Classic & Vintage - Why do you like riding vintage bikes?

Is it a bike you've had for years, and you ride it for sentimental value?

Is it a nostalgia thing?

Is it a fashion thing?

Do you just like the feel of the steel frame, or other parts?

I'm somewhat new to cycling, so I don't know. But around my city, I see guys who look like pretty serious cyclists, wearing some nice gear, riding old school.



I've got my eye on this Nishiki for my 2nd bike:





http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii159/mcnhbc/55%20cm%20to%2059%20cm%20-%20275%20and%20under/2012-07-10141203.jpg

First, I like the way they look.

Second (and probably most importantly), I can afford a good amount of them.

I will have to agree with mkeller.........love the look and what fun is haveing only one bike. I will have to add that I have ridden other newer bikes and I just like the way steel rides. The last new bike I bought was a Cross Check because it was steel (among other reasons). I will also add that I don't see the need for a large assortment of gears, 10 suits me just fine and if I have a few more that is a bonus but I certainly don't need 18, 20 or 21. Maybe nostalgia plays a small role too, these are the bikes that I thought were cool when I was a teenager just getting into cycling beyond what kids do as kids. I also look at it as recycling, it's a perfectly good bike, why not ride it........you don't need the latest and greatest to have fun riding a bike.

Riding a bike can be like a smell that evokes a particular memory or a color that has a strong association. I don't always want to live in the past but sometimes it's nice to ride something so familiar.

classic bikes are like classic cars: there was craftsmanship back then and there's a beauty to them. now they just "stamp" out carbon frames, like new cars.
also, i enjoy the way steel rides. I have an aluminum Felt, and there is just something different about my Fuji and Raleigh; it's hard to put my finger on it, they just feel better and more solid when riding on the "mean streets."

I'm with mkeller too. Being mechanically minded I dont care if something doesnt work if it is the right price. Vintage stuff is better quality in most cases and just plain fun to ride.

That also goes for vintage motorcycle racing I have done over 30 years.

-SP

they don't make bikes anymore like my '76 grand record with that beautiful campy nr hanging all over it. riding it feels nostalgic, yes, but also, it feels right.

plus, zeppelin's presence came out that year.

I think a lot has to do with the fact that for the most part only the top 10-20 percent bike best of the bikes from the 60's and 70's are still around in good working order of most of the bikes you see here on the C&V forums are in well in the top 5 percent. So it isn't realy fair to compair these bikes with just average bikes from then or now.

for the most part only the top 10-20 percent bike best of the bikes from the 60's and 70's are still around...

I wont agree with this..
I think there were less high-end bikes built back then then today,

people who fork over the dosh to buy them do remember that they were not cheap and odds are most of them are hidden in the attics and garages.

its only when someone else wants to clean, and has no idea what it is- is when they get thrown out or garage sale.

10 or so years ago I was working in Baltimore with my friend who sells/services/restores old vespas.
We used to put adds in the newspapers in MD DEL PA wanting to buy vespas.
every week we got a call or 2 which lead us to fantastic finds- at what WE were willing to pay for it.
We found bikes with less then 100 miles on them, never more then 4000 miles.
those days are gone- they grew in fashion again and people learned about ebay.
point is americans file their toys away long before they leave their estates!


As for me-

bikes of the late 70's and early 80's were the ones I liked in my youth.
I could not afford one then but Now I have the bike I always wanted.
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f394/rivieraproject/bicycles/IMG_0911.jpgnew go fast carbon passes me all the time...I hope I dont start consider going into fashion!

mike

I so wanted a top end (for me it was Italian and Campagnolo) bike back then and it's only now that I can actually realise my dreams.

I like practical bikes, commuters especially, and that market carried a lot of clout after the war.

For reference: My Diamant 3-speed cost a month's wage in 1948. Since just assembling a bike cost so much, it generally didn't pay to do a half-assed job of it. Consequently it has hand-painted lining on the frame, fenders and rims, thick nickel-plating everywhere, hubs (most expensive part of the bike) made to last indefinitely...

