Think of the year when you first really appreciated great bikes.
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Maybe you could only afford something lesser, but you had a notion what made a bike great... and you wanted one - to ride, not just to own. Your first taste of bike lust!
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Well, now that we're all older, I'm curious: are your heart-of-hearts favorite bikes now the same ones you first lusted after, or from the same era generally. OR, have your tastes changed and you like an even older, or more recent era.
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So, for the poll, just check off your current favorite bicycle era relative to your "first love" year.
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I used to have a blast on my old bmx when I was a wee lad, but only started to appreciate bikes last year. I LOVE older steel bikes. So much character and numerous differences. And the best part...they are finite, so the thrill will always be there. Cool thread.

I bought my first road bike in... 1981? A Miyata 310. And thats my favorite era of road bikes, for sure. All those cool frames on the walls at Bicycle Oddessy in Sausalito. Early 80s.
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Did I just get lucky? In hindsight, the early 80's bikes are just great.
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I got my first really nice bike (db531 + Record) when I was 15 in 1971. I got a similar racing bike in 73 (I'd grown) that I still have and ride often. That said, I have a 93 Italian racer, and some modern bikes, and like and appreciate them all. Variety is the spice of life, so I'm saying that I don't have a favorite era, and there's no category for this.

I started riding a "ten speed" in 1978 and got "into" bikes a few years later. So the bikes I "lusted after" were from the 70's and early 80's. That was a good era for bikes, but I'm kinda done with those now, finding bikes from the 30's-50's more interesting.

Interesting poll. Like so many of us, my favorite bikes are from the era when I first discovered nice 10 speed bikes and bought the only fine European machine I could afford, a PX-10. !971, I think it was. Consequently, I'm fond of bikes from the early to mid '70's era.

Mid 80's Italian steel like the ones I'd see at criteriums. I had a Peugeot sport bike but lusted after a Pinarello, DeRosa, Guerciotti, Ciocc, Colnago, Basso, or Gianni Motta. I didn't even know where people got those bikes because I never saw them in the local bike stores.

Bought myself a decent Ciocc when I got out of the Navy, and a really nice Eddy Merckx (still have it) when the Ciocc broke seven years later.

I loved the old ads that list pricing:

I walked into a bike store when I was about 14-15 and saw a full panto Colnago. I had never seen a high-end bike before, but I remember that was the most beautiful thing ever. I am not sure what I would do if I had the opportunity to buy one. By the late '70s, they no longer looked that great to me in comparison to a lot of other Italian bikes. The interesting thing about the Colnago that I saw was that it was destroyed when a pile of bike lockers fell on it.

I'm not really into bikes because I'm nostalgic, but because I simply think they're cool artistic, efficient examples of ultra functional machinery. Therefor I really appreciate the integrated designs of the french constructors and the English "touring" bikes. 1,000 different Italian frames all with various campy racing drivetrains do less for me, though I do enjoy them as well. A bike I can enjoy AND ride however, will always be chosen over something else.

My first vintage bike purchase that was a platform for teaching myself mechanical skills, which got me into this hobby, was a 76 Raleigh Grand Prix. That's the same year I was born.

So I don't really know how to answer your poll, I guess is what I'm saying.

If your preference doesnt gravitate to a particular era above others, then the poll isnt relevant, I'd say.
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I appreciate pretty much any cool old bike that makes for a good ride today. But my preference centers on the bikes from my "first love" time... although that may be changing, the more I visit C&V.
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In the early '70s I had a Varsity, and even as a kid it wasn't hard to tell that it was pretty far from what a bike could be. The bike shops in town sold either Schwinns or Raleighs, and I stared at the catalogs endlessly. Before long I decided that a 531 bike was what I had to have. I settled on a Gran Sport, mainly because it was the least expensive 531 bike I could find. That bike is still my go-to rider, albeit with lots of swapped parts. I own and like bikes from other periods, but the 1970s bikes still resonate with me more than others.

I first fell in love with bikes (BMX, then road) as a young kid from about '79-86. Then came about 15 years of distractions. A few years after I got back into bikes (fast hybrid, Raleigh Tourist), I decided to buy a mid 80s Bianchi in about 2006, to satisfy the itch that I never got to scratch (I ended up with a Windsor Pro then Cannondale as a kid).

I bought a Bianchi CDI and it was all downhill from there. I started off being drawn to the 80s bikes (that first drew me in) and then becoming more drawn to the 60s and 70s bikes. To me, the 60s and early 70s bikes are the sweet spot of collecting. A nice mix of history and function. We'll see if I still feel that way in five years...

Not exactly sure what the poll is asking, but if I understand correctly, I would say that the late 80s would be my favorite era of bikes. As to when I first fell in love with bikes, that's a harder question. I took bikes for granted when I was a kid and young adult. I didn't have a "love" of cycling then, it was just.... the concept of freedom to ride around, and the tool that enabled it wasn't that important as long as it worked reasonably well. I never raced; the value of a bike for me was in its utility and one bike was pretty much the same as the next.

There are things I like aesthetically now, but it still isn't love. Bikes are bikes. I can admire a nice bike, but I can also see the beauty in an old wreck, if it provides enjoyment to its owner.

Bought my first really decent road bike in '83, a Nishiki Competition and loved that bike.

The bicycles I am most attracted to tend to be much older than this although if I came across my old Nishiki I'd have a hard time passing it up.

