What is "old School"?
10-09-17 | 09:22 AM
#51
Senior Member
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 512
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From: MA
Bikes: 2015 Niner RLT9, 1987 Atala
Old school?
It’s a phrase some young people use to flatter some old people.
It’s one part authenticity, one part not-broke-so-why-fix. But rare because it goes against modern thinking/wisdom.
Don’t ever call yourself “old school”. It’s not a self-designator.
It’s a phrase some young people use to flatter some old people.
It’s one part authenticity, one part not-broke-so-why-fix. But rare because it goes against modern thinking/wisdom.
Don’t ever call yourself “old school”. It’s not a self-designator.
10-09-17 | 09:29 AM
#52
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 9,176
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From: Minas Ithil
Most of my road bikes are 80's vintage. My only modern bike gets ridden the least.
I just ordered a brand new MTB. I rejected the 27.5, 29er single ring fads and bought a 26. And no I will not be pouring sealant inside the tires. If it had v-brakes I would have been good with it as well. A similarly speced 27.5 or 29er would have probably cost at least $1000 more.
I just ordered a brand new MTB. I rejected the 27.5, 29er single ring fads and bought a 26. And no I will not be pouring sealant inside the tires. If it had v-brakes I would have been good with it as well. A similarly speced 27.5 or 29er would have probably cost at least $1000 more.
10-09-17 | 09:32 AM
#53
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Joined: Sep 2015
Posts: 5,126
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From: Left Coast, Canada
...old school biking for me and those I grew up with was both utilitarian and recreational. Our bikes gave us the freedom to go where we wanted to and to visit friends and make new ones all over town. We didn't keep track of miles, didn't wear Lycra, and dam sure didn't debate the best chain lube, and say "on your left"
3 in 1 oil was good enough if we ever oiled at all. Saddle uncomfortable? Stand up and ride or coast
when we weren't traveling on the bikes we were jumping things with them or riding through things. Sometimes home made ramps, but other times potholes, logs, riding in the snow just for the heck of it
Seeing who could ride a wheelie the farthest. This was important and if you were a contender it upped your respect level in the neighborhood immensely. If you couldn't do it, you were JV all the way
riding with no hands for as far as you could
Playing bike chicken to see who had the most nerve
walking the bikes to the top of a hill and racing down
and one last thing that was the ultimate in old school biking that you don't see today. Skid marks! Purposely skidding until your tires were bald and popped
looking back it was almost like a bike Olympics, a constant competition, and for the most part, the bikes held up fine
those things are old school to me and gone too cause I don't think kids today use their bikes like we used to
3 in 1 oil was good enough if we ever oiled at all. Saddle uncomfortable? Stand up and ride or coast
when we weren't traveling on the bikes we were jumping things with them or riding through things. Sometimes home made ramps, but other times potholes, logs, riding in the snow just for the heck of it
Seeing who could ride a wheelie the farthest. This was important and if you were a contender it upped your respect level in the neighborhood immensely. If you couldn't do it, you were JV all the way
riding with no hands for as far as you could
Playing bike chicken to see who had the most nerve
walking the bikes to the top of a hill and racing down
and one last thing that was the ultimate in old school biking that you don't see today. Skid marks! Purposely skidding until your tires were bald and popped
looking back it was almost like a bike Olympics, a constant competition, and for the most part, the bikes held up fine
those things are old school to me and gone too cause I don't think kids today use their bikes like we used to
About the time Death Race 2000 came out (the one with David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone) we decided to hold our own "Death Race" in the field next door. With 2x4's we created a circle track and rode around and around knocking each other off until there was only one. Then we would fix our bikes and do it again. We wore hockey pads. When it got a little rough for my younger brother the adults didn't make us stop. They just told him to play in the house.
Last edited by Happy Feet; 10-09-17 at 09:48 AM.
