Vintage Bike Build

Hi all, fairly new on here and am looking to build up a vintage framed fixed bike.

What sort of thing should I be looking for in terms of a frame? Are all the vintage frames steel?

How much should I be looking to spend on a decent lightweight frame? Would £100 be too low? Is anything available for that price? Wouldn't want to spend massive amounts on the build.

Any help is appreciated.

• many triangles of metal welded together
  
• yes
  
• a decent amount of money
  
• possibly, unless you live in a complete shithole / Russia
  
• maybe. maybe not. see above.
  no worries, my pleasure, thank me later, etc.
  

What exactly do mean by vintage?

Something from the 1930’s or 1990's? Are you simply looking for a secondhand bike to convert to a fixie or a period restoration?

Have a think and ask again.

Hi all, fairly new on here and am looking to build up a vintage framed fixed bike.

What sort of thing should I be looking for in terms of a frame? Are all the vintage frames steel?

How much should I be looking to spend on a decent lightweight frame? Would £100 be too low? Is anything available for that price? Wouldn't want to spend massive amounts on the build.

Any help is appreciated.

This is likely to be an expensive project so you may need to revise your budget quite considerably.

You may need to budget for frame restoration, repairs, painting etc and vintage parts may be harder to source, not be standard sizes/threads and also require a degree of restoration.

I think it would be better to go away and do some research first - have a look at Hilary Stone's website to get an idea of prices. You'll see that any frames under £100 require some work.

Hi im not talking excessively old but yes most likely up to 90's. I would be budgeting for a respray and some repairs I guess.

In terms of frame quality should I be looking for 531 steel only?

I do need to go away and have a think just getting some ideas to begin with.

Thanks all...

Vintage bikes look better without the respray i think. As long as it's not chipped heavily.

Wow some absolutely beautiful frames on the Hilary Stone site! May have to up my budget a little!!!

Vintage bikes look better without the respray i think. As long as it's not chipped heavily.

I was thinking about stripping it to bare metal for a chrome look?

Retrospective Cycles might be another good site to check out.

Chrome and bare metal look completely different. Obviously once you remove the paint there's nothing to protect the steel.

Also, stripping paint for no reason gets you branded a puppy killer round here(and everywhere else).
There's more to steel than just 531, sounds like you need to do some actual research before going any further. Look on classiclightweights, retrobike etc etc