Deal4Fuji

I think I'm the buddy up the road I'm looking forward to getting back together with Law and hopefully growing our eastern NC bike forum group, at least one of which we know likes older bikes. I'm the only C&V 'er in my local club and I have a modern lighter bike I ride when not on a no-drop night when the pace is slower. Luckily both millennial daughters actually prefer old bikes but they're in Raleigh & Durham, but there's a nice greenway there.

2 Lotuses (Loti?) and an Ochsner

3speedslow

79pmooney

The local C&V has a street address about a mile NW of me. I ride past it all the time (on my only sorta C&V bikes). In-house framebuilder who does mods you might expect to see on a custom French bike 60 years ago. Posts here occasionally.

Ben

rickrob 

Another solo rider here. I do ride in a few organized centuries each year, and had a good time riding with some forum members on the Farmington Canal Trail in CT.
Most of my daily rides are commutes to work, when the weather is good. I haven't noticed many C&V bikes where I ride.

tkamd73 

Kabuki12

Here in Ventura, California I see vintage steel bikes frequently but I don't think there is any organized group so I go alone most always unless my buddy with the Paramount is around.

TXsailor

If I remember right you are in the Waco area? Do you do any rides in the metroplex like the Burleson Honey Tour?

canklecat

Fort Worth.

I haven't done any pay-to-play group/event rides since I resumed cycling in 2015. I've done those before in the 1970s-'80s. They're okay if participants can afford 'em. I can't.

I mostly do casual rides with friends or free local event rides. I plan to attend the last-Friday Critical Mass ride tonight if I'm feeling well enough. It's usually a 10 mph pace. My workout is the ride to the event, so I'm warmed up and ready for a relaxing ride. I did my hard workout solo rides this week on my road bike so I'll take the city bike tonight. My area on the west side of town is fairly hilly so a 20-30 mile solo ride on the rural roller coasters and some access road loops are a good workout.

I'll do occasional club rides when I'm in good enough shape to keep up with their 16 mph pace. Semi-fast club rides are a struggle for me lately, between injury and illness. I can just about manage 15 mph on my own. Even if the club ride average speed is the same as mine, the surges and uneven pace of most B-groups makes it more difficult. They tend to loaf on flats, coast downhill, then blast uphill. Or they'll concentrate on Strava segments to boost their PRs, splitting up the group when others are there for the group ride rather than personal efforts. And despite the "no drop" policy, there are always a few hotshots at the front who keep pushing it, splitting up the group and dropping everyone else. And the weekday rides use the MUP for part of the ride, doing 15 mph on a narrow sidewalk used mostly by pedestrians with dogs and kids, through a twisting tree lined wooded park parth. Way too dangerous. Not really enjoyable or a "group" ride, more of a half-assed race of MAMILs.

TXsailor

I live in Bowie 70 miles N. of Fort Worth but I work in the big mile long in factory in White Settlement across the runway from Carswell. I imagine you know where I mean. I haven't rode down there except for some of group rides like the Peach Pedal and Honey tour. I have thought about coming down there and trying out Trinity Trails or doing the ride from Weatherford to Mineral wells. The people I ride with (daughter granddaughter & a couple of friends) average 13-15. Maybe we could meet down there some pretty day and ride our steel bikes a few miles.

canklecat

Yup, I'm in that bit of west Fort Worth near Cramp Bowtie Blvd between White Settlement to the north, Benbrook to the south and the old Bomber Heights neighborhood just east of us. The area has changed over the decades with the loss of Carswell and shrinking of the aircraft industries.

Send me a message anytime you'd like to get together. We can pedal around the areas I usually haunt, between the west side and out toward the Walsh Ranch development midway between Fort Worth and Willow Park.

The Trinity Trails are okay. I use it as a commuter route between here and downtown. It's a bit farther than the city streets but less hectic. If I take the most direct route down Camp Bowie Blvd it's only 8 miles to downtown, but I take that route only at night when there's very little traffic. It's 12 miles using the Trails, but much more relaxed.

merziac

That would be the venerable @gugie, you are absolutely correct, great guy, great work, literally a true keeper of the C+V flame.

AdventureManCO 

Thanks for all the great responses. I would have replied sooner but some type of seasonal thing has had me and the family knocked out for pretty much the whole week. I just got done re-reading each post in this thread. It's nice to have a pulse on where others may be at with this as well. I think me being a solo rider has probably more to do with the fact that I am such a casual rider. I'm slow. I've never been in a race, or done a long distance event. I think I got more into C&V because I tend to love all things vintage (bicycles, cars, furniture, etc) or old and rusty. I like a good project. I think from what I've observed, most folks here in C&V were riders first and the bikes came second, and as the world changed, a renewed love for where it all started grew the passion. While I've been riding since a kid, it was always just tooling around. Riding was almost just an excuse to tinker around with something mechanical.

I am in the south east part outside the Denver metro area - Centennial/S.E. Aurora. I miss not having the mountain bike trails close, but there are still some great bike paths out here.

Absolutely, will do. It would be fun to find some others to ride with, although there is nothing competitive about the way I ride. Maybe I should pick up an English 3 speed so going slow can look a little more intentional

Got an '87 Expert sitting in my garage right now, stripped down to the frame, as I will need to get some caustic soda to get the frozen seatpost out. Have some ergo/STI plans in the future.

