Your first "REAL" road bike?

[newellbt]

My first REAL road bike was a early 90s Giordana steel frame with SLX tubing. I was a grease monkey at a LBS and a kind customer gifted the frameset to me, "this has been hanging on my wall, I'll never be in shape to ride a road bike again and I would be very happy if you would build and ride it." I sent him photographs through the years and it was a nice way to keep in touch.

[BrianE]

84' Guerciotti..., still have it, ride it, care for it.

[Gpmrntz]

A Cannondale R900 featuring the then groundbreaking 2.8 frame and Shimano STI (Ultegra).

[coreydoesntknow]

After a season of racing road on a CX rig I was given a 1998 Schwinn Fastback frame, which was nearly 10 years old but largely unridden. They were team frames for a regional neo-pro team that never got off the ground nearly a decade earlier. That bike carried me from cat 5 all the way up through my early 1/2/3 races.

[froze]

Originally Posted by coreydoesntknow

After a season of racing road on a CX rig I was given a 1998 Schwinn Fastback frame, which was nearly 10 years old but largely unridden. They were team frames for a regional neo-pro team that never got off the ground nearly a decade earlier. That bike carried me from cat 5 all the way up through my early 1/2/3 races.

Those type of bikes like the Schwinn Fastback are a cheap way of getting into racing for someone who doesn't have deep pockets, they work just fine, plus if you crash the bike they're cheap to replace or fix. My first racing bike was a cheap Trek 412 which was a sport bike not a racing geometry bike! But like your bike it took me to cat 3, I use to get a lot of sneers from opposing teams while racing that bike, even my own team wanted me to get a different bike but they weren't the ones providing me with bikes so I couldn't afford it. I even got some sneers mostly from teams riding Italian jobs after I had to replace the 412 with a Trek 660 when I crashed the 412.

Congrats on getting those higher level cats, I never made it past 3.

[ntkt10]

2013 Cannondale Caad 10 Rival - bumblee livery.

Although when I was younger I did ride my parents old school 70's steel frames.

[DrSpoke]

Mine was/is a 1976 Alan Super Record w/Nuovo Record. I purchased it new and built it myself. And I just finished the rebuild. I also had a '71 Follis I bought and rode while in college but sold to fund the Alan.

[froze]

Originally Posted by DrSpoke

Mine was/is a 1976 Alan Super Record w/Nuovo Record. I purchased it new and built it myself. And I just finished the rebuild. I also had a '71 Follis I bought and rode while in college but sold to fund the Alan.

Those and the Vitus's were so cool looking, I tried to buy a top of the line Vitus with all Campy stuff off of a friend of mine who never rode it...reason he never rode it was because he was a 240 pound pro bodybuilder and broke the first two he had within a year of buying the first one, so Vitus, who at the time had great customer service, kept replacing them, when he got the third one he took it home from the LBS and just stored it and never rode it and got a Klein instead. The Vitus fit me and I offered him a good price but he said he wanted to keep it! That was about 18 years ago. He still has the bike with 0 miles on it hanging in his garage.

[ducati2]

Pinarello TSX steel frame, blue with subtle metal flake and white panels. C-Record group with downtube friction shifters. 32 hole Record hubs laced to forgotten rims. Record aero seatpost and Cinelli stem, bar, cork tape. Old school Look pedals. Ciussi cages. Some guy pulled out in front of me riding a bike and I flew over the bars but managed to protect the bike. I looked the bike over and checked my body over and all seemed well. We went our separate ways and I turned a corner and my foot hit the front wheel. Turned out that the headtube crumpled the downtube and the frame was ruined. I would love to still have that bike.

[DrSpoke]

Originally Posted by froze

Those and the Vitus's were so cool looking, I tried to buy a top of the line Vitus with all Campy stuff off of a friend of mine who never rode it...reason he never rode it was because he was a 240 pound pro bodybuilder and broke the first two he had within a year of buying the first one, so Vitus, who at the time had great customer service, kept replacing them, when he got the third one he took it home from the LBS and just stored it and never rode it and got a Klein instead. The Vitus fit me and I offered him a good price but he said he wanted to keep it! That was about 18 years ago. He still has the bike with 0 miles on it hanging in his garage.

The shop I worked at in the 70s also carried Colnago, Guerciotti & Masi. And a local had access to Confente. So I've sort of regretted not getting Italian steel. But this one has held up well and cleaned up almost like new. I even rebuilt the original tubular wheelset though the ones in the photo are Ambrosio Excellence clinchers I had built in the 90s.

Don't give up on the Vitus. Just have to catch the guy in the mood to sell. I have noticed a lot of Alan on eBay lately. I documented my rebuild on the Facebook group - Steel is Real. They have a pretty nice classified section too.

[fishbolish]

gios torino super record buit with campy sr/nr

to be replaced by a gorgeous cinelli super corsa 4 months later( a deal i couldnt pass up) ,only to ride the gios years later & realize it was the better riding bike...

[audiojan]

My first real road bike was a CyclePro (Taiwanese brand sold in northern EU) with Shimano 600 (downtube shifters!) and Columbus steel tubing. Still have it and love that thing!!! Worked an entire summer and saved as much as possible (basically no life for an entire summer as a student, rough, but well worth it!) to afford it.

[Billybob62]

1975(ish) Raleigh Record. Dark blue with Huret Alivit derailleurs that had to be adjusted about every hour. An Ideal leather saddle that disintigrated after the first rain storm. 40/52 chainrings with a straight block in the back - (apparently there weren't any hills to climb back then). I have fond memories of that bike but I'm not entirely sure why......

[Jeff N.]

I remember BEGGING my Dad to buy me a Schwinn Continental ($89.95), but he just couldn't afford it. So instead I got a JC Higgins 10-speed (Sears model) that I (mowed lawns for the money...$25) bought from a neighbor kid. That has to be the first "road" bike that I ever owned. I bought it when I was about 12 and it lasted me through college. Next was a Motobecane Mirage (stolen), then a Centurion Le Mans, then several Cannondale fat-tubed aluminum bikes.

[Engine11]

I had BMC team machine with ultegra on them back then. Everything was good except the integrated seatpost...