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Retro Line-up at work today

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Retro Line-up at work today

Old 06-16-16, 11:21 AM
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Retro Line-up at work today

As I pulled into the bike room today, I saw my buddy's, green Peugeot hanging, next to it a Yellow LeTour.

I hung my John Deer in the middle.

So here you have it folks: 3, 40 year old bikes still doing daily duty in Seattle.

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Old 06-16-16, 12:58 PM
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: )))
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Old 06-16-16, 05:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Mechanicjay

So here you have it folks: 3, 40 year old bikes still doing daily duty in Seattle.
It says something about the quality of product one could acquire back in the seventies... none were top of the line, in fact, quite the opposite. Yet, today, they're still functioning as the Bike Gods intended. Long live the steel bicycle!
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Old 06-16-16, 08:05 PM
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Cool pic. I like your white John Deere. Speedo is cool. I've only ever seen the green John Deere bikes.
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Old 06-17-16, 06:18 AM
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And they are all at a bike shop! Very cool....
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Old 06-17-16, 09:33 AM
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Originally Posted by uncle uncle
It says something about the quality of product one could acquire back in the seventies... none were top of the line, in fact, quite the opposite. Yet, today, they're still functioning as the Bike Gods intended. Long live the steel bicycle!
Indeed. I can't speak to the other bikes, but at least for my JD, while it's a heavy-ass frame, it's all SunTour running gear, which seems to be infinitely rebuildable. We just don't seem to build truly durable goods any longer. As another example, the HotPoint refrigerator my Grandparents bought for their first house in 1954, is still running in my Brother's Garage as his beer fridge.

Originally Posted by daf1009
And they are all at a bike shop! Very cool....
Not quite, this is simply the bike room in the building I work in at the University of Washington.
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Old 06-17-16, 09:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Kdogbikes
Cool pic. I like your white John Deere. Speedo is cool. I've only ever seen the green John Deere bikes.
Thanks! There was a thread about these bikes as i was resurrecting one last year, with some interesting background on them. The one I'm riding now is my MIL's frameset, which was in very good shape. I only spent a weekend cleaning it up, greasing, and doing a couple upgrades. It was a much better platform to start with than the rusty hulk I initially started working on.

https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...ohn-deere.html
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Old 06-17-16, 12:23 PM
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While it is admirable that people are riding 40 year old bicycles, it's not a testament to the workmanship. Most of these bicycles were used only briefly before being relegated to basements and for garages for decades. As such, they have relatively few miles on them. That's not a testament to anything but good storage.
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Old 06-17-16, 02:22 PM
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^ Way to piss in the punchbowl, you old sourpuss!

But you're more right than wrong, of course.
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Old 06-17-16, 05:42 PM
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Who makes those bike hangers? They are a few notches above the typical self tapping bike hooks in 2x4's screwed to the wall.
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Old 06-17-16, 05:53 PM
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I like the look of the tan saddle on the green Peugeot. We always had trouble selling green UO-8s against the white ones, but the green can look great with the right components.
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Old 06-17-16, 05:55 PM
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Originally Posted by T-Mar
While it is admirable that people are riding 40 year old bicycles, it's not a testament to the workmanship. Most of these bicycles were used only briefly before being relegated to basements and for garages for decades. As such, they have relatively few miles on them. That's not a testament to anything but good storage.
My well-traveled UO-8 resents that remark.

I did crack the chainstay of another UO-8 at perhaps the 20K mile mark, though, and my Nishiki Competition's bottom bracket shell at the 40K mile mark.
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Old 06-17-16, 07:16 PM
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Originally Posted by T-Mar
While it is admirable that people are riding 40 year old bicycles, it's not a testament to the workmanship. Most of these bicycles were used only briefly before being relegated to basements and for garages for decades. As such, they have relatively few miles on them. That's not a testament to anything but good storage.
In retrospect, I meant the common steel frames of the bicycles, more a testament of the structural bones on which the bicycles were built, not the parts and consumables, per say. I should have been clearer with my praises. As though as far as being of good storage heritage, I believe MechanicJay mentioned his JD bike was a victim of long term neglect, not pampering. It is true that many of the entry level bikes of the seventies saw short duty before being relocated to decades of catching dust and cobwebs in a corner of many an American garage and shed. I can't speak for any of the specific bikes in the picture, as to whether they epitomize the constant circles of workman like bike life, or that of the bridesmaid's-never-the-bride and the continous contemplation of a life as a garage queen. Each bike has it's own story to tell.

Last edited by uncle uncle; 06-17-16 at 09:09 PM.
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Old 06-20-16, 03:34 PM
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Originally Posted by wesmamyke
Who makes those bike hangers? They are a few notches above the typical self tapping bike hooks in 2x4's screwed to the wall.
I'm not sure, but they suck. We had some pretty cheesy ones. Last summer they re-did the bike room with these new fancy hangers. The new ones are so much closer together than the old ones that it's a bash and bang fest to get your bike on or off the rack when it's fully loaded.

-1 Do not recommend.
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Old 06-20-16, 04:27 PM
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The problem is that we compare bikes with cars. Old cars are bad, but old bikes are not. Bikes were made to last a lifetime, and they typically do. Bikes advanced to nearly state of the art long ago, so the improvements since then are small.
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