dwgwater

I've gotten back to riding my old Holdsworth that I've had since high school, (1975). I used to ride a lot.
https://www.bikeforums.net/19791078-post71.html
It's a nice C&V that needs some work, but now that I'm 60, needing to lose 25-50 pounds and less nimble, I'm realizing that it's probably not the best bike for me. The reach is long and getting to the downtube shifters is an adventure. I've probably lost an inch or two, so its slightly too big for me now.
I bought a K2 Cheyenne (Zed 1 clone) hardtail MTB to ride with the kids on Cub Scout "bike hikes" 10 years ago or so. It's OK but I don't really like the weight or cheap suspension fork. Riding it gets me back to the Holdsworth pretty quickly.
So what kind of new bike replacement?? I mostly ride with my wife on bike paths, not in a hurry but trying to keep a good pace. No major health issues (knock wood) besides needing to lose weight. The bike shops seem inclined to steer me toward hybrids, like the Trek FX or Cannondale Quick. I still like riding my old road bike, just not the flat back position, so I'm been reading about the Domane AL series, or entry level Allez or Giant Contend, which are described as a more relaxed riding position.
Anyone care to share their experiences? Are they hybrid too relaxed? Am I kidding myself that I can keep riding a drop bar road bike? I'm a bit attached to the old 'Worthy. Should I be sentimental: get a shorter stem and barcons and keep riding it? A new bike every 45 years or so doesn't seem excessive.
Dave

jlaw

Welcome back to the world of bikes!

Since you already have a decent road bike you should consider updating it to fit your current abilities, if possible. A few photos of the bike would help with an assessment of what could be done. You might be able to save some $ by updating vs. buying new - depends upon what's needed.

If you're Holdsworth simply isn't going to work, then Craigslist is a possibility - lots of good bikes for reasonable prices - but that's premature - post some pics.`

If you haven't posted pics before just make sure you shrink them down to small before trying to upload or it won't work well.

Duo

keep the old bike and mod it as needed. great for memories, wish i had my old nishiki international from 74.

n+1, sure. easy to do maintenance and always having a bike. i like having a variety of bicycles, and buy used occasionally. the old thousand dollar bikes go for pennies comparatively and can be fun keeping them running. any year or model is fine if it fits, even the newer ones.

kevincgove

My $0.02. Hold onto the bike only if you can get it to be comfortable, safe and enjoyable. From your description, it sounds like there will be some work/money to get your Holdsworth and your body to be comfortable. About 4 years ago, I decided to fix up my 30 year old bike rather than buy new. My riding sounds different than yours so keeping, upgrading and refitting my sentimental bike made more sense to me than a new bike. The biggest lesson I've learned is fit matters as much as the amount of time I need to dedicate to stretching and strengthening. The 30+ year old bike is fine but my 54 year old body needs some work.

pdlamb

IIRC, you'd want to make a couple changes to ride the Holdsworth. First, get a shorter (and perhaps taller) stem, and second, switch to either bar-ends or brifters. All together that's probably $200-$500 for decent parts, which would be a nice down payment on a new bike.

If you tell a bike shop employee you want to ride with your wife on local paths, they'll steer you to a hybrid. If you tell them your riding is a 50/50 mix of country road rides and riding with her, they may try to sell you two bikes, one for each.

You might be able to find something in a touring, 'cross, gravel, or "all-roads" bike that would give you:
- More relaxed / erect riding position (than flat back)
- Drop bars
- Shifters you can reach easily
- Lighter weight than the MTB
- Lower rolling resistance than the MTB

Beware, young kids in a bike shop always seem to chop the fork down as far as possible as soon as possible. You're likely going to want an uncut stem (at least to start with) with spacers so you can adjust the bar height as you get back into riding.

A good LBS would listen to you and offer you a chance to ride several from these closely related categories. Choose the one that feels best, buy it, and ride it lots!

CliffordK

One can change drop bars to Moustache bars, or change downtube shifters to bar end shifters, or even "brifters".

Slightly shorter stem?

