Classic & Vintage - Where's the Magazine for Classic & Vintage?

I was over at Borders book store the other day and was amazed at the number of cycling magazines: road, mountain bike, BMX. Could not find anything devoted to Classic & Vintage bicycles.
The closest thing I have ever seen to this subject was Bicycle Times but that was not really what I was looking for. It would be nice to see one devoted to restoration and riding of steel road bikes of twenty, thirty or more years ago.

I know there is a lot of stuff on the internet but I am from an earlier generation who still need something to read at bedtime or with breakfast.

I was over at Borders book store the other day and was amazed at the number of cycling magazines: road, mountain bike, BMX. Could not find anything devoted to Classic & Vintage bicycles.
The closest thing I have ever seen to this subject was Bicycle Times but that was not really what I was looking for. It would be nice to see one devoted to restoration and riding of steel road bikes of twenty, thirty or more years ago.

I know there is a lot of stuff on the internet but I am from an earlier generation who still need something to read at bedtime or with breakfast.

Mike Kone did a newsletter a long time ago. Bicycle Quarterly is probably the closest today, published and mostly written by Jan Heine.

to the OP - i hear ya - love bicycle times though - they dont focus on c and v necessarily but the to me - the essence of what riding bikes should be about is captured pretty well

For some reason, I've been getting Outside magazine (free with Nashbar orders or something?) and usually just recycle it. But last time it came with a Buyer's Guide, which I flipped through. I was quite surprised to see that the recommended short-sleeve biking jersey was wool (Icebreaker), the recommended long-sleeve jersey was wool (Ibex), one of the four "utility" bikes recommended was the Velo Orange Polyvalent, and the recommended "utility" saddle was the Brooks Colt.

Neal

There is not enough advertising revenue out there to support a classic and vintage magazine. The vast majority of manufacturers point to the new bike market.

However, I think there are Japanese magazines that feature photos of vintage parts -- the parts collectors over there are especially fond of the French stuff.

Magazine business in US is dead. I am amazed how cheap some of them are on Amazon. I've seen mainstream monthly mags for $3 a year.

Outside's Buyers guide also listed two steel bikes as best choice. A custom build ( don't remember who ) and the Raleigh Clubman.

Magazine business in US is dead. I am amazed how cheap some of them are on Amazon. I've seen mainstream monthly mags for $3 a year.

the $ is in ads not subscriptions. as long as they sell ads there will be magazines. these companies' business models are based around that fact and they will do everything they can to keep printed publications around.

even though electronic information is so plentiful and accessible - nothing is worse than dropping the mouse (not to be confused with dropping the deuce) in the toilet -
+ 1 for magazines

Print media is dead.

You found the C&V mag when you came here.

Print media is dead.

You found the C&V mag when you came here.

this is the place for the C&V enthusiast - learn everyday here

this is the place for the C&V enthusiast - learn everyday here
Yes, there is a wealth of information here. Compared to the average magazine with its irritating subscription cards and fold out ads along with the proliferation of ads for bikes I never will be able to afford and probably would not want if I could, this is obviously the place to be. Yet, I can't see myself falling asleep and dropping my laptop or kindle the way I might with a magazine or book. Or propping either up while eating breakfast. Something is missing. Why not waste a few trees and put the whole thing on paper?:)

The brands place ads and the mags give them a review in exchange. We think there objective and were getting good advice for our well earned money, but that is not always the case.

Only way to create a magazine around C&V is blowing it up to a culture thing that draws attention from commercial partys.

the $ is in ads not subscriptions. as long as they sell ads there will be magazines. these companies' business models are based around that fact and they will do everything they can to keep printed publications around.

Yep. As in all media, their job is not to deliver content to their audience, it's to deliver an audience to their advertisers. The fact that they have to give the audience some content in the process is a necessary evil.

SP
Bend, OR

Let modern technology be your friend, and use online auctions and forums like this to buy or borrow old road bike magazines that feature the bikes you ride now. I always enjoy good vintage magazines on subjects I like.

Just remember that they weren't retro then. To do then now would be retro, but to do then, then, was very now-tro.

For some reason, I've been getting Outside magazine (free with Nashbar orders or something?) and usually just recycle it. But last time it came with a Buyer's Guide, which I flipped through. I was quite surprised to see that the recommended short-sleeve biking jersey was wool (Icebreaker), the recommended long-sleeve jersey was wool (Ibex), one of the four "utility" bikes recommended was the Velo Orange Polyvalent, and the recommended "utility" saddle was the Brooks Colt.

Neal

Maybe that is where my mystery Golf Digest subscription came from. I have never played golf in my life and am not interested in starting.

There probably is no money to be made from advertisers, as most of us just buy used stuff. This place is better than any magazine anyway.

There probably is no money to be made from advertisers, as most of us just buy used stuff. This place is better than any magazine anyway.

