gugie 

Brothers and sisters,

Let us not denounce or segregate according to our denominations, but rejoice in our veloship of all things classic and vintage.

Nary a bad word is written by those that worship at chiesa italiano towards those that genuflect at église français. Whether you break bread with fellow roleurs at an entmoot or un-meeting, sit on tensioned leather or tiny slivers of plastic, click or change gears with friction, prefer handlebar bags over saddle bags, we welcome you with open arms!

Those that wish to declare particular allegience, post now! Perhaps you don't have particular allegience to any given believe, but rather (as I admit I do) believe in a curious mix of belief in steel, fat tires, and woolen undergarments.

Myself, I drink freely from a cocktail mix of liquids from Grant and Jan, with a small dash of The Rules, just for fun...

And let us all now pronounce that Saint Sheldon gives us all general guidance on all things two wheeled, self propelled, ancient, and honorable. At least I've never seen anybody write anything bad about the guy...you know you'd burn in H-E-doubletoothpicks if you did...which is probably located in a carbon fiber bicycle molding plant somewhere in mainland China...

icepick_trotsky 

Like Icarus, I worshiped Suntour, who flew too close to the sun.

thinktubes 

Whatever puts Shimano on Italian bikes - I'm one of those.

lord_athlon

Suntour all the things.
Anything I can fit 32's or greater on.

Velocivixen

I'm similar but with some hipster groovy mixed in. You know, skinny jeans, chrome shoes, big glasses .....no moustache though. Oh, I forgot my plaid wool jacket, and woolen beany.

Lascauxcaveman 

Pastafarian.

(And I'll ride anything that gets me to the dinner table)

jetboy 

The saint once sent me a badly needed crankset when I was marooned in a Japanese urban sprawl - in the well packed box was a toenail clipping that I have encapsulated in amber and wear as a pendant against flats, broken chains, and wild turkeys in heat. So far it has not worked on the third and most important of these.

Italuminium

Converted from Roman Campagnolism to the stark cult of the single and undivided cog.

Gasbag

I am of the Archdiocese Sturmey and celebrate with the mantra of tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick

Commando

Oh man, I'm with you! That mantra is going to be repeating in my head next time I ride the Superbe.

Pemetic2006

Shimano and a "new" bike with Suntour that I haven't ridden yet, though I have polished it with Mother's and put a Brooks Professional (maroon) on it.
I had an aluminum Giant a few years back- first and no doubt last time I'll do that.
If there were a C & V award for least handy I'd get it but I have followed Sheldon's advice on occasion to the best of my limited ability.
Clipless, wool jersey, French wine, lots of good beer, and 32mm.

mtnbke

Sheldon was just a cool cat, but he wasn't always right. He couldn't have been more wrong about a lot of things actually. My favorites were always his attempt to be the "blue book" for C&V bicycles as a price guide. On Olmo he couldn't have been more wrong. His old web entry read that Olmo was the Schwinn of Italy. It was later changed to "someone I know once called Olmo the Schwinn of Italy." Olmo didn't import anything low end into the US market, really. Certainly nothing that could be confused with Schwinn in the US bicycle second hand market. In fact the Olmos that were imported during the bike boom were more expensive than Colnagos at the time. Trying to put together a comprehensive price guide for something as complex as C&V lightweights would have been an impossible task. There are just too many models, too many component variations, and too many components on old bikes worth more than the bikes themselves. Sheldon's whole Vintage pricing guide didn't take into account regional variances like cycling mecca communities, and tried to give a short blurb for each brand.

Quite frankly I don't think I've ever met someone who is a serious collector of C&V bikes that ever used Sheldon's and Michael Kone's "price guide" as a reference. I think in the early days of the internet some of his page view went to his head, if anything. The price guide was misguided at best, and had some inaccurate and disingenuous information that did a better approximation of presenting HIS preferences and biases, than anything. As an accurate price guide I thought it was worthless. As an accurate snapshot of the C&V world I thought it was worthless.

Interestingly, I once met his son. The family had a totally different take on their dad than everyone else did. Not negatively, but none of the cult following made sense to them.

I'm not a Sheldon fan. He's culpable for giving the fixie fad more momentum than pretty much anyone else. More C&V bikes have been destroyed by hipster idiots hacking off derailleur hangers because of Sheldon's reach and influence than really any other person.

It is interesting how some of the stuff he was absolutely wrong about has been edited since his death. The price guide now is qualified with "wild guesses of value" where before Sheldon was using more definitive terms trying to set market price ranges (which never made sense). The obsession with NR components is still evident, something Sheldon never understood was separating the value of the frame/fork from the components. To him everything seemed to be viewed through the lens of whether it came with Campy NR or not.

The really strange thing, to me, was how Sheldon disseminated information about Zeus being "inexpensive knock-offs" of Campy. Sheldon had been told by people in the know that Zeus relationship with Campy went much deeper than many Campy fans are comfortable with, especially with the manufacture of Campy's titanium elements. There were manufacturing and production relationships between Zeus and Campy that will never be fully revealed. Sheldon had learned some of this, but repeated the Zeus is just Campy clone mantra, mostly. Trust me most people don't want to know how much of their Campy was Zeus, or how closely the companies worked together. It wasn't engineering deconstruction, as many believe. Now Campagnolo is loathe to discuss, but Sheldon knew better.

