Zinger

Very nice!.......That's all I'd better say.

rootboy 

A couple of years ago a sometime member here was nice enough to send me some CDs of music he liked. I did the same for him with some music I like. He wrote with a fairly severe critique of an artist I particularly like. It stung. For a minute. No one likes to have their tastes contradicted. But then I realized, he wasn't attacking me or my tastes. Just didn't like the music. So it goes.

Giacomo 1 

I agree with many of the reasons stated here, such as asthetics, ride quality, simple maintenance etc.

But another thing I like that hasn't been mentioned is the fact that a C&V Colnago or Pinarello was actually made-in-Italy, a Schwinn or Trek was made-in-America, a Raleigh was made-in-England, and a Peugot and Motobecane was made-in-France, so you really felt and saw the differences in each. Each had the real characteristics that made it different.

Today, nearly all but the top-of-the-line bikes are made in Tawain under the same roof of the same factory. I think you'd be hard pressed to feel or see any difference between a modern lower or middle of the line Trek or Motobecane.

Fiji__speed

I enjoy the aesthetics more than anything. The plain and simple design. The classic bike look, as opposed to the new-age, techy, sporty look that you see on a lot of road bikes manufactured today. I also like the gear-shifting on vintage bikes. Lastly, I'd say the history. I enjoy the thrilling feeling of hunting for bikes to purchase, and selling/trading bikes, too.

Bandera

I will generally prepare some toast before venturing out on any of my old bicycles, which I like because I enjoy riding them.
The Sunbeam T-20 is the Campagnolo Nuovo Record of toasters, or the Schwinn Phantom. One or the other......



-Bandera

RobbieTunes

I, too, like old, solid, large metal toasters. Even the real dangerous kind that are basically open wires in a metal box. They toast.

My "newish" one is a Cool Touch. I don't want Cool Touch, I want hot toast, just before incineration.
To go with my hot coffee and homemade blackberry jam. Like all Wisconsin folks, we butter it first.
I don't use my toaster much, as I eat bacon and eggs every day, off the griddle, and it toasts as well as any metal box.

Don't get me started on those big mixers. If you can't paint the walls with pancake batter, it's not powerful enough.

Steve Whitlatch 

Yet you expect class from everyone else?

Bandera

A good stand mixer should perform like a proper old school cyclist on a vintage FG bike, lots of grunt to get the load moving and the ability to achieve impossible RPM on demand.
Perhaps I should not have sold the Hobart or the Zeus track bike.....my KA Artisan is a pale shadow.......pizza dough makes it tremble.



-Bandera

rootboy 

My old Sunbeam toaster finally gave up the ghost. After 25 years of faithful service.
Just so's nobody will think I'm a complete Luddite, I'm now using a Panasonic NB-G100P.
Good unit. But its aesthetics can't compare with old chromed beast.

iab

Of course looks are a part of the equation. Many tri-dudes love the looks of that bike. They chose that one over the dozens, if not hundreds of other choices partially due to its looks. The performance difference between a Trek tri and a Giant tri is zero. If looks weren't an important marketing factor, there would be no paint as it only adds weight.

And you certainly don't have to like the looks. I don't care for them much either. But I fail to understand what is your objective by writing something negative about somebody's personal taste? It is insulting, plain and simple. Possibly in a perfect world it should not be insulting, but in the real world it is. Don't believe me? Next time you are at a party/event/gala with your mother/wife/sister, tell her that her outfit/shoes/jewelry/makeup/hair-do is ugly. Let us know how that works out for you.

As for an apology from me. Why? All I did was to agree with you that you are slow, which you had already written several posts prior to mine. How is calling you slow, when it is a stated fact by you, insulting?

BTW, what was the comment about liking modern art? That wasn't snide?

RobbieTunes

Nice weather we're having.....

likebike23

I must admit, this is part of the appeal for me. I love hunting for great deals and getting one every now and then. How great is it when you can find a fine machine that looks great and functions well for less than the cost of dinner and drinks? Granted, most of the bikes I get are pretty rough, but that's also why I am drawn to C&V bikes. I get a feeling of accomplishment when I am done overhauling a bike. I also like that I can buy and try lots of bikes for almost no money.

Bandera

Much like an AW hub the old Sunbeams are infinitely re-buildable, but do not drip oil.

If a Vintage bicycle (Schwinn Varsity) required an enormous amount of energy to accelerate to pace, had the ability to hold it efficiently and decelerate very slowly the Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven holds that distinction in the kitchen. Nothing like it for Low & Slow braising, properly cared for they last for generations unlike modern disposable flimsy "cookware".



In any number of areas of use proven designs survive simply because they work very well for those who use them, and plan on doing so for a very long time.

-Bandera

Steve Whitlatch 

The design of the frame was not done with looks in mind. The seat tube, with that shape, designed for a purpose, looks funny to me. Wide carbon fiber shapes do not appeal to me.

