Where is C & V heading? What are our demographics?
 

Just wondering where the C&V population stands. I know a lot of you guys like classic bikes because of nostalgia but some of us were not around when those bikes were new. Do you think C&V appreciation will go on to the next generations or will it be forgotten in the future? You don't have to post your age but I think it would be nice to know who makes up this forum.

Well, let's just say that my 1985 Nishiki Prestige had its serial number assigned when I was about two years old...

I'm eligible for AARP, but not Social Security...

I think, for the most part, people collect what they were exposed to in their youth. There are exceptions of course.

I get way more enthusiastic about a 1980's bicycle than a 1960's bicycle, although I appreciate the 60's bike. A modern bike? Zero interest, they aren't even bicycles in my mind. A plastic bike in my day was a Big Wheel.

I predict the modern bicycle won't stand the test of time. Our current classic and vintage bikes are like the muscle cars of the 60's and 70's, they will always be cool and in demand.

I'm 32. I got my first C&V road bike because I was looking to recapture the feeling riding my dad's then-new Pug in the 80s. Then I got hooked. Now I love riding, wrenching and reading (the "three Rs" of C&V?), in that order.

All my bikes were born around the same time as me, +/- a year or few.

22 and appreciate good quality stuff... and being frugal when buying bikes. Grew up poor and parents always bought stuff used so I naturally gravitate towards used cheap bikes.

My first thought when I read the question was "ever older". It interesting, and pleasing, to see that the demographic is not totally dominated by old farts on a nostalgia trip. To me this says that the appreciation of the older-style bikes goes beyond nostalgia (although in my case it's difficult to separate all the motives). The objects of our youth will always have a certain appeal, but the really classic designs totally transcend specific time periods.

You old farts need to get off my lawn.

I'm 52, but I didn't race or ride much when I was in my teens/early 20s. I've been into vintage lightweights for about 8 years now, and my interest seems to be in the bikes I would of raced or ridden hard back then (70s, 80s).

Just turned 46... bikes range in age from 1951 to 2001.

I was a road cyclist in the 80's and 90's and got into mountain biking in my mid 30's... took up riding a fixed gear at 40 and used to have 6 fixed gear bikes.

I should say that I got into C&V because I got a set of 1973 matching Schwinn Suburbans for me and my wife at a garage sale. I started looking into the history of Schwinn Chicago and now my #1 bike possession is a 1960 Schwinn paramount which is 20 years older than me.

I guess economics does have something to do with it too. Unlike cars, there are millions of very good, little-used 30-year old bikes sitting around, that can be had really cheap, and that will give you decades of good service for practically nothing.
When I was young and single I only bought new, top-of-the-line equipment-- it was affordable back then. I was riding on silk tires when I was 17, I can barely even dream of that now.

Every passing year my bikes get another year older. So do I.

I must be a freak, I have no interest in early bike boom gas pipes.

well judging by my experience more of the younger crowd ( STUDENTS) in Toronto prefer an older 10 speed rather than a mountain bike, mtb are very hard to sell but the older 10 speeds fly out the door like no tomorrow, that`s if they`re tuned up and priced right, people ( University students) want to be mobile and don`t want those mtb anchor bikes with thick tires.
When ever I visit TO Thats what I see alot of, C&V bikes chained up all over the place , fixies, single speeds and originals, I drive my wife crazy,
hey look a peugeot.
Hey look a bianchi
Hey look a miele
She generally rolles her eyes LOL

But she still manages to score bikes here and there for me :)
The last one she got was an old CCM ladies bike with a basket of coarse and a Venture road bike.

I'm 44, my wife is 42 and my son is a C&V nut and he's just turned 13.

I also have a very old little 24" wheel Takara road bike that will be getting restored fro my youngest daughter who is now 5.

I'm doing my best to keep it alive.

Chances are, even by being exposed to gas pipe bikes, you knew there were better bikes available. My first derailleur bike was an unknown model my step-dad pulled out of the trash and gave me to fix up. It was exposure to that bike and trips to the bike shop buying parts that made me want something nicer.

I just turned 63 (three days ago). My solo bikes were made about the time I started having both the income and free time to notice. That happened to be about bike-boom time. It also seems to correlate to a period of technical improvements such as alloy rims and cranks, so I'm not interested in going backwards to older technology. My lack of interest in newer bikes is more because of aesthetics. Hence I'm stuck in the 70's and 80's.

I'm 33. I like bikes older than I am.

The oldest bike in my collection, a ladies Packard (my wife's bike, natch;)), precedes my birth by around 17 years. I *love* old bikes, period.

I got my first bike when I was 5 or so. Rode one daily as means of transportation until I could afford a car and my bike was stolen. Bought a cheap hybrid 10 years ago. Didn't like it. Bought a $ 25 road bike 2 years ago and loved it. Now I got 100+ old road bikes. Not sure where this is going.

I'm older than all my bikes:( I'll be 51 come Jan 5th

I tried to vote, but it tells me I already did. Sheesh, doesn't it know I'm older now?

I like bikes older than me. And younger. Both are good.

At 63 years, plus a wee bit, and from an Ebay Seller's point of view, after selling close to 500 bikes, I would suggest that about half of my customers are past middle age. The balance are the younger crowd, with half of them approaching middle age. Predominately male.

What will we see in the future? Don't know, but my guess is that the really nice vintage road bicycles will become increasingly pricy, someday reaching past the opportunity for average people, like me, to purchase them. That will leave room for the vintage mountain bike crowd, as well as the BMX people, to step up to the plate, in reminiscence or their bicycle years.

Though I cannot appreciate the BMX, I have started keeping my eye open for higher end mounting bikes, from days gone bye. Found a couple that are sort of interesting and I think that they will soon have a following, similar to what we all have enjoyed in the vintage road bicycle scene. Perhaps they do already. Dunno, I am an old road bike kinda guy