Originally Posted by
CardiacKid
I had a brand new 1985 Ford Mustang. It was the worst POS I ever owned. When I sold it 4 years later, with only 50,000 miles on it, it was falling apart.
Wasn't that the one with the V8 that produced 120 horsepower? The Mustang less powerful (and much heavier) than contemporary Honda Civics? That's not a "classic." That's just a cheap and convenient mounting bracket for a nice pushrod V8.
I would argue that it's quite possible that some current bicycles will eventually become classics. A future classic is generally defined by three things: An unusual positive quality, an unusual negative quality, and tremendous scarcity. A good example is the original Sturmey Archer 3-speed fixed gear hub - it gave you three speeds on a fixie...with all of the cost, mechanical drag and complexity of a 3-speed hub to go with it. Nobody bought one, and up until a few years ago when Sturmey's new Korean owners announced they were putting it back in production, they were worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars.
If you want to find a future classic, look for something excellent, but fundamentally flawed. Those Strida folding bikes, for example, come very close: The ability to put a bicycle in a briefcase is an amazing thing, even considering that the bicycle can't take a pothole the size of a bottlecap and is no faster than walking. Were it not for the fact that they've inexplicably sold a large number, I'd have bought one for an investment.
EDIT:
Also consider that the reduced cost of industrial production has allowed for very different bicycles. A Wal-Mart road bike for $170 might have machine-assembled wheels, a frame made with no care whatsoever, and a seat made out of Styrofoam, but the geartrain - the cheapest stuff Shimano makes - is still smoother and more reliable than you'll find on any bicycle priced at $170 in 1976. Considering that $170 in '76 money is roughly equivalent to nearly $1,000 today, that's a huge increase in quality for the dollar.
One of the reasons why vintage equipment - frames in particular - seems so luxurious is, quite simply, that it was. In an era where a full Campagnolo group cost almost as much as a secondhand Volkswagen, finely constructed, handmade steel frames made perfect sense.