Here's how I'd answer my own questions:

Riding my all-black 1968 Cinelli makes me feel grand, like a stately European gentleman enjoying a tour of his vinyards. My Olympia, a much tighter faster bike of the same era turns me into a hungry American road racer, thirty-five years younger than I am.

I'm impressed by the taste of people I see riding fine old bikes. I imagine they would be intelligent, passionate and fun to talk to, and have found this to be true more often than not.

Junkyardbike, you so right about people not owning up to what is an uncool attitude about coolness, though I assure you I wasn't thinking of the questions as some psycho/cyclo/social experiment. I was hoping for a little more candor about the, "Look at me!" component of riding a rare/exotic/gorgeous old bike. I think it is disingenuous to say that one's pleasure in riding one has to do only with the physical experience, and not at all with the cool factor.

To some degree, I'm a snob. I like to imagine people thinking flattering things about me. I'm not proud of this, but I don't consider it a major character flaw. I think it is harmless to fantasize about how cool I must look zipping around on an all-Campy confection from 1971.

I've ridden seriously since I was a teen, when my now 55 year old Frejus was just an outdated old track bike that I got in 1972 from a racer who was upgrading. Today, it is a bike that I ride because it feels so good, and because it makes me feel cool to be on such a beautiful, desirable machine. I like getting compliments on its age and looks, and telling people about it. Why deny this?

If you really don't care what anyone thinks about you when you ride your vintage bike, fine. On the other hand, if parading is even a small part of the appeal of riding for you, I'd like to know more about it.