One thing to keep in mind, if you are serious about resuming riding, and fitness, then the more you ride the bike, the better it will be. So, your back muscles will get stronger. Hopefully you'll lose a couple of pounds. You'll get used to reaching for those shifters once again, etc.

Wildwood 

Absolutely no guilt buying new, support the industry and the world economy.
However, if you can manage the Holdsworth frame size, few upgrades are needed.
Get fatter tires, new brake pads, shorter/taller stem - those things you can do easily.
You can reach downtube shifters, but barends and brifters make it easier and aren't much work at a shop that serves used bike customers.

There's also no sin in an old road bike upgraded AND a new bike. Having a back-up bike or fendered rainy day bike or errand runner with racks or hardcore gravel traveler - never hurt anyone.

Life is good.
Ride on!

edit: seeing your Holdsworth, you know it's a keeper. Stem + bar swap. As others stated stems can be tall; new handlebars also come in 'short and shallow' to stay with drop bars.

dwgwater

Thanks for the great feedback all! There's a couple pictures of the old Holdsworth in this link https://www.bikeforums.net/19791078-post71.html The actual thread has more info about purchasing the bike in 1974. It's not going anywhere. It will burden my heirs along with all my other obsolete technology that's not worth selling and too cool to get rid of: wood XC skis, tube audio gear and an MG Midget, etc. etc. etc.
That said, the appeal of new bike is that it's turnkey: Air in the tires and go. I tell myself I will ride it more. In theory the Holdsworth could be too, with (as pdlamb notes), an infusion of cash, but even back in the day it was more a skittish thoroughbred rather than a daily driver (to badly mix my metaphors). A nice, and fast, ride but not really an easy one. I haven't gone to ride a new bike, mostly because I'm afraid I'll like it. I think I should try one out.

Cougrrcj

Hey now, I'm 60+ as well, and still ride my old Fuji that I bought in '76! No, I don't spend a lot of time in the drops these days unless I'm going into a strong headwind, and generally ride with my palms on the 'shoulders' as the top of the bars start to bend forward. My shifters are still the same SunTour barcons I added to the bike shortly after I bought it because even back then, I didn't like reaching down for downtube shifters....

All of my road bikes are fitted out the same way. That is, with barcons and I ride on the shoulders of the drop bars. Only a short reach to either the brakes or shifters.




Then again. where I ride is generally flat, so that helps some as well....

jlaw

If you decide that you don't want the hassle of upgrading your Holdsworth with uncertain results - or going the Craigslist route - there are many good possibilities for a new bike with a more upright riding position, good brakes (mechanical disc), large tires (35mm+), useful gear range low/high with brifter actuation, fenders/racks or the provision for them (usefulness and flexibility), etc.

This is the type of bike that can be used for everything from riding the bike path with your wife, running errands, group rides, gravel or road riding....a wide variety and a bike that is not only for recreation.

The more affordable of these bikes will have aluminum frame/fork - possibly steel - with solid, reliable components like Shimano Sora 9 speed. As you step up the line in a particular model (Kona Rove for example) you will get a carbon fork, then a carbon fork/frame with more expensive (not necessarily 'better') components.

These bikes start at around $1100 +-.

As others have mentioned fit is critical - you have to be able to ride the bike before purchase and get fit advice from the bike shop. If you're not comfortable you won't ride. You might be able to get a bike without the fork steerer already cut down. If not, there are ways to raise the bars after the fact, but this is less desirable than having a proper-length steerer.

Here are some:

Kona Rove DL $1099



Breezer Doppler Pro - $1299




Breezer Radar Expert - $1069



Jamis Renegade Exile - $899

jlaw

If your local bike shop does not carry the brands I mentioned above, then the big 3 - Trek, Giant, and Specialized - make similar products/similarly priced as part of their all road/x road/gravel bike categories. Check out their websites.

tigat

OP: When my wife and I decided to start riding again after a long (25 year) period of raising kids, I fear it would not have happened had we stuck with our much loved, 1970s classics. The new stuff, from frames to group sets to wheels to relaxed geometry, is just that much more user friendly. It makes you want to ride more and more often. In my case, I went from 5 rides a year to as much as 10k miles/yr. Now, when I break out the Atala for a trip down memory lane, I have trouble believing I ever got up and down a mountain pass on it (which I did countless times on 22 year old legs). My wife is not that crazy, but gets out at least 4 or five times a month, can cover 25 miles comfortably on any given day, and has an imperial and metric century to her credit. If you can afford it, I'd say go for it.

