Originally Posted by John E

I love hearing about young whippersnappers getting interested in vintage bicycles, classical music, and numerous cultural assets I want to survive through succeeding generations. I am probably a bit older than you parents (58 tomorrow, on Tullio Campagnolo's birthday), but I have two true Varsity stories you may enjoy.

Following my one-and-only collision with a car, I had my prized Reynolds 531 frame straightened and continued to ride the bike. Shortly after moving to San Diego County, I was climbing a hill, trying to stay ahead of a young kid on a Varsity, when a crack began to propagate around my downtube, just behind the head tube lug. I had to slow down and pedal gently to get home safely.

About a dozen years later, my father-in-law gave me an early 1970s Varsity, which I used for commuting to work. Between the commuter rail station and my office was a 12% grade, on which I passed a certain chap almost daily. After a few weeks of this sort of abuse, he traded in his old klunker on a Specialized Epic, and every time he saw me, he blamed me for the expenditure. I replaced the Varsity with a Peugeot UO-8 of about the same vintage and broke a chainstay four years later. I suspect that would not have happened to the Varsity.

Originally Posted by Rabid Koala

I hope your parents realize that you could be doing a lot worse things than collecting bicycles....

At age 15, I had a garage full of bikes, none particularly collectible. I had one "good" bike, a Nishiki. At 16, I got a job, my dream job at the time, working in a bike shop. One more good bike, a restored Italian road bike of doubtful heritage, then they were all gone and I was driving. I didn't start seriously riding again until I was in my early 40's.

So.........don't give it up like I did. I am glad I rediscovered it once again, but sorry that all those non riding years got past me.