fietsbob

magna and northrock come out of the 2 big box stores , i hate the ones that we spend time and money on
that languish in the basement because they never get picked up by the owner , who is a tightwad.

kaliayev

Never actually built a bike (like almost all bike companies today), but Tim Neenan was a pretty influential designer doing the Sequoia, Allez, Expedition, and Stumpjumper.

seedsbelize 

I don't see the appeal of Chicago built Schwinns. I personally prefer the Japanese ones.

gaucho777 

Velocity Wheels. I'm sure it's a great product, but their flamboyant, multi-colored Deep V rims have contributed to some pretty atrocious looking fixies.

ThermionicScott 

Do you ask for a deposit when agreeing to fix BSOs? That's how one of my LBS's deals with that problem.

16Victor

Aye.

Oldpeddaller

I think you are talking about Shimano Deore now?

Chombi

Not to turn this into a VO pile-on,....... but I cannot resist mentioning that the last VO product I bought sure did not impress me.
It might be just their "braided" brake casings, but heck!, what were they thinking making it so stiff so that it could possibly cause enough fatigue to break frame cable guides just from the pressure applied by steering the bike? Tried to soften/limber them up by manually flexing them for long durations over a weekend....and they just started falling apart internally (I could see the braided strands separating and breaking under the clear covering)......and they were still as stiff as twigs from a tree!....Yechh!
Yes they were cheap at 15 bucks a set, but I don't like to be sold cheap.....junk...

sykerocker 

I assume you weren't riding 10-speeds back in 1971-74.

The Chicago Schwinn's, especially the Varsity, are probably the most important bikes out there if you're talking in terms of American cycling. More important than UO-8's, PX-10's, Super Course's, etc.

Without them, the bike boom would have died quickly because all those wonderful lugged foreign bikes would have been beaten to death by people who hadn't ridden a bicycle since they turned 16. And their last bikes were those 50 pound 'middleweight' balloon tyred paper boy bikes. The kind you could jump curbs, slam into potholes, and in general just abuse the hell out of. Most of those customers didn't understand the relative fragility of a French, Italian or British built road bike. They'd have turned them into scrap metal within weeks (and I saw a couple of customers who did that, customers who were taught by the books on cycling that if it didn't have lugs, it was junk). And walked away convinced that 10-speeds were underbuilt trash. Having wasted their money on a piece of junk, the urge to ride a bicycle would have died then and there.

These are the people to whom we sold Varsities. They were the perfect 10-speed, able to put up with the (usually unintended) abuse of a first-time adult rider. And once they'd learned how to take care of a derailleur road bike, they were perfect customers for something lugged in 531 straight gauge with better components, alloy rims, etc. Yeah, the Varsity and Continental were heavy. So what? They taught a generation of Americans how to ride again.

And yeah, we 'purists who knew better' slagged people back then for buying them. Amazing how stupid you can be until you finally know the situation better.

Oh yeah, Schwinn's, back then, were only sold in bike shops. Who's dealers were more regulated, and were forced to have higher standards, than the little back alley shop that sold the exotic European bikes.

cycle_maven

+1. More attitude than style or substance.

Also Vanilla- "we're so successful that our waiting list is 5 years long- and we won't even let you on that list anymore"
Jeez- just hire a couple more people for crissakes.

KonAaron Snake 

Just curious - have you ever owned or ridden a Vanilla?

FYI - if they hired a few more people, and Sacha wasn't the builder, those folks wouldn't line up. They have what you're describing - it's called Speedvagen.

cycle_maven

Expedition was a Miyata 1000 with two holes in the downtube for a generator wire. Was designed and manufactured by Miyata.

cycle_maven

Never owned one- that's a pretty rarefied club. Rode one around a parking lot at 2007 Cycle Oregon. I liked the Serotta better, but the fit might have been a bit closer to my dimensions. You have a point about the builder, although most people wouldn't care much if their custom bike had its lugs polished by the apprentice, as long as the master did the measurement, fitting and design. Probably how they do it now, come to think of it...

Speedvagons are tig-welded and therefore beneath contempt

gomango

Agreed.

Sometimes I wonder if people ever ride these bikes before they rip 'em.

FWIW I rode a Rivendell Rambouillet last summer in the Bavarian Alps and it was quite capable.