dwgwater

Thanks for the suggestions jlaw. I will check those out. Tigat, I'm pretty much in the same boat: Kids are grown and going and we're ready to get back riding. My wife rides an early 90's Univega Activa. Nice relaxed CroMo frame and flat bars. Very comfortable and user friendly, to borrow your excellent phrase. She's added a rack and kickstand so it weighs about 35 pounds, but she likes it and can ride all day at a sensible pace. Hills aren't an issue in the Illinois flatlands! I let her set the pace because I tend to ride like I used to, and burn out rapidly. I've suggested that she upgrade, but I don't fight too hard when she says she likes her old bike. She'd really kick my saddle on a newer, lighter bike....

fietsbob

Perhaps you want to go to a non drop setup? (all pictures offered aside)

Years ago (many) even on my own drop bar bikes , bar end shifters quickly replaced the downtube ones..

John E

OK, I am biased. I hate spending money (Scots DNA -- the stereotype is true in my case), and I love the look and feel of classic steel road bikes. I think you already have the suggestions you need right here in this thread: 1) replace the downtube shiftes with barcons; 2) get a close-reach, but tall, handlebar stem. You are the original owner of a 40-year-old bike -- don't let go of that.

What do I ride most of the time? Around the time we got married, almost 46 years ago, I bought a Peugeot UO-8 frame and built a custom road bike for my wife, one that fit our starving grad student budget and car-free lifestyle. Many years later she got too afraid to ride in traffic and started borrowing my mountain bike, so I built her a mountain bike and adapted the Peugeot to my own needs as a transportation beater -- drop bars, barcons, panniers, etc. The old rust bucket keeps running and puts a smile on my face every time I ride it, even though it is by far the lowliest and least valuable steed in my stable.

Last ride 76 

What I did was buy a 20xx Lemond Zurich. It has 20 different gear ratios, brifters, clincher tires (and I swap pedals around to ride with cleats or running shoes, depending on what I'm planning to do).
Craigslist is filled with very serviceable behind the curve, high quality bikes that never got ridden much...
If you're comfortable wrenching, it's relatively inexpensive and solves the jump on the bike and go problem. Now, having been back in the saddle for a while, I seem to ride my downtube shifting bikes much more than the others. Muscle memory is a funny thing. Besides, they're prettier. *** My rides are usually 10-25 miles, I don't know if longer rides would change what I choose to ride.

That bike is a beauty. I have my Ron Cooper and others I had bitd, but they were all pirated for parts back and forth during those years, and since then have gotten lots of scratches and scuff marks, even without being ridden. My Witcomb track bike is still not done. (Probably 'cause then I'll have to think about selling it).

Ride, and enjoy your riding, that's really all that matters, in the end.
Cheers, and welcome!
Eric

big john

Not saying it's wrong but on this (50+) forum you will always get advice to keep what you have, buy old used bikes, or just to not spend money.
Personally, I don't get emotionally attached to objects like bikes or cars and I like to buy a new bike every few years. I last bought a road bike in 2012 and it was used.
I don't normally buy used bikes but this one got me so I bought it. Then, of course , I had to change things to get it the way I wanted it.


Last year I bought a new mtb.

Ogsarg

I'm about the same age (HS class of 74) and started riding a road bike a little over 2 years ago. I was coming from riding an old rigid mtn bike so figured it would take some time to get used to the riding position and it did take a while even with a bike with relaxed geometry.

Not sure how your current bike fits or how different a modern bike would be, but it seems like it would be worth trying a few to see. Depending on what your local shops carry, a Trek Domane, Specialized Roubaix, Cannondale Synapse, or similar would be worth taking for a test ride. On the other hand, if you're mainly just riding with your wife at a leisurely pace, maybe a flat bar road bike or hybrid makes more sense.

