Too old to ride?
 

At what point do you give up trying to find parts for your CV bike and make it a wall hanger? 50s-40s or later?

Well, I'm 79 and hoped to do another decade or so before hanging up my CV bikes. (I know you're referring to the old bike vs parts dilemma, not the rider, but seems to me easier to keep an old bike going than an old body) :) Don

One of the benefits of adhering to N+1 is "cycling" through the collection. Parts last longer with less use. Exposure to harmful environmental conditions, like UV, can help preserve some parts too.
For me, I don't know the answer. My wall hanger is ridable. I just have enough other to put one on the wall to admire.

Of course, the other approach is to prepare. How many older rims, period correct for the bike, are stored for future use?

Sometimes I think accidents are harder to avoid than finding parts! Bent frames are not always cost effective to repair or replace.

To me age is not the only factor. I have bought two wall hangers, sold one and still riding the other. I now may have one my own, a '89 ironman with the grey marble paint with a head tube lug brazing failure. If repaired I could never get the paint touched up or matched if a full respray so headed for a wall somewhere.

I’m not into wall hangers, the principal interaction with a bicycle is by riding, if you don’t ride it you’re only getting a one dimensional experience of it, the ride IS the bike.

Current oldest in progress build is 1930’s, I’ll have no reservations riding it once complete, and would rebuild older too, if parts are hard or impossible to find then that’s when you have to start making them ;-)

My newest bike, an 2011 model, was my only wall hanger. Sadly, my wife only put up with it for 24 hours. The internet has allowed us to keep ANY old bike a rider. I wish I knew these days were coming when I abondoned an old rod braked roadster, and a lovely Italian and a French frame with stuck stems.

I needed brakes, saddle and wheelset to make this 1920s Frejus rideable.

https://live.staticflickr.com/4292/3...01ac79b9_h.jpg
Before_Frejus01 by iabisdb, on Flickr


Found the brakeset in France.

https://live.staticflickr.com/4416/3...ec9c135d_h.jpg
Bowden Calipers 01 by iabisdb, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/4359/3...8242fef4_h.jpg
Frejus Levers 03 by iabisdb, on Flickr



Rudi from here made me a repro saddle.

https://live.staticflickr.com/892/40...ea662b1e_h.jpg
Frejus Saddle 03 by iabisdb, on Flickr

https://live.staticflickr.com/912/40...e9ea91e1_h.jpg
Frejus Saddle 01 by iabisdb, on Flickr



Hubs came out of Italy.

https://live.staticflickr.com/4755/4...e1fa414f_h.jpg
Scambio 100 by iabisdb, on Flickr



Reproduction rims were also out of Italy and Bob's yer uncle.

https://live.staticflickr.com/1729/4...21b9ff76_h.jpg
2L by iabisdb, on Flickr

Similar story for this 1933 Frejus and 1950s Cinelli. I don't see a reason to make a wall hanger unless you want a wallhanger. Age has nothing to do with it.

https://live.staticflickr.com/7321/9...aeababbb_h.jpg
_MG_8990 by iabisdb, on Flickr


https://live.staticflickr.com/3729/9...eebc9f0f_h.jpg
_MG_9018 by iabisdb, on Flickr

If worse came to worse ans I had a really old bike I liked the ride of I'd just put more modern parts on it and enjoy it longer.

Cheers

Are you asking about the bike or the rider?
Tim

That 1920s Frejus is gorgeous! 😎👍😎

I think that's the perfect place for the pump pegs, too, keeps the front open for bottle cages. 🙂

Is OP asking when a bike is too old or when a rider is too old?

Does a rider hang up his bike as a symbol of being too old and give up riding?

Does he mean the bike is too old to ride, so hang it up and get something else to ride?


C&V bicycles vs modern bikes: I was looking at rims last night. A pair of road rims was $2,000. So, yeah, I will continue to ride and maintain my C&V cycles for as long as I live.

I recently took my '59 Jack Taylor tandem into technical-enough terrain on some Cape Cod dune roads that I crashed it. We're in our 30s and we got a good deal of road rash but our joints and bones are fine and that's what's important. The tandem, which is 60, just got covered in sand, and shrugged the impact off better than us!

I say ride 'em like you stole 'em, you can't take 'em with you when you croak! :lol:

You probably can, but it's going to require a coffin that's not an "off the shelf" model.

Isn't trying to find parts part of the joy of the C&V hobby?