Kinda hard to read on the toilet though, not to mention unsanitary!!

andy

this is the place for the C&V enthusiast - learn everyday here

Yeah, and most of us are such curmudgeonly cheapskates we think $50 for a good-condition classic frame with headset is a major fail!

Kinda hard to read on the toilet though, not to mention unsanitary!!

andy

iPad

Buy so much as a single item from Nashbar and you will have an Outside subscription for life. My own unasked for subscription has so far chased me from CO to MI. I typically save the issues until I go for an airplane ride, then take them along and read them on the tarmac in preparation for falling asleep on the flight. My carry on is lighter by one or more magazines at the end of the flight. I find the mag useful for giving me advance warning of products, trends, etc. that I don't/won't want or need to partake of, can't afford, and at any rate are to be avoided on general principle.

Don't other vintage/retro hobbies have their own magazines? How do they do it?

^Sometimes the articles are tough to find between all the ads

Print media is dead.

You found the C&V mag when you came here.

+1! This is as good as it gets!

There's a great website http://www.ratrodbikes.com/

There's also Kickstand Magazine- http://www.kickstandmag.com/subscribe.html

Another good one that I just found is called Paved Magazine. They just did a huge vintage edition. http://www.pavedmag.com/

First i don't know where to put this: I have never done forums before this is my first attempt. Robert nicol made patent 551,597 for bikes and sold bikes in chicago from 1895-1898. Where was his factory. How and where can i find an address in chicago in the late 1800's early 1900's for nicol & co. I am also looking for vintage or old advertising from nicol & co on bikes or anything - thank you so much:(

Generally it is considered in bad taste to "hijack" a thread so I would recommend that a new thread be started. You are in the right forum though. Welcome :)

Magazine business in US is dead. I am amazed how cheap some of them are on Amazon. I've seen mainstream monthly mags for $3 a year.

It's not dead, but virtually ALL of their income is from advertising. They give away subscriptions so that their circulation is high, and that then allows them to charge higher advertising rates....

There's a great website http://www.ratrodbikes.com/

There's also Kickstand Magazine- http://www.kickstandmag.com/subscribe.html

Another good one that I just found is called Paved Magazine. They just did a huge vintage edition. http://www.pavedmag.com/

Kickstand is just (mostly modern Asian-made) cruisers and tatoos. Yuck.

iPad

Touchdown.

Also ordered a Fire for the kids.

We'll see how that works.

We've canceled all of our mags except Rouleur.

If there was a magazine, I'd have to quit collecting C&V stuff -- I like the "underground" culture, that's commercially unviable.

You might be interested in Bicycle Quarterly. This mag is only published dead-treee style. They also maintain an RSS feed with some pretty interesting articles.
http://www.bikequarterly.com/vbqindex.html
I'm also a fan of Bicycle Times. While not specifically C&V, it is more of a "regular folks" mag than the Bicycling rag.
And if you're into urban cycling, you may want to look up the online 'zines Momentum and UrbanVelo. Again, not specifically C&V, but the bikes and fashion favored in their pages is often pretty retro, anti-lycra.
Enjoy!

Kinda hard to read on the toilet though, not to mention unsanitary!!

andy

I'm thinking iPad. Works as nicely in the privy as a magazine, although you can't wipe with it in an emergency if there's no toilet paper (you'll have to use a sock and flush it afterward).

Trivia: who originally dreamed-up the iPad?

Turns out it wasn't the late, great Steve Jobs, although he made it a reality. (Hint: think famous science fiction writer who also dreamed-up the communications satellite.)

I forgot to mention Adventure Cyclist from - of course - Adventure Cycling. Tour-focused mag, more about the places and experiences of riding than the latest 2 gram carbon polymer high-pressure VO2 tested rim wraps.

You might be interested in Bicycle Quarterly. This mag is only published dead-treee style. They also maintain an RSS feed with some pretty interesting articles.
http://www.bikequarterly.com/vbqindex.html
I'm also a fan of Bicycle Times. While not specifically C&V, it is more of a "regular folks" mag than the Bicycling rag.
And if you're into urban cycling, you may want to look up the online 'zines Momentum and UrbanVelo. Again, not specifically C&V, but the bikes and fashion favored in their pages is often pretty retro, anti-lycra.
Enjoy!

Bicycle Times has been hard to find of late, at least at the remaining chain bookstore now that Borders is gone.
I had a subscription to Bicycle Quarterly for one year, that was enough of Jan for me.

Bicycle Times has been hard to find of late, at least at the remaining chain bookstore now that Borders is gone.
I had a subscription to Bicycle Quarterly for one year, that was enough of Jan for me.

I find Jan amusing, and his mag. has become quite good. Yes, he is uber-opinionated, but not quite as "everything I don't like is dangerous, unsafe junk" as Dear Leader Grant, and you just take his goggle-vision with a grain of salt.

You might be surprised to hear that he raved about a carbon-fiber bike in the latest issue, as well as some VO brakes from Taiwan. Certainly won't ever hear Grant do that.... (well, not the carbon bit, anyways!).

