Getting back into cycling after many years away. I was 16 on a 1970's schwinn paramount- 531, silver lugs, piano black, phil wood hubs and bottom bracket.... I sure do miss it.

Recently bought an Ozark trail ridge to upgrade for the trails and a 2000's litespeed arenberg ultegra for the road.
Now I'm addicted to finding old bikes on facebook that I couldn't afford back in the day.

Lefty Cannondale, Dahon Classic Folder, Giant Trance, and an Ariel Rider D-Class ebike for riding to work in the last few months.

Anyone else finding their storage filled with old stuff you don't need but simply enjoy finally owing?

OldDrafter,
Not sure if you are a technician or drafting while riding ......in any case it's great that you have joined us on Bike forums. I think that you will find many here that share your interests in bicycles. Many members have and had Paramounts, i am sorry that you sold it, but I am sure if you look long enough you may be able to find another......
All the Best, Ben

Than you Ben! I am a drafting instructor lol, but I do draft on the bike when I can. 🙂

Off topic but do you mean drafting as in architectural and engineering type drafting, pencil velum ?. Or have you migrated to AutoCad ?. I was in the technical theater business for near 50 years, was taught paper drafting in the late ‘70’s, then self instructed on a computer CAD program called Vectorworks. I loved using that program. Never learned AutoCad though our scenic construction folks used it. Retired now

And as BTW, stating you are from the “Appalachian Mountains” is kind of funny, could be from northern Alabama to Maine,

My students do not really know how to "draw/sketch" with confidence anymore, and find making perspective drawings by hand magical. I will still use a computer, BUT my go to for thinking is still either the fountain pen/pencil and yellow trace with Prisma colors. I don't like to think which key to use to make a straight or curved line.

Best, Ben

Hi OldDrafter,
Welcome to the forum. I hope you find another 70s Swinn Paramount.
Mid

Hey Steve, Yes mostly done surveying and mapping early on, started with drafting machines and vellum, and began CAD on an Apple IIe (I think it was RoboCAD), moving on to AutoCAD 11 and Microstation. Did some mapping with KDMS and Eagle Point , and these days I mostly do mechanical drawing using Autodesk Inventor and Onshape. I've never heard of Vectorworks but any CAD is like magic when moving from pencils and triangles. The increase in productivity is amazing, as I'm sure you've experienced. AI is our next big jump but I hope to watch most of it from the sidelines. I have 28 years in the classroom so getting close.
Yes the Appalachians are a large range! I don't know if anybody is quite as "hillbilly" as we are here in Southwest Virginia.

Vectorworks is a Euro company, it started as MiniCAD or something, got brought out and a name change. The popularity of it was it worked on a MAC, when AutoCAD did not. Thus got very popular in the theater and entertainment business where a lot of the scenic and lighting designers used Mac's. It also has terrific data interface with the spreadsheet/database software used to keep track of lighting equipment, power loads, etc... and can export the fixture info directly into the computers that control the stage lighting. AuotCAD was never interested in this market so really only gets used by the folks building the scenery.

That is an amazing collection! I had "technical" pens back in the day and a leroy lettering kit. I was never that great at table drafting, and came in just as autocad was taking over education. I'm afraid I would be lost with one of those in my hand!

I'll have to see what I can find about that- linking to spreadsheets early on must have been a huge for folks in that field. I think Autodesk "Microsoft'ed" the CAD industry. Even now most of their new stuff seems like externally developed programs that they bought out and put their name on. I do really like their Inventor program, though the home "makers" have mostly went to Fusion. I must say they have been really good at getting software for students. Kids today have insane power in their laptops if we can just get them to take advantage of it.

There's a very popular database/spreadsheet program used in the entertainment lighting business, called Lightwright. Created by a Broadway designer about 40 years ago in DOS, then ported to Mac. The creator works with Nemetschek, the VW owner, on the data transfer. It's really just a case of the CAD program giving a specific ID for high level drafting objects that are the symbols for the stage lights. Once that specific ID number is shared between programs, information about the object can be filled in, such as electrical load, instrument type, weight, control channel, etc..... Once some of the data is generated, the control channel info gets ported to the computer that actually manipulates the lighting and gets played back during the show. All this data transferring is a monumentally hugh time saver and was a game changing thing to learn in my later career.

Sounds really interesting, and impressive how someone just sits down and writes a program for something like that. Some of these folks on the planet with us are just ahead of the curve.