dmb2786

2008: 2007 Trek 1500
2009: Caad 9 w/ previous bike's components


looooong history.

patentcad

I'm trying to understand how anyone who lived through the utterly crappy bicycles from 1970 through 1988 or so can ever be nostalgic for them, but it's not happening. That CF Trek 2500 I bought in 1989 was so exponentially better than anything I ever rode before it was astonishing. And my bikes have generally all been better than the last since then. The three road bikes I have now are the best three I've ever ridden.

sac02

I was hoping for more pics in this thread.

2006 Specialized Allez (Sport?), many upgrades, soon to be a TT bike (whenever that fricken' order shows up )
2009 Specialized Tarmac Pro SL, was DA7900, soon to be RED (whenever that frickin' order shows up )

Mac

Hermes

It was a great bike for its era but time and bike schwagg marches on.

urbanknight

1992: Fuji Ace
1993: Centurion Ironman Master
1993: Gitane ??? (track bike)
1994: Schwinn Paramount (track bike)
1995: Cannondale Track (track bike)
1995: Trek 5200
1996: GT Edge
2006: Bianchi Veloce
2007: Litespeed Classic
2008: Tsunami Scandium

icyclist 

1962 - Follis - Original: frame, forks, bars, breaks/levers, front and rear derailleur shifters, front derailleur.). Changed over the years: wheelsets (1970 and 1995), cranks and seat post (1975), rear derailleur (1975 and 2008), pedals (most recently 2008) and saddle (various times).

1975 - Peugeot PX10LE - lots of Simplex components.

2008 - Specialized Roubaix Expert Triple.

In between: a variety of mountain bikes.

roadwarrior

During most of that period, I was racing on custom made team bikes. The equivalent of today's Super Six, Madone, Giant Advanced SL, whatever.

For their time, they were great bikes.

I had one last bike from that period that was in my garage that I took for a ride and gave it away to a neighbor kid that wants to do tri as it fit him. The ride was pretty bad compared to today's stuff, but everything's that way anymore (who is nostalgic for a TV dial channel changer that you have to leave the couch to use?). And that was made from the best tubing available for that period.

In my past were generic kid's sized Peugeots, Motobecanes, Masi, several more Peugeots and Colnagos when I was in Belgium, a DeRosa, a Viscount (British made) which I rode for a long while until I got my first Cannondale. There's other stuff in there that's gone from my memory bank.

I don't race anymore, haven't for a very long while, but the custom stuff I rode was best in class for its time.

The biggest thing about the older bikes was fit. It was really hard to dial in a proper fit, mostly due to top tube sizing.

Pcad...cool thread...great idea.

531Aussie

This carbon Fanini Alan might give you a *****.

It was raced at the Giro some time in the '80s by an Aussie pro.
It's at my local shop

borg

1995: Trek 2300 Carbon/Aluminum with Ultegra (8 speed)
1998: Felt F1 with Dura Ace (9speed)
2004: Kestrel Evoke Dura Ace (10 speed)
2007: Trek T1 track bike
2008: Cervelo R3 parts from warrantied Evoke
2008: Kestrel Talon SL TT (replacement frame from warrantied Evoke)

Allegheny Jet

1973 Raleigh Super Course TT (tubular tires)
1999 Cannondale R 600
2007 Specialized Roubaix Expert
2009 Trek XO1 Cross bike
2009 Sette aluminum frame with added parts for the Cannondale and other parts from upgrades to other bikes. This bike is used for crits, cause I don't want to come home and ask the wife if we have $2,000 for a new CF frame.
1973 Raleigh Super Course TT, frame is in the paint shop now, I've spent over $600 purchasing vintage tubular wheels, tires, bars, stem, derailleurs, decals, seat post and other assorted bits. Once I pay for the frame painting I'll have invested over 4 x's the cost of the original bike.

BobLoblaw

Rose colored glasses, I imagine.

Even the steel is light-years ahead of what it was 20 years ago. My '83 John Howard was pretty much state of the art in its day. My Tommasini Sintesi somehow manages to be quicker, more comfy, and three pounds lighter.

Still, if I could get a reasonable deal on a Motobecane Jubilee Sport, I'd take it.