Yes, he is uber-opinionated, but not quite as "everything I don't like is dangerous, unsafe junk" as Dear Leader Grant....

I subscribe to Bicycle Quarterly, and enjoy the magazine. However, Jan loves wide tires, and he did have a near Grant-like riff on "thinner tires are dangerous and should come with warning labels" this summer. http://janheine.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/the-dangers-of-narrow-tires/#comments

I was over at Borders book store the other day and was amazed at the number of cycling magazines: road, mountain bike, BMX. Could not find anything devoted to Classic & Vintage bicycles

those magazines you were looking at are basically big advertisements with a few articles throw in. There isn't any big money in C&V so there aren't any magazines

"MY TEN SPEEDS" is probably the best "magazine" you could find. plus a dash of Sheldon and this forum

I searched my local bookstore for a good cycling magazine with some vintage content before heading to the shore this summer and settled on an issue of "Peloton" with Fausto Coppi on the cover. It had a piece on Coppi with some nice pics, profiles of some Italian bicycle makers, an interview with John Eustice on the Gianni Motta squad that rode the Giro in 1984 (with a couple of photos), and a back-page photo series of a full panto early 80's Olmo Grand Prix. I reached for it many times to flip through on my vacation. I also picked up a UK Tour de France preview mag that was bundled with a small collection of historical Tour photos, including a nice color one of Maertens in full flight on an exquisite De Rosa time trial special (very trick lightened fork crown). I felt like I got my money's worth in both instances.
I chose the issue of "Peloton" over another magazine that had profiles of framebuilders that are part of the constructeur movement, including - ironically given this thread - a pic of Mike Kone with Mark Nobilette, plus another article with C&V content I can't recall at the moment.

I searched my local bookstore for a good cycling magazine with some vintage content before heading to the shore this summer and settled on an issue of "Peloton" with Fausto Coppi on the cover. It had a piece on Coppi with some nice pics, profiles of some Italian bicycle makers, an interview with John Eustice on the Gianni Motta squad that rode the Giro in 1984 (with a couple of photos), and a back-page photo series of a full panto early 80's Olmo Grand Prix. I reached for it many times to flip through on my vacation. I also picked up a UK Tour de France preview mag that was bundled with a small collection of historical Tour photos, including a nice color one of Maertens in full flight on an exquisite De Rosa time trial special (very trick lightened fork crown). I felt like I got my money's worth in both instances.
I chose the issue of "Peloton" over another magazine that had profiles of framebuilders that are part of the constructeur movement, including - ironically given this thread - a pic of Mike Kone with Mark Nobilette, plus another article with C&V content I can't recall at the moment.

I noticed on their site they had a digital only version for $12.99.

That's for 9 issues, so I'll try that.

If I knew how to read, I'd probably look for bike magazines....

Like an earlier post to this thread, I find bike magazines from 80's to be good reading.

One of the best articles on aero was in an old cycling magazine.
A thorougly unscientific study: they used riders, bikes, and stopwatches.
Imagine that. Non-scientific results that actually make sense.

I find Jan amusing, and his mag. has become quite good. Yes, he is uber-opinionated, but not quite as "everything I don't like is dangerous, unsafe junk" as Dear Leader Grant, and you just take his goggle-vision with a grain of salt.

You might be surprised to hear that he raved about a carbon-fiber bike in the latest issue, as well as some VO brakes from Taiwan. Certainly won't ever hear Grant do that.... (well, not the carbon bit, anyways!).


Some good, some not so good.

I always read it when a friend in our group finishes the the mag.

I end up crabby with at least one comment per mag, but overall, worth what I paid for it.

I surprised myself recently, and bought a copy of BICYCLING magazine, which I haven't done since about 1977 or so. An article on the Cannibal prompted me to do so. Ok, but not great.

Until a couple of guys from here or else on the web start a monthly webzine/padzine there's none. I'd like a piece of fiction from auchencrow, a lot of drillium pr0n by the drillium dude and a hilarious troll rant by -holiday76 for the first issue (pretty please :rolleyes:)

First i don't know where to put this: I have never done forums before this is my first attempt. Robert nicol made patent 551,597 for bikes and sold bikes in chicago from 1895-1898. Where was his factory. How and where can i find an address in chicago in the late 1800's early 1900's for nicol & co. I am also looking for vintage or old advertising from nicol & co on bikes or anything - thank you so much:(

I don't know if anyone in this forum will be able to help you with such a localized and specific (not to mention historical) inquiry...I think you'll probably need to check with Chicago business registries, historical societies, or the Chicago patent office (if there is such a place).

This forum mostly focuses on well known or renowned vintage bike manufacturers, and I don't know that you'll find a user whose heard of Nicol & Co...and if you want to start a new thread, you can just visit the Classic & Vintage main page, and start a new thread there: http://www.bikeforums.net/forumdisplay.php/181-Classic-amp-Vintage