Fifty Plus (50+) - You know your an old cyclist when:

You know you're an OLD cyclist when you remember when :

- you save to buy a bike for racing that weighs only 25 lbs

- what is the tour de france ?

- You wonder if an american will ever win the Tour de France and think 'no way'

- You are amazed at 10 speeds - why would anyone need any more?

- a mountain bike? What is that? Why would anyone ride a bike off road. Gravel roads are hard enough.

- a long ride is over to yor neighbors house 4 miles away.

- You forget to stop at a stop sign and your feet are in 'cages' locked in by a leather strap.

- If on a long ride you need to bring a spare tire, a spare tube, a big pump.

- If thirsty, just stop at a local creek, clear away the moss, and feel safe to drink all you want.

- Drafting is coasting down hill.

- everyone knows racing is done in relays, and teams. The most important member to recruit is one who has a nice bike.

- your bike clothes are your regular clothes but you have a strap around your ankle that keeps your pants leg tight so it doesn't get caught in the chain.


- A FRED is your best friend

- all you need to be 'cool' is a baseball card and a clothes pin

- your first bike was a 'gasp' girls bike that your aunt gave you. Worst you had to give her a kiss on the cheek in front of everyone. (a steep price for a 10 yr old)

-when you can remember butted aluminum as a new bike material
-when you know how to adjust non-threaded cantilever brake posts on canti brakes
-when your first suspension fork on a mtn.bike used elastomers for the suspension
-when your first geared bike used a Sturmey-Archer hub

As an American shopping for your first road bicycle, you saw three types of wheelsets: 26 x 1-1/4" clinchers, 27 x 1-1/4" clinchers, and 700C tubulars.

Your choice of saddles was tensioned leather Brooks, tensioned leather Ideale, tensioned leather Wrights, or a wide mattress thing.

You did not leave the house for a long ride without spare spokes taped to your Silca pump and spare brake and gear cables in your saddle or handlebar bag.

You and at least half of your friends had your water bottles on the handlebars instead of the frame tubes.

A triple chainring was pretty special, and a 6-speed freewheel was downright rare.

The 90-speed bike in Charlie Harding's shop just south of UCLA was quite a spectacle, as were the curly-stay Hetchins frames.

You know you're an OLD cyclist when you remember when :

You keep reaching to the downtube when you want to shift.

You remember coaster brakes.

you wish you had a horn built into the tank on the top tube....beep beep!

...You "soft pedal" during the act of shifting.

You routinely brush or "wipe" your tyres with the leather palm of your crocheted cycling gloves...while riding.

When you talk about the chamois in your shorts, you actually MEAN chamois.

While riding, you constantly scan your surroundings for good places to empty your bladder.

During rides, you think up good threads to start on BF 50+ when you get home...but always forget what they were.

... you want to wear long-sleeve jerseys and pants to cover your arms and legs because you got too much sun exposure (and probably also damage) during your first 50 years. :cry:

You can remember when Schwinn introduced the Sting Ray.

You can remember when Schwinn introduced the Sting Ray.

... and you can remember jumping it off the curb into the street... with playing cards pinned to the spokes.

You can remember when Schwinn introduced the Sting Ray.

Now I do feel old:(

I have kids old enough to remember this one. My son just had to have one.

You know you're an old cyclist when you know what Ashtabula means, and where it is;
you remember that bike with the skinny tire as an "English Racer."

When all the girls had streamers in the white handlebar grips of their Rollfast.

-when you can remember butted aluminum as a new bike material
-when you know how to adjust non-threaded cantilever brake posts on canti brakes
-when your first suspension fork on a mtn.bike used elastomers for the suspension
-when your first geared bike used a Sturmey-Archer hub

Never had cantilevers so Can't comment.

First Aluminium frame was a 92 GT Pantera and boy did that thing climb hills. Took a lot of effort to get a 32lb Lightweight Mountain bike up the hills though. I must be missing out on something because my Bianchi still has a set of 95 Rockshox Judy's fitted- still a fantastic fork. And I was annoyed when my Dad Bought me my first Geared bike in 1960. A Raleigh Trent tourist. I wanted a Raleigh blue Streak with drop handlebars and 5 gears.

When all the girls had streamers in the white handlebar grips of their Rollfast.

