Fasteryoufool

You nailed it exactly, for me.

Veloria

31 and surprised to discover that this makes me on the older side.

I love lugged steel because seeing it is what made me want to get a bike, after being indifferent to the sea of blandness I was seeing at the bike shops 2-3 years ago.

devinfan

I'm 39, and I stopped thinking of myself as young a couple of kids ago. Also I'm a Youth Worker, and if I think even for minute that I might be young I am told otherwise by the youth that I work with on a daily basis. As to vintage bikes, I love them because they're beautiful. For me it is purely aesthetic, I'm sure modern bikes ride better/faster, but I wouldn't know because I've never ridden one. Even if they rode WAY better I still wouldn't ride them, because they just don't appeal to me. Like many people that enjoy vintage things, I will go through a lot of trouble to use some quirky old thing just because I think it's cool. If I REALLY like something I will insist on using it even if it is uncomfortable and barely functions.

Interestingly enough, a lot of the youth that I work with have been turned onto vintage bikes just from seeing mine and asking questions about them. One of them is even starting to collect! This past summer we did a ride to Niagara Falls from Toronto and it was an all vintage line-up, which I thought was pretty cool.

20grit

The LG-1 has now become one of the lesser of the collection as it's a more recent guitar (it still ranks above all the electrics, but among acoustics it's value is more sentimental as it was the first one I had worth keeping). Someday when I have the whole group together (some being repaired) I'll take some pictures.

My first bike since getting back into this crazy obsession is a mid-range Peugeot Nice. It's not a bike one goes around town bragging about. It's a nice red and catches people's eyes. It's a lot like the LG-1 above in that it's enough to garner some attention and it will likely hang around for a long time simply because it was the first bike I picked up that was worth keeping. The collection will continue grow around it, but I have a feeling it will keep finding itself being used.

Uptown

I recently turned 40, so I’m old--But not old enough to have enjoyed any of the bikes in my collection originally when they were new. (Ok, maaaybe my ’80 Trek, but it would have been way too tall.)

This is a great thread, and I agree with so many of the comments above. And like others, I appreciate the economics, practicality, and ride of steel bikes--that’s a given. And not contributing to future landfills by buying new junk from China. After that, it’s aesthetics: The thin tubes, graceful lines, the curved forks. Old steel is just beautiful, and classic.

95% of today’s bikes, to me, look like they’re on steroids. Like bloated basketball shoes, and with the same harsh colors and stripes and words and brand names covering every inch. (Sometimes I wonder if the mountain bike craze of the late 80’s ruined bike design forever, but that’s another thread.) Gone is the delicate frame silhouette, the raked forks, fork crowns, and paint colors for the most part as dignified as they were diverse. As for the aggressive, ramrod-straight-fork geometry of today’s road bikes, well, the mental picture I get is....Ever try to give a cat a bath?

One caveat: I do appreciate modern components, so that's a tradeoff. Even my younger vintage bikes to me are way easier to work with (side pull brakes that set up in a snap compared with older center-pulls, using an allen wrench vs. needing 4 different tools, etc.)

YoKev

I'm 28.

Every bike ride is like a mini vacation. I feel I know my small "city" better than a lot of people who have lived here their whole lives

gaucho777 

You are wise beyond your years!

bloom87

i am 23 & find most of the bikes made after 1994 are ugley

JohnSqual

I'm 33. I suppose I'm addicted to finding old stuff and trying to fix it up. It also gives me a connection to my old man,
who's into bikes from the same time (mid 70s) as me.

bigbossman 

I'm your father, Luke.


Now, get off my lawn.

bigbossman 

And Emmylou Harris. She had the voice of an angel in that performance.

KonAaron Snake 

Have you ever heard the stuff she did with Gram Parsons? Awesome.

20grit

I could've really done without the Staple Singers in the whole thing though. Really ruined The Weight as far as I was concerned.

ColonelJLloyd 

Still does. I love Manuel on the drums on that tune! Saw "Levon & Friends" at the Ryman last year. Epic show. Epic!

Indeed. She and Beck did a great version of "Sin City" on a tribute album a few years back. Good stuff.

While I like and respect the Staple Singers, that was not a highlight for sure. Joni Mitchell, though, is the only person that causes me to hit the FF button. Frankly, the Clapton stuff is a bit of a bore too. There is a lot of good stuff on the album that didn't make it into the film.

XLR99

I'm turning 41 soon, so no longer young. I became a C&V person by accident: when I bought my Cilo it was about 2 years old, got my Bianchi Volpe new; now we're all vintage.
How many grade school age C&V fans are out there? My son is a huge C&V freak right now. He found the old Raleigh my parents bought me when I was a kid, we restored it, and he rides it daily.

atmdad

Didn't realize there were so many young'uns here.

KonAaron Snake 

Blasphemy. I love Joni Mitchell.

The Cowboy Junkies cover of Ohhh Las Vegas was one of the best covers I've ever heard. Right up there with the Breeders doing Happiness is a Warm Gun on Pod or Van Morrison doing It's Allver Baby Blue.

gaucho777 

I began riding road bikes when I was 11 or 12 years old. I still remember when it all began: one beautiful Spring morning while on my BMX bike, I was enveloped by the whir and blur of a pack of cyclists that overtook me on the road. The next day I tried to ride my dad's Raleigh with a towel taped to the top tube as an improvised saddle. I soon got my own road bike, and began racing when I was 13, and was very competitive until I turned 18, and then almost completely stopped riding when I went away to college (where, btw, my entire collection of 30 or so Dylan albums was stolen). Now age 37, after coming back into the sport and finding this forum, I feel as I am able to re-live an important part of my youth (except the sore back & knees part).

brockd15 

Is this a foreign language?? I've never even heard of any of this.

atmdad

Bahhh, you only get old when you stop having fun.

I think I have my 14 yo daughter hooked. I refurbished a '75 Centurion 10 speed ladies step through frame that she absolutely loves, and says it is way cooler than any of the newer bikes she sees the other kids riding around on.

ColonelJLloyd 

Don't bother. Keep wrenchin', dude.

brockd15 

I listened to the youtube clips...trust me, I won't bother any more than that.

mkeller234

28 here

Rob Glatfelter

Awful lot of old dudes in a thread about "young" C&Vrs.
23 here.
I suppose I like C&V bike because they don't taste like apples.

KonAaron Snake 

Rome fell because of people like you.