An old steel road bike is one of the best ways into cycling. There are a lot of them, the frames last for decades, and most of the parts can be serviced at home with ordinary tools. What you want is one that fits, has a sound frame, and won't fight you every time you need a part, and that's the order to check them in.
Start with fit
Fit matters more than the name on the down tube. A boom-era ten-speed that fits will get ridden. A famous race frame two sizes too big will sit in the garage.
Frame size is the length of the seat tube, but makers measured it in different ways. The old standard is center to top, from the middle of the bottom bracket to the top of the seat tube. Many makers measured center to center instead, to where the top tube's centerline meets the seat tube. The same frame reads smaller center to center, so a seat tube number means little until you know how it was taken. Ask the seller which way they measured, or for a photo with a tape measure on the frame.
Then ask for the top tube length, center to center. It sets how stretched out you'll be, and it matters more to how a bike feels than the seat tube does. With a level top tube, you want an inch or two of clearance when you straddle it in riding shoes. Before the early 1980s most bikes came in sizes about two inches apart, so you may land between two sizes. When that happens, pick the one whose top tube is closest to the bike you ride now. A different stem length can fine-tune the reach later.
Entry, mid-range or race bike
Boom-era bikes come in three broad levels, and the tubing decal usually tells you which one you're looking at.
Entry bikes used plain carbon steel or hi-ten tubing. Peugeot's UO-8 is the classic example, a low-end ten-speed with a mild steel frame that Peugeot sold in the US from the 1960s to 1980. These frames are heavier, but they're tough, easy to find and usually cheap. Our hi-ten page covers what that tubing means.
Mid-range bikes step up to better tubing on the main triangle. The 1972 Super Course had Reynolds 531 on its three main tubes. A bike like that feels livelier than an entry ten-speed and is often the sweet spot for a first bike. The Motobecane Grand Touring is another boom-era model you'll see a lot of; check its page for the tubing and parts.
Race and top-touring bikes use fully butted tubing, such as Reynolds 531 on every tube or Columbus SL, and usually came with better parts. They're lighter and quicker, and they're also the bikes most likely to have been raced hard, crashed, repainted or stripped of their original parts. They reward a buyer who checks carefully.
Read the decal word for word. Reynolds made a decal for butted main tubes, one for all tubes 531, and one reading "531 main tubes" for plain-gauge main tubes only. Our Reynolds decal guide shows how to tell them apart.
Know the standards before you buy
Old bikes were built to standards that have since gone away, and they decide how easy a bike is to keep running.
- Bottom bracket threading. English (BSA) threading is the easiest, with parts everywhere. Many French bikes sold before the late 1970s used French threading, 35 mm by 1 mm. Italian bikes used 36 mm by 24 tpi. Older Nottingham-built Raleighs used Raleigh's own 26 tpi thread. Cartridge bottom brackets still come in French and Italian threads, so none of these is a dead end, but you need to know which one you have before you order.
- French stems and bars. French stems are about 0.2 mm thinner than the standard 22.2 mm quill, so a standard stem often won't slide into a French fork. French handlebar clamps are smaller too. AVA stems had a name for breaking, and Sheldon Brown's advice was to replace any you find.
- Freewheels and pedals. French freewheel and pedal threads existed, but nearly all French bikes sold in the US used standard British freewheel threads, and most used standard 9/16 in pedals.
- Wheels. Most French bikes imported to the US before the mid-1980s used 27 in wheels, a size that was never sold in France. Our wheel guide covers 27 in, 700c and rear spacing.
What to check in the listing
Ask for good photos of the whole bike from the drive side, then close-ups of the head lugs, the seat lug, the bottom bracket shell, both rear dropouts and the fork. Look for rust bubbling under the paint at the lug edges, cracks in the paint that follow a joint, and ripples in the top and down tubes just behind the head tube, which are the classic sign of a front-end crash. Our frame inspection guide goes through each spot.
Ask whether the seatpost and stem move. A post or stem that has rusted into the frame turns a cheap bike into a long project. Ask the seller to lift the front wheel and turn the bars. They should turn smoothly without catching at center. Spin both wheels in the photos or a short video and look for wobble or rub. Finally, check whether the parts match the frame's era. A mixed bike isn't a bad bike, but it should be priced as one.
What a tune-up involves
Plan on a tune-up for any bike that has sat for years, however clean it looks. A full one goes like this:
- Tires and tubes. Old rubber cracks and can fail without warning. Replace anything that's hard, cracked or dated by the seller's own description. Tubular tires need fresh glue on a properly prepared rim.
- Brakes. Old brake pads harden and stop poorly. Fit new pads, new cables and housing, and set the pads to meet the rim squarely.
- Bearings. The hubs, headset, bottom bracket and pedals all use cup-and-cone or loose-ball bearings on most old bikes. Clean them, fit new balls if they're pitted, and repack them with fresh grease.
- Drivetrain. Clean or replace the chain, check the freewheel and chainrings for hooked teeth, and adjust both derailleurs.
- Stem and seatpost. Pull them out, clean them, grease them and put them back. That stops them seizing later.
- Wheels. True them and check spoke tension.
Most of this is home-mechanic work with a few special tools. A good shop can do the rest. For replacement derailleurs, wheels and other period parts, our sister store components.allbutnew.com covers vintage road bike components.
Where to start looking
Browse the full catalog and filter by size, tubing and threading. If you like the look of a particular decade, the era pages for the 1970s bike boom and the 1980s show what changed and which bikes came from each. A well-fitting mid-range bike from either decade, with a sound frame and a fresh tune-up, will give you years of riding and teach you what you want from the next one.