I just have to marvel about the fact that someone could put so much love into (and some other bloke could fork over so much cash for) an everyday workhorse.

But I'm no uncritical nostalgic. I realize that I'm cherry-picking survivors. And I don't care much for unpractical fads, even old fads. Just as I think most urban people aren't best served with MTB's, I think the 10-speed racer got way to big a hegemony in the '70s. Suddenly people shopping for groceries felt they were best served with drop bars, tubulars and a twitchy fork.

Now, for riding I can't really put my finger on why I like steel. I would probably enjoy a nice alu or carbon-fibre frame just as much. But while I can invest a 1948 month's wage in a bike I can't really invest a 2012 wage, so the really nice contemporaries are outside my reach. For longer rides I find that steel flexes more and smoothes out the road, but it also makes me realize why nobody uses steel in Tour de France anymore.

I am riding the same bike I was riding 35 years ago...what do you mean vintage? GET OF MY LAWN! :50::roflmao2:

I like my vintage bikes, they ride just fine for me, don't cost a fortune and aren't part of the current consumerist planned obsolescence. Besides I can still buy parts for 40+ year old Raleighs, but can't for a 10 year old bike?

Aaron :)

First, I like the way they look.

Second (and probably most importantly), I can afford a good amount of them.

Yup, this pretty much sums it up for me too. There is something about the look and ride of a classic steel frame that really gets to me - and not in a nostalgic way at all, but an appreciation for something that is well-crafted, that shows the care of a person's labor and thought and sweat. I could never have afforded many of the bikes I now own, or that have passed through the collection - not by a long sight: but I certainly have the opportunity now. And, well - I've heard it said that you only get to live once.

It's because it's the bikes I rode in the 80's, when I was deep into the sport. I also consider the bikes from the 80's as the highest form of the bicycle as mechanical art with the most minimal of materials on it and it was when the racing bicycle was finally cleaned up of all the clamps and other added on items on the frame by the use of brazed on or bonded component lugs and fittings which gave them the cleanest of looks that had not been matched since, especially after the modern bicycles started srpouting more levers and cables to control indexed shifting systems....never mid the inherent ugliness of ergo bars, threadless stems, black wall tires, ugly humungous looking brifter levers, "alien blob" styled cranksets, "droop snoot" SMP saddles and the akward looking backward slope of top tubes on compact frames......No wonder young riders are now looking back to old bikes and retros to have something that looks good under them.....JMOs.....

Chombi

the racing bicycle was finally cleaned up of all the clamps and other added on items on the frame by the use of brazed on or bonded component lugs and fittings which gave them the cleanest of looks that had not been matched since, especially after the modern bicycles started srpouting more levers and cables to control indexed shifting systems...
Chombi

Can I get an "Amen!" brother!

I dig the cosmic vibe I get from riding a vintage bike. I'm of the Bike Boom generation. Back in the day my friends and I studied the Raleigh catalogs, went on bike hikes, and lived on our bikes. Riding a vintage bike from that era keeps me in righteous harmony and guides me to serendipity and good karma.

They are different.

A bike and its components from the 30s is different from a bike from the 50s which is different from a bike from the 70s which different than a modern bike.

One isn't better than another. They are just different.

Vive la différence!

I just like them. A bike is an interesting piece of machinery.
I find older bikes more interesting, and I can see and understand the technology in them.

It's also the tribe I'm in. No one expects me to be fast.


Is it a bike you've had for years, and you ride it for sentimental value?
Nope, that would be a Free Spirit bicentennial edition...

Is it a nostalgia thing?
Nope, that would be a Raleigh Technium I totalled on a dog...

Is it a fashion thing?
Nope. Any hints I'm fashionable go out the window when you see my jerseys....