None of the girls I knew had a Rollfast. In fact I was the only person in my neighborhood who did not have a Schwinn. I was the odd kid with a Fleetwing.

You can remember when Schwinn introduced the Sting Ray.

Nobody on my side of town had a real Sting Ray. Everyone had a Spider from J.C. Penney. :mad:

... You keep reaching to the downtube when you want to shift. ...
Well, that's where my gear levers are! :)

...when you know first hand the pain associated with the Sting Ray's
5-spd. "n**buster". :eek:

...when you miss pulling the chain for the siren.

...when you still check for the load in the rear baskets whenever you hear a rattling
sound back there.

Gosh! everyone, even I, forgot about the generator on the tyre for the light!
And yea I had bar end streamers for a very short time.

[QUOTE=Red Baron;6253084]You know you're an OLD cyclist when you remember when :

When Sturmey Archer gears were all the rage, because now you had three speeds, not just one.

As an American shopping for your first road bicycle, you saw three types of wheelsets: 26 x 1-1/4" clinchers, 27 x 1-1/4" clinchers, and 700C tubulars.

Your choice of saddles was tensioned leather Brooks, tensioned leather Ideale, tensioned leather Wrights, or a wide mattress thing.

You did not leave the house for a long ride without spare spokes taped to your Silca pump and spare brake and gear cables in your saddle or handlebar bag.

You and at least half of your friends had your water bottles on the handlebars instead of the frame tubes.

A triple chainring was pretty special, and a 6-speed freewheel was downright rare.

The 90-speed bike in Charlie Harding's shop just south of UCLA was quite a spectacle, as were the curly-stay Hetchins frames.

I recall this version. I have a silca in my violin shop now on a shelf. Nobody notices, yet! I never saw a 6 speed freewheel when I started.

While riding, you constantly scan your surroundings for good places to empty your bladder.



They're really hard to find this time of year....no corn fields:rolleyes:

Well, that's where my gear levers are! :)Yup, I still have one as well. When I switch to the down tube bike I reach for the brifters, when I go back to the newer one I reach for the down tube:rolleyes::D

When you remember an actual dial to go with the dial tone. Nothing to do with biking but at least I didn't talk about party lines.

I still keep reaching for the down tubes. Plus! I keep forgetting that my bike has more than 10 speeds, so I forget I can shift up on the hills.

-when you can remember butted aluminum as a new bike material
-when you know how to adjust non-threaded cantilever brake posts on canti brakes
-when your first suspension fork on a mtn.bike used elastomers for the suspension
-when your first geared bike used a Sturmey-Archer hub

Worse yet a 2-speed Bendix hub on a massive 26" cruiser!

You want a bike with cotterless cranks

You think, I can buy my friend's 25 inch frame Grand Prix, I'll just jump sideways when I stop

You look at cantilevers and wonder what's really wrong with centerpulls

You're building your first brifter bike and wonder if you can remember where to go for the shifters

You wonder if a hydration system can be made to work in reverse so you don't have to stop so often, after all, we went to the moon, right?

When the first place you look in BF is 50+

10 speed doesn't mean what you think it means.

You're still wondering what those weird ridges in the drop outs of your new frame are there for.

You still don't really trust that new fangled indexed shift thing.

Your friends refer to your bike as an "English racer"

When all the girls had streamers in the white handlebar grips of their Rollfast.

My Schwinn had white handlebar grips but there were no streamers in them:)

You know you're an old cyclist when you know what Ashtabula means, and where it is;
you remember that bike with the skinny tire as an "English Racer."

+1

IIRC it's "River of many fish":)

+1

IIRC it's "River of many fish":)

I learned something new. :D

How does Ashtabula refer to bikes?

You know your old when remember the electric horn button in the top tube.

My recollection is that Ashtabula was the type of one-piece cranks that were worse than cottered.

How about when bike computers first came out? They cost $200 or so.

I had an odometer that had a little wheel with teeth and a little peg that attached to a spoke. Every time the little peg came around it engaged the teeth on the wheel and turned it about a fifth of a revolution. There was a mechanical counter attached to the wheel with numbers that read out in miles and tenths. It was relatively accurate on my 27x1 1/4" tires, but you had to hear that tick, tick, ticking throughout your ride. And Sony Walkmans (playing tape cassettes) were years in the future, so there was nothing to drown it out.

Remember when 80p.s.i. was a high pressure tire?

