uncle uncle

I was watching the video from the people at Shifter Channel (which, by the way, I thoroughly enjoy). And I know what your thinking... "Hey Uncle Uncle, this doesn't have anything to do with vintage bicycles?". But hear me out. Vintage drop bar bicycles have the same issue as electric bikes, ie, they've lost their sexy or cool appeal to the masses. Here's how I read the recent history of vintage drop bar bicycles. Around the year 2000, hipster-types made single speed conversions a "thing" with mass appeal and sexiness, and the basis for these conversions were vintage drop bar bicycles. Then, when the appeal hit some certain level, newly manufactured, new retro-styled, single speed specific bicycles came into being. But when you can just go out an buy something of Amazon or Wallyworld, that officially drives a stake into somethings "sexy" status. There is absolutely nothing sexy about buying anything from these sources. Then around the same time, came along the Eroica rides... making the idea of having a pre-86 tech bicycle sexy again. And certainly, to my thinking, the Eroica rides really puts vintage drop bar bicycles in the sexy limelight just like I'd like to see them, which is exactly how they appeared in their heyday. But, I don't think Eroica rides, or their spinoffs, is going to be enough exposure for the bicycles. So what is it in the future, be it fad or event, that puts our beloved steeds back into the "sexy" light?

Drillium Dude

Perhaps it belongs in C&V - but does it belong in Appraisals?

DD

Moisture

The rider.

denaffen

Personally, I don't really feel the need to sexualize a bicycle.

rccardr 

Cultural focus is a complex phenomenon that is virtually impossible to manufacture.
If it was, those Wallyworld single speed bikes would have been out in front, not bringing up the rear.
People rode on gravel for years before Trek/Spesh and their ilk started pumping out gravel bikes.
Etc.

Personally, I don’t want something that’s enjoyable to me to become particularly popular. That creates its own set of problems.

shelbyfv

I don't see much connection between bikes and sex, though I guess anything with a battery has potential.

noobinsf 

If C/V bikes remain unappealing, more deals for me...

panzerwagon 

I'm not sure what problem we're trying to solve here. Is it your assertion that c&v bikes are not popular enough? What would 'enough' look like?
Or do some folks want to feel more 'in' riding these machines? Sounds like a personal issue.

In my estimation, c&v bikes are quite popular based on their continued prevalance today amongst active riders worldwide.

tkamd73 

Moot point. This is CV, caring about what others think, and what’s “in” is no longer a factor, or concern. Its one of the few pluses of aging.
Tim

SurferRosa

And how do we get more people to listen to Nick Drake? Another VW commercial?

wgaf. The mainstream is gonna do what the mainstream is gonna do.

79pmooney

My bikes don't do sex but two of them do have genders. The fix gear of my photo - Jessica J and my namesake, my 1979 Peter Mooney named Pete. (No, not after the builder or my brother or uncle; all who go by Peter.)

TugaDude

I agree. But the parts are a different story. Male threads and female threads abound.

ClydeClydeson

Steps to making a vintage bike 'sexy':

1. Accept scratches and abrasions and dings on the frame as a dynamic and evolving patina
2. Get some arse-kicking fenders like these Honjo ones
3. Skinwall tires
4. New bar tape

shelbyfv

Achieve satisfaction by staking out a local climb and dropping a few crabon-lycra-shaved legged-racer boys.

panzerwagon 

Funny story. I first heard of Nick Drake when a local barista was playing Bryter Layter on repeat in this little dive joint, which at the time served as my virtual office for dissertation purposes and other procrastination. Barista expressed irritation at the VW commercial, but after the third loop, I was more concerned by the threat posed to my preferred daily fix of Massive Attack and Portishead. By the end of the week, those songs were dancing in my dreams. Ironically, I find Pink Moon the least of his works, but all are jewels.

randyjawa 

Strange question? I always thought that they came that way!-)

nomadmax 

Dead sexy to me and that's all that matters.

r0ckh0und 

Eva Mendes ?

DMC707 

Lost their "sex appeal" ?


Hmmmmm,

I'll see you one Colnago, -- then raise you a DeRosa, DeBernardi, Marin, Klein and Raleigh as my personal argument against vintage drop bar bikes losing their sex appeal -- LOL (and so many of our members have so much more impressive collections than mine )

Shrevvy 

Colnagos are sexy

rustystrings61 

Here's my "change my mind" challenge - Nick Drake is to British folk-baroque what Robert Johnson was to Mississippi Delta blues - a great summarizer, who had absorbed his influences and essentially summed them up in his music. Johnson had absorbed Charley Patton and Son House and Ike Zimmerman. Drake was smitten by Bert Jansch and (American) Jackson C. Frank. Like Johnson, Drake died young under murky circumstances.

Pink Moon's starkness makes it compelling, but "Three Hours" from Five Leaves Left still grips me hard. And both of them feel a bit ... removed from the starkness of Jackson C. Frank's "I Want To Be Alone (Dialogue)," which nailed me to my chair the first time I heard it. I had been trying to create THAT sound since I first picked up a guitar in 1978.

SurferRosa

Thanks for that, Rusty. I can't comment on your premise. I know very little about Nick Drake outside of his three brilliant studio albums. He's slightly before my time. I have seen one or two short docs on him. One of the things I found disturbing is his inability to maintain audience attention between songs given his use of multiple guitar tunings. Unlike a Neil Young, Drake only used one guitar, which made it difficult on him. People can be so rude and impatient. Like Gram Parsons, it's a huge loss we don't have live footage of Nick Drake.

obrentharris 

How fine! A minor miracle perhaps that the memory of Nick Drake should redeem a rather banal thread that was going nowhere. Thank you @SurferRosa and @rustystrings61 for reminding me.
Brent

rustystrings61 

I'm a sucker for late-night, one-voice-one-guitar records, so much so that I released my own a couple of years back.

If you haven't read Joe Boyd's White Bicycles, I highly recommend it. He was Drake's producer, and I think Richard Thompson's for a while as well - for that matter, he was there for Newport '65 and a bunch of other musical moments as well. From what I read, Nick Drake was a shoe-gazer decades before it became a musical genre term, as in, he sat and stared at his shoes while playing. He was apparently painfully shy, and he never did the trick Richard Thompson did - allegedly, he is also kinda shy and essentially forced himself to learn how to do banter and interact with the audience between songs, including while changing tunings. Drake is fascinating to study, though it rapidly becomes anorak country - it's fun to watch the schism between those who argue that most of his work was recorded with a small mahogany-topped Guild M-20 like the one he is pictured holding on Bryter Layter versus the memories of the guys who recorded him who say he played what they believe to have been a Martin D-18, to the only known photos of him actually playing a steel-string guitar, which depicted - a Swedish-built Levin Goliath. At least we know his nylon-string guitar was a Yamaha ... I think. But I digress ...

SurferRosa

^ Great post. Thanks.