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...21813a9ef3.jpg

'32 Simmons Banner in kid mode
For me it depends on the type of riding. I regularly rode my 1932 Simmons(Schwinn built) Motobike until I discovered a broken stem a month ago. I’m running 33mm cyclocross tubulars stretched onto period correct clad wooden rims. It’s not the best stopping bike, and the gearing on those pre-war bikes makes you think twice before pulling a trailer up hill. But I like to get it out and seen in non-vintage bike events. I figure if people see me riding an old bike in jeans on the road, it might make bicycling seem more approachable to a newbie.

I'm 70, my Legnano is 55, and we are still putting on the miles. The oldest bike I have is another Legnano, from 1961, but I got it less than a year ago. Last year, before Eroica, I had new wheels built, and serviced the bearings, and chain. Keep the tires and brake pads in good shape and there is no reason to ever hang a bike on the wall. Just ride it!
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...41e1f52738.jpg

Me, on the right, 1965, on my new Legnano Roma Olympiad.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...056bf0f330.jpg
2019, me and the Legnano, still rolling along.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a5407ba50c.jpg
A couple years ago, I came across this guy, on his way to church. I was on a 1973 Raleigh, he said his bike had me beat by almost 100 years.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...71e93296bc.jpg

I would like to say that, for me, such a situation would never occur - but it did, at least once, however; the issue was cost to restore, not the availability of components or skill lever, on my part.

How I wanted to build up this old CCM "Road Racer". Sadly, to do so would have broken my fixed income bank (nothing is really fixed, the income program is truly broken at my place - anyway...)
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3b880cb21e.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b3fd8f5016.jpg


The same situation cropped up with this old Zeus. Buying specific bike parts can cost a lot. So, the Zeus went the same way as the CCM...
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b7fb6c9107.jpg

I genuinely like riding the old stuff, too. It's just what I'm used to, and it doesn't slow me down any, so why change? It also makes people reluctant to ask me to loan them a bike, which can be either good or bad.

But sometimes I see it going the other way. Seeing how crazy I am with the old stuff has been enough to put some newbies I know off of cycling. Like they think they have to be able to machine parts for a vintage bike in order to own one, just because they see that's what I've done.

There is almost no reason not to build a bike you love. At some point it may be desirable to go the Frankenbike route, and just build it so it works. There are no points for originality, compared to giving up, and hanging a perfectly buildable bike on the wall. This old Raleigh was built from a found, scrap metal frame. Turned out to be a '73 Super Course that I've enjoyed over 3000 miles on, including Eroica and several gravel rides easily keeping up with other modern bikes. Not original, but build it so it works. With Ebay, local Swap Meets, even Craigslist, the parts, or something just as useable (or even better) don't have to cost that much. Part of the hobby's fun is the thrill of the hunt, finding bargains, and putting it all together. This bike was my first build.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7468b278ad.jpg
As found, cracked seatstay braze, stuck seat post, wierd stem and fork, ugly paint.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bd290d83a9.jpg
Completed bike, a great ride, pavement or gravel, almost no stock or original parts, but it all works.

I totally disagree. There are a multitude of reasons, cost being right up there in my fixed income budget.

Something old, something new
Some NAHBS winner,
customed just for you.
:D

build what you can afford.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4c9beec1b6.jpg

not my cuppa, but.......... whoa!


Me, my oldest ride is just a late 1960’s Frejus frameset.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...81a3798ba.jpeg

Yes, but so is clearing the basement of "extras" at this point.

Just too many unused parts.

I still love to ride though.

Just got back from riding my Yeti SB5 along the frozen river bottoms along the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.

Can't believe how high the rivers are here in the Twin Cities.

Randy has a point. 25 years ago this pseudo-restoration of a 37 Road Racer cost $600 with a Tony Beeks paint job and chrome and that was cheap. I had to build the wheels and source the bars, stem, saddle and light.

If it handled well, I would ride it. It doesn't so it's a wall hanger.

What about it doesn't handle well?

Unless you are going to show your bike at a Concour's Event, there is no reason why you couldnt put Non Original parts on a bike to get it going. So what if the parts are a Decade or so later model, no one is really going to care. Just ride the old baby.

I suspect it's a combination of the slack fork angle with rake and trail that cause the bike to wallow when turning. Like a chopper. It's all fine until I deviate from a straight line.

For the past several years, road bike brake and shifter cable has been unavailable in my area. Yesterday I found very little on Amazon.mx, except for galvanized. I may have to give it a go.

I need to ride it to own it, but they are just bikes. They are cool and all, but it’s more about people.

I'm riding my '58 Lenton Grand Prix on at least a monthly basis. And I see no reason to stop, as it's one of my more enjoyable bikes, probably comes in immediately after my Rossins. Other than the wheels its original, and the wheels are period correct.