DMC707

I did have a great but low key Thanksgiving! Thank you! I was looking at photos of it and I guess mine also is more of a gray coloration.

I'll probably be dragging it back home soon. The bike shop is finally getting some inventory and the consignment pieces are in the way

Victory is not my "dream build" or anything, but it is All there, so is have a hard time turning a wrench towards it, but if I did it would be with a Racing T build out and grifters so I could get some enjoyment out of it

jdawginsc 

Update and ride the heck out of it! Go Ultegra or Tiagra and update the Italian vibe and be the envy, and the scourge of the C and V world!

Roger M 

I have a few bikes from unknown American builders from the west coast. If another(touring/rando) popped up in my size..

One other:
When I was about 12, I worked for a month with my grandpa, cutting firewood. It was was the toughest(& most memorable)$150 I ever earned. I really wanted to buy a green Paramount, but my folks weren't kicking in any money to help get me there.

I bought a red Le tour.

So maybe if a big 26" Mid 70s Paramount came available for reasonable dollars, we'll I'd still probably be hitting my mom up...

gomango 

I'd fire up the Paypal machine for the right Chris Kvale or Curt Goodrich opportunities.

A Toei may get me hot and bothered as well.

verktyg 

A young John Howard....

Here's a different view of him hammerin'



I have a 1983 Trek 700 with very low miles that someone will enjoy...




I'll post it in the C&V Sales sub forum when ready.

verktyg

Ged117

Me too - mostly influenced by Sheldon and the folks in the love for English 3 speeds thread. I found a '51 Sun Wasp frame with butted Reynolds 531 tubing for sale by a member here, and made a wheelset out of a '53 Sturmey Archer 4-speed and a Maillard 700 front hub, and spent some months collecting a few era-appropriate British parts, and built it up. Its a lot of fun and when I'm out on the bike with a sandwich, some cheese, and an apple in the saddlebag all is well in the world. There are plenty of '50s era Reynolds 531 UK-made frames out there of varying pedigree. This is a long term rider-project, so I'm not put off by the condition of the paint. I gave it several coats of renaissance wax to protect it for now. One day I am going to send it to Mercian for a full strip and restore.

PXL_20210624_002831127

For my part, I've always wanted to appreciate a Rene Herse up close or a Jack Taylor Tour of Britain. Such machines are few and far between here in Ottawa. A member owns this bicycle:

Kilroy1988 

Really glad to see the Sun Wasp in use, friend! I thought about it recently but hadn't seen that you'd posted anything about it. I actually started this thread the other day, so I guess I got my inquiry answered in a roundabout way! Cheers!

-Gregory

noglider 

I'm not sure why, but the bike lust has nearly drained out of me. I don't spend much time wishing for bikes or planning to buy or build. Being on a tighter than usual budget is a factor, but I don't think it's everything. Maybe I have more than all I need, and that's enough. The stuff I'd like to have but am fine without is the new stuff, like the new gravel bikes. A titanium gravel bike would be amazing. I just saw a great one for sale in my size, but I'm not buying that this year. In the meantime, I made an old Raleigh Super Course into a gravel bike, and I enjoy it a lot, on both roads and trails.

I think I'd like an e-bike for running errands over big hills. But that's a very low priority.

I'd like my spouse to buy herself an e-bike so she can keep up with me or, more importantly, so she can go more miles in a single ride. She didn't care for the idea when I raised it but has now ridden the e-bikes that Citi Bike has. She really likes them, and they're not even comfortable. Imagine what she would do if the bike fit her well.

mstateglfr 

Something from a small Japanese Brand like Kavalinka, Cherubim, Nagasawa, etc.

mountaindave 

For now my answer to this issue has been to ride a tandem with my wife - I haven’t been able to drop her yet! But I have also thought about the e-bike option. We haven’t gotten there yet, mostly because a bike that fits her well would be easily into the $4000 range, but perhaps some day.

noglider 

We have a tandem. When we agree to ride, she often prefers her single bike. Also, maybe our tandem isn't that great. It's not hard for her, but it's quite hard for me to ride. Then again, I've had this problem with friends' tandems I've tried. My shoulders aren't very strong, and holding the bike up is hard. I thought the tandem would make riding easier for her and it would be an equalizer. It is an equalizer by making riding harder for me.

Yeah a good e-bike is $3,000 or $4,000. Not easy to afford for us, either.

mhespenheide

Hmmn.

The only one that's really attainable that I want but just haven't picked up yet is an RB-1. I'm probably looking for a '92 or '93; the yellow-with-white-panels paint has grown on me over the years. Also vaguely looking for an '83 Sequoia, but that's more curiosity. Now that I'm back in Seattle, I'd happily pick up the right Davidson and/or Rodriguez.

There are plenty of other framebuilders whose work I'd be interested in (DiNucci, Kirk, Kvale, Lyon, DeSalvo, etc.), but they're not common enough to call "available" even though many of them are still building. There's actually a used ~62cm DeSalvo out there right now that I'm having a hard time ignoring. There's a Jack Taylor out there in my size that I'm interested in, but the owner doesn't seem ready to sell it anytime soon.

Really I should just ask gugie to keep an eye out for something appropriate in my size (or ask his recommendations on what to look for) and call it good. Like others have mentioned, I'm trying to cut back on collecting and focus more on the riding. That's hard when I don't have much time between a new job and a very young son.

