oddjob2

I just sold an early 1980's Moto Nomade to a teenager yesterday. He thought it was pretty cool looking to get a bike about twice his age. He and his friend looked all over the D, and thought I had the cleanest bike and best price.

Age really shows up when I'm pumping hard to keep up with kids on MTBs, even though I am on a Trek 560!

uncle uncle

Well, I want to thank old and new CV'ers alike. It sounds like there are some reoccurring themes: practicality, an appreciation of the old, wanting something you can work on. Keep the dialogue coming, I enjoy reading the stories. My story is one of being away from bicycling while I helped and watched my kids grow, and now, they have their own lives. So I came back to bicycling, still having my original bicycle in the garage. Since I'm not into anything competitive (and even if I was, I wouldn't go buy something new), I didn't see why I would need something different. I can sorta work on bicycles of this vintage, and I have a penchant for everything vintage (clothes, stereo equipment, words, tools, etc). Other than posting here, like I said earlier, I really don't have much connection to people who have an interest in C&V bicycles.

Ed.

Vintage clothes, like from Sallies? (Salvation Army for those not in the know)
Vintage Stereo- Carver, HK, NAD? - you got my number
Vintage words - hmmmm, Joseph Conrad, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky? OK, I'm there.
Vintage tools - Skil 100, Stanley Bed Rock? You rock!

uncle uncle

I wear vintage shirts to work (nearly every day). I like forties ties (do people even know what a tie is anymore?). I have a collection of Hawaiian shirts (I prefer the term "island shirts"). I prefer that my hand tools say something like "USA", or "Ohio" or "Rochester NY" somewhere on them, and I like them with a lot of patina. Vintage words like "bamboozle, haberdashery, and comeuppance". I own a reel-to-reel (I have a few of the tape boxes still hanging around here somewhere, just because I like the artwork).

auchencrow

- But then you probably would have been stuck with a 50's or 60's example.

Velognome 

Speak up boy....... can't hear a dang word your sayin'!

awfulwaffle 

40% of my bikes are older than I am <.< >.>

Chrome Molly 

Many of the bikes I now have were the ones I aspired to when I was younger and stronger, but poorer.

lasauge 

Ditto what many others have already said. I'm 27, got into cycling as a commuter, and the lower price of vintage (road) bikes was the immediate draw. As years have passed I've come to appreciate classic steel frames, timeless components that keep on working or can be fixed when they don't, and the style of older bikes. I especially like how many vintage bikes are closer to being practical vehicles than what has become popular in more recent times.

As far as the community goes, I do tend to be in the youngest age bracket at almost any cycling event I attend outside of those where families come with children. The few C&V oriented things I've been to haven't been too overwhelmingly grey, but the average age is definitely 40+.

And of course my thanks go out to the community here on bikeforums. It's especially enlightening when old timers share their experiences working in bike shops of decades past - the little ordinary details and info many of you share can't be found in the scans of old catalog or lists of component specs.

Thumpic

Somewhere in my love of older things I find comfort. There is peace and strength in well used and well maintained items. Tools, cars, bikes, reels, guitars, etc. My father and brothers started me on this path. Give me something old and in need, over new and shiny any day.

cyclotoine

I am 33. This is my 10th year on the forum.

Although Kurt seems to have moved on (you may be familiar with his websitehttps://www.theheadbadge.com/), he is a sponge for data and was on the forum for quite some time before he revealed he was 19 years old. This blew away many forum members. He must be in his mid 20s now, as that was years ago.

leicanthrope

I've noticed similar discussions in other collector circles that I run in, often accompanied by a bit of worry that the hobby (whatever it may be) is in danger of "dying off" with the current generation. I sincerely don't think that's the case. IMHO, it's just a matter of the priorities and circumstances of individuals. Many people when they're young may have the interest and the time, but seldom the money to pursue something like this. As they get older, kids, life, and careers get in the way. Then, later on once they're established in their careers and the kids aren't requiring quite so much attention, they're able to indulge their collections. There will always be the outliers, myself included. Decidedly in the middle age group of the three (39), but with no kids and not a lot of money to throw around. Usually I'm just in here drooling on the gems that are posted in here. The only way that I was able to obtain one of my grail bikes was good timing, dumb luck, and blurry Craigslist photographs.

As to why am into this in the first place... Partially, I just fundamentally get excited by older technology. It's not that I distrust the new, but I'm a historian (both by vocation and avocation), and I just plain love old stuff that I can fondle and play with. I wear a watch made during WWII, my favorite camera was made in 1939, among a lot of other little bits and pieces that bleed into my daily life and in a way my fashion sense. It's just part of who I am, and how I express that part of me. Lastly, on a very basic utilitarian level, I'm able to get a lot more bang for my buck - there's no way in hell I'd be able to afford professional grade gear that was made anytime recently. I'll take outdated excellence versus more technologically advanced Walmart crap any day of the week.

Lascauxcaveman 

I was only 20 when I acquired my 1972 Lambert, and the flame was lit...