10-09-17 | 10:06 AM
#55
Calamari Marionette Ph.D
Joined: Dec 2013
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From: Coeur d' Alene
Bikes: 3 Chinese Gas Pipe Nerdcycles and 2 Chicago Electroforged Boat Anchors
I also believe that some people see Old School as anything before certain land mark changes in the bike industry. Like derailleurs, caliper brakes, aluminum frames, CF frames, BMX, MTBs, disc brakes, brifters, electronic shifting, etc. Which is interesting because that makes Old School a moving target, forever. Maybe because of that, there are many stages of Old School. Dunno.
My childhood friends and I rode old Schwinns with coaster brakes and motorcycle handlebars down California mountains a few years before Fisher, Ritchey, and Kelly did it. I don't know if that makes me Old School, but it does make me old.
Last edited by SquidPuppet; 10-09-17 at 10:13 AM.
10-09-17 | 10:22 AM
#56
Banned
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From: Lincoln Ne
Bikes: RANS Stratus TerraTrike Tour II
Me? Down tube shifters on all my geared bikes. The rest are fix gears. One of the fix gears is a custom road bike, modern ti but designed around a long road dropout so flipping the wheel is easy and fast, like it would be on a bike designed to road race as a fix gear. So it is what we might have raced in the '80s had gears and freewheels never been invented. (And it rides like a true racing bike.) My 1979 Peter Mooney is now also set up fix gear with a setup that probably was never done 100 years ago but could have been. 3 chain rings. A double cog on one side of the hub and a small single on the other. Each cog lines up with its respective chainring so I have 3 very different gears. (46-13, 44-17 and 38-21 for example.) So the routine for shifting is a little different from flipping the wheel, but I think stopping and pulling out a wrench to change gears qualifies as old school even if the details are a little different.
I'm riding clinchers now but rode sewups to '95 on the Mooney and 2000 on the fix gear. I may well go back for my good bikes (the security after high speed flats being a pretty convincing argument). All but one bike has quill stems. (And that bike will get one when the current threadless HS dies.)
I don't do this just to be "classic". My second custom has the rear brake flipped to in front of the seatstays because I always think it looks better. I have started using V-brake levers with first dual pivots, then the old Mooney's cantilevers because I find the braking better/more predictable/less exciting. (And my hands love the huge hoods which look a little prehistoric.) I ride titanium because it feels to me like a "better steel". I think I have a carbon part on one of my bikes, but I forget what. (Spacer? Bar plug?)
Oh, I learned to race reading the CONI manual and from the teachings of John Allis, the father and mentor of modern racing in New England. I still follow some of his rules. (Never got his teachings first hand, that went to the members of the Raleigh team but I raced against him and was coached on his "rules" by club vets. I always felt I was a lucky beneficiary, not just for what I learned but also that everyone in our district learned the same rules. Made close quarters racing very safe.)
Ben
I'm riding clinchers now but rode sewups to '95 on the Mooney and 2000 on the fix gear. I may well go back for my good bikes (the security after high speed flats being a pretty convincing argument). All but one bike has quill stems. (And that bike will get one when the current threadless HS dies.)
I don't do this just to be "classic". My second custom has the rear brake flipped to in front of the seatstays because I always think it looks better. I have started using V-brake levers with first dual pivots, then the old Mooney's cantilevers because I find the braking better/more predictable/less exciting. (And my hands love the huge hoods which look a little prehistoric.) I ride titanium because it feels to me like a "better steel". I think I have a carbon part on one of my bikes, but I forget what. (Spacer? Bar plug?)
Oh, I learned to race reading the CONI manual and from the teachings of John Allis, the father and mentor of modern racing in New England. I still follow some of his rules. (Never got his teachings first hand, that went to the members of the Raleigh team but I raced against him and was coached on his "rules" by club vets. I always felt I was a lucky beneficiary, not just for what I learned but also that everyone in our district learned the same rules. Made close quarters racing very safe.)
