thook

your post i replied to was about being smart. nothing about performance. i've worked in a shop. it does not seem smart to me to have a car that's $200 (at a shop) to replace a simple switch or a couple grand for new struts. but, that's just me. you''re absolutely right, though. a new corvette will blow the old ones out of the water on performance. i never debated that

Deal4Fuji

all the above plus the beauty of the horizontal top tube frame with shiny components, matte black is so boring. The photo below from last Saturday's ride kind of surprised me in how apparent the thickness of the modern vs vintage frame is. In my area where we seem to always have wind, this has to be a positive the thinner classic steel frames:

gthomson

That's awesome that you brought that out to join a ride with all those high end bikes. What did people say about it? Is there any problems keeping up with the newer rides? I don't know whether it's in my head or a physical reason behind it (weight of bike, thicker tires, etc...) but I don't match the same speeds on my vintage bikes as I do on my newer road bikes. Could just be I'm not working it as hard and cruising more on the vintage ride.

When I am out on the vintage bike I get more looks from people but no comments, so just wondering if they're trying to figure out what brand it is or what? My thought is, people who are new to riding or younger riders just don't know the history of these steel road bikes and don't know what to make of it?

Deal4Fuji

Thanks, they're part of my small town regular riding group and they seem to enjoy my C&V rotation. I have no trouble keeping up and being one of the pullers on some of nicer vintage bikes like this Bianchi, the Ironman and the Trek 500. It's a little harder on the 30+ lb bikes like the Continental. We have a Monday no drop night where sometimes spouses and less frequent riders come out, that's when I bring out the heavyweights. I've had quite a few positive comments on charity rides and multi-group rides from other riders not used to seeing bikes from the 70's & 80's.

SurferRosa

Yeah, old bike wins every time.

But it's pretty cool if you can put your old bike in your old car and race out to meet your friends for an old ride.

daka

One place where the old-bike wins over the old-car hands-down is environmental impact. Using the 1965 Corvette mentioned above as an example - that car will output more toxic emissions in one day than a modern car puts out in over a year. Despite my nostalgia for beautiful old cars, the emissions issue keeps me away from driving anything that doesn't have at least three-way catalysts with oxygen sensor feedback.

Riding old bikes (which are pretty clean running as long as the rider hasn't overdone it eating cheeseburgers), on the other hand, reduces the need to build new ones. The tires and paints for old bikes will have been a source of some VOCS, but not likely on the order of what is going be a consequence of making/molding new composite carbon fiber frames. So, enjoy the ride of that classic machine and feel good about helping the environment a little at the same time!

79pmooney

In the '70s I raced a bike that is now C & V though it was new and current at the time. Loved the ride, loved the fit. Never saw a reason to go to a different geometry. My bikes now have (almost) the same fit. I could ride that pure racing bike with no issues except I"d bring the stem up (and probably get a longer Nitto Pearl). Modern cutout seat.

I also broke a "new materials" frame. Should have killed me and the resulting injuries were severe and life changing.

So: I will continue to ride materials that break in a "friendly" manner. Steel. Titanium (built by skilled framebuilders with years of titanium experience). (I've broken or cracked 6 steel forks and frames with no crashes. Rode all 5 home.) I like also that those two metals may well bend a fair amount before breaking. All that energy going into bending that frame or fork is energy my body isn't adsorbing. Doesn't hurt that both those materials can be formed easily into fully custom bikes to do just about anything

I have 5 bikes. 3 steel, 2 ti. All 5 forks are steel. Three of the frames are custom with mileages of 50,000, 20,000 and 14,000. One of the production steel bikes has 20,000 (with me; I picked it up as a 27 year old frame). It has a repaired crack.

Ben

robertorolfo

First off, the C4 Vettes are beautiful. Second, the performance of the new cars is useless and actually frustrating unless you have regular access to a track. Occasionally I borrow my cousin's Honda Fit, which seems awful on the surface, but going wide open throttle through the first three gears of the manual, while still being under the speed limit, is just as much fun as driving considerably faster cars. Ditto tossing it into corners with total abandon, not needing crazy lateral acceleration to break traction.

Oh man, you just outed yourself, and it's not pretty...

