Amani576

I kinda wish I had been born maybe 10-20 years earlier.
Why? Well... think about it. As a cyclist I have all these modern day things that are well established, some mainstream and kinda dull, but still established. There's not as much cool stuff going on anymore.
But think about it, if I had been born about 15 years earlier (I was born in 89) I would have missed the foundations of MTB-ing but would have seen the evolution of it. But I would have seen the creation of modern day BMX (I know, kids on stingrays really formed it) and all the really cool designs and stuff people came up with during it. I mean, back in the 60's no one was dancing on their front wheel (literally), but mid 80's people were and it was cool as hell.
Maybe if I'd been born 20 years earlier, I'd be about 10 during the foundations of Mountain Bikes and that would have been really cool to see, as well.
Iuhno, maybe I'm just too old of a soul for this young body. A large part of me just hates how generic everything seems to be today, which is why I like old bikes so much. When you can go to Wal-Mart and buy either a "Mountain Bike" or a "BMX" bike, it just loses it flavor to me (even though I still want to try both). I know, though, enjoy my youth while I have it .
-Gene-

RobbieTunes

Stay the way you are, you balance out the others....

Sure, watching BMX evolve was cool, but do you realize how many True Value Hardware stingray clones were destroyed to make that happen? Evel Knievel was the best thing that happened to the kid's bike industry. Not to mention all the collarbones. I did a bunny hop off a loading dock. Once.

Build yourself a single speed with a flip-flop rear, and go back in time.

Or come ride with us Saturday in Durham at Duke. I can get you home.

Tigerprawn

If you were born 10-20 years earlier you might not get to experience the not so far invention of hover bikes

Kommisar89

But then you'd be an old geezer like me. And you probably would have thought bmx was stupid and unless you lived somewhere that mountain biking was really popular you might not have paid any attention to it because it wasn't "real" cycling. And you'd have been lamenting the fall of the European cycling industry and the rise of Shimano. Oh well. Be happy to be where you are.

Amani576

I gotta work saturday, I'd love to go riding, but I really need like 3 weeks notice for a lot of these rides, calling out over and over again is a quick way to get me fired.
-Gene-

BigPolishJimmy

Doesn't matter when you are, you just got to keep your eyes open to what's going on. Right now CF is common, but there are interesting things going on everywhere. I'm hoping to see a growth in velomobiles in the USA, gas is cheap atm, but I doubt it will last. Hit up instructables and see fringe people making bikes out of bamboo, or the atomic zombie creations. If you don't know how, learn to wrench on a bike, maybe take it further and learn to weld. Make something happen. I thought bmx was stupid, and I had a huffy stingray ripoff and used to jump rocks and broken glass and other kids to make it interesting. We wore no helmets and got injured often, of course watch jack*ss and you see some things don't change. Man we got the internet now, so many cool things happening with illegal soapbox federations, minimoto, tallbikes and alt bikes and such. With a bit of email work, you can tap into any scene, get your hands dirty and participate. Back in the day you had to rely on word of mouth and then get your *ss beat for taking the forks out of the kitchen drawer to duct-tape onto your bike forks, bend the tines to make a 'chopper'. Youtube often shows the folly of these types of design modifications.

Alright I'm done babbling, look around, there's plenty of stuff to do.

divineAndbright

Huh? Your post doesn't really make sense to me, not much has changed since '89 really, just go look at what the bicycles are in a department store, they've always reflected whats the current mainstream. Only difference from the mid 80s I guess the mountain bikes aren't rigid anymore. You missed the start of the BMX era sure, but I don't know why you'd wanna be apart of that.. but to each their own.

While its nice a bicycle can be so many different things I think the whole mountain bike + bmx introductions only helped push or further push the idea that bicycles are for kids or merely "toys" for grown ups.

unprintable

I don't mind growing up when I did. I'm a whole year older than you, OP. The way I think of it is this:

I see the 70s and 80s as really the golden age for road bicycles. If I were born 15-20 years earlier then I probably wouldn't be riding the same awesome bikes because they were expensive at the time. As it is, I get to enjoy these fine old bikes because they're affordably old. I sure can't afford to be buying new road bikes, at least. I dunno, FWIW.

jtgotsjets

you never know if you're witnessing something destined to be big or not

for all you know, this fixed gear revival of the last few years will stick around, and FG freestyling will really catch on... eight or so years from now, it'll be on the x-games!

Swiftly

hey but if you were born earlier you would probably want to have bikes from the previous generation anyway right?

fixed gear freestyling on x-games? noway, it isn't nearly fast exciting or dangerous enough. it's fun but its more like ballet than death defying stuntz or what.

gurry

Today you have the internet for advice on bike repairs, back in the day, you were on your own. Cotterless cranks were not common then as well, I spent more time replacing cotter pins than riding it seems. Now you can purchase a classic bike and with the help of the internet, restore it to it's former glory cheaper than buying it brand new back then.

Kommisar89

I don't know about that but yeah, I agree with your general premise. Even in the 90's when I was still riding my old bikes (they were just old then, not yet C&V) it was difficult to find information or parts sometimes. There wasn't a community like this to go to for advice nor websites with catalogs and certainly no eBay. If by "restoration" you mean refurbishing a classic bike with new tires and cables and brake pads and bar tape then yeah, you can do it cheaper than you could buy the bike back then. But if it needs more than a couple small parts or if it needs paint or chrome then get out your wallet. On the other hand, even that is still likely to be much cheaper than buying a new bike of similar quality today.

banjo_mole 

Sometime I think it'd be cool to have been born 120 years ago.

I mean, bicycles were just starting.

(If I could bring a columbus frame back in time with me and race.. heehe...)

RobbieTunes

I much prefer the age of physically fit women in Lycra.

Chris W.

Funny, I always wished I was born 20 yrs earlier, 1942! that would have put me in the golden age of everything I truly love! ie Music, bicycles, climbing etc...Having been born in 62, I did get in on the beginings of BMX and that was way cool (at the time) going from stingrays to Webco or Pat littlejohns to the first Redlines, lots of fun for sure. I'm just happy that I did have a time in my life (early 80s) when I "did" have really nice road bikes ie Woodrup, Gitane, Lotus. In the end I'm really glad with what I've ended up with (except the disco in High school...).

Cheers,
Chris

banjo_mole 

Oh.. me too. I forgot about the social and sexual oppression of women! (Although bicycles helped to lift that!)

Well, if it comes down to pretty girls, I wish I was from the 60's. I dig all the girl's haircuts.

Or maybe the 70's. With backpacking (external frame packs) cycling (steel frames) and the generally... neatnesss... about it.

Hmm....

Kommisar89

This is really a funny thread. I’m guessing you’d need to be in your late 30’s to early 40’s right now to really have been of an age where you would have cared about BMX or MTB at the beginning unless maybe you lived in California. Any older and you probably would have ridden a “10-speed” and thought the new stuff was weird. I can remember I paid $175 for my Bottecchia in 1974 and that was considered a ridiculous amount of money to pay for a bicycle (so our parents thought) but I rode that thing for 22 years and would still be riding it if I hadn't got hit by a truck. A few years later in the late 70's, my buddy's little brother got a new bike for Christmas or his B-day or something. It was a BMX bike, the first one I ever saw. It was this really cool shade of red and all of the components were gold anodized alloy. It cost $450!!! We were amazed. $450 for a bicycle! For a 12 year old! I guess he was the favored son, my friend only had a Schwinn Varsity The funny thing is, I seriously doubt that he's still riding that today.