1986 Fat Chance mountain bike (now “Gravel Bike”)

Give this bike another chance (to be ridden).

Thirty years ago this was a custom high-level mountain bike from one of the best builders on the East Coast, Fat City Cycles. Don’t let it die a dusty death simply because technology and what we call a “mountain bike” has evolved.

This wonderful vintage steel mountain bike is back, only now we’re going to call it a “gravel bike”. The hand-built steel frame and terrific ride quality is still there only we’ve updated the components that matter most.

This hot-rodded old mountain bike now has 30 speeds thanks to a modern Shimano Deore XT rear derailleur and new thumbshifters.

The vintage Saturae rims have been rebuilt with new Velo-Orange hubs, Panaracer Gravel King tires and fresh spokes. The new Velo-Orange Grand Cru crankset looks just right on the vintage bike but with modern chainrings the shifting is precise and smooth. The vintage Magura brake levers have always had an insane amount of stopping power but now with fresh Kool Stop pads in place the brakes will work quietly and reliably in the worst conditions.

Topping off this new old bike is a quilted remake of the classic Selle Italia Turbo saddle, an original Blackburn rear rack from 1986 and a Nitto front rack from 2021.

This is a medium size 19” frame and will be most comfortable for a rider between 5’7” and 5’9” tall. $1799.

Davidson retro road bike

Like the vintage vibe?

This retro-cool Davidson is a 50cm (small) steel road bike from 1976. Hand-built by Bill Davidson here in Seattle.

Now, we like vintage road bikes probably more than anyone, but we hate vintage components for everyday use. Technology has made riding safer and more comfortable. To that end, this bike has modern parts. A 2021 Campagnolo Centaur component group. Campagnolo Khamsin wheels. Velo-Orange Gran Cru brake calipers (that really stop), a compact crankset (that really helps you go), a sealed cartridge bottom bracket.

You get 28mm-wide Vittoria Rubino Pro tires for awesome traction and comfort, and some fun accessories that really accentuate the vintage look.

This is a 50cm size, good for a rider 5’1” to 5’5” tall. Only $1599.

Pinarello Vuelta vintage 1996 steel road bike

This might be the bike you’ve been waiting twenty years to own.

A Pinarello handcrafted steel road bike. Made in Italy, at the height of Miguel Indurain’s domination of the grand tours. To say Pinarello is a big name in the racing bicycle world is an understatement. Besides winning the Tour de France five times with Big Mig, Pinarello had wins with Pedro Delgado, Bjarne Riis, Jan Uhlrich, Brad Wiggins, Chris Froome, Gerraint Thomas and Egen Bernal. You may not care about any of that, but all of those wins wouldn’t have happened on bikes that didn’t perform well.

The frame is made out of custom butted cromoly steel, the component group is a new Campagnolo Chorus 12 speed one with Campagnolo Khamsin wheels. The bike has Continental Gatorskin tires for a little bit of puncture protection to go along with all of this speed and efficiency, and while it looks like a vintage steel bike, every functioning part is the latest available.

This is a 54cm size, and it will fit a 5’7” to 5’9” tall rider who prizes comfort, performance and getting the bike they always wanted (even if it’s a decade or two late). Only $2899.

Early ‘70’s Holdsworth Professional

This is an early ‘70’s vintage dream bike. A Holdsworth Professional, made out of Reynolds 531 tubing and equipped with Campagnolo Nuovo Record hubs, shifters, seatpost & derailleurs. It has a Stronglight “compact” crankset (compact gears for the 1970’s that is), a Stronglight headset, Universal 68 brakes, 3ttt bars & stem, a Brooks saddle and new Vittoria 25mm tires.

A 56cm size, this bike will fit a rider 5’8” to 5’11” tall the best. Only $899.

See more photos of this bike in the 1966 to 1985 museum bikes section.