Ben
10-09-17 | 11:01 AM
#58
Calamari Marionette Ph.D
Joined: Dec 2013
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From: Coeur d' Alene
Bikes: 3 Chinese Gas Pipe Nerdcycles and 2 Chicago Electroforged Boat Anchors
Seeing who could ride a wheelie the farthest. This was important and if you were a contender it upped your respect level in the neighborhood immensely. If you couldn't do it, you were JV all the way
riding with no hands for as far as you could
Playing bike chicken to see who had the most nerve
walking the bikes to the top of a hill and racing down
and one last thing that was the ultimate in old school biking that you don't see today. Skid marks! Purposely skidding until your tires were bald and popped
looking back it was almost like a bike Olympics, a constant competition, and for the most part, the bikes held up fine
those things are old school to me and gone too cause I don't think kids today use their bikes like we used to
Like you, as children, jumping distance and wheelie distance where badges of honor for us, and definitely served as components for a "Ranking System" in my neighborhood. Riding one handed or no handed wheelies placed you at Alpha Level. All your status and respect were based on your bike skills. Like a gang, but not in a mean spirited way. Just an immature juvenile delinquent kinda way.
Where I grew up life was not about baseball, or football, or basketball, or books, or musical instruments. Sure, everybody had little side hobbies that they enjoyed once in a while, but the world revolved around our BIKES and our relationships with those bikes. No bike went without heavy modification. Everything was a competition. EVERYTHING. We modified existing games (Kick the can) to include our bikes or we invented games. In the summer we played bicycle wet newspaper tag, at night, shirtless. The "court" was the length of the cul-de-sac. The newspaper was rolled tightly, wrapped with dozens of rubber bands, and soaked in a bucket of water just prior to the game. We'd play for one hour. Victory went to the man with the fewest welts.
Sigh.... I need a time machine.
10-09-17 | 11:13 AM
#59
Calamari Marionette Ph.D
Joined: Dec 2013
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From: Coeur d' Alene
Bikes: 3 Chinese Gas Pipe Nerdcycles and 2 Chicago Electroforged Boat Anchors
OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!
A few days ago I saw a ~3 year old boy having a crying fit at the barber shop. His mother handed him a smart phone, which he knew how to use, and he instantly stopped crying. I started crying on the inside, for multiple reasons.
A few days ago I saw a ~3 year old boy having a crying fit at the barber shop. His mother handed him a smart phone, which he knew how to use, and he instantly stopped crying. I started crying on the inside, for multiple reasons.
10-09-17 | 11:40 AM
#60
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 14,192
Likes: 5,328
From: Portland, OR
Bikes: (2) ti TiCycles, 2007 w/ triple and 2011 fixed, 1979 Peter Mooney, ~1983 Trek 420 now fixed and ~1973 Raleigh Carlton Competition gravel grinder
I forgot in my post (#30) that I still use toeclips on half my bikes. But it is neither to be "old school" nor to have street shoe friendly pedals. It is all about saving my butt. There is one crash I have never done and I hope to expire from other causes before it happens. Pulling one foot off the pedal going downhill on one of my fix gears at 35 mph and 175 RPM. (42 X 17, my usual gear.)
I have uncleated a few times at high speeds with traditional slotted cleats, toeclips and straps. But (the huge "but") my foot always stayed on the pedal! Never got that high speed whack on my ankle that would be yet another lifetime injury/sore spot. (Road riding fix gears means weirdly enough that us old guys can hit RPMs the best pro track sprinters, the cheetahs of the bike world, can never achieve.)
Ben
I have uncleated a few times at high speeds with traditional slotted cleats, toeclips and straps. But (the huge "but") my foot always stayed on the pedal! Never got that high speed whack on my ankle that would be yet another lifetime injury/sore spot. (Road riding fix gears means weirdly enough that us old guys can hit RPMs the best pro track sprinters, the cheetahs of the bike world, can never achieve.)
Ben
10-09-17 | 12:01 PM
#61
Senior Member
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 14,192
Likes: 5,328
From: Portland, OR
Bikes: (2) ti TiCycles, 2007 w/ triple and 2011 fixed, 1979 Peter Mooney, ~1983 Trek 420 now fixed and ~1973 Raleigh Carlton Competition gravel grinder
My two sons still have their down tube shifter bikes. IMO they are of the cleanest appearing bikes ever built with multi gears. Also the down tube shifters except for the turn around on the RD dont have to have cable guide tubing that causes wear, and causes the need for adjustment more often.