BL

bravo106

• mid-70's: Schwinn Continental (stolen when my sister borrowed it & left it in the backyard instead of putting it in the garage)
• mid-80's: a Puch hand-me-down
• mid-90's/early 00's: too many mountain bikes to list
• 2002: Cannondale CAAD5 built with Campy
• 2003-ish: Giant OCR, used for bad weather/indoor trainer
• 2004: Mondonico Futura Leggero
• 2008: Serotta Nove

Once I bought the Mondonico, the C'dale became my race/bad weather/trainer bike (the Giant was long sold). Built the Serotta up with the components from the Mondonico, with the intention of selling my steel. Thankfully, nobody put in any eBay bids on the Mondonico so I swapped the parts from the C'dale and built the Mondonico back up as my back-up ride. The 'dale is now the frame I'm selling.

patentcad

Hopefully the CF Alan was less noodly than the alu Alan was. But those soft alu bikes like the Alan and the Vitus sure rode nice.

patentcad

I would imagine that if you had a pro fit bike in the 80's it was fine. Here's the difference between 20 years ago and today: any bike you buy off the rack today is more likely to offer good fit and an outstanding degree of performance than you could expect in 1985 or so. The overall standard of bicycle quality is just so much higher from the major manufacturers. That's great to see, it really wasn't that way for many years. Things have really improved exponentially in the last 20 years, particularly in the last 5-10 years.

Cleave

Hi,

OK, you asked. I'll start my list from when I started racing.

1974 Lambert Pro -- One of the finest British racing bikes ever built. Started out with plastic Simplex rear derailleur, ended up with a Shimano Crane. Eventually put it out of my misery by cracking the head tube. I weighed about 120 lbs soaking wet at the time.

1975 Bianchi Specialissima -- Purchased in June 1976 and I still have the frame and a couple of original parts on it. It was originally all Campy Nuovo Record. This is probably the bike that I rode the most -- > 40K miles.

1980 Medici Pro Strada -- Truly the one bike that I wish I never sold. It was essentially a Masi Gran Criterium as it was built by former Masi builder Gian Simonetti. I put a mix of Shimano and Sun Tour parts on it. It did have a Campy seat clamp bolt on it. This was my first racing-only bike.

1984 (?) Basso something-or-other -- This was a straight gauge Columbus frame that I built using most of the parts off of the 1975 Bianchi. I built it as a training bike as the Bianchi had seen better days by then.

1985 Vitus 979 -- Built it with a combination of Sun Tour and Galli parts as a race rig. I got it pretty cheap as I was a bike shop employee at the time (don't ask). It was a noodle but I weighed < 130 lbs at the time and I could climb pretty quickly on it. It replaced the Medici.

1985 Olmo I-can't-remember -- Built it with the same combination of parts as the Vitus used it as a training bike. It was a Columbus SL frame and many will argue that it was a better bike than the Vitus. I won't argue that point. I also got this with a bike shop employee discount. It replaced the Basso.

1986 Shogun Kazé -- TT funny bike that I eventually rebuilt using most of the parts off of the Vitus. It was my first tt-specific bike. It's still sitting in my garage. Did a few sub 1hr 1 min TTs on it but I could never quite get under 1 hr.

1988 Serotta Colorado -- This was the best steel frame that I have ever owned. Built it with a combination of Shimano Dura Ace and Santé components. It was my first bike with index shifting and I used the Santé derailleurs because my local wrench said that they would work well with the plethora of Sun Tour freewheels that I had (and still have) at the time. He was right. I eventually rebuilt the bike with 2005 Campy Record-8 components -- my first bike with ergo shifting. This replaced the Vitus.

1990 Stowe Triad -- This bike is still sitting in my garage and I haven't ridden it for ages. For some reason I haven't had any luck selling it and I tried almost everything except ebay. I built the bike with mostly the same parts that I originally had on the Serotta. It still has most of those parts. I have a funny story about Robert Stowe but I'll save it for another time. This bike replaced the Olmo as my training bike.

1997 Bianchi Megatube Ti -- This was the original Megatube Ti with the large "aero" fabricated and welded downtube. It was my 40th birthday present from my wife. I built it with 1996 Campy Record-8 components. This bike became my "race" bike (I wasn't racing much at the time) and my Serotta moved to the training bike role. More to follow on this frame.

2000 Bianchi XL EV2 Al -- I bought this frame when I cracked the down tube on the Serotta. I put most of the components from the Serotta on this frame and it became my race bike while the 1997 Bianchi migrated to training bike status. This was when I started racing more seriously again as my kids were starting to get older.

2001 Bianchi XL Ti -- I got this frame in 2002 as a warranty replacement for the 1997 Bianchi (which developed crack on the seat tube right at the weld for the front derailleur hanger). Put the parts on it from that bike and it was my training bike for a few years. I put Record-10 on it in 2003.

2002 Look KG381i -- I got this on clearance in 2003 and built it with 2003 Record-10 (skipped 9-speed). This and the subsequent Look KG481SL had the best stock geometry fit of any bike I've owned. It replaced the 2000 Bianchi as my race bike.