Classtime 

I think I’ve attained most of the attainable C&V that I’ve wanted and then moved them along. Among them were some upper tier Motobecanes, Raleigh’s, and a PX-10 that were pictured in my dog-eared catalogs. But I never sampled the nicer Schwinns and there would be some temporary hooks in my garage for a racing Paramount at the right price (Like the 300 dollar, baby blue, one owner, in my size, that I should have bought and left at my folks house during a visit a couple years ago.)

PugRider

I'm always on the lookout for a GT Tachyon in all of its 700D weirdness. My day will come!

sd5782 

Someone will be happy for that full 531 model 700. Mine was high miles when purchased, so changing a few things didn’t hurt much. Very nicely equipped in stock trim and a very pleasant sport touring ride with more emphasis on sport. Another member posted his that he restored into fast bike trim. Mine got the old guy setup with with an 86bcd SR Apex crank for some easier gearing. Probably my favorite that I have. I will be watching the sales out of curiosity as that one year only bike may be someone else’s affordable grail bike.

Kobe 

The only C&V bike I have remaining is my Expedition, and that only stays because it was cheap and takes large tires. All the skinny tire bikes are gone and most of them at the time were grail bikes and hard to find just because I ride 66-68cm frames.

Oddly, the 2 that I miss are easily attainable in the right size. My 2 favorite riders of were a Specialized Sequoia and Centurion Elite GT. Nowhere near as pretty as the Italian and custom American bikes I have owned, but were so versatile you could ride them anywhere.

Kilroy1988 

Well, I started this thread discussing frames with Nervex Professional lugs, and although that feature still alludes my collection I have actually been on the lookout for a special British frame suitable for time trialing c. 1950, as I've been slowly collecting all of the right parts for such a build for roughly two years already... This isn't "attainable" like any ol' frame with Nervex Pro lugs, but it fits the spirit of where many of you headed with your posts! I'm just now finishing up the transaction to purchase this fine 1952 Claud Butler Olympic Sprint with road/path features (fender eyelets and drilled rear brake bridge) with lovely bilaminate lugs that became standard on the model that very year. Looking forward to putting together what will be my first period fixed gear build! I love riding fixed but have only had more modern commuters or weird conversions I've done in the past.

With this build complete I will only be on the lookout for one more bicycle in the foreseeable future, which will be another British frame of the era that is both perfectly my size and has all of the features for a classic 3-speed SA build.

Cheers!

-Gregory

sheddle

A Shogun Prairie Breaker in the "Dixie Cup" paint job.



Absolutely the most 80s paint job ever made, which is precisely why I love it. There's one available now but I just can't pull the trigger on $400, and the drive down to Portland, for this thing.

79pmooney

I really don't lust for old bikes. Mostly because so few fit me well. (New bikes too. 3 of my 5 bikes are customs.) Plus I have the dream bike that while new, is very, very old school in concept. (And it won't be too long before it retrogresses to sewups.) That said, I've know that great riding bikes have been around forever. I rode a circa 1930 track bike around the Marymoor track outside Seattle. Clinchers and way too small but it was very obvious - size it right and throw on sewup and it would be a rocket!

And - Attainable C & V You Want but just Haven't Got. Breaking this down. "C" - Roman numeral for 100. "V", 5, "C & V" 105. Shimano 105. Yes quite attainable and I don't have much but I'm really not all that interested.

79pmooney

Nice bike! The track bike you could ride to the race, flip the wheel, remove the brake and race. Fenders for training. (I've chatted bikes with an older English man who used to grass track race on a similar bike. Grass track racing - cheap track racing that can be done anywhere.)

And those lugs! I've been hearing about the Nervex Professionals a lot recently but hadn't seen them yet. If I knew bout them and they were an option, they'd be on my Mooney. (It has the far more prosaic short point Nervex that the lugs of my Fuji Pro were a close copy of.)

Kilroy1988 

79pmooney The lugs on the Claud Butler aren't typical lugs at all, but a bilaminate faux design with welded tubes beneath reinforced by these. They were proprietary for Claud Butler and only used on the Olympic Sprint and Avant Coureur models in the early to mid-'50s. Quite rare.

I mentioned the Nervex Professional, which are the "typical" ones you refer to, because I brought those up in the initial post. Unrelated to the Claud Butler frame!

-Gregory

Kabuki12

I hear ya! I bought my wife a Townie Go with a Bosch mid drive system last year and she LOVES it! She has some health issues that keep her from riding but the Townie is upright and very comfy for her . It has an internal Shimano hub that can be shifted even when stopped ( she has a bad habit of not down shifting before stopping) . On the hills she slays me and on the flats she is on my tail at 17+mph. I used to have to stop every few miles for her to catch up but not any more . She can do a few 15 milers without running out of juice . She is usually just in Eco mode and then when we hit a hill she bumps it up and leaves me!! It was expensive but worth every penny, we have been together 50 years and ALWAYS shared our love of cycling and now she can join me occasionally.

Kabuki12

Since this picture she has lost about 30lbs. ....... Cycling Good!

Drillium Dude 

Please do a thread on this beauty when you build it up! That frame and all its details is the coolest basis for a build I've seen here in a long time

DD

merziac

That is fantastic, we just celebrated 30 years plus a few before that. My wife loves to ride too but we never really did till the last few years but not really much. She has health issue as well so we will be pursuing an Ebike for her, should have done it already.