would have been, say, a Professional, but regarding Bianchi, I have no idea - they all look the same! Same with EM.
To summarize, here are the top answers overall for brands:
Trek - 30
Raleigh 17
Schwinn - 16
Peugeot - 14
Bianchi - 11
Centurion - 11
Colnago - 10
Another thing starts to become abundantly clear as soon you make your way through the entire list - There are definitely some loved models for sure....The Masi GC, The De Rosa Professional, The Cincelli SC, and the Paramount. All of these have found favor among many cyclists. It begs the question. So which is the most favored frameset? What is most oft chosen, and stands taller than the rest? The one that blows them all out of the water, with a total of 7 replies with the same exact choice, is the mighty, yet humble...
Centurion Ironman!!!
While Centurion didn't make the top 3 with the number of bicycles chosen overall, nearly every Centurion chosen was an Ironman. It beat out the Supers, it beat out the Gran Criteriums, it even beat out the Paramounts! Now, I'm under no illusion that
exposure plays little influence here. However, it is still mightily impressive, and given the fact that you can easily find an IM for about a 10th or 20th of the price of one of the pure bred I-talians (On my first group ride was a guy with an IM that found it put out for the garbage), it is an absolute no-brainer!
But what about the Paramount! It had seven as well!
Right? Well, the IM still wins out because the 'Paramount' selections spanned all generations, covering multiple decades, different revisions, styles, manufacturing facilities, etc. The IM just had a few years, and they were all pretty tightly consistent. So there you go.
So congrats to all the IM fans out there - your day has come!
It is also fun to look at what people really liked as far as models go. In this case, I'm including models that may be different but have the same frames (to the best of my knowledge):
Ironman - 7
Paramount - 7, with a caveat: different generations
Gitane TdF/Super Corsa - 5
Trek 560 - 4
Trek 9xx - 4
Trek 760/770 - 4
PX-10 - 4
Trek 4xx - 4
UO/UE-8 - 4
The 'potential' best frames list -
The reason why I am separating these out is due to lack of information. It may very well be the case that most posters of a certain brand had a majority of the same model of said brand, but because I don't know (we'll never know), I'm putting them in their own category:
Masi GC - 'potential' 7
De Rosa Professional - 'potential' 6
Cinelli SC - 'potential' 5 (and different generations)
Colnago Super - ??? 2-6
Eddy Merckx - 5???