Remember when Huffy made "English racers"?

I learned something new. :D

How does Ashtabula refer to bikes?

I never think of bikes when I hear Ashtabula. I always think of the Ohio town.

Quick release was something your wheel did by accident (usually after a four brick jump)

The first 2-3 rides of every season you find yourself reaching down to undo the toe straps.
You had to put the new bike up on the mag trainer for a month to get used to the brake/shifter setup
Your first upscale bike cost under $100. and yet was the equivilant of two weeks pay for your dad.
You and your friends rode 30 mile round trips out to the swimming hole all summer on single speed 35 pound bikes and never wrote down a mile or needed special clothes.
You can remember the last of the wood indoor tracks where 6 day races were held.
:)

Gosh! everyone, even I, forgot about the generator on the tyre for the light!
And yea I had bar end streamers for a very short time.

I remember the generator. Flipping it on was like adding your Sister to the handle bars; what a drag.

I wonder if some genius could come up with a new version that would recharge a battery pack for "regenerative braking" like the hybrid cars use. I know I could come to a complete stop (and no lights) with the old style generators on flat ground.

My first really great wreck was watching my generator turn against the rear wheel while I plowed into a parked car. Bent the forks back so I could only ride in a circle. I was pretty pitiful carrying the front end of my bicycle home.:cry: Probably about 10 years old...

Remember the Monkey? (http://cgi.ebay.com/Monkey-Grip-Automobile-Tire-Tube-Repair-Kit-No-C-1_W0QQitemZ330215563074QQihZ014QQcategoryZ863QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

I remember the generator. Flipping it on was like adding your Sister to the handle bars; what a drag.

I wonder if some genius could come up with a new version that would recharge a battery pack for "regenerative braking" like the hybrid cars use. I know I could come to a complete stop (and no lights) with the old style generators on flat ground.

My first really great wreck was watching my generator turn against the rear wheel while I plowed into a parked car. Bent the forks back so I could only ride in a circle. I was pretty pitiful carrying the front end of my bicycle home.:cry: Probably about 10 years old...

Remember the Monkey? (http://cgi.ebay.com/Monkey-Grip-Automobile-Tire-Tube-Repair-Kit-No-C-1_W0QQitemZ330215563074QQihZ014QQcategoryZ863QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

The losses of bottle generators, particularly the old ones, are largely frictional. The current technology is a hub generator, and is very efficient. I don't feel any drag at all.

Paul

Quoth fast Red Rider:




How does Ashtabula refer to bikes?



I know I know, pick me!

The forged steel one-piece crank on old cruiser-style bicycles, Stingray-types, and Schwinn lightweights (3-speeds thru Super Sport) is called an Ashtabula crank. I assume the crank was made in a place not far from Ashtabula, OH.

Schwinns had them, most US bikes did as well. The steel cotterred crank as found on the Peugeot UO8, early Raleigh Grand Prix, and the 3-speed English racers was a step forward in versatility and weight. Next in the pecking order were high-quality racing cotterred cranks like the FB and Magistroni (later a Campagnolo version), which often mounted Simplex aluminum chainwheels. A three-pin Campagnolo steel cotterless crank (a Gran Sport?) was a curiousity of the day. Top of the heap were "alloy" cotterless cranks, such as Stronglight, Zeus, Campagnolo, and a little upstart (doomed to go nowhere - LOL!!!) called Mighty Compe - we're in about 1969 here.

Road Fan
Obsessive-compulsive old fart (OCOF)

Quoth fast Red Rider:



I know I know, pick me!

The forged steel one-piece crank on old cruiser-style bicycles, Stingray-types, and Schwinn lightweights (3-speeds thru Super Sport) is called an Ashtabula crank. I assume the crank was made in a place not far from Ashtabula, OH.



Road Fan
Obsessive-compulsive old fart (OCOF)


Interesting. I did a little googling and found this info on the Ashtabula Bow Socket Mfg. Co.
http://www.schwinnbike.com/heritage/showthread.php?p=230130

Quoth fast Red Rider:



I know I know, pick me!


Road Fan
Obsessive-compulsive old fart (OCOF)

We have a winner! :beer:

When all the girls had streamers in the white handlebar grips of their Rollfast.