Do you just like the feel of the steel frame, or other parts?
Nope. I just like seeing a top tube that looks like a bike....

I simply hate the look of most contemporary bikes that are sold in the shops. All those huge logos everywhere on the road bikes. Or their far too thick carbon forks. And let's just remain silent about the bikes that pass for ordinary Dutch bikes nowadays -- with their fat aluminium tubes, their ridiculous high weight, their impractical carriers, and their adjustable stems with built-in leeway.

Whereas I just have to look at my green 33 year old Koga Miyata Gent's Racer - S, and see something I really like. A bike that is an invitation for a ride.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F-gavXoa4vw/UCwuKCOaDeI/AAAAAAAAAFE/6kkrjK7YG6w/s640/_2012_koga-gents-8-viii-c.jpg

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-nru2vg17rzQ/UC0LR1xslGI/AAAAAAAAAFc/sU7DZbNTEDE/s512/_2012_koga-gents-8-viii-v.jpg

Looks. Design. Generally cool machines with high attention to detail. Easy to repair, but typically don't need much attention other than general maintenance.

I liked back in the day and I still like them.:)

I couldn't afford a really nice bike when I was first getting into cycling in the late 1970s and early 80s. Now I can afford it, and prefer nice old bikes to most of the bikes being sold in shops these day. Most carbon and aluminum frames do nothing for me, with garish styling and billboard decals. They all seem to be painted in the same boring black, red and white color schemes. The new bikes that I do like are mostly steel or ti custom or boutique brands that are also too expensive for me, so I have a collection of older and more current bikes that I mostly bought used for reasonable prices.

I'm not trying to win any races or be the fastest in a club. 10 or 15(triple crank) gears are more than enough for me. I like friction shifting. I like the ride of steel. The new bikes with the bulky looking frames and heavy application of logos are just plain fugly! Those deep V rims with the writing on the side are hideous! Plus most of the old bikes are a lot more functional than most of the new ones. How are you supposed to pack a lunch/picnic on a modern roadie? Don't tell me you put it all in the pockets of your jersey. Plus, the old bikes are fun and easier to work on.

I so wanted a top end (for me it was Italian and Campagnolo) bike back then and it's only now that I can actually realise my dreams.

+1

I like to dabble with vintage racing bikes and ride them occasionally.

Really interesting for me.

In reality though, I am far more passionate about US custom builders, especially local/regional builders.

It's just so hard for me to say no when beauties like my 1990 Tommasini Super Prestige pop up.

At incredible low prices!!

The charm and craftsmanship in that Tommasini are certainly top shelf and the ride qualities are first class as well.

First, I like the way they look.

Second (and probably most importantly), I can afford a good amount of them.

+10 Its still amazing the value you get for the money on used or vintage bikes. I could either get an entry level LBS hybrid, or a high end vintage bike with beautiful detail work. My self imposed limit used to be no bike for more than what an entry level road bike sells for new ($800). I have been lowering that limit, as a lot of really nice stuff goes for about half that. Want STI? No problem, some nice bikes from the early 1990s with 8 speed 600 or DA components, lugged higher end steel frame, etc., can all be found at reasonable prices. I've been migrating my STI bikes to one of those two, as the 8 speed stuff is rebuildable, and I just like the aesthetics of those two versions.

+10 Most of the new bikes, particularly the lower level ones, all look the same to me. Separated by "bold new graphics". Boring. All have similar generic aluminum frames, SORA or below components. I think the various brands have screwed up by eliminating most of the differentiation between brands. If you are going to look generic, might as well save some cash and go to bikesdirect.

+10 Unfortunately, a lot of vintage bikes, particularly from the 1970s, were really basic. Bike companies could sell just about anything, so entry level was really bottom end. And they sold a lot more of the entry level bikes, than the higher end stuff.