Homebrew01

I'm non-practicing, except for the frame, but was previously orthodox Campy and toe clips.
(I did covet Suntour Superbe, though)
I have since converted to reform Campy 10.

iab

Anything Italian, made before 1960 or after 2009. Its really quite simple.

jimmuller 

St. Tullio has personally chastised me twice for such heresy. St. Faliero wasn't too thrilled either. Just saying...

The Golden Boy 

I'm Brother Dave from the Order of Touring Bikes.

I hail from Castle Anthrax. It's not a good name but the sisters are nice and tend to my every need.

"I'm afraid our life must seem very dull and quiet compared to yours. We are but eightscore young blondes, all between sixteen and nineteen-and-a-half, cut off in this castle, with no one to protect us. Oooh. It is a lonely life ... bathing ... dressing ... undressing ... making exciting underwear...."







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4aGYq4bz10

Huzzah!

Barrettscv 

"Abandon religion and discard cleverness and the people will benifit one hundred fold"

Lao Tzu

I don't have a denomination, but I seem to have multiple interests. One interest is my hobby of seeking bikes to refurbish. The second interest is the activity of riding a different bike depending on the day. Happily, these are complementary interests.

I prefer a well made performance bike with some versatility. Italian, French, American... it doesn't matter as long as it fits and is made from Reynolds or Columbus tubing. I also like carbon bikes, but I'll stay on-topic for now.

For versatility, I like a bike that can take a 28 to 32mm wide clicher. I have one road bike with 700x23 tires and short reach caliper brakes. However, most of my bikes have either centerpull or cantilever brakes and room for a lightweight tire with some girth. I also like triple cranksets and corncob cogsets.

What subgroup am I? I have no idea and don't care.

'77 Motobecane Grand Record. Completely original and ready for a complete teardown. However, there is nothing puritanical about this bike. Back in1977, the French combined Italian derailleur & shifters, French cranksets and hubs and English tubing assembled with French lugs. Orthodoxy is more imaginary than real.



'71 Peugeot PX10 recently repainted and ready for reassembly. It will feature Italian, French and Japanese components, but it's character and appearance is carefully maintained.



1986ish Serotta Nova Special X. My century bike if the route is all pavement. Campagnolo, Suntour and Shimano drivetrain components all playing well together.



1993ish Simoncini Cyclocross Special. A versatile ride for road or gravel. An Italian bike with Deore derailleurs, Suntour shifters, Campagnolo hubs.



My daughters Mixte that is ready for the KATY Trail. Starting with a 1978ish Nishiki Olympic in good condition, the bike had clearly been idle for many years. I decided to convert almost every component to improve its overall performance.

The heavy 27 inch steel rimmed wheels were replaced with 700c touring wheels from a Miyata 615. The replacement wheels include 36 spokes on the front and 40 spokes at the rear. The Belgium made Elesa alloy rims are 23mm wide and the Japanese Sansin hubs are ideal for touring. I installed 700x32 Continental Contact Plus. The bike could accept a larger tire, including most 700x35 and some 700x38.

The Dia-Compe center pull brakes were replaced with new Tektro long reach caliper brakes. The drop bars were replaced with Trekking bars and the bar-end shifters were replaced by New Shimano 3x7 speed ST-EF65 Shifter brake levers. I sourced the 4 finger version of the ST-EF65 which can be used on both V-brakes and road bike brakes. New Shimano Altus front and rear derailleurs were installed.

The standard double crank was replaced with a Shimano Deore LX triple crankset with 46, 36 and 24 chainrings. The 5 speed cogset was replaced with a 13-28 seven speed cogset.



My modern Trek "Dual Sport" rigid 29er MTB that is waiting in Italy. The scenic parts of Italy have steep hills to climb and the best roads are not perfectly maintained.
In Italy you need a good climber and having a frame-set that will take Pannier racks and bags offers the opportunity for a multi-day tour. You don't need a vintage Italian racing bike with tiny tires and hopeless chain-rings.

squirtdad

I aspire to become an acolyte in the church of the immaculate de rosa but fight the demons of cheapness, garage space, and "do you ride all of those bikes, why don;t you get rid of some"

rootboy 

I'm a pagan, heathen, infidel and idolater. And so on….

seedsbelize 

"I regard belief as a sort of brain damage".
Robert Anton Wilson

I concur.

TickDoc

Denomination ciocc at the house of pellizoli, where the saints all turn campy. unless of course my scumbag of a friend decides to sell me my beloved cannondale back to me, in which case I will go to two very different churches.

MZilliox

And you must spank us, oh yes, spank us.

Francophile i guess is me. blue steel is always good. finding parts is some of the best stuff.

The Golden Boy 

And after the spanking... the oral sex!

michael k

Caretaker of a small but active shelter for all things High-Tensile and the occasional Crome-Molly.

rootboy 

+ 1.
It sure tends to make people sure of themselves. Which is always dangerous.