Classic & Vintage - How Popular ?

Is C+V collecting big in your country ? Here in AUS ppl dont bother much,nearly all my bikes were found at the city tip ! (which is a bonus for me:D )is c+v resto big in USA? UK ? Europe ?

Well, I can't speak for the hundreds of people on the various message boards, classified ad sites, and maybe an auction site or two here in the states, but it's sure big in my garage :D.

USA, at least in Houston, TX it's pretty big. At least two of the shops I hit regularly have some
sort of vintage frame (or several) sitting around to be worked on, or built up. Mostly Italian, but some French and even a Houston brand "Romic" can be seen from time to time. There's a guy I see in my delivery area that rides a black Peugeot, although I don't know the model.,,,,BD

I would love to have a Romic, though I never seem to find one in my size for sale. This one is
CrMo, but they made some really sweet 531 models as well.

http://www.bikecult.com/works/archive/03bicycles/romicRR.html

Here in NZ there are only a small number of old bicycle enthusiasts and it's still possible to pick up a good old bike at the tip. A lot of my bikes have come from TradeMe on-line sales and prices have ranged from as little as $1.00 up to $50.00 for something exceptional.

Here in NZ there are only a small number of old bicycle enthusiasts and it's still possible to pick up a good old bike at the tip. A lot of my bikes have come from TradeMe on-line sales and prices have ranged from as little as $1.00 up to $50.00 for something exceptional.

What sort of local brands do you have in NZ?

Face it, gang, we are a niche (or elite :) ) group among cyclists, and serious bicyclists are a fringe (or elite :) ) group within American society.

Face it, gang, we are a niche (or elite :) ) group among cyclists, and serious bicyclists are a fringe (or elite :) ) group within American society.
True, but you wouldn't think so if you spent a day in Davis, CA or watching traffic on Market Street in SF. As somebody pointed out, the trend amongst hipsters in Urbanville, Anywhere USA is now away from the ubiquitous Keirin track bike and toward classic Italian iron with...gears...OMG!

Well, if it's any indication, during the summer I went to the Boulder, Co vintange bike swap. Now cycling is pretty darned popular in Boulder so I expected to see lots of cool vintage bikes. Well, there were in fact a couple hundred bikes there at least but the closest thing to a vintage lightweight was a lone Schwinn Varsity. Nearly all the bike there were 40'-50's balloon tired beach cruisers with fenders, horns, lights, and faux gas tanks or they were 60's-70's 3-speeds. Throw in a few Stingrays and that was about it.

Here in Colorado Springs, another place where cycling is very popular, I've never seen another true vintage lightweight on the road. Occasionally I've seen late 80's-early 90's bike but those were not ridden by collectors but just cyclists who haven't bought a new bike.

whenever someone around here sees the inside of my garage they look at me like I'm stockpiling guns and dynamite. Or maybe they think I am a little touched in the head. Which, of course, I am.

What sort of local brands do you have in NZ?

The two main players in the 1980s were Morrison and Healing. Morrison Industries made bikes under their own name as well as Raleigh and Phillips bikes under licence. I've been fortunate enough to find Morrison 10 speeds as well as a Morrison built Raleigh Arena. The creme d'la creme of the Morrison bikes was their Monark model that had a lot of very nice alloy components. I was able to find a very distressed Monark in the local tip and I'm still in process with hunting down a replacement frame before I go ahead with a restoration.
On the Healing front I have an 80s Healing GTX-105 with Shimano 105 Arabesque groupset which must've been an expensive bike in its day, but I got it for $10.50 :)

Here's a link to a webpage with old catalogue pictures that can explain better than I can :)

http://www.hadland.me.uk/nzbikes.html

With regard to the pre-war bicycle makers, most were centred around Christchurch in the South Island and I'm not especially familiar with just how many of them there were because there were dozens of small sidestreet bicycle makers and assemblers during the true vintage period. 'Ride: the history of cycling in New Zealand' by the Kennett Brothers is about the most definitive (and only!) book on the NZ bicycling scene.
I'm luck enough to own a couple of tatty pre-war NZ made 'Empire' bicycles and I managed to miss out on a 'Zealandia' due to being foolishly gripped with a fit of indecision :(

It depends on what you mean by collecting. Austin is a big college town. There are a lot of classic and vintage bikes being ridden here. For the most part, this is just people buying old bikes and fixing them up for a good cheap ride.

