gthomson

I had a quick release break on my old Peugeot bike as I was adjusting my wheel and I wasn't far from home so could have walked back home but wanted to continue with my ride so I thought, maybe I'll try that bike shop in town? The town is a little posh and so this bike shop sells really expensive modern bikes but I figure they must have a repair area with parts. As I walked into the store with my bike, this young guy from the service room says, "just so you know we don't repair old bikes like that". I felt like saying I wouldn't let you touch it anyways but instead in a sarcastic voice said, do you sell QR skewers? He promptly answered yes.

Reynolds 

When my son was 17, a friend of him told me: "So you're a cyclist? Just like my uncle, he's really old, like 50 or 60, and still rides his bike."

MooneyBloke

Sure those are from handlebar contact? I had an old Crescent that I rode for years, and it got a ding from falling on a post from being poorly parked. Also, I think a crash involving frame contact with a solid object is likely to toast something anyhow.

MooneyBloke

Maybe in his family, they just "got busy" early in life. Gramps might have been precisely your age or even much younger.

Chuck M 

I would bet dollars to donuts he would tell you that a 700c tire is the same as a 27". I've had that happen.

To be fair, I knew going in they likely wouldn't have any, but I was taking a shot in the dark but would have thought the staff would know the difference.

bikingshearer 

I've seen way too many small but noticeable dings on the right side of a top tube at way too close to the same same distance back from the head tube for it to be a coincidence. In the ones I've been able to actually lay hands on, the ding matches up perfectly with where the bars swing around. What causes the bars to come in contact with the top tube may vary, but the ultimate result is the same. Most of the time, the damage is only cosmetic and not structural (at least on a steel frame). This does not account for the bruises induced by kicking one's self.

And no, the cables do not do a thing to protect the top tube one the bar reaches it. When we all used non-aero brake cabling and down tube shifters, thee cables also did very little to impede progress if the bars came around. Kind of like cold January winds that start at the Arctic Circle and have nothing to slow them on the way to Kansas. Modern aero brake cabling tends to slow things down a bit. Barcon and Shimano brifter cabling adds a bit more impedance, and Campy Ergo shift cabling adds even more. Sometimes to the point where the bar can't reach that far around even if you want it to. But such was not the case in those halcyon non-aero/DR shifting days, and top tube dings came under the heading of "sh*t happens."

gugie 

I get lots of discussion and compliments when I park my bike next to my cube at work. Since I (as most of you should) have several vintage bikes, I rotate them on my commute. I'm not the only one who parks a bike next to my cube, but I'm the only vintage one. Black and grey are boring, they aren't purdy like mine.

I did get a "what are those things (downtube shifters), suicide shifters?

Lattz

If you have a Japanese bike, you could say, its an integrated Yubitsume device which was common in the days, but now become rarer and rarer that people who feel ashamed are renting the bike from you to do the act.
It is okay, that not everybody understands how old tech works, the youth of today don't even know that the holy mobile device they use also runs on smoke (which, if comes out the device stops running), it is just less commonly visible as it was with other electrical equipment in the stone age 80-90s, thanks to modern inventions as ergonomic design including unreplaceable batteries.

gugie 

As a mechanical engineer by education, my understanding of electricity is that you need to keep the magic smoke inside the wires and electrical devices, so I'm fully aligned with your comments.

SJX426 

I can think of two features most people would not recognize and not ask about, tubulars and the old Bianchi integrated head sets.
Bianchi1971IntegratedHeadset on Flickr

Chuck M 

That Bianchi headset is amazingly beautiful.

Lattz

The former is not obviously different to know it is a tubular until you are being caught in the act of changing it, plus since they become a niche among common bikers (the more expensive the better) some might even know them.
The headset is obviously something Bianchi copied from one of the current hype-models. Actually with those I was also among the possible askers, until @cudak888 's thread revealed how it looks like, and indeed it has a removable raceway.
10 more years and we'll get the questions on rim brakes I guess, and maybe in 15-50 the one "what do you mean it is rolling on those round things.... and how does it take off?"
It would be nice to build something really badass to feed the needs of the curious ones, e.g. a Pedersen with a Takhion-style fork mounted handlebar and Cambio corsa... or something like that, maybe a downhill fork for why not. The discussions would worth the time

Ironfish653

My KLEIN gets a lot of attention at the trail park because it’s a rigid 26er with BMX bars. And it’s angrily, radioactively, orange.

Likewise, the SoftRide; when I bring it on events; either they’ve never seen one, or haven’t seen one in a long time.

My ‘76 Bridgestone, OTOH, gets comments about the lug work from the old heads who notice that kind of thing.
Except that a Bridgestone Superlight isn’t lugged, or even steel; it’s aluminum, and the “Die-Cast” “lugs” are cast-in-place around the frame tubes.

Bad Lag

I've had people notice my use of clips and straps.
Also, the down tube shifters are unusual to some.
Neither is completely unknown or foreign to most people, just rare.

cudak888 

It depends what I'm riding.

If it's this thing, the strange thing they notice about it is "everything."



But if I'm on something more sensible, it takes a bike person to say "hey, is that a Nexus hub back there?"





-Kurt

pastorbobnlnh 

@cudak888 who would have ever thought an '80s Raleigh Sports, discovered after being discarded at a New Hampshire dump in the early 2000s, could ever look so good?

---and the Huffy-Moulton (or is it Moulton-Huffy) could look pretty spiffy as well.

JohnDThompson 

“Why are the frame tubes so skinny?”
“What's that thing?” (pointing to Silca Impero frame pump)

jamesdak 

For the most part the comments I get usually come from the mechs at my fav local LBS. The youngsters love my vintage bikes and a few have been inspired to get one of their own. And several of my bikes are on some of the guys, "I want it if you sell it" list. The latest was the Krapf bike. I brought the frameset to them to get things faced and the headset installed. Lot of love from the team and a comment that the paint reminded them of the old 80's Toyota trucks. I can see it too with the yellow, orange, red bands.

jamesdak 

I remember one time years ago I got a snide remark from a youngster. I used to take the old Giordana Antares with it's 6 speed DT Dura Ace setup out on rides on Saturdays when the local clubs would be up here. It was just fun to purposely catch and spin by their pacelines on a white and pink old bike wearing a bright pink kit. One day it was a youngster and older guy trading pulls on C.F. bikes. They were actually moving good and I worked to catch them. Talked to the older guy a sec as I passed and then went on. Heard the youngster say something then the old guy say, "shut up, he caught your ass!" LOL! Of course a mile later one of the jockey pulleys on the RD cracked while shifting and caught up the chain but they were no where around by then.

georges1

lovely bikeGiordana bikeframes are high quality stuff, only people in the know, know about them.Glad that you have overtaken the youngster

ollo_ollo

Years ago, waiting at a red light in Tucson, AZ; couple Colnago guys in full kit pull up, 1 noticed my fenders and mud flaps, said "you're not from around here are you?"

iab

Well, it is a desert, they had a point.

52telecaster

THey have the makings of good detectives.

obrentharris 

Pointing at the Silca pump that was painted the same color as my Bruce Gordon "How did you find a pump that matches the color of the bike?"



Brent

uncle uncle

I was once asked, "how old is that thing...?", to which I replied, "... the bike or the rider?". I also get asked if it's hard to ride on gravel with such skinny tires. I've caught up to a few younger riders, on older steel framed bicycles, and complimented them on their rides... one of them asked if I'd like to buy his ride, as it was up for sale (kinda sad). 99.9% of people don't care enough to say much.