You can modify/upgrade your old bike but riding some new bikes might give you some ideas as to what upgrades would be most helpful.

davester

I'm 65 and continue to ride vintage road bikes with drop handlebars, including my Ron Cooper that I bought new in 1981 and my grey and yellow Miyata which is identical (even the color) to @Cougrrcj 's Miyata 710 pictured above. I've made substantial adjustments (gearing, bar/stem position) to match my age/condition and the epic hills we have around here but am just as happy with the bikes as I've ever been. I briefly went with a newer Trek but sold it because it was less pleasant to ride than my older bikes.

That Holdsworth is a beauty. I would strongly suggest that you make a few adjustments to the Holdsworth. For someone who is not racing, the difference in riding characteristics between a high quality vintage bike and a new bike is going to be negligible unless you live in a hilly enough area that the gear range is insufficient. Barring issues with gearing, I'd start with a shorter, perhaps taller, stem such as a Nitto...they make several different versions of the Technomic which vary in height. Barcons would also be helpful. As to switching out the handlebars, that is personal preference. Personally, I like drop bars because I can ride the tops, the corners, the hoods and the drops. In comparison, most other bar types have very limited hand positions. I think the important thing is getting the bars to where you want them using appropriate stem adjustments.

P.S. In case you don't take this advice, I'd be happy to pay the cost of shipping and then find a suitable location to dispose of that old piece of junk so that you wouldn't have to deal with it any more.

Cougrrcj

That old Fuji S-10S of mine has got to be one of the most comfortable-riding classics ever. Lots of fork trail, combined with a generous chainstay length and relaxed 73/73°angles make this long-ish wheelbase 26.1-pound ride quite pleasant! No, it would NOT be my pick for racing, but I can ride this bike for 100+ mile rides and still feel like I want to ride more that day - and have - as evidenced by me riding it for well over 50,000 miles since new! Even as I have it equipped today, it is just a tad over 30 pounds -- even with the triple crank, rear rack, handlebar bag with tools, full-sized frame pump and single water bottle...

Yes, my Miyata 710 (and the Miyata-built Univega) are more 'sprightly' in how they ride... They're only two pounds lighter, but with a tighter 'triathlon' geometry. The Gran Tourismo rides much like the Fuji -- Not surprising considering similarweight and geometry

I had picked up a newer aluminum-frame Trek 1100 at a yard sale, but after riding it, was quickly sold off due to the harsh, 'buzzy' ride.

Retro Grouch 

A question only you can answer because the answer depends on the kind of person you are.

If you are the nostalgic sort, keep your Holdsworth as original as you possibly can.
If you are a functionalist, keep your Holdsworth and treat it to a set of bacon shifters and maybe clipless pedals.
If you like new stuff, treat yourself to a brand new bike - they really are better.

big john

You can get a bike that rides and fits however you want. I also have a Gunnar from 2006. It's a smooth True Temper frame and they aren't expensive.

MarcusT

Classic road bikes are works of art, but they were not designed to be comfortable. If anyone remembers in the 80s, the big word in frame geometry was 'criterium'. That was when if your foot was forward it would hit the front wheel on a turn.

Today's bikes have a more relaxed geometry and the main considerations are seat position, handlebar height and stem length.
If you want the best of both worlds, consider an adjustable stem. The angle can be raised or lowered to your riding needs

John E

My attitude is that anyone with money can buy fancy new stuff, but keeping a vintage bicycle or automobile in good working order and perhaps making some modifications to fit your own needs gives you something special that not just anyone can have. 1959 Capo -- very comfortable frame with relaxed geometry. 1996 Audi A4 Quattro -- classic Bauhaus-inspired clean lines, fun sports-touring sedan. 2001 VW Passat wagon -- simply the best-sized, best-configured car every designed by anyone anywhere -- a real keeper.

Barrettscv 

Im a great believer in keeping a vintage bike for more relaxed rides on flat routes and having a modern "Endurance" bike for hilly routes. The Endurace bike with 2x11 drivetrain can be set up with wide range gearing and fat road bike tires. The combination of fast rolling tires with extra supple ride at 75-95psi and wide range gearing will keep you happier on longer rides with hills.