Kaaaaaaandries' pursuit for the ultimate vintage roadie!

My Aquila had a 27.2mm seatpost. The wheel clearances as well look quite slack compared to the Concorde's I've seen

Excuse me while I cry for a little bit..

Tbh it doesn't really matter. To the casual observation it looks the same and quality wise counterfeits bikes seem to be well up to scratch (in my experience). Anything that bears the Concorde badge is a pretty ace bike anyway in my opinion. The only thing is otll be playing on the back of your mind for a while.

The rear triangle is a bit long for an Italian bike, they've always liked it short and tight in. Also the rear dropouts look pressed not cast?
Maybe it was faked by some schoolboy back in the day?

i've had this happen to me before, pretty annoying. i ended up selling it, but that was for other reasons. whats most important is how does it ride?

Exactly. I had a Carlton in Ti Tubing, heavy-ish but rode a threat for going around town and would have served well as a tourer too I suppose.
More durable for sure

Not gonna lie, I'm quite annoyed!

I spent my 7 mile commute this morning very grumpy noticing all different bits and pieces which I'm not happy about - all of a sudden! It does make more sense now, especially in relation to the array of different parts fitted and looking more closely at the lugs, dropouts etc..

But I suppose I should have been way more cautious before buying it. It was one of those where I got all excited when I saw it.. Even more so when I realised it was local and in the right size.

I'm sure it'll do the job great but like @HHC says it will most def play on my mind. It's the fact that I didnt know it was a knock off that's got me a bit peeved as I probably paid over the odds for it.

Oh well.

I'll give it another week before I decide what to do!

Yeah makes perfect sense. I was annoyed when I realised the Carlton was not Reynolds tubing, but at least was original and rode well.

As you said, wait a bit, cool off and decide :)

It's got a bit of Shimano 105, a nice Cinelli stem and handlebar set, the forks look okay, and the wheels might be half-decent too. That said, the geometry's not that tight, and the rear-drop-outs definitely look pressed (although I'm not sure how much difference that makes).

I feel your pain...

we all feel it

It's got some nice parts on it, I like the wheels and they would have been hand built. Dunno how much you paid for the whole bike but they total of the parts must add up to a bit. You could strip it and wack the frame and forks on to evilbay as 56cm frame and forks in Concorde livery?

I think you've seen this?

http://www.lfgss.com/conversations/262560/

Too big @anidel, but thanks for linking anyway!

The 653 (actually 653 lol) frame I mentioned measures in roughly at the same 58cm seat tube and 56cm top tube so I think I'll trial that one after this week to see how it goes before deciding on whether or not I actually need to keep shopping!

Selling the "Concorde" is deff on the cards but yeah I think it probably is actually worth what I paid... I think I was just more excited about bagging a bargain on top of everything! strong text

Depends how you look at it. For £250 you can get this:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/262417/#comment12096835

Better condition, better components, better frame...

And, given what you now know, should you really be advertising it as a 'vintage Concorde'? I do have sympathy for your predicament, but there's no way your 'Concorde' is worth a mere £50 less than this:

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/260531/#comment12049342

£150 tops...

Keep it Concorde. Pls

@The_Kindness_of_Trees point taken, you'll see a change... However it's up to the buyer to decide how much they're willing to pay.. IMO! I'm only trying to recoup what I've spent..

On another note, does anyone have any pictures readily available of any lime green bikes with all black components?

For inspiration on something I have my eye on...

I appreciate that, and to be fair you've never expressed anger/resentment towards the person you bought the bike off.

I'm not saying you shouldn't price it how you like, just that you should probably make any potential buyer aware that it's probably not a Concorde - and then, as you say, let the buyer decide whether it's worth that or not.

As for your lime green bike, this looks nice:

http://www.gumtree.com/p/bicycles/pinarello-monviso-road-race-bike/1097582346

@The_Kindness_of_Trees yeah man these things happen to be fair and dont feel the need to show anger but I suppose I do have a responsibility now to make any potential buyer aware, tis only right!

I'm not all that fussed if I dont sell it for what I paid as I could always just use it towards another project - I'll be building a beater fixie for when I go to South Africa later this year so this'll atleast be a nice looking beater and I wont have any guilt as it's not sacrilege as such!¬

The reason I ask about Lime green is cus there's a Geoffery Butler going on the bay atm ,correct size, reynolds 500 so backing up what a few have recomended on the previous page re heavier/more durable tubing (?)

I would also ideally like to build a bright coloured frame up with black components but for the life of me cant think of any old Shimano, or Campag, that came in balck?

I immediately thought of that lovely pink Pinarello with black bits on. Maybe the component list here will help?
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=307208

Yeah I think we should not dismiss heavier tubing just because they are not the top of the line.

I actually think that a 753 or a Columbus Air or even SL or SLX are NOT top of the line for certain applications like touring or even daily commute (= some abuse)

In fact I love my Moser in Aelle just because of that, makes commuting and daily (= not racing) duties much better as it handles the bumps a lot better than a stiffer tubing.

Has anyone mentioned the obvious thing of measuring the rear spacing before deciding on which groupset to buy?

130mm for modern stuff, 126mm for older stuff.
Plenty of 90s (and onwards) steel frames have 130mm spacing.
Sorry if this is obvious noob info.

I went for a steel frame with used Chorus + Veloce 10spd group, and modern-but-retro bits like nitto / flite / open pros etc and I love it.

Another thing to think about with sizing is that if you go for a flat bar to hoods transition (like with most compact bars) then it's handy to drop a cm or two of down tube size (and show a bit more seatpost) so your hands are in a similar place to where they were with the brake levers further down on the bars. If that makes sense.

Cheers for that Gaz!

I am actually a total noob when it comes to the important parts so yeah any info is greatly appreciated.

I think I'll steer clear of eBay/classifieds for a while and actually try that other bike in the next coming weeks. Will get pics one morning at my usual spot too so you guys can school me on it!

I also just bought a bright pink track frame so I can one day go slave... Remember what I said about things getting out of hand quickly?!

Have u checked this out?
Not sure if it's gone or not though.

Graphite Campagnolo bits are quite cheap (but it might take time to find them)
There is a CP thread here as well