Kaaaaaaandries' pursuit for the ultimate vintage roadie!

Cheers, it's still available.

Thanks Breso. I'd forgotten whose bike it was but you'll be pleased (possibly) to hear that your bike comes up quite high on a Google image search for pink Pinarello. :)

Nice!!

may need an upgrade to indexed at some point though, unless you like friction that is.

Cheers @HHC but at my current rate I really need to clear bikes before purchasing new ones ha, so my focus has shifted somewhat atm. Besides, I'm not specifically after a Concorde, it was just by chance that the fake one popped up at the time.

On that note though RX100 the same as 105?

@Breso your thread is currently saved on my phone for viewing later :) Looks so good! I'm after something like that and also PhilPubs red bike on page 1.

Took pics of Candidate No.2 this morning

Unknown make
Reynolds 653
58cm Seat tube (approx)
56 cm Top tube (approx)
I did measure but I forgot lol...
Campagnolo Avanti.
Unsure of wheels and hubs at this point - might give them a nice clean to see if I can see any writing. The freewheel is quite loud though, not sure if that is synonimous with any Campag hubs?
Lugs are pretty
Need to slam dat stem!

It's quite funny though because remember I said no Campag? lol...

"4. Not cost the earth - i.e. no waiting 10 years for Campagnolo or paying £500 for Campagnolo seat post if it can be helped."

It does ride super nice though and feels way more lively than the Fakecorde (obv), so think it's safe to assume that I'll sack that off in terms of this build. I know we said about not writing off the less desirable tubing due to road handling etc but I must admit I do prefer the feel of something more upright/tight with skinnier tyres. I definitely dont get on with the wide Mavic's and chunky tyres on the Fakecorde. Perhaps just personal preference I suppose!

The only issue with Candidate No.2 will be the size but haven't taken it on anything further than 10 miles per stint yet... Will report back after Saturday!

If this doesnt work out then I'll be back at square one, which I dont think is too much of a bad thing. Quite an exciting process, looking for a bike to purchase :)

Pretty sure that’s a Claud Butler professional. I was looking at one on ebay last week. Apparently they were made in the china or somewhere and a number of companies sold them with different decals, all have the same paint though.

Cheers for that @Dry!

And nope, too big! Back to square juan...

Updated plan;

1. Sell stuff and keep looking!
   

Yeah, rx100 preceded 105, same place in the hierarchy.

Shame about that dawes, love me a 653 frame.

@Matisse Fair, I thought they looked similar but the RX100 seems to always be polished. Yeah I did receive a response re the Dawes and fingers crossed I'll hear something back within the next few months. All depends on the new owner's living arrangements (from Italy)..

So the second favourite of the bunch was this beaut:

It was summer 2013 and my first ever try at indexed shifting. I remember being really impressed with how the frame felt but I always put this down to me comparing it against my Alu Langster, which is a completely different bike altogether. At that point I decided that I prefer steel to anything else, although yet to try crabon. This bike was fully Shimano Exage equipped with a Bipoace chainring, full mudguards and my favourite ever saddle the B17 - it even had a analog trip computer mounted on the front wheel axel.

Now the reason I write this is because I was round one of my fixie friends house the other night and got speaking to his dad about this project. He then told me he had this beaten Raleigh bike in his shed and that I was free to help myself to!

I didn't think much of it first but then look what I came across:

Now forgive my shoddy and hasty iPhone snaps but can you imagine my excitement when I saw it?

That didn't last long however as the dreaded size gods were against me once again and I declined my fixie friend's fathers offer! I did take it on a 10 mile jaunt though and it reminded me how damn smooth this thing operates... Such a nice light, nimble feel to it and those Exage Sport brakes hmmm!

This allowed me to narrow things down quite alot! Specs must be;

1. Raleigh Corsa in colourway above OR similar Reynolds 531 (no higher, no lower) with fairly tight geo like the above - in 54cm obv
   
2. Able to take mudguards
   
3. Nice thin rims with 23c tyres - forgive my lack of technical jargon here! Those weinnman wheels on the first Corsa were nice on what seemed to be expensive tyres - fixie bike friends dad's one was running vittoria something something!
   
4. Shimano 105 OR Exage Sport now also considered - just to recap, I will at some point try modern sram stuff but baby steps pls
   
   

When I'm ready, I think I'll look at purchasing frames individually as opposed to whole bikes. Might have more option that way as I'm more likely to find the bits I want readily compared to a whole bike.

The look I'm going for is exactly the first Corsa above or something like this... Nice and simple;

Although I'm aware these are prolly pre 80's judging by the group and the way the brake cables are mounted.

When anything changes I'll let you know, however heading into another busy period at work so this'll have to go on the backburner from March.

Kyle

So stuff have been sold, some stuff anyway, not all. If you're interested in the Claud Professional 653 then clicky...

Whilst I was searching this John Hardisty build came up and two things drew me too it:

1 Mavic Open 4cd

• Had these on the Ribble bike and I really liked the look of em, mainly the non-machined brake surface.
  
• Also this is perfect to go with the green anodised groupset that I'm after.
  
  

2 Shimano 600

• Never even considered this as I thought it'd be too costly but omg its so nice and smooth in comparison to everything I've ever used.
  
• Saves me time (not money lol) searching for all the Shimano 105 parts
  
  

The price wasnt too bad but I'll be getting rid of the frame which will hopefully mean I haven't paid too much over the odds for the rims and groupset. As for the frame itself, it's Columbus SLX and my guess is it would have been built in the early 90's? Not much info comes up for John Hardisty anyway, but Google suggests that he was/is based in Newcastle and sold frames/bikes at a local shop up there. I also have a feeling this may have been custom built too - is it bad faith if I break it?

Frame is lovely though but 1., like every thing that takes my interest, it's too big and 2. it doesn't have mudguard braze ons.

Anyway, good news, I heard back from Paolo who I sold the Dawes Impulse (on page 1) to. Hopefully I'll be picking that up in May. I can then finally put something together to enjoy over the summer/winter/forever.

lovely bike, great colour, tubing and parts.

That Hardisty is Hardtasty. Not sure where I'm going with that. I like that bike.

analog trip computer :)

Boy did you know about if it got knocked loose in the bike shed and rotated into the spokes as you where caning it down a big hill............ happy days, the subtle click click click click of wheel revolutions being counted.