TiHabanero

Will hit 60 this fall and have been thinking a lot about the future and who will clean up after I am gone. Have loads of bike stuff, and started clearing out the old vendor catalogs like QBP and VAR, and tech catalogs from Campy. Feels really good to simply toss it. Sure the Campy stuff is beautifully done, likely the nicest I have seen in the bike biz, but it can all be had online now at the touch of a button, which is what the youth is gravitating towards. The old ways are no more.

Out with the old and in with the new. Eventually all the vintage bikes will be headed for higher ground as well, and the stash of parts, too. Only keeping 3 of the vintage bikes, maybe only 2. Replacing them with my own frames and components mixed the way I like. Just feel that 60 is a big change year. Out with the old and in with the new.

bruce19

There are no big change years unless you label them big change years. FWIW, I offered a variety of parts to my cycling club for free. Not one response. Some of this stuff is really good gear. But, this is what happens when you deal with recreational cyclists. You're lucky if they ever heard of the TdF.

TiHabanero

Bruce19, I didn't feel this way at 40 or 50 or 55, but something has come over me this summer and I find that I just need to be freed from the past. I put index shifting on a road bike this summer. Never had index on a road bike before, and never more than 7 speeds on the rear. Just a weird year. Also thinking every day about retirement. I have worked 6 to 7 days a week all my life. Only taken 3 vacations in the past 40 years. Just want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. Won't retire for another 10 years or so, but maybe sooner? Again, it is a weird year.

Flip Flop Rider

with ya man. Thinking alike

delbiker1 

I am 67 and started to build up bikes and bike stuff only a couple of years ago. I now have 5 bikes and one frame. One of the 5 bikes I am going to strip the components to use on the frame, steel Fuji Ace that was given to me by a Forums member, CyclingFool. I really need to listen to, and obey the part of me that says "Stop! Enough is enough. I am going into my eighth school year of driving a bus. I have a route that is special needs, pre-K and 3 to 4 year old tots that go to a head start program. I like doing that, especially interacting with the students. However, I think a couple more years and I will retire. I surely do not need five bikes, but they are a way for me to challenge myself.

Wileyrat

I have a couple of bikes that realistically I'll never ride again, but I'm having a hard time parting with them.

Maybe by the time I turn 65, or we downsize...Whichever comes first.

Bigbus

I'm just a recreational rider and nearing 70 and you're absolutely right, it seems that no one is interested in used gear, People keep donating bikes and bike related stuff to me all the time because they see me riding all the time. I can't pass it up. I put rideable bikes together and donate them because I can't see the stuff just going into a dumpster.

nomadmax 

I'm 60 and I have a few more bikes on the list to obtain, ride and enjoy. I don't have any problem leaving loose ends

FiftySix

If you still have those old catalogs, and have the time, maybe put them up for sale on eBay?

A lot of vintage and not so vintage printed material goes for sale on eBay. I've bought old manuals that weren't converted to pdf files from eBay.

bruce19

I totally understand. Maybe you are making a shift in perspective about life. It happens to me in different ways. Sometimes I equate it to clearing out the past to make room for the present. Makes it easier for me to go forward without a ton of baggage. I like to think it's a sign of growth.

rustystrings61 

Please do NOT assume that all the catalogs and other paper and ephemera are already online. I work in a college library, where idiots in suits periodically hint that "someday we'll replace you all with a buncha servers." It's so much silicon snake oil. The amount of stuff that never makes it to the digital realm will shock and astound you, which doesn't even get into the issue of stuff that, having been digitized, simply disappears - not even like Orwell woulda called it, but because in the end without guardians information really doesn't matter all that much. I've seen enough irreplaceable babies go out with the figurative bathwater to strongly urge re-homing rather than dumping, please.

If you have old stuff, bikes, parts, catalogs, etc., before dumping it, cruise on over to the C&V forum and you'll find lots of us cats who will provide loving homes for a lot of it.

I turned 58 this week, so I can dig the whole need for change - but for me, there are enough changes in other aspects of my life that I am content to let my preferences in cycling equipment remain rooted in more than a century of received knowledge.

John E

For several years I have helped refurbish used bikes for an annual Christmas season charity benefit. The local Community Resource Center organizes one of the halls at the Del Mar Fairgrounds in the style of a big department store, and local needy families are invited to browse and "buy" the gifts they need or want, but everything is free. If your community has anything like this, it could be a good destination for some of your bikes and parts and an opportunity to donate materials and perhaps some of your time to a good cause.

frogbiscuit

Yeah I get the purge, I think we all have those life changing moments where we are faced with our own mortality.

