.baker

I'm 20. havent been riding very long but ive put a lot of work into my varsity, heavy or not elbow grease and little lbs help feels better than 1000 out my pocket haha. Its more than that though, a sweet looking vintage bike is way cooler to me than a nice, newly bought typical road bike (will drool over nice new ones though ha.)

mickey85

I'm 25, but am a luddite in nearly every respect. I enjoy records, old cars, analog audio, old furniture, old houses, hand tools, abandoned buildings, old art...and now, old bicycles.

IMO, there's something to be said for going against the grain - moving older, while everyone else is going newer. I like the reliability and repairability of older things, as well as the aesthetic nature of them.

I think I was born 60 years too late.

mkeller234

Holy cow... I am 27. I have been doing this ALL year.

Oldpeddaller

Not just the younger among us. 53 and riding/fixing/building road bikes since I was 12. Over 40 years in the saddle and I still learn something new every day from all of you. Age is no barrier either way. I'm now able to keep more bikes than ever before ans am enjoying saving bikes and building my collection. Great to see so many younger people share the same passion.

3speed

27 here. I just love vintage steel bikes. For what I've got into them now, and could sell them for, I could buy a newer road bike, but I prefer the feel of steel. It also feeds my need to tinker with things and make them work better. Nothing like getting a nice framed bike in need of attention, spending the time and fun taking everything apart, cleaning it up, and putting it back together better than it was before. Then the joy and sort of pride you get out of riding that bike around. It's especially satisfying on a nice warm day out on a leisurely but sort of long ride alone, just relaxing and enjoying yourself and your bike.
Haha, I did the same thing. To myself, no one anywhere in sight, in a half giggle "oh s**t" with a grin on my face one of the first times I rocketed down a steep long twisty local bike path on my first decent road bike. Now days every time I hit the spot right at the top of that section I get out of the saddle and sprint as I approach the descent. What's crazy is I've only ever seen one other guy ripping down that section. Everyone else just coasts it... ??

mherke

I'm 38. I'm drawn to the C&V forum because I enjoy old steel frames. My main type of riding is work commuting, which is about 20 miles a day. I used to ride a carbon frame road bike, but got bored since I couldn't add anything to the bike, such as fenders and rack. I also grew tired of the tire punctures I got each week. Now I have an old specialized hard rock steel frame that I converted to a good solid commuter which has pannier packs, fenders, touring handlebar and brooks saddle. I'm currently looking for a steel road frame bike for weekend rides.

Arrowana

I still remember my first ride on my '81 Schwinn Traveler after being used to a Walmart full suspension BSO. My first thought was "OMG! This thing is a rocket!" Finding the Schwinn at a garage sale for $5 in great shape also got me hooked on cruising garage sales for more bikes.

I'm 18, recently graduated from high school and without a job, so C&V is perfect for me. I've owned a few dozen bikes now, and test rode a few new ones at bike shops, and I'd say the funnest ones were my Varsity Frankenbike, and a Jeunet Franche-Comte. The only new thing that was even close was a Specialized Sirrus, but I bet alloy wheels and crankset would have made the Jeunet even better. I wish I never sold that bike.

I generally like newer components, but my favorite pair of shifters are cheap friction thumb shifters off a Huffy.

peach-picker

i just turned 29 last month, i have always been into older things since i was very young. i grew up on thrift store stuff! at the age of 11 i was seriously into collecting antique toys, later on in life i was really into older cars, then i went into collecting pre 73 schwinn stingrays, then i got into collecting kirby vacuums, and now about a year ago i got into vintage road bikes. with the exception of my newer track bikes, and my extensive collection of fruit picking boxes all the stuff i have is vintage. lol! even my las ex-girlfriend was 20 years older than me!

doggy

im 23 and ive been going crazy with bikes for the last 2 years or so. Went from 0 real bikes to a closet/balcony/ bedroom filled with decent steel bikes in that span. I have about 10 frames/bikes here. More than i know what to do with!!

yuoil 

26 here, that's looking to be about normal from all these posts! I didn't read the whole thread yet but I noticed a lot of Bostonians in this age group.