+10 Compare bottom end LBS bike today with bottom end LBS from the 1970s, and the new stuff wins hands down. Consider the features of that entry bike from back then: steel seat post, steel handlebars, high ten steel frame, cottered crank, steel rims, nutted axle, many times plastic derailleurs, list goes on and on. Compare my close to 38 pound Schwinn Continental (which actually was a couple of steps UP the Schwinn product line), to entry level today. Wow.

First, I like the way they look.

Second (and probably most importantly), I can afford a good amount of them.

Perfect answer!

If you have seen pics of my 1989 Bottecchia SLX you'd know why. :)

Second (and probably most importantly), I can afford a good amount of them.

This is actually #1 for me. They are the cheapest way to get into the game.

+1

I like to dabble with vintage racing bikes and ride them occasionally.

Really interesting for me.

In reality though, I am far more passionate about US custom builders

It's just so hard for me to say no when beauties like my 1990 Tommasini Super Prestige pop up.

At incredible low prices!!

The charm and craftsmanship in that Tommasini are certainly top shelf and the ride qualities are first class as well.

I in this camp.

I dabble with some vintage racing bikes. They are the ones I would dream of when I couldn't afford a tube, much less a
Campy racing bike. But oh how I would dream of them.

Truth of the matter, I would rather ride a custom alloy bike. Steel, Ti, tigged, lugged, whatever.
I still ride my vintage stuff, but if I had to just pick one bike to have, it would be my custom Ti!

I'm really glad I don't live in the northwest, I'd have more bikes than I could ever ride.

Personally it's about the ride quality, aesthetics, and value of steel.

I had kept a couple of bikes from the early 80's, from before they were vintage. Years later I didn't cycle much except for some casual MTB, so I finally sold/donated them. When I got the bug to get back into it, I looked at new bikes but was completely befuddled. Everything had changed, with too many expensive choices. So I bought something I understood- a 1981 vintage steel Italian race bike. Now 5-6 years later, I've moved onward & upward, and my main ride is 90's technology. I've tried several new bikes, but still prefer the feel & look of a steel road bike. Easier to work on, too.

I ride em cause they're just like the bikes I rode in 1972, and they were NEW!

Well, now that I'm 53 years old, I don't want to be riding a rolling billboard!

The newer carbon frames are just to loud for me. Loud paint jobs with big logo's that seem to be stuck to every tube on the bike just scream, "look at me people!". Well, I don't want to be that grey haired guy that just seem's to be trying alittle to hard, you know what I mean? Old guys just look better on vintage frames IMHO.

Also, you could buy vintage bikes that were made in many countries. Buy an Italian bike, and it was actually crafted and made in Italy. Same for Japanese, American and French bike's. With today's carbon bikes, the vast majority are made in China, and nearly all in the same factory, irregardless of the name on the tubes. Only at the high end can you find a bike not made in China.

Plus, I now have 3 very nice, ridable, good looking vintage bikes. Try owning 3 modern bikes - you'll be broke!

Plus, everyone will understand why you're so slow on such an old bike...

I like restoring and riding vintage bikes because the old steel has a soul...as if it holds the stories of the hands that crafted it. Yes, I know it's an odd notion, but I tend to anthropomorphize things such as bicycles.

Because.

I stopped cycling from about 1991 until last year. Never really kept up with the technology so when I brought my bike in for new tires, the LBS guys stood around gawking at it. I learned to appreciate the workmanship in a quality steel bike and I studdied the lugwork and details of makers like Eisentraut, Ritchey and Bruce Gordon. The molded, extruded layed-up plastic bikes held no interest for me.

couldn't afford them back in the day
no plastic
love the retro look

The top-end lugged steel beauties were what I lusted after in my ill-spent youth. Now I can afford some of them. They just look "right" to me. They ride great, too.

Now where I part company with some of my C&V family is on components. I like Campy 10-speed drivetrains. And modern brakes work better than what was available in the '70s. You can get close enough mating modern pads and aero cable routing to old Campy Nuovo calipers (I have a couple of frames that require a longert reach than you can get with Campy dual pivots), but modern dual pivots still work better. So for me, the best of all worlds is classic lugged steel with Campy 10-speed drivetrains and brakes.