Miele Man

I ride 1985 era bicycles because they do everything I want or need them to. I like the way they handle and look. In 2001 I did put a mix of 9-speed Campagnolo Mirage and Veloce components onto a Columbus SLX Miele Suprema I have.

Cheers

merziac

Yep, still a fan of the hot rods of the past but they only burn about 40% of the air fuel mixture on a good day, so while they are still fun to drive, see and look at, we won't be choking to death anywhere near as soon as we would have.

Another fun fact is that 1% of the population generates 50% of the air traffic pollution that will get us instead.

ScottRiqui

"It's a lot more fun to drive a slow car fast than to drive a fast car slow."

Velo Mule

With the exception of the Schwinn Continental, I am riding the types of bikes that I admired and pined for when I was younger. Now, I can get them fairly inexpensively and I know how to make them work and enjoy riding them. As for the Continental, it is nostalgia, but I like riding that too.

I am sure the newer bikes are better. They are lighter and stiffer. I think being able to shift without moving my hands off the brake levers is nice. But that is not for me. I am not racing. I am also not willing to spend the type of money that these newer bikes cost.

In 25 or 30 years there will probably be a bunch of bike geeks, like us, discussing how much they like the old carbon fiber bikes and these new carbon lattice bikes with constant cadence drivetrains just aren't the same. "Back in my day we had to shift the bike to go up a hill."

Who knows, maybe nobody will pedal anymore because there will be a way to eat whatever you want, gain muscle and loose fat. So why pedal. Everyone will have an e-bike. Maybe the Tour de France will be come a Tourist ride.

So, I'll stick with my old stuff. Go ahead and pass me with your carbon fiber race bike, your double stroller with rollerblade wheels and runners with the rubber bottomed sock shoes. I don't care. I am out for the fun of it.

By the way I had read a quotation in Bicycling magazine, at least I think it was Bicycling magazine, probably 40 or more years ago. It may not be completely correct, so if you have heard/read it, please correct me.

"The speed you travel on a journey is inversely proportional to how interesting it is."

tkamd73 

Yeah, well when you compare it to a Honda Fit, the C4 is beautiful! The C4 is not the most affordable used vette because of its beauty, and build quality, it’s because as vettes go, relatively speaking, its a piece of crap. And yeah it’s been beat to death, that it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast, then a fast car slow, but you can use the performance in a Tesla every time some knucklehead, tries to run you in anything, at a stoplight.
Tim

rekmeyata

A lot of people have all sorts of garage art, and cars are just one of them. A person who owns a car like that vintage Corvette will only drive it in the late spring till early fall, and then probably only on weekends, I don't consider that garage art. When I retire I plan on buying a small 2 door sports car, I will use it just like I mentioned above, in the winter it will get covered and wait for late spring, and I'm going to do this to a car that won't even be a vintage car! Garage art? no, just a limited use car. Cars like that are not meant to be winter cars, there are people all over the world that do the same thing, in Europe in the summer out come the MBZ's, but in the winter out come the VW's because they don't want the expensive car to rust out. Add on top of that when it comes to a vintage car, vintage car insurance companies limit you to 2,500 miles a year! And regular car insurance companies won't insure them so you're stuck with how many miles a year you can use your car, which why most of the time they spend their life in the garage, and it is also why you see these cars being trailered to car shows.

I use to own several vintage cars, in fact, up until 2 years ago I had 5, I've sold them all with the last one sold about 3 months ago. I kept all but one at a friend's climate-controlled pole barn, and he had 21 cars, he died suddenly about 2 years ago and I had to sell them since his wife was going to sell the place after she sold all his cars at an auction in Auburn In. I had in that pole barn a 58 Plymouth Fury Golden Commando that I owned for 38 years; a 63 Studebaker Avante R1 I owned for 31 years; a 67 Ford Galaxy 500 convertible I owned for 20 years; a 70 Chrysler Newport convertible I owned for 12 years; and a 79 Chevy Z28 I owned for 16 years that one stayed in my garage and was the one I sold 3 months ago and used that money from that car to buy a 2010 Toyota Tundra. The money I got from the other cars was used to pay down a commercial real estate loan, and one of those cars sold for a lot, you all can figure out which one that was, that was also a very private sale to a person who wants it kept that way. I had a few other cars over the years that I didn't keep as long due to making room for others I acquired. All of those cars were bought in California so they were rust free, except for the Camaro, but it too was rust free from not being driven in rain or snow.