I turned 58 this summer and have been telling people for many years that I want to peak at age 60.

Retro Grouch 

I just finished that process myself. Last winter I donated a load of bikes, parts and tools to the local co-op. I've got another smaller box ready to go again. Cut down to just the two Catrikes that Mrs. Grouch and I ride these days along with whatI think I'll need to maintain them. May have made some bad calls on the latter because I've still got a bunch of small wrenches and bike tools.

I gave up on selling my old bikes. It upsets me to haggle price with somebody over things I have a sentimental attachment to. I'd rather donate them to some charity so I can feel like they'll get used by somebody who needs or will love it.

TimothyH

Bike Recyclery might buy the old catalogs and parts.

HIGH END Used & Vintage Bike Shop! We stock Campagnolo XTR TA Suntour Parts NIB NOS


-Tim-

Thomas15

Same here also

Shamrock

65 and Retired.Btw If on the fence like I was about retirement just do it.Back to bikes I have tubes with holes that I have been saving to patch.They are between 3 and 6 years old.I have good tires from 4 bikes hanging around because Ichanged over to gator skins.My son will inherit all my bikes and stuff.He is the same size as me and rides.I have a 40 year old Schwin I bought new which he likes to ride at events.Guys with white hair come to him and say I had a bike like that a long time ago.My guess is a lot of stuff will go in the garbage.20 years from now the jerseys will have no meaning,winter riding gear will be obsolete,Saddle bags,back packs,helmets will all go to make room for the new and such is life.We can’t throw away and the young see no use.

Wildwood 

I'm still adding to the vintage collection.
Maybe at 70 the accumulation of nice old bikes won't be a priority,
or maybe I'll dump other things to make more room.

Current projects, in need of parts.
27.2 post, English BB for double crank, nutted sidepulls from a Euro manufacturer, Northroad bars, a only a few other bits.

TakingMyTime

I understand the notion of wanting to unclutter your life as you grow older (Been there, doing that). I often find myself taking stock of once prized items and trying to justify holding onto them. Then the question... If not to the trash bin, possibly to someone I know would derive great pleasure owning them? I've found that the dual process of getting rid of something unnecessary while helping someone else can be quite satisfying and fulfilling.

Unless it's a 50th anniversary Campagnolo groupset and it's something you know you're never going to use again, get rid of it. I mean, what are you going to do, start selling $3-$5 parts through C/L for the rest of your life?

ja1124

I save up my unneeded spares and when I travel to Atlanta, I donate them either to SOPO Bikes or to Bearings Bike Shop.

zacster

I went to a bike coop to volunteer, and they had so many boxes of old parts that it just seemed like my old stuff would be totally unnecessary. And this is like just about everything too, nobody wants your old stuff no matter what the hobby. The only exception appears to be vacuum tubes and records, but only if in good shape and desirable.

My sister's new boyfriend told me he had a basement with thousands of records that he was going to toss, so I figured I'd take a look. There were maybe 10 that were worth taking. Remember how uncool you thought your parents were? Well they were! They didn't listen to the jazz greats, or late 50s rock and roll. They listened to Montovani and Perry Como. Ugh.

sch

I was fortunate to find a few enthusiasts on BF about 5-7 yrs ago interested in my vintage debris. I sold it off for about what I paid
for it back in the '70s but apparently the buyers were happy. A look on ebay suggests I could have gotten "more" but the hastle
and overhead are significant. Still have a few bits of Campy stuff and a couple of wheels but 95% of it is gone. Hard to imagine 280g sewup rims for
$10 back then and sewup silk Clements for $10-14 but cars were $3000 or so then as well.

Nachoman

In the early 70s my dad bought a new Austro Daimler Vent Noir for about $1,500.00 and I still remember the neighbors calling him crazy for spending that much on a bike.

Wildwood 

I'm hoping it rides as nicely as it's similarly sized brother.
.....an old pic but....



Far fewer braze-ons on the Olympian

TiHabanero

I found a home for several magazines and brochures, and a few parts. One person told me to sell the Bridgestone catalogs as there is a call for them. Apparently the "head badge" catalog is very desired by collectors. Who knew? Anyway, I will find someone to list them on the bay for me and see what happens.