The comment about modern art would only be offensive if you hate modern art I guess, old bikes are works of art, if you like the looks of the new bikes, I only meant it in terms of modern art. I also said to each his own.

I should never drink Vodka and post. My mistake was I did not just write what I like about old bikes, I also pointed out what I don`t like about the new.. For that I was wrong and have apologized.

auchencrow

I'd druther burn my britches than makes toast in that consarned ugly thing. . .



Uh oh! The PC Police are kicking at my door now!

YouthxCrew

For me, It's pretty much looks and price. I started riding bikes nowing nothing about them and instantly fell in love with well filed, accented lugs, chromed forks and stays, and classic cranks. Not much of that is available today at a price the everyday person can afford. My favorite bike I paid $25 for and have been able to get some of the very best vintage components for less than $50 for the most expensive of them. I doubt I would be able to furnish a bare bike frame with near top-of-the-line components for $100 or near that price nowadays.

Probably some of that is growing up surrounded by the latest in bike technology and the flashiest of frames and graphics, and trying to be something different (both of my older brothers are cyslists)

Steve Whitlatch 

Are you kidding? I own a Schwinn. Do you see what people call Schwinn`s around here? LOL

crank_addict

Rumor has it some new carbon fiber toasters will be the next hot thing. And fiber in your diet is a good thing.

English3Speed

For me it's all of the above.

Even for a road bike I like the option of shorter tours, or stopping at the orchard on a day ride, and the older bikes have eyelets to attach racks and maybe fenders more easily. I also like lugs and chromed forks.

It's easier to set any adjustment I want with a quill stem, instead of being limited to spacer adjustments on a headless set. I like shoes I can walk in; I have no interest in clipless pedals.

Also, I have several older bicycles that ride fine, so why spend $1,000 on a new one, when I can buy lots of Vintage toys for less?

Steve Whitlatch 

I have seen them new CF toasters and I don`t like the drop lever. It had to be made 3 times thicker than the old style lever and it makes a funny noise when you push it down.

bres dad

1. i LOVE that line...
2. understood, though one of my kids seems to run on solar power rather than food... kid never eats
3. that's what I like about rolling up to a group ride where everyone has the latest, greatest carbon fiber whatever that all look alike other than the name on the side of the Chinese made frame. I roll up on my Paramount and I get complements. I roll up on my Schwinn 754 and everyone is like WTF is that? I roll up on my Trek and I blend in.

embankmentlb

It seems everything is in this deconstructive design funk. Cars, bikes, household items, clothes even tattoos have lost most aesthetic appeal. Some call it form follows function. I however do not buy into that. It's radical design for the sake of change only. In most cases the marginal performance gains have no real world valve. Designers can't copy good design because good design has already been done.


Look at the new dura ace crank for example. The designers could have made a very aesthetically pleasing. 4 arm crank but it would look very much like everything done before. They want to set new aesthetic standards . Almost all automobiles are designed this way now and it displeases me .
Or culture is moving to extremism in almost all aspects of life. Middle ground seems not to exist . The problem with being extreme in one thing usually marginalizes something else that is just as important. In bike design, the quest for extreme performance on paper has lead to bad aesthetics and sometimes poor durability , poor ride quality. You however get a bike that weighs 15lbs.
I rather have an old 19lb bike with cool paint and lots of shiny bits that isn't temporarily held together by lock tite and epoxy. That is why I like old bikes.

Chrome Molly

Do you like my hat?

Steve Whitlatch 

Nope!! It`s ugly!!

Sixty Fiver

I usually get up early in the morning and with coffee in hand I go out to my shop and when I open the door I am surrounded by these old friends; they whisper of days past, of roads and paths they have travelled, and carry with them the memories of many lifetimes of cycling.

It smells like leather and grease, oil, flux, canvas, and rubber. I am also surrounded by walls covered in tools, parts, and bins and shelves that are overflowing with bright and shiny parts that some have described as being like jewellery, and they wait for the right build or someone who needs them.

It is my happy place.

Almost every day, I will take one or two of them out for a ride because they are not wall hangers... I might go racing down the road on my handbuilt Ron Cooper or I might take one of my vintage Raleighs or the Garlatti out, or Edith and I might go and take a ride in the valley and even though she is 57 years old she does not know it.

People will stop and ask about these beautiful old bicycles because they are often surprised to see bicycles that are 40, 50, and 60 years old out on the road... the small wheeled bicycles and folders always attract attention because they are still relatively unusual and there is not one of those that is younger than 35 years old.

My daily driver is a 1966 Moulten F.

Because I run a shop I get to work on some rather impressive bicycles and the ones that impress me most are the vintage models and the newer handbuilt models that I see... they have the fizz that many other modern bicycles simply lack.