1975 Hugh Porter Bantel Team Replica

This is a vintage Bantel team replica road bike, a Hugh Porter made in Britain. It’s a British bike, so of course it’s made out of Reynold’s 531 tubing.  The wheels are made with Campagnolo hubs and Super Champion rims with new Panaracer Pasela tires. Like most serious racing bikes from the early ‘70’s, this one is equipped with a complete Campagnolo Nuovo Record component group, a Cinelli stem, bars and Unicanitor saddle. Some nice added touches include the Silca pump, vintage bottle cage, red rubber covers for the downtube shifters and the red Bullseye derailleur pulleys.

It’s a 56cm size, a good fit for a rider between 5’8” and 5’10” tall. $1299

More photos in the 1966 to 1985 museum section

Vintage 1971 Cinelli Speciale Corsa (S.C.) road bike

This is a wonderful steel Italian road bike from the 1970’s.

The frame comes from Cinelli’s dream factory in Milan and is made from Columbus SL cromoly steel tubing. You get a Campagnolo Nuovo Record component group including the rat trap-style pedals with alloy toe clips and leather straps. Other goodies include Cinelli Giro d’Italia handlebars, a Cinelli 1A stem, Mavic Super Champion rims and new 25c Vittoria Rally tires. There is a period-correct bottle cage, a Silca frame pump and cotton handlebar tape.

This bike is all set for one of the Eroica retro-bike rides (hopefully they’ll get rescheduled after the pandemic).

The Speciale Corsa was really one of the finest road bikes ever crafted. If this bike speaks to you but you don’t think that you’d ride it much given the vintage parts, let’s talk. There is really no reason a bike like this can’t be modernized with a new Campy Record component group or even (gasp!) Shimano Ultegra.

This is a 57cm size with a 56cm top tube and a 12cm stem, it has 172.5mm crank arms and a 42cm wide handlebar. All of those numbers mean that it’s a good fit for a rider between 5’9” and 5’11” tall. $1971.

1938 BSA Triple Star

“The B.S.A. range for 1938 is unquestionably the finest range of quality bicycles ever offered the cycling public. And although that may seem a big claim to make – particularly in view of the many fine machines made by B.S.A. in the past – it is a true claim as you will quickly appreciate when you see the B.S.A. Cycling Annual. The new B.S.A. Triple Star and Gold Band models offer you the very latest in modern bicycle design, specification and finish.

The new Keep-Fit models are specially designed for men and women who appreciate the value of Cycling for health and fitness. And remember – B.S.A. Bicycles are acclaimed throughout the cycling world as the bicycles with the finest quality specification. Quality materials and quality workmanship ensure perfection in such vital parts as hubs, chainwheels, cranks, pedals and chain – perfection which means easy running and reliability.”

You have just read very earnest 80-year-old ad copy. After tuning up this bike and riding a lap of Bainbridge Island I’d have to agree that this is a really fine quality bike (way better than those lousy 1937 models!). I have no idea how this Triple Star spent the war or the subsequent decades but the Reynolds 531 steel tubing is rust-free and straight. The beautifully curved Russ fork handles nicely and offers a good amount of bump compliance.

The original owner must have been skeptical of the optional Cyclo twin-wire 3-speed derailleur and instead opted for the BSA single-speed coaster-brake hub. I’m not certain I would have made that same choice as a couple of gear options would have made hills much more tolerable when ascending, but controlling your speed is really pleasant on this bike with three very capable brakes on it. Most antique bicycles are a bit scary when the going gets a bit out of control…

In light of the “new” Gravel Bike category this Triple Star seems to have everything going for it. Remember, we’re talking the finest quality here. Like a lot of modern gravel bikes there’s a gigantic seatbag for carrying all of your stuff instead of racks and panniers. There’s a wide but shallow drop handlebar (and this one has a bell on it along with cork grips). This one forgoes the (not yet invented) front derailleur and multiple chainrings. Instead you get a simple single front chainring. It has 650b medium-width tires and fenders. Brakes that are kind of overkill. A Brooks B15 saddle. The Triple Star even comes with an integrated headlight!

