Originally Posted by
bikingshearer
Yup. That's me.
+1
Originally Posted by
gomango
Most of the old guys I ride with have stopped buying classic and are really getting into gravel, mtb and all road bikes.
Small sample size, but I see the vintage market contracting in the years ahead.
My kids and their friends don't seem to care about vintage "cool" factors like we might. They see the bike as a tool to fill a need.
When they talk about cool, the discussion routinely heads towards tricked out scooters like a modded Honda Ruckus.
Their friends on the high school mtb team wouldn't look twice at my old racing bikes.
Glad you chimed in Gomango, always good points. This brings trends and age categories to the front.
Fixed seemed based on a cheap conversion that was done by utilizing an older bike and making it simple but unique. Cheap commuter, not really long distance. Gravel has picked up a lot of speed. In AZ we probably have more canal paths than most places as water comes from AZ central project and the Colorado river. Literally hundreds of miles throughout the Phoenix area. This will be growing but can also be a fairly mild conversion, although vintage prices are higher now so it will probably fall toward mountain bikes as mentioned.
Not a large percentage of younger people can afford to or want to put all their money into an expensive bike unless they are hardcore or racing. Middle? age like me
at 45 are the buyers of the high end stuff for the most part, old or new. Some of the older guys (60's-70+?)I know are starting to thin the herd as they slow down. There may be a slight uptick of nice bikes hitting the market due to this. And they won't be cheap as they know what they have.
I don't know how the business is doing, but State Bicycle (fixed), Sikk (cruiser type) are from here and in Tempe near ASU, they cater mostly to college kids so they still seem popular. I met one of the owners brothers at a local brewery a few months ago, they were just putting out a retro lugged version that was at or near the top of their current line up so that was interesting. I imagine they both may offer a gravel bike if they don't already.