Well, now that I'm 53 years old, I don't want to be riding a rolling billboard!

The newer carbon frames are just to loud for me. Loud paint jobs with big logo's that seem to be stuck to every tube on the bike just scream, "look at me people!". Well, I don't want to be that grey haired guy that just seem's to be trying alittle to hard, you know what I mean? Old guys just look better on vintage frames IMHO.

Also, you could buy vintage bikes that were made in many countries. Buy an Italian bike, and it was actually crafted and made in Italy. Same for Japanese, American and French bike's. With today's carbon bikes, the vast majority are made in China, and nearly all in the same factory, irregardless of the name on the tubes. Only at the high end can you find a bike not made in China.

Plus, I now have 3 very nice, ridable, good looking vintage bikes. Try owning 3 modern bikes - you'll be broke!

You do have to admit though that a good number of bike makers, mostly Italian, were kind of guilty of the same uber advertising on their bikes in the mid 80's as I remember all those Cioccs, Guerciottis and Colnagos with decals of and pantographs of their brand names all over their bike frames and components and even on their handlebar tapes and saddles. My brother and I used to make it a game to count how many brand name decals and pantographs we can find on the bikes hanging in our LBS's back then...easily way into the double digits for most of the Italian "Peacock" bikes we called them....athough they did not use as tall font sizes as they do now on "modern" bikes.....but then maybe it because you can only put so much graphics on tubes juat a bit more than an inch in diameter.....:rolleyes:
JMOs

Chombi

First, I like the way they look.

Second (and probably most importantly), I can afford a good amount of them.

Agreed.

I also think it's pretty cool to be riding a bike that was made when I was a sophomore in High School - all those years ago.

The aesthetic, the quality, the must-haves, and a bit of sentimentality. These bikes are what we're passionately familiar with when we were young, and now older, can afford and still appreciate the old, and that the latest isn't always the greatest.

I have nothing against today's stuff. I just don't personally find a need to upgrade to it. I still get plenty of buzz from my older toys.
All too often the younger set don't care for older tech as they have no history or respect for it.

Reliability, you can have it a steel bike for a lifetime if you take care of it.


Feel, I grew up riding downtube shifters, and I don’t want to change.


Nostalgia.


The uniqueness factor, instead of being on a treadmill of ever upgrading to the latest flavor of cool-aid. My vintage bike has that coolness factor today, and it won’t fade to last years model, it’s past that, it’ll still be cool next year and in 5 years.

Because they don't require wearing a spandex costume.

+1

I like to dabble with vintage racing bikes and ride them occasionally.

Really interesting for me.

In reality though, I am far more passionate about US custom builders, especially local/regional builders.

It's just so hard for me to say no when beauties like my 1990 Tommasini Super Prestige pop up.

At incredible low prices!!

The charm and craftsmanship in that Tommasini are certainly top shelf and the ride qualities are first class as well.

Exactly. I too have my favourite current Aussie builders like Baum but I just can't afford a new one but I feel more than happy riding my older steel 'time capsules' as the new carbon frames really do nothing for me.

d.) None of the above. I like vintage bikes because it's pretty embarrassing flying around in an F16 chassis around powered by a Sopwith Camel radial engine. :)

Well for me there are a few different points. First most my bike riding as a youth was on Huffy. However I became a fan of utility bikes when I took up a paper route at age 12. For that job I bought a Schwinn Workline Cruiser, and that bike was indestructible, and much more comfortable than my Huffy 12 speed, soon my Huffy was sitting even for my non work related riding, which was a lot.