So I know a little about classic cars, all of my cars were in original condition, there was some minor changes done to the 67 Galaxy and the 70 Newport, but all the original stuff was kept so they could easily be transformed back to factory stock, but the changes were for improved driveability with less maintenance since those two I drove the most.

I can't really say which car was my favorite, I liked them all, they all had their own personality, practicality wise in regards of finding parts the 67 Galaxy was the easiest to get parts for followed by the 70 Newport, the other cars I could get parts for but most of the parts had to be purchased through places that remanufactured the parts and they weren't cheap, so to drive those more would simply mean more chances of something breaking and thus more expense, so I only drove those two oldest cars about 1,000 miles a year which made my insurance company happy.

I know, and people who know about classic cars will also tell you, that the cars built prior to the mid '60s were not all that great, but the two cars I had built prior to the mid 60's never gave me any problems; and that Golden Commando was a performance car in its era, with dual 4 barrel carbs! and yet the engine was never rebuilt. I used lead substitute in my fuel and thereby preventing the heads from having to be rebuilt in all of my cars made prior to the 79 Camaro.

Will I ever buy another classic car? I don't think so unless I got a really great deal which isn't likely to happen these days, and I'm getting older and don't have the desire to wrench on them anymore, that and along with my friend who died left me without a lift and I don't want to crawl under cars either. So the sports car I plan to buy when I retire will be a modern one and I'll take it to the shop to get stuff done on it; dam it, I sure get heart palpations when I see a classic car I want, and prices are dropping too which make this heart of mine pound even harder!

Oldbill

I like vintage bicycles for the same reason I like vintage cars. They are both fun to work on, ride/drive, and using them actually reduces carbon emissions. It is a huge carbon footprint to replace cars that go obsolete every 10 years (max). The savings on emissions will never equal the amount of pollution caused by building throwaway technology. It just makes people feel good to think it will. People are conditioned to like new shiny objects.

robertorolfo

For my first ever criterium a couple of years ago (I spent my youth chasing balls around), I showed up with my Basso Paris-Roubaix. It has brifters on it, but the frame is bright yellow and the thin steel tubes can't be mistaken for anything but what they are. I was worried that people would make some snide comments, but everyone just completely ignored the bike. I thought that perhaps it was because they figured I was just some scrub, but when I finished in the lead group and put more than half of the field behind me, it should have been clear that I was serious. But not a peep after the race either. I quickly figured out that the vast majority of the guys there were very competitive and just as nearly insecure. Given that this was the lowest category, it seemed misplaced, but a lot of people are weird like that. Definitely not my scene, but racing is still fun from time to time.


Given the period in which it was built, I have no double the C4 is unreliable and lacking in quality. Even so, the exterior styling cannot be denied. It is a simple but classic look. It's a beautiful car, and the model that followed was nowhere near as elegant.

As for a Tesla or whatever, any moron can stomp their foot to the ground at a light and hold on for dear life as a computer does all the work. Getting mindlessly pinned to your seat probably gets old after a while, and eventually you will have to make a turn at some point...

davester

I am not a collector, and I don't particularly enjoy working on bikes, even though I'm pretty good at it. For the most part, I acquired my bikes for specific riding purposes (i.e. touring bike, commuting bike, all-around gravel/road bike, MTB. The reason I have vintage bikes is that I love the aesthetics and the knowledge that for most of my bikes I am riding something well-crafted by human hands rather than stamped out by mass-production machinery owned by a giant corporation. It just gives me immense pleasure to ride along atop a beautiful steed. It gives me even greater pleasure when I ride with like-minded people. Also, since I no longer race, I don't need the small performance advantage that an ugly modern bike provides, and the minor convenience features (e.g. brifters) are not that important, certainly not enough to offset the beauty of a vintage bike.

ramzilla

This thing is the fastest bike on Amelia Island.

Moisture

- durable drivetrain super easy to work on
-amazing chromoly lugged frame
-durable as hell
-very durable
-easier to find in XXL size
-puts down power absurdly well