surreal

i agree that the bike is your bike, and you're free to do with it what you will. fine. I do some terrible things to old bikes, in the name of "b/c i felt like it."

But, i also feel that, in the case of hacking frames and suchlike, ppl should try to talk folks out of this sort of practice. In part, b/c it can't be undone, but there's more. Let's consider the case of the blue mixte from a thread earlier this week, which appeared again in this thread. That frame is dangerous! Someone might buy that, ride it, and get hurt. I've seen cutesy ppl convert roadbikes to fixed, and actually hack off the driveside seatstay (!) and non-drive side chainstay(!!), to "save weight." A frame put thru that treatment is, thankfully, usually unrideable, but to seriously modify a frame in an unsafe manner is irresponsible, to the owner, to future (foolish) owners, and to anyone else who might get caught up with this.

So, fine, repaint your ancient raleigh while raleigh enthusiasts weep for your frameset. Put a hollowtech II crankset on a bike from the 70s. Run some non-original components. You can even sport "bum-bars", like Graeme above. But, try to keep some safety in mind, and maybe think about resale value, as the Cat who started this thread mentioned. Please.

-rob

divineAndbright

The chopped up Peugeot mixte doesn't bother me, I\ll probably take some daggers for saying something like this, but if you ask me its just a gussied up boat anchor and there are still a million of them out there just like it.

I feel kinda "sinful" riding a nice old race bicycle with clipless pedals, so much that I don't want to ride the bike unless I find some vintage cycling shoes with slotted cleats.

20grit

I've got the derailleur hanger off. I need some opinions now though. I'm strapped for cash... do I just lock it in one gear on the freewheel or buy a cheap flip flop? I don't know what to do.

I got a little heavy with the grinder and got into the chrome on the seat stays. I think I'll rattle can it.

surreal

Re: the peugeot ex-mixte: It's not sinful as in, "oh my gawd, we'velost that treasure forever!" It's sinful as in "oh my gawd, my daughter bought this blue bicycle on craigslist and took it to college with her, and now she's permanently disfigured b/c the thing fell apart in traffic." There *is* a difference.

As for your pedals, you can get a pedal wrench for cheap, or depending on the pedals, you can even use a 15mm crescent wrench. Take em off, say 50 "our fathers", and repent. Or, just ride whatever pedals you like, knowing full well you can swap them in about 45 seconds.

-rob

mazdaspeed

I hacked the cantilever mounts off of my trek 520 frame in order to fit dual pivot brakes, I'm sure it made some people mad, however the person that bought the bike enjoys it

marley mission

tastes great...!
...less filling!

Roll-Monroe-Co

I've been all torqued up about this for years. But trying to or believing that you can exert control over other people is just a recipe for unhappiness. I don't think it's going to far to say that attachment to things is just a recipe for suffering. Let go and appreciate the beauty of what is. Maybe try to educate people, but don't imagine that the situation is amenable to control.

All of us and all of the bikes are destined for stardust anyway.

rootboy 

Put straight bars on a 60's Cinelli? No, that's not a sin. He hasn't permanently altered an historically important frame. All can be put back to original, if need be.

auchencrow

Don't be silly... 60 million years from now, a new crop of dinosaurs will be propping us up on bikes at the Museum of Natural History, and I for one want to be posed on a geared bike!

mickey85

I concur with those who say that it's a sin to cut up a high-end frame.

Otherwise, it's all good. IMO, it's not a sin unless you irreparably change the frame from what it originally was.

rhm

Legally? Yes, of course, I agree totally. So if that's how you feel about it, perhaps you should have a moderator change the title of your thread to "there are no crimes."

But in your original post you used the word sin, and specified the context of C&V. Sin is a knowing transgression of a religious, ethical, or moral law; not a law law, if you see what I mean. And since you specified C&V [bikes], we can substitute that for our religion; so knowingly defacing a significant bicycle is, to us, a sin. Not a crime; but a sin. The scrap metal man, whose obligations are to keep his truck registered and his child support payments up to date or whatever, all scrap metal is the same. If he comes across my hypothetical Wright Bros bike, and he can sell it to me for $100, that's much better than selling it to the recycling center for less than $1; but there's nothing sinful about the latter if it's the only option he has. Keeping the bike, and falling behind on his payments, that would be a crime; but there is no sin. For me, who understands and values the vintage bicycle, there would be something sinful about allowing him to scrap a significant bicycle.

sillygolem

I have a horrible, big gel saddle on my 3-speed that supports my clyde frame and absorbs the bumps on the dirt roads around here whereas the stock saddle would bruise my butt on any length of ride. This has an equally horrible 2000-ish Diamondback crank on it, too. Then again, few would argue that an early '70's Columbia is a "classic."

