Copy/Pasted from when this was asked last week:

This should really be a sticky.

If you want to post it, post it. Folks will be interested or they won't be. This isn't a purist site like the CR list...the CR list is great, and I think it's awesome to have guidelines, but that's not what this place has been (at least since I've been here). Most here are very broad in what they like and there is a lot of utilitarianism vs. collection perfection.

Vintage gets defined differently by different folks. A common cut off (the CR cut off) is 1983. Another common definition is 25 or 20 years ago.

Classic is even less defined...to me classic is a bike that in some way exemplifies it's time or type. It's the bikes that were innovative and that people remember. Classics are the bikes that have obsessive forums dedicated to them. Classics are the best of the best. Classic can also be interpreted as built with more traditional methods...like my Marnati being silver brazed, lugged and pin and tacked.

I'm more interested in classic than vintage; most old bikes are just old bikes. The classic AND vintage bikes are the ones people tend to really get enthusiastic about here...SBDU Raleighs, pre-ic lug De Rosas, Rene Herse and such.