Do you have a preference for one decade over the other? Why?

The 80s bikes speak to me, but the 70s stuff seems (to me, for reasons that remain unclear, and it's a bias I'd eagerly overcome) clunky.

Does the 70s stuff, frames especially, have advantages over the 80s stuff?

Also, would you see e.g. 1985 as a more significant watershed than 1980?

They're not really that different. Steel frames, generally all metal, no lighter or faster.

Quality bikes from the 80s are much more readily available in the US than 70s bikes.

Also the 80s was the peak of steel innovation.

Lastly 80s bikes have more uniform setups that don't require odd sizes.

70's for the nostalgia - my teenage heyday of touring, club racing, general riding everywhere and building up my own bikes - (trying to recapture lost youth?) Better still, 50's and 60's - because those bikes were old to me when I was still wet behind the ears and I learnt a lot from the more experienced guys who rode them. Just a personal view, hardly objective!

These where both great and bad time for bikes just wild. The 70's where marked by high points in handcrafted guality on the high end and some truely great budget buster bikes frome Japan. While the 80's seemed an era of a lot of failed tech advances as companies tried to compete and great advances when they succeded. There are some truely great high and even mid to entry level bikes that have yet to be matched and and some total dogs high and low. Personally I like a lot of the late 70' early 80's bikes they art of mass produsing basic quality bike had been perfected and the tech competion hadn't gotten ugly yet.

What he ^^^^^ said

I much prefer the aesthetics of the 70's bikes........it's always a treat to find a 70's bike of reasonable quality, with the bike boom stuff being so plentiful

The 1970s, particularly the early 1970s, was the middle of the bike boom, where manufacturers and bike shops could sell crap, and have waiting lists for the pleasure to own one.

By the 1980s, the boom was long gone, and manufacturers (and bike shop brands) had to deliver quality and value to survive. It was also the peak of Japanese manufacturing, before it shifted to Taiwan and later to China.

In addition, bike brands in the early 1970s often only made a couple of nice models, the rest was really basic. By the mid 1980s, this had totally switched to making a couple of basic models, and the rest were good. And some brands, think Trek and Cannondale, only made good bikes, and skipped the basic stuff entirely.

+1 70's bikes had better aesthetics and the ones of slightly better mid level road quality can be a treat to find one of the few bikes I have built that I have kept is 74 Juenet even with bad paint it looks better than most 80's bikes.

Yep, '83 is the year the thief got my Raleigh International.

i like:
- '70s paint schemes
- '80s brazes/bosses
- '80s 6-speed clusters (wider frames)

i don't like:
- late '80s paint schemes.

Eggzactly.

For me tru C&V bikes died when manufacuers tried to mate the accushift dr's with elipitcal chainrings on bikes made in Tawain circa 1988.

Seatpost water bottle bosses, top tube brazed on brake cable guides, head tube pump pegs and what he said. Components upgrade in the '80s too.

Still would like to build up a '70s looking rig someday even if it were off a newly made frame.....Still got to have those two water bottle bosses.

That's the worst part about early 70s bikes, no bottle bosses. I'm pretty sure I'm going to mount a rack, at least, carrying a backpack gets too constrictive after awhile.

Well there are the low moderate profile clamp on TA and SR bottle cages from the 70's.

My satisfaction starts to wear off when chrome disappeared and the 1980's paintjobs replaced it. Though, by that time, the features and steel tubing used even in mid-level bikes were quite good.

I had a late 1980's Schwinn World Sport with a rather subdued gray paintjob that kind of typifies the low-mid level stuff from that time period and it had pretty good components, butted chromoly steel, a set of water bottle bosses and threaded bosses on the fork and dropouts. I can see why this time period could be charming to some.

the thing I don't care for on most 80's frames is almost all of them have DT shifter braze-ons.

Indeed, the Miami Vice look infected everything! Disliked it then and it hasn't softened with age for me as much as say, disco has lol

OP, I used to feel the same way. I liked the 80s stuff because that's when braze-ons were becoming the norm and clip-on stuff like cable guides, gear levers and the like had pretty much gone the way of the dodo. But I took a closer look some years ago, and I had to admit I'd missed the boat. Below is a perfect example of how similar the stuff a decade apart actually is.

'73 Colnago Super:



'83 Colnago Mexico:



I've expanded my range to include late 60s to early 80s in my collection. Any earlier and the brakes seem clunky and less refined, any later and the paint jobs start to look realllllly tacky

DD

I've been a fanatic of 80's bikes. Owned quite a few. I think it's the Era of Perfecting the Steel Bicycle. Some of the greatest tubing sets were produced. Many of the refinements of this era carry over to today's bikes. I love through the tube cables, braze on bits, color schemes. Wheel refinements were a big plus, wheels are always in a state of refinement.

OS tubing, Columbus Nivachrome, Reynolds 853, True Temper platinum/OX, the US custom boom gaining traction, Ergo/STI - I'll take the 90s.


The main difference between the 70s and 80s for me are IC lugs and hand working vs. more mechanization. The touring bikes got a lot better in the 80s, otherwise I prefer GOOD 70s or 90s.

Like the clean, simple lines of the 70s bikes, but would definitely choose the 80's for performance-especially brakes.

To me, there seems to have been a change in frame geometries in the early/mid 80s where the handling got more responsive. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think is has something to do with fork rake and headtube angles. Many of the 70s bikes I've ridden have "slow" steering.

+1, only to be bested by an original finish 40's machine

70's for the beautiful high flange hubs and all of the clamped on chrome.

+!