I used to mountain bike in high school until I collided with enough trees that I couldn't fix my bicycle without using up more money than I had, so I stopped. I did martial arts after that. Towards the end of college I, for some forgotten reason, started to want to do triathlons. Well, I quickly learned that I HATED to run and I wasn't nearly as good of a swimmer as I thought I would be. However, I loved the bike riding and ended up doing it pretty excessively!

I would say the older bikes in particular appeal to me because when I started practicing for tris I had no bicycle which led me on a meandering path to vintage bikes. A great friend of mine from college "lent" (I had it for almost a year since it was a spare!) me his Merlin road bike from the mid 90's as he had a carbon bike which he used all the time. I couldn't come close to keeping up with him but I really loved the bike and I road an unknown number of miles. I don't recall it having a model; I think it just said merlin and titanium on it but it was set up as a road bike. I don't even know what was on it since it wasn't important to me at the time.

After I got a job I bought a red KHS entry level road bike, which was aluminum. I ended up with miscellaneous pains and discomforts (which I blamed entirely on the aluminum, but a lot was also me not knowing how to position myself properly) and sold it fast at a loss. I actually went back to riding my old mtb when I saw the cost of a new titanium bike - replacing the wheels and drivetrain on an old bike was much cheaper! I started learning more about older rigid mountain bikes (especially the ones I always wanted from "Mountain Bike" reviews when I was younger - Yetis, Rocky Mountains, Fat, Stumpjumpers etc.) and somehow I bridged from old mtbs into vintage bikes as a whole. I'm happy to have done so since now I spend a lot of time off the mtb and on an old three speed from the fifties I'm (slowly) restoring or my '86 Prelude.

I have nothing against newer bikes except that I think many of them are horribly ugly and they seem to cost a fortune! I see lots of $6,000+ new bicycles around here where I live being ridden by people who look terribly uncomfortable. The bicycles seem to be a couple sizes small for the rider to my eye, as well. Don't mistake me though, if I was given a madone for free I'd ride it until it proved to me it wasn't worth it I do think though, that if my friend hadn't been around to lend me such a fabulous bicycle, (from which I unconsciously learned something about ride comfort) I would have ended up with something from Target or maybe the lowest LBS bike I could have found. I also think I probably would have stopped riding ala the KHS above but without the knowledge that there are 'comfortable' bicycles!

Anyway, I am mostly a lurker but of all my lurking holes this vintage forum is by far my favorite. I try to chip in occasionally but I am pretty quiet. I would like to say though that the community on this forum is tremendous and I hope it continues to grow! I have learned more here about bicycles than I ever would have thought even existed and every day I learn more and more (and you guys and girls keep showing me new bicycles I 'have to try!' so that now my list is now quite impossible to complete - I've ridden maybe two dozen different bicycles in the last few years and I feel like I've barely scraped the surface).

Sorry, you got a mini biography I'm sure you don't even want to read! I guess I just wanted to tell it, and now I will get back to work and try to read the other replies here later.

leaping_gnome

I've enjoyed reading how broad a spectrum of folks share the C&V bug but I am not too suprised...

I am 54 years young and became involved with the C&V forum and other vintage bike sites primarily out of self protection as my bike (1975 Eisentraut) became "out-of-date" But since then I have caught the bug and enjoy both riding and restoring. I can pretty much just echo the same feeling as Oldpeddaller - and I will include my own son (at 21 years) as a budding luddite and passionate cyclist. Even my 19 year old daughter rides a Univega Mixte!

Happy Holidays - Jim

Joni Mitchell and The Last Waltz - yeah, I'm with you there.
"Too far from the Bay of Fundy, too far from eagles, appaloosas and tides..."

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

What an odd coincidence, I'm listening to exactly that right now.
so good.

leaping_gnome

Yeah, that'll get me every time. Sigh!

leaping_gnome

I visited Boston last summer and wound up out around Berklee College of Music. The number of bikes was astounding. If it's like that all over the city, well...

Jim

yuoil 

It's amazing. The T stations' racks are often so full people lock up the bikes inside. Even tonight when it was below freezing I saw dozens of people riding around. I love how many bikes you can see around Boston... I just with they'd get more lights and not run stop signs so we could get a better reputation with the drivers.