Fast forward to 1992 when I moved to Portland, and while living downtown knew I couldn't afford a car and the parking etc. So I spent $1200 on a Raleigh MT 800. And used it for commuting and fun (back when the fire lanes where public access off Skyline Blvd.) Again that bike was "bomb proff", having only ever had to get the front shock repaired once in about 6 years of daily riding. I learned from this bike that I really didn't need all the gears for 99% of my riding was in a 5 gear range, and that a quality bike is worth the price.

Now a days I ride this:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-LDCntyD6gu0/Tn-zrMsCXPI/AAAAAAAAARA/oyBgiJgMnz4/s679/Front+of+Bike.bmp

I like C&V bikes because I see no need to throw away good bikes. Perhaps I'm cheap, or perhaps it for environmental reasons, but on a whole I don't like waste and am a big fan of efficiency. I picked up the Superbe for $200.00. And I've only put about $40.00 (not including the B-17 I won for best bike on a tweed ride this last spring) into cleaning it and upgrading it. So as of now I've got a high quality commuter bike, for about the price of a box store bike. And kept a perfectly good bike from the landfill. And I know full well that this bike will easily out live me with a few drops of oil every month.

Keeping that first reason in mind, I don't trust Aluminium or Carbon for frames. Aluminium frames are good until it gets a ding, then it's pretty much toast. Also the ride is a lot harsher. Before the Superbe I had an Iron Horse hybrid that I rode that was alloy frame, and I was never able to get comfortable on it no matter how much I tried to tweek the ride/set up. Carbon is is just fiberglass cloth epoxied in layers. And though it is strong, again once it is dinged, it's pretty much gone. Also for Carbon frames the epoxy that is used is oil based, and just like plastic and most other oil based products, it degrades with exposure to the sun (some manufactures even assign an expiration date on them). Thus in my opinion neither of these bikes are an efficient use of materials, or a practical use of my funds.

And lets face it, nothing rides like steel. I'm reluctant to even swap my rims to alloy (even here in rainy Portland), because I know part of the "cush" ride of my Superbe is that the steel rims flex more than alloy and absorb some of the road shock. Though it might not be much, I like the ride of my bike and don't want to ruin it.

Throw in the fact that I don't like derailers (they get banged up a lot on bike racks around here), the S&A hubs is all I really need for gears most the time, I can shift while stopped, the steel frame will trip traffic light magnets at intersections, and the ease of maintenance and repairs. My tool roll is an S&A cone spanner, an adjustable wrench, a screw driver, tire levers and a tube. Short of the BB. I can fix nearly everything on this bike with those tools.

Which reminds me that part of real beauty of the bicycle is in it's simplicity. For all the advancements of the last 50 years. The latest and greatest is only more power efficient than the old by a miniscule amount. It's enough to make the difference in professional races, but for most of us it's really not that significant. And definitely not enough in my opinion to justify the cost differences.

And like others, a good lug frame is beautiful. By far more beautiful than anything in aluminium or carbon.

d.) None of the above. I like vintage bikes because it's pretty embarrassing flying around in an F16 chassis around powered by a Sopwith Camel radial engine. :)
Then you should condier taking on the alias of "Gnome Monosoupape" then.....

I like riding them because they don't break, especially the 80's era; and they look better then production bikes today, you have to pay a lot of money to get a custom bike to look as good as they use to look.

I like older stuff in general because they last longer with less problems and cost less to repair due to shear simplicity, I have several classic cars and the couple I drive a lot never have problems unlike my newer schit I own or have owned. And bikes...same thing, I have friends who have new bikes and their always getting this fixed or that replaced, yet my old stuff just keeps going.

Interesting answers. I could say I like the ride of steel better than alumi-titani-arbon-fiber, but that would be like saying I don't like turtle soup when I've never tasted turtle soup. But I can see what turtle soup looks like. And I know I wouldn't be able to cook it.

By contrast, I know how to work on vintage bikes. Vintage bikes work well for me, do everything I need from them. They look great. Riding a bike two thirds as old as myself is cool. What's not to like?