I'm about 20-25mi southeast of Denver proper. Honestly it is a great community, I just need to get off my rear end and get out there. Sounds like you had a fun time on that ride, and I bet there is something very satisfactory about having an older bike keeping up with the moderns - any pictures of the bike? Sounds very nice. Big fan of Suntour bits.

TricycleTom

I bought my bike new, and still ride it now that it's "vintage." I have never talked to anyone about this aspect of it. I consider dirt and rust as theft deterrents, but she's well tuned. When a friend had to move my bike, she was so surprised at the weight that it changed her whole attitude to bikes.

CliffordK

There has been a mixed Seattle/Portland group that has been regularly meeting in Portland. I think they'll come back again as soon as the weather clears up again. @gugie? @jyl? @RiddleOfSteel?

I haven't really met much of the local Eugene C&V crowd, although the few group rides I've gone on, people tend to show up with bikes ranging in age over 50 years or so.

I do try to get up to Portland every once in a while and meet up with the C&V crowd up there.

I've got a bike to pick up from Portland, so the next time we get some sunshine and warm weather, count me in with a northbound trip.

No posted dates for the 2019 Ronde yet, but March or April? I missed them in 2018.
RondePDX

Oh, and "themes"... I'm getting much better with preparing cones for rebuilding. So, I'm now taking anything from Tiagara/Claris/Sora/Deore cones to used cones with minor and perhaps mild pitting, and they come out looking and feeling like vintage Campagnolo Record cones. So, for the next Portland trip, bring me all your cones.

mlau

I've always been a bit of a loner, but I've been trying to encourage young'uns to enjoy the beauty of a nice C&V "beater" bike. These older frames were often better made than the Surly and Salsa boutique frames available today, not to mention the fancy aluminum bikes...and more practical to boot.

I've never had quite as nice a bike as my Miyata 1000LT, that's probably older than me.

Hopefully we can create a resurgence of interest.

masi61

madpogue 

Gotta love how these "smart" phones "simplify" people's lives. Real camera + SD card --> real computer + web browser = 100% upload success rate.

curbtender

Hit go advanced tab, then click on manage attachments. Search device, choose picture, upload.

RiddleOfSteel

@CliffordK that was Velo Cult for at least us Seattle-area riders. For at least some of us, winter riding rain or dry is totally doable. I was out with @Dfrost for a few hours yesterday in mid-30s weather. Gorgeous day, just cold. Wind wasn't even too bad! He wanted to get 1000 miles on his rain bike, and invited me to join. I just finished putting proper touring wheels on my blue Cannondale ST, and along with a more capable RD, bigger cassette, and lengthened chain, was eager to try out the upgrades. Pace was casual, and faster on the downhills. The ST was a champ the entire time.

Any group ride (3+ people) is almost always C&V. Plenty of two people rides, a solo commute with a number of other bikers on mostly newer stuff. The (used/new) LBS people like the C&V stuff but ride everything. They enjoy the enthusiasm and knowledge of us C&V people as we either help when fixing up such bikes or just buy them so they don't have to have them in their shop.

I would be almost nowhere in knowledge or enthusiasm had it not been for my living here and knowing the people that I do. I am essentially self-sustaining in enthusiasm and skill now nearly seven years after starting this journey, that I could live anywhere and not get bummed out or lose the C&V drive (ok, provided the roads around me weren't rubbish or incredibly dangerous). I'd run into less vintage stuff being available, but thankfully, I have a ton already. If anything, BF is my link to everyone else in real time, given our disparate locations.

CliffordK

I enjoyed meeting @gugie's house more than VC. I'm not a beer drinker, and enjoyed the environment and ride... & BBQ!!!

The "display" at VC was fun, but perhaps one is just as well sharing with friends with something small.

There have to be other Portland venues.

I met a guy that runs a micro theater in Eugene yesterday, and has a small bike shop/collection too. Things were a bit hectic, I had my trailer, and I had left my lock behind so I didn't get much of a chance to poke around. Maybe next time. But, he said he had an interest in "vintage".

Perhaps we could all sit around and watch re-runs of Breaking Away.

masi61

Road Fan

Yes it is hard to coordinate!

You and I met once on a cold Lake Front Path ride from somewhere around Bryn Mawr perhaps down to South Shore Park, I think. A revisit of my high school and college rides for me, including Moody's Pub!

Road Fan

Anywhere close to Toledo?

Road Fan

For me, every so often I find a C&V fan on a road, but it's rare. There is an old cadre of vintage riders dispersed through the Detroit area, but no big rides. Some of the members have set up events at the various velodromes in the area - the Lexus Velodrome in central Detroit, and the International Velodrome in Rochester, MI. There is actually a LOAD of racing history in Detroit and Chicago (cities that I know best). But a few buds in the Ann Arbor area, to ride with and discuss "why the heck can't I find a spindle that will balance my TA crankset fitted to my Super Course" or similar burning questions -- not! These days, Mrs. Road Fan and I are our riding partners.

I'm not a restorer or recreator. I tend to build up vintage frames as excellent riders - not necessarily the full "Retro Roadies with Indexing" (though I have) but modernizations and light-weightings where the original is not usable or replaceable, or I just love the improvement. I also tend to apply the kinds of upgrades I did when I got into good bikes starting back in 1968 or so. I tend to experiment with design variations, such as French fenders, 650b, low trail, supercompact cranks, low Q, high-gear counts with friction control (i.e 3x10 with DT shifting) ...et cetera.

jyl

Yeah, when the weather improves I'd like to arrange a PDX CV ride.