JReade

Turned 29 on Saturday. I'm a fan of Retro styling, and mid century modern stuff, but I got into Classic and Vintage bikes by accident. I like the super carbon blah blah for my tech geek aspect, but I found a Continental at a yard sale for 10 bucks. Since then I've got Univega Grand Tour and Bianchi Europa, 80 bucks each. I appreciate the simplicity of the older bikes, the amount I can do to them, and the abundance of parts/repairs.

stronglight

Okay, I'm 60... But there are several bike shop wrenches in their early 20s who I often hang out with. They are now devoted Olde Bike addicts - some even worse than I. I think it may be partly because you can do much with old steel frames. By this I mean spread the stays for wider hubs or close them down tighter for a cleaner single-speed set up. And, for shop mechanics there is also an endless supply of discarded components available for customizing a bike to ones taste or preference. And, of course, mechanics are also natural home tinkerers too - just like all of us here.

There is also the stimulating mental challenge of envisioning what might work well on an old bike. With newer bikes one tends to feel more locked into simply replacing or upgrading from a choice of the most suitable modern component groups. This is especially the case with Aluminum or Carbon Fiber bikes having wider rear spacing (which cannot be altered) and wider diameter tubing which often demands more modern "bow-legged" crank arms. With older bikes you can do almost anything which you can imagine.

Many of the guys I know grew up never having owned a bike with lugs and they are now drawn to them. There is something fascinating about fancy contrasting lugs on a frame. I feel something similar about old cars from the late 1950s with their enormous tail fins, illogical curves and lots of chrome. Personally, I may not want to pay for the daily gas consumption of a 1959 Cadillac convertible... but, I'd sure love to polish all that chrome and just stare at it... and maybe take it out for cushy-ride, leisurely, head-turning weekend cruises.

I recall my dad speaking of decades past. There were always kids hanging out at the local gas service stations (back when they actually worked on cars) watching in fascination as the grease monkeys tinkered with cars. Many eventually could not help picking up an old beater and fixing or hot-rodding it themselves. That was how my dad got his first car. It was simple, easy to work on and cheap (and without a single pre-programed chip to burn out).

I think something parallel holds true for younger vintage bike guys today... and us old guys, too. There are still plenty of old bikes to work with and learn on for very little cost. But above all, some people - of ANY age - just have an irresistible passion for messing with bikes and old steel is our logical (and affordable) canvas of choice. Other people just choose to buy highly efficient brand new bikes or drive their Honda Accords and would never give turning a wrench a second thought.

Robofunc

I'm 31. I've loved the feel of steel road bikes ever since I took my dad's Peugeot without his knowledge for mid-day rides while he was at work. After years of BMX, I finally started learning about, tinkering and most importantly riding old bikes. The addiction is getting bad--five steel steeds in my house at the moment.

Kimmo 

I gather I may not be that representative of those who spend time here in C&V - I'm quite certain the vast majority of technical innovations are improvements.

I'm 36; I grew up friction shifting... my first indexed bike (6spd Suntour Accushift) was a revelation when I discovered they were actually indexed levers set to friction and changed them back... now I could just dial in the indexing every once in a while instead of having to dial in every shift. Then when STI came along I realised the bicycle was finally complete, and ever since regard bikes without dual control as crippled. As for carbon, I love the stuff. Sure, it has some disadvantages, but the advantages totally speak to me. It's just a shame monocoque frames amplify sound...

That said though, I'd love to have a stable of vintage top-end bikes... one from about 1995, one from around 1980, a mid-60s machine and a late 40s racer would be groovy, as examples of the progression of the state of the art. I used to have a 70s 531 Hillman with 5spd Dura-Ace, which I thought was pretty cool. It was a sweet ride; I can understand how it was the bee's knees back in the day, but it served me more as another means of appreciating my modern machine.

The retro stable would hang on the wall as art; I'd take one of those old steeds for a leisurely cruise on a sunny day now and then to remind myself precisely why I'm such a tech junkie.

fas2c

I'm 45, I've grown up biking and would rather have an older bike. I like to tinker a bit and the nostalgia of the older bikes just draws me in. Svelt, modern bikes just don't do much for me.