I forgot to mention I own an Ozzie 1980s Malvern Star 'Superstar' too. I'm working on tidying it up at the moment and it's one of my fav bikes.
This is the auction picture, - I'll taking proper photos once I've finished working on the bike.
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/6548/malvernstarblueya1.jpg

Your garden is doing nicely. here, we are bedding everything in for the winter. The fire is on, and the sky is spitting snow. It is odd to see your flowering pots there...

I think in larger U.S. cities and college towns vintage lightweights are popular among twenty somethings as transportation. Many are converted to single speeds and fixies. Part of this is due to fad, part of this is due to utility and I think part is due to the fact that quality new road bikes are expensive.

I did a quick count of bikes locked outside my work building a few weeks ago. On any given day there's 10 to 20 bikes out there. About 1/4 of them will be road bikes and the majority of those will be more than 15 years old.

There's a lot of bikes brought into the building as well, including mine. There's about 6 people in my office who commute via bike at least once in a while. Two of us have vintage road bikes. There's one new road bike, a comfort bike, a hybrid, and a crank forward bike.

The other guy with the vintage bike is a college stundent.

I, like many am not so much a collector. I grew a vintage road bike by hanging on to it for twenty years. I'll end up with a vintage MTB the same way.

We bought 2 vintage road bikes for my wife, the 2nd was an upgrade to the first. We did this because she wanted a road bike and a twenty year old bike that's been barely ridden is quite servicable and way, way cheaper than new.

Your garden is doing nicely. here, we are bedding everything in for the winter. The fire is on, and the sky is spitting snow. It is odd to see your flowering pots there...

Um.... it's not my garden actually, but yes, Spring has sprung here in NZ, all the buds are bursting and the weather is getting warmer :)

I think, in the US, it depends on the area. I live in a small community south of Raleigh. While I compete with a couple of other guys for yard sale bikes, there are way more bikes than buyers/collectors. To be honest, I don't think the other guys are looking for classics, just bikes to flip since they buy X-mart bikes and old LBS bikes. But the interest is out there.
I just visited Philadelphia. There was a small army of bikes with plenty of young adults who are avoiding high gas prices, riding old bikes. There were way more road bikes than MTBs or hybrids. Most of the roadies had non-aero brakes giving away their vintage age. I saw Raleighs, Fujis, Schwinns among the many bikes.
Then I went to Clifton, NJ to visit relatives. I hit the yard sale scene and found a few kids bikes, but not one adult bike. Most people looked at me like I was crazy, "why would an adult ride a bike when they have a car?" I saw maybe three or four roadies while I was there, not much adult cycling activity.
So it depends on the area, the logistics and attitude as to whether or not old classics are sought after.

I, like many am not so much a collector. I grew a vintage road bike by hanging on to it for twenty years. I'll end up with a vintage MTB the same way.

Best way to get a vintage road bike too :)

The shame of it is that I sold off mine years ago and had to go and hunt for one or five of them later on :(

whenever someone around here sees the inside of my garage they look at me like I'm stockpiling guns and dynamite. Or maybe they think I am a little touched in the head. Which, of course, I am.

I get the same thing, even from my own family. But my wife is just happy that I'm not playing golf. That was her dad and brothers' hobby, so she knows first hand how costly that can be. Her dad went to the golf shop once because they had shoes on sale. Didn't get the $60 shoes, but spent $600 on new clubs. I haven't spent $600 since I started the bike collecting. And like tjspiel, some of my classics are the home grown variety.

Your garden is doing nicely. here, we are bedding everything in for the winter. The fire is on, and the sky is spitting snow. It is odd to see your flowering pots there...

It's 91 F here today. You can cut the humidity with a knife.

I just starting buying old bikes 6 weeks ago. I've got three frames to build up, another bike just arrived, and three more on the way.

Somebody help me.

It's 91 F here today. You can cut the humidity with a knife.

I just starting buying old bikes 6 weeks ago. I've got three frames to build up, another bike just arrived, and three more on the way.

Somebody help me.

Help? - sounds like you're doing just fine on your own ;)

You're making a good start, - the trick is to not just bring home everything you see, but to have a long term plan on how you want your collection to grow. Rather than saying, 'I want every old bike in this city' , you should be saying (for example), 'I want every old English bike in this city made between 1900 and 1955.'