Dragster bikes!

http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/inquiry/oddspot/dragster.asp

Thankfully our own kids came along a tad late in time for them to ever want to be out and about on one of those horrid (and dangerous) things, but I recall that just about every one of them ever sold came equipped with handlebar streamers.

By the end of the 70s it seemed that the only thing left from all those dragster bars were the hi-rise handlebars, which the 'cool kids' around town had bolted onto road bikes! And their mum's were still buying them handlebar streamers to ride with. Dunno why those kids ever got embarrassed about that, to be honest. They already looked silly enough with those hi-rise handlebars. A bit more didn't matter.


But yeah! Fond memories of all those kids pedalling like crazy and getting nowhere fast on those weensy wheels, and the only time the handlebar streamers were ever extended was when a strong headwind was blowing :D

You remember when Brooks saddles were cool--not retro cool.

Dragster bikes!

http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/inquiry/oddspot/dragster.asp

That's the kind of bike I and everyone I knew rode in the mid to late 60s. I didn't think they were so unsafe. We were doing BMX type stunts on them before there was such a thing as BMX. But no streamers.

When the rest of the group you sat in with and who don't remember all these things, laughing and joking far ahead, crests the hill & disappears over the top and you're geared out and doing 3mph zigzagging half way up.

Very late 60s here in Australia, BluesDawg, and seen increasingly less frequently by the mid-70s onward, from memory.

Kids here were doing all sorts of stunts on them too. What I was referring to, though, was the sight of so many kids riding around town weaving about all over the road.

There was an even sillier fad for a while. Some of the more inventive kids, who seemed to have scant regard for life and limb, would emulate the dragster motorcycle by adding banana seat and high rise handlebars to an old road bike frame, and find all sorts of (scary) ways to butcher up an extended front fork from a couple of oldn's. Many's the kid I saw lose heaps of skin (or worse) when one of those jobbies folded up!

:D

There was an even sillier fad for a while. Some of the more inventive kids, who seemed to have scant regard for life and limb, would emulate the dragster motorcycle by adding banana seat and high rise handlebars to an old road bike frame, and find all sorts of (scary) ways to butcher up an extended front fork from a couple of oldn's. Many's the kid I saw lose heaps of skin (or worse) when one of those jobbies folded up!

:D

Yeah, I remember a few of those. Modern chopper bikes are much nicer.

-when you can remember butted aluminum as a new bike material
-when you know how to adjust non-threaded cantilever brake posts on canti brakes
-when your first suspension fork on a mtn.bike used elastomers for the suspension
-when your first geared bike used a Sturmey-Archer hub

Heck, I'm under 35 (...just) and I fit all these.

However, I also didn't get my first *new* bike till I was 32. Handmedowns are good :D

When I can pass ANYONE!

It's obvious some of you were INTO bicycles long before I was. Heck it was just a means to get there and knew nothing about brands except Schwinn. I remember the English racer thing, but back then I could tell you anything about cars and their brands (had to be Ford since my dad was a Ford mechanic and also wrenched on a local stock car!), but bikes weren't cool; well, except for maybe the Schwinn orange crate. Remember the big baskets for those of us who had paper routes and we put the paper in the door, not throwing it?

When I can pass ANYONE!

It's obvious some of you were INTO bicycles long before I was. Heck it was just a means to get there and knew nothing about brands except Schwinn. I remember the English racer thing, but back then I could tell you anything about cars and their brands (had to be Ford since my dad was a Ford mechanic and also wrenched on a local stock car!), but bikes weren't cool; well, except for maybe the Schwinn orange crate. Remember the big baskets for those of us who had paper routes and we put the paper in the door, not throwing it?

“I was, in many ways, luckier than kids are today. Many parents didn’t have the dough to spoil their kids with material junk. Peer pressure has always existed, but most kids in the ‘70s couldn’t use materialism as a means to express it. No, parents used their limited means to give us only what we needed. And what every kid needs more than stuff is love and stability and a mother and father who are always there for him. Lucky for me, my parents provided an abundance of that. And that was even more valuable than a Schwinn Orange Krate spider bike, the most coveted two-wheeled machine in the history of kid-dom.” —Tom Purcell

I ride about 15 miles, everyday. Me and the neighbor, who is half my age - and he smokes, went for a ride yesterday. He hasn't ridden in years. He pulled an old rusty 3 speed Huffy girls bike with cracked tires out of the basement.

I had to work to keep up with him.:(