Hello to everybody,
I've been looking for a new bike on the internet for the past few days. I was looking to get a vintage road racer or tourer and didn't know all that much about them so I've been googling every likely looking bike I find and reading threads about them on various cycling forums including this one. It started with the frames, then I started googling component parts and then I realised perhaps I should just join a forum and learn a bit more properly. This one seemed particularly friendly so I decided to sign up.
I do have a bike but it is in a fairly shameful state. It's a basic Peugeot racer that I think is 80s, possibly late 70s vintage. The frame is no longer true and it tilts slightly but seems fairly sturdy, the saddle is ripped to shreds and covered up with gaffer tape to stop rain getting in, one of the pedals is extremely loose... I could go on but you probably get the picture. The fact that (I'm fairly certain) the frame is slightly bent and the frame wasn't great to begin with inclines me to think it's probably not worth investing much time or money into getting it into a decent condition.
It wasn't in great condition when I bought it and I've patched it up over the years, adding components of varying quality (the brake pads are probably the only decent thing I've added) and I've done a fair bit of amateur maintenance on it by looking at parts and figuring out how they work, trial and error, and looking up the odd thing on the internet when I get stumped. I found all of this very fun and I guess I didn't do a bad job considering but I think it's time I learnt how to maintain a bike properly if I want to have an old bike and I want it to stay in good shape and don't want to spend lots of money having it serviced.
So you can expect some posts from me asking advice on buying vintage bikes and the quality of various old models, then probably some posts in the classifieds section and then some posts asking about things I'm trying to fix or don't know how to do or about upgrading parts and general restoration.
If you've bothered reading this far, well done!
I've been looking for a new bike on the internet for the past few days. I was looking to get a vintage road racer or tourer and didn't know all that much about them so I've been googling every likely looking bike I find and reading threads about them on various cycling forums including this one. It started with the frames, then I started googling component parts and then I realised perhaps I should just join a forum and learn a bit more properly. This one seemed particularly friendly so I decided to sign up.
I do have a bike but it is in a fairly shameful state. It's a basic Peugeot racer that I think is 80s, possibly late 70s vintage. The frame is no longer true and it tilts slightly but seems fairly sturdy, the saddle is ripped to shreds and covered up with gaffer tape to stop rain getting in, one of the pedals is extremely loose... I could go on but you probably get the picture. The fact that (I'm fairly certain) the frame is slightly bent and the frame wasn't great to begin with inclines me to think it's probably not worth investing much time or money into getting it into a decent condition.
It wasn't in great condition when I bought it and I've patched it up over the years, adding components of varying quality (the brake pads are probably the only decent thing I've added) and I've done a fair bit of amateur maintenance on it by looking at parts and figuring out how they work, trial and error, and looking up the odd thing on the internet when I get stumped. I found all of this very fun and I guess I didn't do a bad job considering but I think it's time I learnt how to maintain a bike properly if I want to have an old bike and I want it to stay in good shape and don't want to spend lots of money having it serviced.
So you can expect some posts from me asking advice on buying vintage bikes and the quality of various old models, then probably some posts in the classifieds section and then some posts asking about things I'm trying to fix or don't know how to do or about upgrading parts and general restoration.
If you've bothered reading this far, well done!
