kcblair

"I Want a Bike That Will Last Me 15 Years" , that's not easy to find. $8,000 !! I have 4 bikes 27-34yrs old, that are in beautiful shape. All totaled together, don't even come close to that amount .

Guess that's why we all in this sub forum, love our vintage bikes. Any thoughts ? KB

Velocivixen

Wow! What are those $8,000 bikes made of?
Vintage bikes have a bit more personality in my book. They're "survivors".

Wileyone 

Carpet Fiber.

higgins617

The mountain bike world is especially brutal in that regard. Plain and simple, just about any bike or machine for that matter can last as long as you're willing to take care of it and maintain it.

KonAaron Snake 

Just this morning I was hit with shrapnel from a CF bike that exploded next to me.

Come to think of it...I probably should go to the emergency room to get it removed, I heard CF bikes are mildly radioactive.

bikemig 

I gave up on reading Bicycling a long time ago. It became a product shill rather than a magazine about cycling.

non-fixie 

I take it said publication contains advertisements for such bicycles?

Repack Rider

That's a magazine I didn't even read when I was an editor for it.

kcblair

Yep, I gave up the magazine decades ago, but my loving daughter, who supports cycling, got me a subscription for Christmas . So I'll look through it for a year. KB

crank_addict

Repack^
Now that is funny!

Only on occasion will I speed read through it. Even as I get it for free along with many other periodicals online through my library.

ksryder

Highly accurate example of the dangers of asplosions:

carbon_frames_and_rocks_1024.jpg

crank_addict

Some observations-
Fairly simple to breakdown the types of buyer for CF bikes that buy from a bike shop. Not talking of sponsored racers.

1: Serious tri-competitors (These are the highly driven achiever type, high income, physically obsessed. Cost to compete has no limit.)

2: 50+ y.o. having the means and getting back into cycling. Cost is less irrelevant. (They may even trade-in a 2 year old CF bike for the latest model)

3: The 20 somethings that just got to have it

That 3rd group is the fragile (pun) market. They blow a large wad for it and then if it breaks, its game over. They lose interest in getting another bike, reality sets in that having such high degree racer with limited lifespan is way expensive. But they've also become spoiled by performance and will not step down to a lower grade machine.

noglider 

Maybe the goal is to find a bike that remains cutting edge for 15 years. This is different from durability. The problem is, the goal is for technology to stop improving.

79pmooney

Let's do the math on my bikes: (From oldest to newest (to me)

Peter Mooney, 38 yo in May, received new (custom). I call it $1000. (Yes I have spent far more. Over 40,000+ miles, everything has been replaced several times, but I am not counting that here.) This bike will last the rest of my life.

TiCycles, 11 yo, ~$4500. Received new (custom) This bike will last the rest of my life.

Trek 4??, 34 yo, ~500. Used frame, 8 years in my possession, parts from ongoing winter/rain city fix gear. Will last until it has a frame ending crash. Parts will go on the next frame. (This is frame #5. Previous frames went 15 amd 19 years. Died in crashes.

TiCycles fix gear, 6 yo, ~$4000. Received new (custom) This bike will last the rest of my life.

Raleigh Competition, 44 yo, ~$1400. Used frame, 3 years in my possession, parts from all over, needed an expensive trip to a framebuilder for serious warranty-type issues. ~$1000 for repairs and paint.

So, average bike age: 26.6 years. Average time in my stables: 13.2 years. Average cost to me: $2280.

The cost/bike is pretty high and time in stable low. 12 year ago, the numbers would have looked more like: 19.5 years and $750. Then I got two ti customs and very recently, that Raleigh that never received braze under its lugs - one of Raleigh's infamous Monday/Friday bikes. It is now a 531 frame brazed by the best; a bike I can trust on the worst gravel washboard.

All told, the 13 or so bikes I have owned have ~200,000 miles under my butt over the past 50 years. Now some of the new ones don't qualify yet for Classic and Vintage (but in many ways that ti fix gear is more so than any other bike of this sub-forum. Yes, late '80s. early '90s frame construction and materials, but the concept is very close to where the best racing bikes might have gone in the 1980s had derailleurs and freewheel mechanisms never been invented).

Ben

gomango

I was pleased to see a mention for Roland Della Santa. His custom frameset price of $1,900 is an absolute bargain. I could easily piece together a custom RDS complete for $3,500 that would smoke many of the stock bikes available on the market.

I also saw a complete Desalvo at about the same price that looked like an incredible value.

non-fixie 

I'm pretty sure you could still win the Tour de France on a 1970 bike. I'm also convinced that nobody wants you to.

noglider 

I'm sure no one can win a Tour de France on a 1970 bike. The performance differences between bikes is small for most of us but essential for world-class cyclists. Remember, all power losses in the bike are cumulative, and a fraction of a second counts.

non-fixie 

In a controlled environment you'd be absolutely right. However, real world races like the Tour de France, or any other 'monument' race for that matter, are not controlled environments, and many factors decide the outcome. The bike is, in the end, just one of many. Of course there are specific situations in which the ability to shift quickly will be to the rider's advantage, but you are not going to win or lose a 21-stage race just because of that.
I believe that team tactics and especially rider confidence are much more important.
It's difficult to prove, but this film is interesting in this respect, as it at least shows that the influence of bike technology should not be overrated: King of the Mont Ventoux

noglider 

I still disagree. A cutting edge bike will not assure winning, but a 47 year old bike will assure NOT winning. All the tactical and circumstantial things that decide who wins can't compensate for the weight of the bike nor its ease of shifting and other advantages, no matter how small.

3speedslow

Man, if I had one of those 8000$ bikes, think of all the neat vintage frames and parts I could get with it!

That's my take on it.

qcpmsame 

If I had $8000 it wouldn't be spent on a CF bike, or any contemporary bike for that matter. Plenty if really nice frames and even complete bikes with steel frames and friction shifting out there. JMWO.

Or, just one nice frame set and all the components for a bucket list build, and the rest for plane tickets, entry fees and room and board for an Eroica event.

Bill

3speedslow

Exactly,

Bike materializes... sell... buying spree !

RobbieTunes

A bike magazine shouldn't have to be enlightened about things.

For that coin, a nicely done Wraith, two more Ironman bikes, and pay off my wife's car so she can get a new one.

coolkat

I flipped through it at a store this morning, nice to see the review of Black Mountain Cycles road bike.

Spaghetti Legs 

Serendipitous

The Retrogrouch

FWIW I like a good carbon fiber bike as much as my older steel bikes but I wouldn't spend 8k on one. Even if I wanted spend 8k on a new one, I wouldn't because of all these silly new BB standards, disk brakes, etc. I still think every time I ride my '96 C40 that they could have stopped making bikes after that because Ernesto nailed it with that one.