2000 Quattro Assi Team 2000 -- I bought this in 2002 as a cheap TT frame (< $500) to replace the Shogun. Built it piece by piece by looking for sales and on ebay for Chorus parts. This is the worst riding bike that I've ever owned, hands down.

2005 Look KG481SL -- I did a double swap on components when I built this bike. The low mileage parts on the Look KG381i went on this bike and the higher mileage parts on the Bianchi XL Ti went on the other Look. I really liked this bike.

2006 Look 565 -- I got this frame in 2007 as a warranty replacement for the KG381i (which developed corrosion issues at the tube to lug interface). I ended up with the wrong size but rode it about 2,500 miles in about six months as my training bike before I sold it. It rode pretty well but it really shined on descents.

2007 Bianchi D2 Crono Carbon -- I got a deal on this frame from my LBS that I couldn't refuse. OK, I could have refused it but I was lusting after this frame from the first time that I saw it and I hated the Quattro Assi. I built it with almost all of the parts from the Quattro Assi. I just put new bars and wheels on it. Who said you can't buy a sub 1 hr, 40K TT?

2007 Serotta Attack -- I got this as my 50th birthday present to myself. Built it with 2006 Record-10. I raced on it at the end of 2007 and for all of 2008. I love how this bike rides. It's the best bike I've ever owned and my first custom geometry frame. Towards the end of 2008 I started getting paranoid about racing on this bike. I have never worried about crashing a bike before and I didn't like racing with that thought in the back of my head so I sold the KG481SL (which had rotated to training bike status) and...

2009 Cervélo R3 -- My current race rig with 2008 Record-10. I like this thing well enough but the handling doesn't inspire me (yet) -- probably because the Serotta rides so well. Really didn't do the weight weenie thing when I built it but it comes in at 14.6 lbs with heavy Look delta pedals.

That's my road bike history. There are a couple of mountain bikes, track bikes, and other miscellaneous bikes mixed in there but I'll stop here.

adam

1988 - Garmin Ultra with Shimano 105
1992 - Specialized Allez Pro with Shimano 600
1996 - Pinarello Asolo with Shimano Ultegra
2001 - Specialized M4 mtn bike
2006 - Cervelo Team Soloist with Dura Ace
2010 - ???

carlfreddy

This thread makes me think:

I've not been racing long enough to have a timeline worth posting, but what I'm curious about is how the bikes I've raced/am racing on currently will be looked upon in 20 years?

We talk about how carbon fibre is the pinnacle of bicycle frame materials, but not too long ago Aluminum was the future, and before that steel was real.

All I know is that I've thoroghly enjoyed all my bikes, and each bike has been better than the last (on all fronts). As long as that trend continues I'll be happy.

Nice thread pcad.

Quijibo187

much shorter than the previous list from Cleave.

1970s CCM somethingorother (pieced together from 2 bikes my dad bought at police auction and used to get him to college/work for a while) gave it to me sometime in the mid 90s
now is a 1x6 'cross style bike with new wheels (old ones starting popp'n spokes left and right)

2006 - 1996? Steve Bauer with shimano 600 and Cinelli bars/stem (now commuter/trailer puller)

2007 - (2006)Marin stelvio carbon- record 10

Hermes

Right... I did not do the weight weenie thing and mine is 15.7.

CrimsonKarter21

2004- 1983 Trek ? CrMo, Shimano 600
2005- 1986 Cannondale Criterium, Shimano 105
2006- 2005 Cannondale CAAD8, Shimano Ultegra
2009- 2009 Giant TCR Advanced 1, Sram Force, Red, Rival
2009- 1979 Serotta Titan, Ultegra

carpediemracing 

I'll play.

First, from 1979 to 1982, Schwinn Sting Ray (cotton picker), Schwinn Traveler III, and Dawes Lightning. Although I didn't race them, I kept training diaries ("Rode to Millstone and back" which is less than a mile), I upgraded the Schwinn some, and changed everything on the Dawes except the headset, seat post, and brake calipers.

1982: Basso; NR/SR der, Excel Rino (remember Lon Haldeman?), Modolo, GP4s (and only GP4s, which are tubulars, which I can't believe now - I flatted both tires a day apart at the end of the season, I never had a spare). 53/42 x 15-21 (Jr gearing).

1985: Cdale "SR" frame, NR/SR, Gipiemme, Modolo, fave wheels Ambrosio Cronos. Hit 103 lbs personal weight. Went to a 12T in the back. 66-42 bars (deep drop, 42 c-c). I thought I'd be a pro in 3-4 years. ha.

