Underrated or under the radar marques?

[otherself]

What frame builders / marques / models do you consider underrated? They tend to go more cheaply but are good quality etc.

Me:

- Late 70's / early 80's Motobecanes
- Later 80's MBK (formerly Motobecane)
- Andre Bertin (70's/80's)
- Albuch Kotters (Germany)
- Mercier
- Diamant
- Centurion Dave Scott Iron Man frames (80's)
- Atala (I got an 80's Columbus Aelle frame for 45 quid...I'm sure if it was a Colnago it would of sold for several hundreds)
- Benotto
- Zeus (Spain)
- Allegro (Swiss)
- Specialized older steel models (80's Sirrus etc)
- Late 80's Carrera (English make not the Italian brand - they produced some decent budget models with 501 and 531 w/cool paint jobs)
- Fondriest
- Batavus
- Shogun (Japan) - Made some nice models in the 80's.

Also Japanese sourced Bianchis--especially the Professional. The true Italio-philes don't like them much, but they are well made Ishiwata tubed bikes.

 

[Johnsqual]

U. Scanini is a Belgian brand, pretty much unknown anywhere else
but they made some nice bikes. Mainly underrated because there are loads of them around, I think anyone who rides road bikes in Belgium must have owned one at some point.

Martelly is another virtually unknown brand outside Belgium. Never seen a bad one. Supposedly a very old bike building family. They built bikes unofficially for a lot of big Belgian names when their sponsors' bikes weren't up to the job.

Rossin seems somewhat underrated - should be up there with some of the bigger Italian names, but I see some nice examples either go really cheap or sit around unsold.

Controversially, I'd say Gazelles are pretty underrated too. They seem to sell for less than comparable bikes with similar kit and tubing but with sexier brand names.

 

[David B]

British Eagle - specifically the Touristique and Randonnee models which could give an equivalent Dawes tourer a good run for its money, yet can be found for far more attractive prices second-hand.

Edit: click below for the 1989 incarnation of the Touristique. Not bad at all!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... alogue.png

David

 

[pigman]

- Atala (I got an 80's Columbus Aelle frame for 45 quid...I'm sure if it was a Colnago it would of sold for several hundreds)

colnago wouldn't have made one in Aelle. and theirin lies the answer. If you buy a vintage colnago, you are assured of columbus SL and upwards. good brand frames that make cheapies will always be devalued.
Aelle, zetec, oria, Falk etc are just glorified gas pipers.

Having said that colnagos are over rated and a bit of a cliche.

 

[Elev12k]

Everything Dutch. Batavus Professional, Gazelle 'champy' ...and also the small builders like Reus, Zieleman, Duell, Presto and RIH.

 

[Johnsqual]

Everything Dutch. Batavus Professional, Gazelle 'champy' ...and also the small builders like Reus, Zieleman, Duell, Presto and RIH.

If it's dutch it won't cost much

 

[pigman]

but can you get one? ... NO! unless you want 60cm plus

 

[otherself]

- Atala (I got an 80's Columbus Aelle frame for 45 quid...I'm sure if it was a Colnago it would of sold for several hundreds)

colnago wouldn't have made one in Aelle. and theirin lies the answer. If you buy a vintage colnago, you are assured of columbus SL and upwards. good brand frames that make cheapies will always be devalued.
Aelle, zetec, oria, Falk etc are just glorified gas pipers.

Having said that colnagos are over rated and a bit of a cliche.

I think Aelle is hardly gaspipe; its chrome-manganese drawn to a constant 0.8mm thickness and a frame weight of 2.2kg, which puts it well above Hi-Tensile "gaspipe" tubesets, which have tubes typically above 1.3mm thickness and weigh in excess of 2.9kg.

My Aelle tubed bike is pretty light: 20lbs with high-mid range groupset. Yes its a low end tubeset but that doesn't mean its rubbish.

 

[oonaff]

i just bought a carrera ' corsa ' 531 for my mate £130 bargain i know they are good and 7sp sti up grade will be fun.i saw a 531 batavus on e bay wanted £175.
diamant looks interesting im sure they made some good frames but benotto/s ive always seen them for a bit more
money and thought they were guaranteed top quality.
unlike my koga miyata 'road racer'its going to be alright i hope. but the 'full pro'must be the one to get.
'duell' made a frame with a great seat post clamp detail and i believe them to be quite rare.
i saw an mbk frame my size and cheap although only cromolly it had a groove under the top tube to take the rear brake cable. i was tempted.the best cheapo i had was peugoet carbolite out of the local tip.

 

[bagpuss]

Derek Wilkins of Derby. Not well known outside the Derby area .Derek also built at Mercians many years ago .
Having seen some of his hand cut lugs . I will see if i can get some pictures .

Also A smith of Derby another bespoke builder .