On eBay you usually can't handle the part, so you inspect it through the seller's photos and answers. This checklist goes component by component: what wears, what breaks, what can be fixed, and what to ask before you bid. Anything structural on a bike (cranks, bars, stems, rims) deserves the strictest look, because a hidden crack there is a safety problem, not a cosmetic one.
Reading eBay listings
- Expect daylight photos from several angles, including the back and underside. A single studio-style front view hides most faults.
- Zoom in on stress points: crank arms around the pedal and spindle holes, the stem's handlebar clamp, the bar either side of the clamp, rim sidewalls and the area around spoke holes.
- Look for scratches that suggest a crash. Scuffing on the outer face of a rear derailleur, the end of a brake lever or the bar ends usually means the bike went down on that side.
- "Used, works fine" from a seller who hasn't installed the part is a guess. Ask whether it was removed from a working bike.
- If a photo is blurry exactly where you need to see, ask for another before you bid, not after.
Rear derailleurs
- Pulleys: worn teeth look pointed or hooked. Ask the seller to spin the pulleys and say whether they wobble on their bushings. Period Campagnolo pulleys run on plain bushings, and early Dura-Ace 7400 pulleys used bronze bearings before Shimano switched to ceramic. Pulleys are a normal wear item, but correct-pattern replacements for collectible derailleurs can be hard to find.
- Bent cage or body: look straight down on the derailleur, or have the seller do it. The pulley cage should be parallel with the body. A twisted cage or bent outer plate usually means a crash or a fall onto the drive side.
- Pivot play: ask the seller to wiggle the cage sideways. A little movement is normal, but a sloppy parallelogram shifts vaguely. Disraeli Gears notes the Nuovo Record design loads its pivots so they don't wear badly, so obvious slop on one points to abuse.
- Springs: the cage should snap back firmly when pulled forward and released. A weak or broken spring shows up as poor chain tension.
- Threads: check the mounting bolt and the cable-clamp bolt for rounded heads or damaged threads.
Front derailleurs
- Look at the cage from above. The plates should be parallel and the tail shouldn't be spread or pinched.
- Confirm the clamp size: 28.6 mm suits most British, Italian and Japanese steel frames, while French frames are 28 mm. A braze-on derailleur needs a frame tab.
- Check the clamp bolt and clamp hinge for cracks.
Cranksets
Aluminium cranks crack. The most common and most dangerous place is around the pedal hole, where movement between pedal and crank wears the face and tiny cracks spread outward from the hole. Cranks also crack where the drive-side arm meets a spider arm, and around the square spindle hole.
- Ask for close photos of both pedal eyes with the pedals removed, the area around each spindle hole, and the backs of the spider arms.
- Check the extractor threads (where the crank puller screws in) and the pedal threads. Stripped threads can sometimes be repaired with an insert, but it's work and cost you should factor in.
- A crank that was ridden loose will have a deformed square hole and may never sit tight again. Ask whether it creaked or came loose in use.
- Look at chainring teeth for hooked or shark-fin wear, and look for bent rings. On a Nuovo Record or Dura-Ace crankset, original rings are part of the value.
Hubs, bottom brackets and headsets
Cup-and-cone bearings wear on their races. You can't see pitting in a listing photo of a closed hub, so ask:
- Does the axle turn smoothly by hand, or does it feel gritty or notchy?
- Is there side-to-side play at the rim (on wheels) or at the crank (on bottom brackets)?
- Has it been serviced, and were the races pitted when it was opened?
Pitted cones and loose balls are cheap to replace. Pitting in races pressed into a hub shell is more serious. Headsets suffer from "indexed steering", where rows of dimples worn into the races give the steering a notchy preferred position, most noticeable under light braking. A headset that clicks into the straight-ahead position should be priced as needing replacement.
Brakes
- Look along each arm for bends and check that both pads would meet the rim squarely.
- Ask about play at the pivot bolt. A little can be adjusted out, but a worn pivot can't.
- Old pads are often hard and glazed, so budget for new ones in any case and ride the brakes gently until they're replaced.
- Check the quick-release lever and the cable adjuster threads, and if levers are included, check the hoods. Perished period hoods are common.
See the Nuovo Record and 600/Ultegra brake pages for model specifics.
Rims
- Brake track wear: a worn sidewall looks dished when you hold a straightedge across it. Rims without wear indicators need a judgement call, so ask for a photo across the sidewall.
- Cracks at spoke holes: look closely around each spoke hole and eyelet. Jobst Brandt notes that hard-anodised rims can crack at the spoke sockets. He cites Mavic MA-2 rims rarely cracking while the otherwise identical, anodised MA40 cracked often.
- Dents and flat spots: ask the seller to spin the wheel and report any wobble or hop.
- For tubulars like the GP4, check for old glue build-up and damaged valve holes.
Saddles
- Leather that's been neglected and allowed to dry out will crack, and repeated soaking without care breaks it down. Ask for photos of the top, the flanks and the underside.
- Ask how far the tension nut has been taken up. A saddle cranked tight to cure sagging is often already deformed.
- Check the rails and undercarriage for bends or cracks, and the rivets for movement. On a Brooks B17, a straight, even surface with no splits along the flanks is what you want. For plastic-shell saddles like the Unicanitor, look for cracked shells and torn covers.
Handlebars and stems
Aluminium is more prone to metal fatigue than steel, and bars and stems carry high, repeated loads. Treat any crack, deep scratch or notch near the stem clamp or at the bends as a reason to walk away.
- Ask for photos of the bar where it sits in the clamp, and of the stem's clamp area. Corrosion and fine cracks show up here first.
- Check the stem's quill for corrosion, and ask whether it came out of the frame easily. Aluminium stems can corrode solidly into steel steerers, and a stem forced out may be damaged.
- Confirm clamp sizes before you pair bars and stems. A Cinelli 1A is not interchangeable with a 3ttt bar without checking sizes.
Questions to send the seller
- Was this removed from a working bike, and how long ago?
- Any crash damage, cracks, bends or repairs that you know of?
- Can you photograph the specific areas listed above, in daylight?
- Do the bearings turn smoothly by hand?
- Are any parts replaced or not original to the component?
For fit questions, see vintage road component compatibility. To check the age of what you're looking at, see dating vintage Campagnolo and Shimano components.