As far as the Corvette example, I have had nothing but trouble with 'vette owners when I worked on antique cars and I would like nothing more than to swap a Honda engine in one and take it to a show with VTEC badges all over it.

bikegeekmn

A freind of mine hadn't been on his bike for 20+ years, he was on a race team back in the day but ended up getting out of it. When I asked him what kind of bike he had he said Motobecane, Le Champion I was hot to see it. Origonally I had ambitions to trade for it, then, once I saw it, it was too big (drag!)for me to own.
I see a lot of the "sin" posts here but, I think the only sin would be for it to go back to get dustier. Talking with me about bikes got his juices flowing again so, it didn't take a lot of convincing for him to want to get on it again.
I told him what we should do to get it on the road again and he gave me a budget of $300. The first thing was get rid of the sew-ups, so I had wheels built with the Campy hubs (Mavic hoops butted spokes), got Kevar beaded dual compound tires, new bars, aero levers and, of course, new bar tape, cables, casings, chain and tubes. Where I ruffle the most C/V feathers is the fact I love carbon forks, they are light and above all they feel very precise. I recommended we get one for it and it fit in the budget so.....
Almost all the drive is unchanged (Novou Record) as is what I think is the centerpiece of it, the Brooks pro (the smallest amount of Neetsfoot oil is amazing)
It's sin for it to get dusty!

chadwebster

carbon forks on a vintage road bike, especially one of that caliber seems to defeat the purpose of riding vintage bikes to me. If you want lightness and "precision" (there is nothing imprecise about a 531 lugged fork btw) there are other new bikes for that. C and V bikes have a different feel then modern ones, and when you try to make c and v ride like modern, it begs the question why not sell that bike to someone who would appreciate it as is and buy one more suited to what you are looking for.

20grit

see, i've yet to understand how anyone is doing another a service by having a $100 minimum wheelset built for clincher to rid them of those 'awful' tubulars. You could have bought an insane saddle for that. Or a number of other parts.

gerv 

Hopefully with a Brooks under your bones.

DavidW56

It's not a sin. Bad taste maybe, but bad taste is not a sin. Property rights in this country are just about sacred.

gridplan

They just might.

mickey85

Sometimes, I don't know about that...

Kommisar89

I've found that if you can get a lock of their hair or some fingernail clippings and make a little doll it is more effective. Try sprinkling some chicken blood too ;-)

Kommisar89

Well said.

Kommisar89

You know these things are all relative. Since we're talking bicycles here and the general populace doesn't care much about bicycles, you can pretty well expect to be left along to do what you want with your bike. Doesn't mean it isn't a sin. On the other hand, if you had bought a house in an historic part of town you might find yourself seriously contrained by regulations governing the restoration of historical properties. I remember reading somewhere that the greatest destruction wrought on the treasures of antiquity were not by fires, storms, wars or barbarian invasions but rather by regular people in later centuries to whom the old treasures were just old buildings and old statues that could be torn down and their constituant parts used for new contruction. Interestingly, I was just reading a Wiki article on the "General Lee" of Dukes of Hazard fame and it stated that 256 separate Dodge Chargers were used, abused, and destroyed in the making of the TV show and that by the end of the series they were reusing old scenes of the General Lee jumping or filming the scenes with scale models because vintage Chargers had become too expensive and hard to find.

My attitude would be something like this: if you need to make reversable modifications to make the bike rideable then by all means do so. On the other hand, if your uncle gave you his 60's Cinelli and all you want is a hipster fixie, maybe your best approach would be to sell the Cinelli and buy a bike more suitable to your purposes.

Chombi

Ok, but the Charlie Brown style cycling clothes might be a sin too!.......

Chombi