Hello from Eastern Europe
 

Hi everyone!
My name is Victor and I am from Moldova (sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine). Went to college in Wisconsin (where I got curious about vintage bikes once I acquired a vintage TREK ATB) then went to university in Sweden (where I got my first vintage road bike, a 1987 Peugeot Mont Blanc, which I still own). Lived in Belgium for a while and currently settled in in my home country of Moldova. At this point in time I got around 18 vintage bikes in my collection. Have been following Bikeforums for 10+ years, its where I got lots of valuable information about bikes (vintage bikes in particular) and I am very happy to finally join the community here not only as an observer. Looking forward to continue learning more about bikes, engage in discussions as well as sharing some of the projects that I will be working on.

Welcome Victor!

Welcome Victor, my former neighbor, a lovely 85 year old woman, was from Moldova, she was amazed I knew where it was (I spent my childhood in Europe :)).

Welcome.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...14b0d458e2.jpg

18 is a nice number.
I found about a dozen to be better.
But getting old here.

Thanks everyone!
Pax nice to hear, Illinois seems popular amongst Moldovans :)
Wildwood great looking bike! looks like my size as well. 18 is a bit too much to be honest, going through the list I think I can drop that number to 9. I got emotionally attached to some of the bikes, but in most cases would let go only when I find a good home for them (and the price/trade is right).

Welcome, from SE Wisconsin.
You have sure traveled a lot! It's funny to think that you were going to school nearby to me at some point, with us on different paths in life, and now years later we meet up here and discover our paths have nearly crossed.
Is Moldova disappointing in terms of bike infrastructure compared to Belgium? I've visited Belgium once and it is a bike commuting paradise.
One thing about the vintage bikes is that they are maybe not too attractive to thieves, who are looking at bikes that are worth a lot to resell and not needing any work. It's a smart angle you have chosen there. Where do you store them all?!

Thank you! I went to college in SW Wisconsin and I would not be surprised if transited your county at some point, or even had colleagues from where you are :) World is small after all.
Moldova as in many places around Eastern Europe (especially post-soviet Eastern Europe) is lagging behind in many areas and bicycle lanes have been inexistent until more or less recently. In my city (Chisinau - and it is the capital of the country), we have bicycle lanes on several large boulevards and a few streets in the city center only. However, you can also ride bicycles on bus lanes. I lived in Brussels in 2014 - 2015 and the city was also a bad example in terms of bicycle infrastructure compared to other cities in the region. It had some bicycle lanes on the main streets and shared lanes with public transport but not enough. Cities in neighboring Netherlands or even other cities/towns in Belgium had much better infrastructure than Brussels. But as far as I know Brussels also improved in the past few years.

welcome on board from France

Welcome, Victor

Welcome!