This bike is for sale out of our museum collection. Hang it on a wall, ride it to the coffee shop or ride 100 miles on it at Eroica Britannia. Only $2500

1987 Gitane Vitus 979

It’s not a Gitane. While we’re at it, it’s also not a Cilo or a Peugeot or a Motobecane or Cycles France-Loire or anyone else. It’s a Vitus 979.

Vitus was a tubing supplier to a lot of different brands and offered this complete frameset as an option too. Somebody like Gitane, a bike maker with a dozen different steel models would label a Vitus frame as their own (usually omitting the giant Vitus decal on the top tube) and voila! Aluminum bike.

Vitus 979 framesets were made of small diameter 5086 aluminum tubing that was slip-fit onto aluminum sockets and then glued into place using a heat-activated type of epoxy. Bikes like this one were lighter, springier, and in a lot of instances, more comfortable than what steel bike brands had to offer

This bike and it’s parts were at the forefront of the mid ‘80’s road bike design revolution. We already mentioned the aluminum frame with its glued joints replacing the traditional lugged steel frameset. As for the parts…

The Look ski-binding style pedals had only recently gained a “foothold” among bike racers, replacing old-style toe clips and straps.

Indexed or “click” shifters, already popularized in ‘87 by Shimano and Suntour, get the Italian interpretation on this bike courtesy of Campagnolo. I believe we have Chorus Synchro II shifters here, the second version without the little auxiliary lever the first iteration had which allowed the rider to revert to friction shifting on the fly in case the indexing didn’t work. Campy did pretty well with the shifting on this bike considering that they didn’t produce entire drivetrains like their Japanese counterparts. Campagnolo had to design their indexed shifting without knowing whose chain would be used or what kind of spacing to expect the third-party freewheel to have. By about 1990 Campagnolo brought production of these parts in house.

Oh hey, how about the saddle on this bike? It’s not a traditional leather model by Selle Italia or Selle San Marco, which is notable given how traditional road bikes had been for so many decades. This is a Lycra-covered gel saddle mounted on a real racing bike, a Huracan Crono model that resembles the Selle Italia Turbo Bio model that was fairly popular in ‘87.

Complimenting the stripped saddle on this bike we have Benotto plastic handlebar tape.  Popular in the 1980’s for some unknown reason, Benotto tape offered absolutely no padding and hardly any more grip than a raw aluminum handlebar.  So if you wanted shock absorption you were out of luck but at least you could pick an option from among about 30 colors.

This bike is for sale from our museum collection. It’s a 56cm size, good for a rider 5’8” to 5’10” tall, and perfect for enjoying a retro-themed Eroica ride just a tiny step ahead of everyone else. Only $1299.

1997 Bontrager Privateer Comp

Take a trip back to 1997 on this Bontrager Privateer.

This is a light, nimble and efficient mountain bike. Nimble and efficient aren’t attributes ascribed to many mountain bikes these days. New mountain bikes have gone the way of the monster truck, with suspension and tire sizes that simply crush trail obstacles instead of making it fun to pick your way around and over the rocks and roots.
Consider this bike like you would a new “Gravel Bike”. Think of yourself riding out of your driveway, down the street a mile or so to the trailhead. Logging roads and “easy” trails are still in play on a bike like this one, not boring stretches that have to be endured until you get to the downhill (like on your 6″ travel full suspension enduro bike). When you do get to the stretch of technical trails you can relive the white-knuckle exhilaration that we all used to feel while riding our ’90′s era mountain bikes OR you can simply slow down and take the park trails at speeds that won’t get your (or the bike’s) abilities overextended.

This old Bontrager is in great shape. It has fresh brakes and drivetrain parts (Shimano XTR), and the wheels and tires look new.  The fork is a rigid Tange Switchblade, a rare bit of ‘90’s cool that still fetches $500 on Ebay today.  You get an XTR seatpost, a Chris King headset, and a Selle Italia Turbomatic saddle.  My favorite.

Anyway, this is a medium size bike (18″) and will work best for a rider between 5’6″ and 5’8″ tall. It’s all yours for $1399