1987: A second SR frame after the first one broke (non-replaceable dropout). Same parts except right side bar end and random Suntour/Shimano rear der. I went to Cinelli bars and stems, using up to a 66-44, settling on a 65-42 (crit bend).

1988: Nishiki TT bike. 105 downtube shifters, cowhorns, 24" front wheel, I think it was $400 complete. I upgraded a lot of it, painted it, etc. Never went much faster though, max TT was 25 or 26 mph on a 7 mile flat course. We did a bit better in a couple collegiate TTTs, 28ish. It was fun to ride though.

1989: Cdale 3.0 frame (only one version back then, "crit"). Same parts. Used disk wheel semi regularly. Up to 112 lbs. First 54T, first tubular welded steel stem, first 3ttt crit bar 41cm c-c. Standing start max speed in one gear (54x12) = 42 mph.

1992: Cdale 2.8 frame, Campy Ergo (Athena/Chorus, the lowest available group). Got way into aero wheels (Zipps, TriSpoke/HED3, usually ran Zipp 340s). Approx 135 lbs. Bike weight about 17 lbs with box section 280s, lightest bike for a long time. Sprint speeds regularly 46 mph at SUNY Purchase and first sprint at Gimbles (Route 120 sprint). I think I was the best on this bike, meaning most fit. Crashed it 4x in 5 weeks, frame was curved, tossed it for some reason.

1995: Specialized M2 S-Works, same parts. Peak wheel count = about 30 pairs of wheels. Approx 142-145 lbs. Max speed on this bike - over 64 mph.

2000?: Giant ONCE TCR, Med, Campy 9s Daytona. Claim to fame: built on my washer and dryer (I even have pics). I also weighed 193+ at some point while I raced this bike. First threadless headset system for me.

2005: Giant TCR Carbon, Small, Campy 10s Record/Chorus. Min weight 165, max 188? lbs. Reynolds DV46t.

2006: Giant TCR Aluminum, Small, Campy 10s R/C (back up for carbon TCR above). Rarely rode this, disassembled it to steel parts for the Cannondale below.

2007: Cdale SysSix, 52, SRM/Record 10s. Post, stem, bars from bike above. DV46c.

Frames I built up and didn't like or sold off after a short time:
1987?: Panasonic DX 5000 (Tange Prestige tubing). Noodly - I thought the BB shell was broken. Gave it to an enterprising frame builder about 3-4 years ago.
1996?: Specialized Allez Carbon. Noodly too. Sold it to a girl (16 yr old employee's gf's friend, and she was 16 so a "girl") who wanted to race. I don't think she raced.

I ride the SysSix and TCR carbon still. I own all but the first "SR" frame, the 2.8, the Traveller III (sold to a distressed person through shop for $20), and the Dawes (ditto but I sold it for $40 I think).

I want to assemble the 1989 Cdale 3.0 as I have most of the parts around still. I might have tossed the Cinelli saddle, I only have a few sets of wheels from that era, but the drivetrain is mainly intact.

One track bike which I bought in 1988? I think. Or 1987. Put it together just in time for the first 2 races in 1992, raced again last year for 2 days?, and will race it again tonight. A Riggio lead pipe frame (7 lbs frame/fork/headset, and it's a 99 gram Omas headset).

Mountain bikes: Cdale PeptoBismol bike (Suntour XC, rigid, broke the dropout), then a fat fork 3.0 version (XC Pro, rigid, stolen), an M2 S-works (XT, Judy fork, sold to a friend) with Spinergys (best mtb I ever had, even tried to buy it back), Jamis Dakar (XT, full susp, sold to a guy I worked with), and now a Trek something sort of free (XTR rear, Avid cantis, 9s?, Manitou fork). I got the latter in exchange for my TT bike. I raced the M2 and Jamis.

cdr

Walter

Is it a tool or is it a jewel? If your answer is "tool" there's not much reason to be nostalgic unless maybe a certain bike is associated with a singular event or accomplishment.

If the answer is "jewel" then old jewels that you lusted after in previous decades are still desireable, especially if the price is right.

Why restore old cars? My first car back in 1981 was a 1969 Charger R/T. I'd love to have another shot at that car but objectively it really was not all that great. Terrible, even by performance car standards, MPG, didn't handle well at all, fit/finish was suspect (the trunks tended to rust out and let's not mention vinyl seats and cracked dash pads and today there are plenty of faster cars that are alot more reliable.

A new Vette outperforms a 1968 in every way but many would take the '68 w/o hesitation.

At least old bikes are (usually) pretty cheap.

mike9903

Wow you guys are all really old!

My list:

2006 - LeMond Reno
2009 - Orbea Orca

urbanknight

Noob

timster

You're older than I am and my list is longer