bikemig 

cool bike. I posted my 1993 Bridgestone xo 2 but I almost posted my 1979 trek 510. Trek really dialed in the sports touring geometry.

trainman999

If I can only pick one it would be this one. It got looks. can ride it all day in comfort, takes wide comfey tires, or light fast tires, depending what you want to do. Has gears to get up any hill

sd5782 

I also have that bike and concur. I am a bit older and put an SR apex crank on with 34/47 front rings. Just so all around competent.

mstateglfr 

Road frame I built(with a lot of help) in a class a few years ago. Fits perfectly.

ehcoplex

Learned to ride a bike on a long, gravel driveway on one of these. I think it had training wheels on it when my parents bought it for my 5th or 6th birthday, but I seem to remember they didn't really help learning to ride... The following year my brother got one. When the weather permitted, we rode those bikes the 3-4 miles to elementary school in rural Rhode Island (I can't imagine 6, 7, 8 year-olds riding bikes to school un-supervised now......). I think I probably had more fun on that bike than on anything since. At least it was the start of an infatuation with the free, flying feeling of riding a bike!

merziac

Another no surprise, no brainer to me and while Schwinn would tell you these are rooted in racing, by the 70's I believe they were being cranked out for the masses.

Still very capable, light enough and fast but with turkey levers and Twin Stik shifters, fenders, racks, bags and much more, they were targeting regular consumers mostly.

Slick ads, big, bright welcoming stores with a car dealership ethos that would make anything happen and a bike that rode very well even for the uninitiated and you have an American success story of epic proportions until they screwed it up and it wasn't.

Meanwhile we continue to reap the rewards very far down the line with plenty of them still to be had.

gomango 

It's still here, so maybe my Hollands.

bikingshearer 

I'm loving the variety in this thread. Plenty of the usual suspects, but also plenty of bikes I would not have thought of. A real horizon-expanding exercise.

Mackers

Did a quick back to back comparison and I'd like to amend my previous pick



Batavus Professional X

Germany_chris

The best riding bike I've ever had is my Legend Ti.

T-Mar

Hasn't happrened. I'd definitely remember if there had been a photo of me, with that stupid expression.

Kilroy1988 

For me it was the about the feeling that I got, because I've been on several modern carbon bicycles with exceptional new group sets and wheels and all that jazz that seem to outperform anything truly vintage I've ridden, but they also all felt almost identical and lacked character.

This Carlton Continental was originally sold to a client here in California through Hans Ohrt's shop in the late-1940s. I really regret selling it, but I was a poor student at the time and really shouldn't have made the credit card purchase in the first place! I convinced myself it was too short and not "British" enough for me because it lacked fender eyelets and had weird randonneur bars that Hans Ohrt liked putting on classy bikes to make the sale easier, but that was all bollocks and I knew it. Wonderful bicycle.

I hiked up the saddle and jumped on this thing and it was like a revelation, it weighed in the low-20s and it just felt like every moving component was floating along together harmoniously in a way I'd never felt on the 20-30 vintage bikes I've ridden in the past decade or so.

Currently on a mission to replicate that feel, and whatever bicycle it ends up being that sets off those sentiments next time will undoubtedly be a keeper.

-Gregory

T-Mar

That wouldn't work for me. Rack time was spent mainly transporting bicycles to different types of competitions (road, TT, CX, ATB, track, etc.). Furthermore, some of those bicycles were sponsor supplied and not something that would have been my personal choice. It's really hard to say what bicycle spent the most time on the rack.

I could definitely pick a favourite competition road bicycle and after some serious thought come up with a single ATB, GT, CX, TT, track and commuter. But having to pick just one between the favourites in each discipline is impossible for me.

Mr. 66

The Nishiki Competition is really tops, this was right after saddle and brake caliper swapping.I likes so much I decided to go with a leather wrap when I changed the brake levers. Since the wrap I've upgraded to Sunshine high flange with gold Mavic tubular tire rims. I don't have any good pictures of that change yet.

Braqli

I would love to know what your picks in those categories are, whether it's here or in a new thread that makes more sense to you.

(Sorry to interject without actually contributing, but I always appreciate your detailed knowledge and am curious about the bikes you've really enjoyed.)

gugie 

The old saying "horse for a course" comes to mind, but I find I always come back to Big Red for many different rides.


Big Red on Bald Peak Road

It started life as an early 70's Raleigh Competition, was remade as a low trail, 650b bike by Peter Weigle in 2013. It's not my lightest bike, not my fastest sprinter, but it's damn comfortable. I've been on several credit card tours and a couple of 200k brevets with it, I feel I can ride all day with it. Gearing is low enough to sit and spin on steep hills, and it descends on paved and unpaved roads with great confidence.

10 Wheels

Big Red.

iab 

That's too bad.

repechage

Not sure how the headtube cracked, I would be tempted to cut it in two at about the midpoint and observe if there were any trapped stresses waiting to escape as would be shown with misalignment once unrestrained.
I have seen a few Cooper's produce mysterious cracks.
And one American builder, I forgot the name, the chaintay bridge pierced the chainstays completely, too big a hole, stays cracked from the outboard surface.
Saw a Windsor Pro where all that was holding the fork to the steerer was the brake centerbolt, and the chrome prior.

jdawginsc 

What’s a brevet?

gugie 

https://rusa.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randonneuring

The Golden Boy 

Thank you- it's just twine with brown cotton bar tape at the ends.

I do like the look (although it sometimes seems a touch "precious") it does protect the chainstay (there's chain goop on the twine), and I do like that it dries out pretty nicely. I don't like that the wraps slide because of the taper of the chainstay.

I think if I were to do it again- someone else ( Catnap maybe?) had a twine wrap, but put on electrical tape, then Elmer's glue THEN did the twine wrap over the Elmer's. I just don't know if moisture would work under the tape to just be held there and then damage the finish/metal.

gorillimo

My Paramount.....

Gary Fountain

Which one?



This one:

This bike fits me like a glove - even better that my Colnago's.

jdawginsc 

A Rossin made from Tange tubing???