Yes, DT shifters, clean levers and just one set of housings coming off the bars. Another plus of the old bikes that no one takes advantage of; frames for rear brakes without recessed bolts - you can turn the rear brake around. Now the adjust is to the drive side, just like the front brake. Makes working on the bike easier since now all the brake and derailleur adjusts are to the same side, no more walking around the stand to do the rear brake. Also the bike looks cleaner. And if you have a top center housing run, the lead is just as fair and shorter/cleaner looking, showing the seat cluster off better. (I've always like the really clean look of track bikes. Sadly, doing this "flip" with road fix gears doesn't work so well; the farther forward the brake pads are, the more the rim height changes as you slide the wheel to accommodate cog changes. I can just barely get by with no pad adjustment on my fix gear using any cog, 12 to 24 using a deep Velocity Aero rim. I like!)
Ben
10-09-17 | 12:07 PM
#62
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Joined: Feb 2005
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From: Thornton, CO
Bikes: 2003 Orbea Orca, 2003 Bianchi Imola, ? Waterford
I forgot in my post (#30) that I still use toeclips on half my bikes. But it is neither to be "old school" nor to have street shoe friendly pedals. It is all about saving my butt. There is one crash I have never done and I hope to expire from other causes before it happens. Pulling one foot off the pedal going downhill on one of my fix gears at 35 mph and 175 RPM. (42 X 17, my usual gear.)
I have uncleated a few times at high speeds with traditional slotted cleats, toeclips and straps. But (the huge "but") my foot always stayed on the pedal! Never got that high speed whack on my ankle that would be yet another lifetime injury/sore spot. (Road riding fix gears means weirdly enough that us old guys can hit RPMs the best pro track sprinters, the cheetahs of the bike world, can never achieve.)
Ben
I have uncleated a few times at high speeds with traditional slotted cleats, toeclips and straps. But (the huge "but") my foot always stayed on the pedal! Never got that high speed whack on my ankle that would be yet another lifetime injury/sore spot. (Road riding fix gears means weirdly enough that us old guys can hit RPMs the best pro track sprinters, the cheetahs of the bike world, can never achieve.)
Ben
10-09-17 | 12:47 PM
#65
Been Around Awhile
Joined: Oct 2004
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From: Burlington Iowa
Bikes: Vaterland and Ragazzi
Better than the old school pacifier of children throwing a fit in public - candy. The old school method used when there are no onlookers was less PC.
10-09-17 | 12:58 PM
#66
Calamari Marionette Ph.D
Joined: Dec 2013
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From: Coeur d' Alene
Bikes: 3 Chinese Gas Pipe Nerdcycles and 2 Chicago Electroforged Boat Anchors
10-09-17 | 05:02 PM
#67
Advocatus Diaboli
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 9,157
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From: Wherever I am
Bikes: Merlin Cyrene, Nashbar steel CX
10-09-17 | 05:17 PM
#69
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Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 308
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From: Vermont
Bikes: Trek Domane SL5, Raleigh Venture 4.0, Ross Gran Tour II
10-09-17 | 05:26 PM
#70
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Joined: Aug 2017
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From: Vermont
Bikes: Trek Domane SL5, Raleigh Venture 4.0, Ross Gran Tour II
old school (skool) to me merely means old.
this is the way we use to do it, and we're making it work now. It's not a knock, because I'm 55 now.