I'd happily own one at this point in my life.

frantik

I "loath" companies like Derby and Accell group for buying classic brand names just so they can slap a "known" brand name on their cheap junk bikes. Definitely loath Pacific Cycles for being responsible for the vast majority of x-mart bikes out there today

mechanicmatt

I have to say that I hate some brand's time periods.

I had all stingray's growing up, and I can't stand them. Yet those and all the other heavy Chicago Scwhinn's are built like tanks and can be rebuilt over and over.

Late 80's and Early 90's Specialized. Narrow lower stays, that no tire over 1.9 could fit through.

Anything glued, epoxyied, etc. That would include Technium (Raleigh), Trek Onyx and early carbon, Specialized, etc.

Trek after giving up on US manufacturing. I love any of thier lugged stuff.

Fuji's, not a fan, any year. Though my first mountain bike was one, heavy and poorly designed.

KonAaron Snake 

Pretty silly IMO. With a custom builder it's even harder if the bike wasn't built for YOU.

Agree on Riv - they make some nice stuff. Fender's is BEAUTIFUL.


My Vanilla is a nice bike, I enjoy riding it and the build is pretty nice. If I were dropping cash for a custom I wouldn't wait for a Vanilla...and there are lots of other builders I like a lot too.

mechanicmatt

Also I am not a Peugeot fan.

I have seen a lot of Derby hate here too, and I have always like most of their brands through the years. Raleigh has a cool modern line up too. I built plenty in the 90's but thought they were no worse than any of the other foreign shipped brands.

mechanicmatt

Surly Crosscheck's are so humougously over rated as well. The frame geometry is jacked, too long top tube. Heavy.

Robofunc

There are plenty of non-Paramount Schwinns that couldn't be further from boat anchors.

RJM

Specialized because of the way they bully. This last Roubaix issue was the final nail in the coffin for me.

I don't loathe them, but Surly bikes are just overrated on the forums.

Bandera

Sounds like you were there, I agree and my job was to get any bikes of several marques assembled properly to the customer.

Historical revisionism now from C&V enthusiasts who were too young to have been there but my bike-boom-gas-shortage customer wasn't interested in "cycling", wanted to save gas & grew up w/ balloon tires as a child and expected durability and reliability 1st.

Lets' revisit that: There were epic lines for auto fuel and massive shortages (look it up) people needed basic transportation and turned to the bicycle as never before or since. These were not effete proto-hipsters & early urban mixed transit enthusiasts but working folk who had to get to a job when gas lines were long and prices skyrocketed.
A Varsity was a sports car compared to a Phantom & had a full array of fenders, racks, dynamo lighting and baskets available from the factory to get them to work in the gas shortage in a reasonable time. And that's how it was.

The Euro "lightweights" were either a complete failure to the ham-handed commuter or a revelation of performance to some customers who went on to cycle recreationally. That's why UO-8s, Grand Prix's and Mirages are found unused for 40 years in basements today, unlike most Varsities which saw actual use for decades.

Chicago Schwinn knew their customer & produced the machines they wanted, we sold them in droves.
Cycling enthusiasts were a tiny minority, we had something else for them but Paramounts had a long waiting list for good reason whether P-14 on the track or P-15 for century riders.

-Bandera

ThermionicScott 

And the Stumpjumper was just an Asian-made clone of Tom Ritchey's first mountain bikes.

16Victor

Hmm..never cared much for Giant since it seemed to me the epitome of generic.

From the vintage days, I think Cannondales were cool just for their innovativeness (results notwithstanding). Steelie lugged Treks? Awesome...successful US manufacturing, something that was dying at a time when the Japanese were eating our lunch. Kudos to them...then.

Specialized? In a word association game, I quickly say "catalog." pfft. (remember their origins?)

I wouldn't have a vintage Nashbar bike just because of the weirdness, plus the catalog thing.

I learned about how the catalog companies affected the LBS's when I worked at a few.

Buy from folks, folks.

16Victor

Yep - remember the frame of reference - a 3-Speed Schwinn or Raleigh was the order of the day, or even a Huffy with big fat tires. And a steel basket. Or two.

Everybody thought the "English racer" bikes (or "the bikes with the loopy handlebars" as Grandpa Martini used to say, God rest his soul) were odd...