Of course, at the time, my Lambert was only 9. I hope I have the longevity to own my latest acquisition (another early 70's bike) for another 33 years

ianpaschal

I'm 23 and I gravitated towards classic bicycles for a few reasons:

1. They're relatively inexpensive.
   You can snap up a nice vintage bike here in Amsterdam for less than €150 euros. Try doing that for a modern race bike, or a vintage car.
   
   
2. They're almost only steel.
   As a fixed cyclist and primarily urban cyclist, steel is my material of choice for flying along over bricks and cobble stones. Yes, they're heavier than a top-of-the-line aluminum or carbon bike, but I love the ride of steel.
   
   
3. I love lugs.
   The construction of the older bikes is just more beautiful. Lugs have a level of detail, or fit and finish, that no matter how cleanly done it is, a ripply little line of a weld won't have. Lugs look like art instead of industry.
   
   
4. The paint and decals are far more interesting to me.
   I work as a professional graphic designer so I love decals and such. Also recreating the old ones. There are some cool paint schemes on newer bikes, but they lack the often kind of crappy character that the 1970s had. The horrible combinations of pink and orange and stripes and checkers all mashed together that you seen on vintage bikes are like visual spice. They burn my eyes the way spicy food burns my mouth but mmmmm... I always want more.

rootboy 

All my bikes were born after I was, so they can't be that old. Right?

Michael Angelo 

Kurt is my neighbor, he lives a block away. Still has a few really nice roadbikes. But, he has fallen head first into the Ford Mustang world. Poor guy has been rebuilding a 70's mustang fastback for a while now.....

oddjob2

Even all four of my vehicles are over 10 years old, from 1996-2003, though three have less than 65k miles each on them.

dvsjes28

I am turning 28 on Tuesday. It all started when I saw the 1982 Trek 613 on Craigslist while browsing around. Before that I never really gave much attention to C&V. I decided to make the guy a sort of lowball offer VIA email, Exchanged a few text. He kindly declined my offer which was fine. A few weeks later I get a text asking if I was still interested so I went and picked it up. The C&V has been collecting a bit of dust though since I picked up my All-City Macho Man Disc.

Prowler 

Lemme guess: Black R75/5 toaster cafe racer. Clip-ons, bump seat, no battery covers, bobbed fenders, all the useless frame clips ground off. Humm? Very cool.

Ed.

Vincent Black Lightning, 1952...

cobrabyte

I'm 33; been into vintage bikes for 8 or so years now...though my interest has moved away from collecting to more riding and I have added some modern to my stable I will always keep a few vintage bikes. I've got all the tools and knowledge I need at this point to keep them going for as long as I keep going, and that's a good feeling.

photogravity

I'm not a half-century old. I have old bikes. Most of my bikes are older than me. I was not interested in bikes until recently, so stuff that would have been available when I was younger isn't really of much interest to me. Frankly, if it isn't English, doesn't have an IGH, and wasn't made before the mid-60's it is of limited interest to me. There are are some exceptions to this rule (my Alpine, Davidson, Bilenky are good examples of exceptions), but all you need to do is look around in my collection to see that the bulk of my machines from the late-1940's through the mid-1960's.

Chr0m0ly 

I wish I was that cool, its a Ninja 650r, an 06.

The Golden Boy 

I'm 24. I've been 24 for almost 21 years, so I'm really good at it.

I started riding relatively recently- and I started on what I had available to me, my old 1987 mountain bike and my sister's 1984 road bike.

As I started realizing that I really liked riding, and bikes- I gravitated towards touring bikes. The apex of touring bikes was 1985- so that's my area of interest.

I didn't lust after bikes when I was 16, and there was no connection to 1985 and vintageness or anything other than that the touring bikes of 1984 and 1985 are the high water mark for production touring bikes. If that happened to be 1999 or 2006 or whenever, then I'd probably gravitate towards those years.

Where it does get goofy is what defines "graceful" and "aesthetically pleasing." To me, level top tubes, gracile tube diameters and "classicness" are what look good to me, not oversized tubes or carbon arches or whatever- that could be an age thing, or that could be a 'following technology' thing.

I don't ride with anyone- so I don't have any sort of finger on who's into what.

However, this past weekend I spent some time in St. Paul MN and drove through Madison WI. I saw an awful lot of non-aero brake cables arcing over the bars. Whether that's out of intention or if that's just what was available to that person...

I like knowing about my stuff. What I'm riding, what I'm driving, the computer I'm using... what I like doesn't necessarily have to make sense- but I kind of know a bit about it. I saw a guy on a beautiful 1986/7 Trek 400 Elance (I couldn't see the head tube). I said it was a nice bike- asked if it was an 86 or 87- and he looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. Some people just ride their bikes and their bikes are just "their bikes" and not a "1986 Trek 620 Cirrus that happens to be a leftover 1985 620 frame and not mentioned in the catalog..."

rootboy 

Good to see so many members in their 20's and 30's here. I had assumed we were all older farts.