I first "fell in love" with riding a bicycle as a kid in the late 70's-80's, didn't really appreciate the bike so much as the ride. I'd have to say that my first true love of bikes was for 90's MTB's, I loved them as the finely engineered work of art that they were, and not just for the ride. I'm sure much of the reason for this is that a majority of my riding experience has been on 90's MTB's; I have never even ridden anything built after 2000. So, my vote goes for "first love era" although I have been flirting recently with a 85 Nishiki Riviera GT that I picked up a couple weeks ago, and I think my MTB's are starting to get jealous

The first year I truly appreciated a good bike was in college, around 1994 and I started mountain biking, reading BIKE magazine and biking/trail riding became my main hobby. I also was moving myself from the burbs to live on the north side of Chicago. I knew I wanted to commute by bike and also keep trail riding as much as possible, I figured I needed a commuter bike along with a mountain bike. I lusted after mountain bikes bad and in 1996 bought a M2 Specialized Stumpjumper for $999.00 with a rigid steel fork, bought a suspension fork, installed it and I was in business. Rode that thing like I stole it. Still have that frameset, but don't really ride it much because I have learned to love road bikes and riding country roads. I have plans to re-fork it and take it to the trails though, still a great bike.

I lust after two types of bikes now, old British path racers or bikes like that style and modern day Rivendell bikes. So I guess the C&V era that I lust after now is way older than what was my first bike love, but I still appreciate and ride modern, functional, beautiful, versatile, lugged steel framed bikes.

I would get the Schwinn catalog year after year, and since the 1966 (Disneyland) catalog I wanted a Paramount!

The 1978 to 1989 era steel sport/race bikes just turns me on!! Raleighs, Schwinns, and Centurions..

Is that when you were first turned on to bikes?
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I became fascinated with higher end bikes in my mid-teens, triggered by my dad's hobby at the time of refurbishing trashpile bikes (that people put out with their trash at the curb). Turns out, both he and my grand-dad (his dad) had done a fair amount of biking in England (no car in the family) in WWII and were pretty up to speed on the state of the art (from an awareness, not user standpoint) at the time. Anywat, I started reading the books my dad left laying around, which among other things, extolled the beauty and functionality of 531, aluminum alloy, Campagnolo et al, and I guess I got the disease. Pretty soon I was lusting for a higher end European bike for myself (my dad was always satisfied with his refurbished beaters); I was loitering in all the downtown cycle shops that handled the better machines, and drooling over the corncob freewheels and exotic European brand names.
When it came time to laying my own money down, I selected an affordable, obscure Japanese-Canadian brand/model (Empire/Professional) that hit pretty much all of of my hot buttons: double butted tubing, check; alloy rims, stem, bar, seatpost & crankset, check; decent alloy derailleurs & shifters, check (Shimano Titlist); & damn fine brakegroup, check - Shimano 600. This was after coveting a Raleigh Gran Sport seen in a catalog, the Sekine SHT, and a CCM Mistral seen in a nearby cycle shop; all of which were priced way out of reach. After acquiring it, I totally cherished my Empire Professional for 2 years, but I had started to outgrow it (i.e. size-wise), and had to sell it to facilitate purchasing the Motobecane Grand Jubilé which I still have. Though I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, the GJ was really a cut above the Empire Professional in every regard, except for the brakeset (Weinman Vainquer 999 centrepull vs Shimano 600 sidepull. Nevertheless, I've always been a little nostalgic for my Empire Professional since I let it go, and last year I acquired an almost identical replacement from a BF member; the best part is that the replacement is one size larger than my original, so it fits. Right now it is completely torn down awaiting a full restoration. Unfortunately, there is a large area of missing paint on one of the seatstays, so we're talking repaint here, but I'll be shocked if anyone gets on my case over a repaint on this unsung, unremarkable brand.
Anyway, those were the days when Campagnolo was the undisputed king of the hill; Shimano and Suntour were making a name for themselves but had not won over the pros; and the European brands still dominated all segments of the enthusiast market, at least from a recognition and brand equity standpoint. This was my diet when my bike enthusiasm was in its formative stage, and I suppose my taste has never changed.

Wow. Cool bike/bio^^^. I'd never heard of the Empire brand.
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My first love were the early 70s racing bikes. Now I am most fond of the mid to late 1980s, when the Japanese were at their best. I do remember wanting to buy a Nishiki International in 1974, but I could not afford it. Kind of funny in the last two years, I have picked up a half dozen Nishiki Internationals from that era... Didn't keep any of them.

I fell in love with bikes in 1975 (at the age of 14) and was heavily into cycling and wrenching through 1984. To me, a 1984 (or so) bike seems like the pinnacle of state of the art.

Newer stuff? It's wonderful, but it doesn't look as nice, in general. There are some exceptions.

84' I started riding a K-mart bike with a stamped one piece crank and after 6 months I could hang a the back with some of the AV Velo guys, a local club. One of them pointed me to a used Nishiki in 85' and for 100$ I moved up to a three piece crank. 86' graduated from H.S. and took my hard earned money and bought a Techneium, 26# and I was impressed. Wanted an IM or a Candal with 105 but they where out of the budget. I rode with guys on everything but I remember most a Derosa and a Colnago, both had chrome forks and spimonie paint jobs. That I think is why I want a Colnago with a chome fork and rear triangle.