About

We help people buy a vintage steel road bike without getting caught out. Name the one you’re after, like a Peugeot PX-10, a Raleigh Super Course, a Colnago Super or a Bianchi Specialissima, and there’s a page for it. Each one tells you the bike’s story, the tubing it was built from, the threads and wheel size it takes, what wears out, how to date it and what to check before you buy.

Some buyers want a first classic to ride on weekends. Others are hunting one particular bike they wanted when it was new. What collectors know about these frames is scattered across old catalogs, Sheldon Brown’s pages, Classic Rendezvous and forum threads, and a raw eBay search gives you none of it. So we keep 29 model pages in one place, write down the things that catch used buyers out (a frame the wrong size, French threads, a repaint sold as original, a crack at a lug, a model that isn’t the one in the title) and pick the listings we’d buy.

Restoring one? Our sister site, Reference & Rust, covers the vintage road bike parts: derailleurs, cranks, brakes, hubs and rims.

We don’t sell bikes. No affiliate links. We earn nothing. We only recommend what we’d buy, and we’d rather you buy used. We run no analytics or tracking cookies, and we’re not affiliated with any bike maker. See how we work for how the pages are researched and our disclosure for how links, picks and photos work.

Lugwork is part of allbutnew, a set of buyer’s guides to secondhand gear. Got a bike to sell? The “Get an offer” link on every model page sends it to our road bike expert, who replies by email.