who among us doesn't look back on the styles we grew up with (bikes, clothes, music, hobbies, TV shows, etc.) fondly and proudly proclaim those things as "old school"
someone said it, and I agree 1000 percent (is that possible), old school is a state of mind. Looking back and appreciating the harder and sometimes more difficult times we went through to get to the here and now
old school biking for me and those I grew up with was both utilitarian and recreational. Our bikes gave us the freedom to go where we wanted to and to visit friends and make new ones all over town. We didn't keep track of miles, didn't wear Lycra, and dam sure didn't debate the best chain lube, and say "on your left"
3 in 1 oil was good enough if we ever oiled at all. Saddle uncomfortable? Stand up and ride or coast
when we weren't traveling on the bikes we were jumping things with them or riding through things. Sometimes home made ramps, but other times potholes, logs, riding in the snow just for the heck of it
Seeing who could ride a wheelie the farthest. This was important and if you were a contender it upped your respect level in the neighborhood immensely. If you couldn't do it, you were JV all the way
riding with no hands for as far as you could
Playing bike chicken to see who had the most nerve
walking the bikes to the top of a hill and racing down
and one last thing that was the ultimate in old school biking that you don't see today. Skid marks! Purposely skidding until your tires were bald and popped
looking back it was almost like a bike Olympics, a constant competition, and for the most part, the bikes held up fine
those things are old school to me and gone too cause I don't think kids today use their bikes like we used to
this is the way we use to do it, and we're making it work now. It's not a knock, because I'm 55 now.
who among us doesn't look back on the styles we grew up with (bikes, clothes, music, hobbies, TV shows, etc.) fondly and proudly proclaim those things as "old school"
someone said it, and I agree 1000 percent (is that possible
), old school is a state of mind. Looking back and appreciating the harder and sometimes more difficult times we went through to get to the here and nowold school biking for me and those I grew up with was both utilitarian and recreational. Our bikes gave us the freedom to go where we wanted to and to visit friends and make new ones all over town. We didn't keep track of miles, didn't wear Lycra, and dam sure didn't debate the best chain lube, and say "on your left"
3 in 1 oil was good enough if we ever oiled at all. Saddle uncomfortable? Stand up and ride or coast
when we weren't traveling on the bikes we were jumping things with them or riding through things. Sometimes home made ramps, but other times potholes, logs, riding in the snow just for the heck of it
Seeing who could ride a wheelie the farthest. This was important and if you were a contender it upped your respect level in the neighborhood immensely. If you couldn't do it, you were JV all the way
riding with no hands for as far as you could
Playing bike chicken to see who had the most nerve
walking the bikes to the top of a hill and racing down
and one last thing that was the ultimate in old school biking that you don't see today. Skid marks! Purposely skidding until your tires were bald and popped
looking back it was almost like a bike Olympics, a constant competition, and for the most part, the bikes held up fine
those things are old school to me and gone too cause I don't think kids today use their bikes like we used to
(do I get a donut?)
10-09-17 | 05:51 PM
#73
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 1,616
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From: North East Tennessee
Bikes: Basso Luguna, Fuji Nevada
New to adult cycling about 3 years ago, so I've not been around to see the evolution. For someone new and looking at bikes I'd say road bikes prior to STI's, MTB before suspension and both in the alternative frame designs before the UCI's double diamond rule.
BMX, old school is stuff prior to 1986 (when I bought my last BMX bike).
BMX, old school is stuff prior to 1986 (when I bought my last BMX bike).
10-09-17 | 05:55 PM
#74
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2015
Posts: 1,616
Likes: 4
From: North East Tennessee
Bikes: Basso Luguna, Fuji Nevada
I just ordered a brand new MTB. I rejected the 27.5, 29er single ring fads and bought a 26. And no I will not be pouring sealant inside the tires. If it had v-brakes I would have been good with it as well. A similarly speced 27.5 or 29er would have probably cost at least $1000 more.
10-09-17 | 06:43 PM
#75
Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 9,176
Likes: 654
From: Minas Ithil
Mine is a 10 speed SLX/Deore setup with a Rock Shox XC28 w/ remote lockout. I had a 10% discount code for Random Bike Parts and got it for only $389. I'm already looking at some high end tapered forks on ebay to chop a couple of more pounds off it. Good thing about 26's is that parts are cheaper since nobody wants them. If I get another discount code from them I may get a second bike and just keep it stored in the box for years to come.