Sometimes bikes are not modern - nor vintage. My riding buddys regard my most modern bike as being from the stone age and it is just 20 years old. I reckon them being on electronic derailleur full carbon rockets looking at me as strange when I show up on this. Imagine when I bring my late sixties bikes...

Took it for a spin today. Hunting dog Pekka was not impressed. He sniffed the tires quickly but as I had not run over anything interesting he soon thought his favourite ball much more rewarding.





Actually this one is too modern for me and I bought it to get the aluminium 10V Chorus Ergopower brifters (for another build). Then I realized I had 10V Record to substitute it with and built it. It is a good bike for riding - I have to admit. Reluctantly.

As it looked when I found it (had to get a longer stem to make it fit me):



If C&V forum rules admit it - please add your borderline vintage rides!

Im curious how you fare with them on your vintage bikes vs their electronic derailleur full carbon rockets and if there is any commentary among the group regarding it.

Visit the wildly popular Early Brifter Bikes 7-8-9 Speed Forum

Which could be a great subforum - within C&V.

[MENTION=436667]styggno1[/MENTION] - that one looks borderline small for you (us).

And knowing the content of your collection - if you showed up on an aluminium DeRosa, well....i would be gobsmacked, too.

Agreed, I never understood why it had to have its own subforum, no one goes there now. Bikeforums is a great place but the obsession the mods have with micro-organising things into specific categories doesn't do it any favours.

My 2011 ti bike. Ti was just beginning to happen at the close of C & V. This bike came along 20 years later - but - it is a fix gear much closer to what was raced 100 years before. (Only to date it has never seen the wheels - sewups; but it will.) I designed it to make wheel flips on the road fast using standard track nuts and a wrench. Once it gets the proper rubber, it will be the race bike people would have died for in 1989 - in a fictional world with no freewheels or gears. (A stiff titanium bike that wasn't possible then.)

That definitely a tool I’ve never seen anyone ride with, a chain whip, just wow! Changing cogs mid ride?
Tim

Yup! 20 oz, 22". A serious tool. I can unscrew the 24 tooth I just rode up a mountain with at the top when I'm fully frazzled. screw on the tiny cog you can just barely see hanging from the toolbag and scream down the other side in a 95" gear. A blast! (And so much more fun than battering my soft parts at 200+ RPM for miles.) Oh, the change takes me about 5 minutes.

Impressive, thanks for the info, makes sense, single gear, with the climbs you have in the NW.
Tim

It is impressive to see, I was a bit shocked the first time I saw him do it. (Trask ride a few years ago)

I actually like the hard divisions and wish there was one more. poprad new Rene Herse isn’t classic and vintage unless we change the definition, there are lots of cool,
modern, old school looking steel bikes that don’t really belong here that won’t get any traction in any other forum.

I’ll play along. 1999 LeMond Buenos Aires. (Welded) steel (853) but older style paneling. Ignore the early ‘00s 10s…

I show up at group rides all the time with vintage bikes from the 6 speed, downtube shifter, friction shifting ( eroica compliant) era. The reaction ranges from ambivalent to curious to irritated. Some people get irritated because they have bought into marketing drivel that they can’t possibly keep up with the group without the latest load of whatever is being sold at the moment. For efficiency in moving down the road, the reality is that bikes have been good for a long long time and there is very little…if a any difference between a 1975 Campy equipped DeRosa and a 2022 Dura Ace equipped Trek Domane. Aero wheels will obviously be an advantage when solo or in the front of the group, but as speeds fall off from 25 mph or so, those advantages evaporate. For spirited group riding, I don’t think that a nice light set of 32 spoke tubular wheels has ever been surpassed. Where you will find yourself at a disadvantage on a vintage bike is when the ride includes lost of choppy hills with frequent accelerating. With downtube shifters, you can’t shift while out of the saddle and you have to plan your shifts a little more. Still, most of this effect can be mitigated with practice and mastery of your equipment.

Not going to pass this opportunity up - here's my borderline vintage bike...

That Lemond is great! Is there a thread on the build? 650B? What's the fork? I've kinda been keeping my eye out for Buenos Aires to give a similar treatment....

Brent

It’s been my experience that on large organized rides no one seems to really care what anyone else is riding. That’s generally been true for the smaller scale regional rando group rides, too. Certainly some very nice bikes in play, but far more interest in the bike as a particular tool than an object of fascination.

A couple more observations about showing up at a group ride with vintage/ borderline vintage equipment….I have revised my response to the long standing custom of the group waiting while a rider sorts out a puncture or mechanical issue. Modern bikes are very ill suited to roadside repairs. There are several categories of mechanicals that I will no longer wait for. The first is anybody trying to sort out their bike computer. As a category, the bike computer is only surpassed by the string trimmer as civilization’s most unreliable device. Second, anything related to electronic shifting. A discharged battery is the result of poor planning and is no different than showing up without a front wheel, and anything beyond that can not be sorted out in any reasonable timeframe. Third, anything related to disc brakes….possibly the most ridiculous application of technology to a bicycle and a huge answer to a question nobody asked. Once again, any issues sues are likely to not be able to be sorted in any reasonable timeframe. This category includes the related through -axle issues. We have lost the ability to quickly remove and mount a wheel without tools….Fourth, anything related to tubeless tires. I have seen quite a few punctures with these, but I have yet to see a successful roadside repair demonstrated to me. I have seen some epic messes created by sealant spewing from the puncture.

I don’t think I ever did a thread. It is 650x38b. Fork is Soma Champs Elysses, which is fine but probably more stout than necessary. Matching rack from Soma, puts the rack high above the fender so a custom fork/rack job (maybe hit up gugie or a local builder) might be a better aesthetic bet. Does have a gugie decaleur to get the bag in the right spot. New style Dia Compe 750 up front, Weinmann 750 or whatever they called it in back (got too cheap to buy another matching new caliper and at this point I don’t care). Feel free to PM or post any questions. I “dented” (not dimpled sadly) the chain stays a bit but it cleared 38s especially if you move the rear wheel to the back of the dropout. All that said it’s a very nice ride and I would recommend and setup the same for friend/family.

Specific categories is why this forum is popular. Share your early brifter bikes to people who are interested in them as a category. That no one goes there should tell you something. Most brifter fans have or will move on to disks, and electronic shifting for their daily riders.

I did that mod, too, though what you see is a Zurich frame and a Buenos Aires fork, powder coated close to the original BA red. Also had to dimple the chain stays, which wasn’t too difficult.

I do have a 1999 Rodriguez Arrow that fits under this theme. This was 3x8, rebuilt up with 3x9 Campy. I apologize for the horriblily staged photo.

My most modern is 2x8 Campagnolo Ergo.
Mavic SUP rims, so not really aero.

to get close to the mod guys I would need an aero rim and tire package, carbon.

having 11 or 12 in back would be nice but not totally necessary.

7 is actually pretty good, a few bikes with that.

almost all my tubular tired bikes have lighter wheels than the mod guys, yes, more spokes. When one is climbing a grade, speed drops, aero is less of an issue. Yes, I concede a 5-7 lb weight penalty, don't remind the mod guys about that as they will just feel bad.

there are a lot of guys locally chasing the more carbon, more of the time trying to come under the UCI weight minimum.

I’m out! My most modern bike is about mid eighties lugged steel, but I can observe.