OldsCOOL

Here's my two oldest. First is a '77 Colnago Super and the second is a '76 Fuji "The Finest". Then, there is the'72 Juenet I bought last night to score the Mavic tubular wheelset. The Jeunet will be parted out. My bikes will outlast me as timeless classics that will be handed down to my son.

rydabent

Yes they need to last because of cost. I finally settled on riding bents. I have a LWB bent and a tadpole trike. They are a 2008 and a 2012 models. They have gone up a combined cost of $1400 if I were to replace them with the same new models. As a retiree, I cant afford to buy new ones. That is why I do a high level of maintenance on them to assure they will last.

texaspandj

I get what you're saying OP. Just cause you're getting older doesn't mean you have to have old bikes. Or as my HS English teacher said changing with the times keeps you young. However she was 40, recently divorced, and probably going thru a mid life crisis.
I on the other hand, I have lived long enough to know what I like, want, need. And if it fits the bill I keep it. So I have steel bikes, American guitars, and Chevy vehicles. All of which will out live me with proper maintenance. But you know whatever floats your boat. Bottom line OP, just cause you're vintage doesn't mean your bike has to be. You're still crazy for being out there on two wheels and I respect that.

Kindaslow

You old people are going to leave way too much money to your kids!!!



On a serious note, I wonder if part of the difference between me (the young guy) and you old guys is actually MTB versus road bike. I only ride roads to commute and rare bike trips. MTBing, the bikes, have changed dramatically about every 5-10 years since I started riding them in the early 80's.

Any MTBers in this group? And, I mean MTB is your passion, not a roadie who happens to own a MTB. Thoughts?

FrenchFit 

I'd love to explore my passion for MTBing, but around here MTBing means serious hill work, anything flatish is fully developed. Constant hills and heat, I can think of better ways to spend the day.

If you took away all my bikes but my 43 yo ten speed, I'd be just fine. Funny thing about n-1, you don't miss em that much when their gone. Afterall, bikes are just ...things.

Happy fathers' day everyone.

tjkoko

Yeah, I want mine to last especially when it's a dutch cruiser, an Azor Oma.

dougmon 

I do want mine to last for as long as I can ride. That implies (at least to me) that I'll gain some kind of mechanical skills to keep it going.

But that doesn't mean there won't a few N+1.

Wildwood 

The truth is - I would feel funny riding a 14lb, electronic shifting, wunder-bike. Or whatever is being ridden in the future.

Joe Minton

bikemig: Wow! That's my old Olmo! Even the same color. I bought it in 1962 and sold it three years later to help pay for a custom Schwinn Paramont ($240). That Olmo took me from "Beginner" to "Expert". Wish I had it now -- ;o(

Joe

Barrettscv 

I held on to a 1972 Schwinn Paramount for almost 40 years, I was the original owner. I only sold it since the size was too small.



Last year I found an almost identical example in the ideal size. The replacement is more than retro fun, it provides 95% of the pace of the modern stuff;

bikemig 

Joe: Very cool. The bike came from Valley Cyclery in Van Nuys before migrating to the midwest to spend its senior years, . Is that where your bike came from? Olmos could not have been that common in the early 60s.

I'm the 3d owner of the bike. This is the build thread on the bike: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...ran-sport.html

fietsbob

Have 1 I hand built the Frame & fork, Myself in 1975 , still..

Dave Cutter

You mean that story about the pressed-in bearings nearing their replacement miles? The job that can only be done at the best bicycle shops and costs as much as a new bike anyway? Yeah.... I avoided that expense repair by rotating that bike into rain bike status. But... of course I had to buy a new bike to replace it. However now having a suitable rain bike... the new bike will have a longer life span. So really... buying the new bike SAVED us money.

Best of luck!

1242Vintage

I keep my road bikes in service for a very long time. Still rolling on an old Ciocc steel bike with Shimano 600 from early 1990s.

1242Vintage

Yes. Currently rolling in the dirt on a 2015 Spesh Epic full squish and a 2013 Spesh stumpy HT. I usually get a couple years out of a dirt rig before it really needs some serious maintenance and am faced with either rebuilding an older bike or updating. I usually buy a new one (my LBS loves me) and sell or give the old bike to somone in need.

This year am updating my cross race rig. The old alloy Crux went through three seasons of hell along with a couple years of wet weather commuting and is going to a newbie racer on our team this year. I am picking up a 1x11 carbon hydro disc brake CX bike to replace it next month.

Joe Minton

bikemig:
I bought mine from Inglewood Cyclery which isn't all that far from Van Nuys. I recall that I paid $90 for it.

What would make that bike valuable to me now are the memories:
Like the time I fell over up near the Point Mugu rock because a truck passed by and broke the 30+mph side wind I was leaning against.
Or the time I fell in behind a Mayflower moving van going north out of Seal Beach and hit 65 mph. I had to pull out because I was overheating. You should have seen the open-mouthed look on the truck driver's face when he saw me in his mirror! At the next light, he told me we were going 65.
I had a summer class at SMCC just as my family moved 32 mile away. I made the round trip of 64 miles every day for six weeks. Swimming coach Joseph gave me a locker and shower priviledges after he learned what I was doing.

The Olmo helped me learn to be strong. Lots of good memories ---

Joe

CliffordK

Isn't that what is being ridden now?

Or are you meaning when you can actually afford it?

I'm still not convinced in the need for electronic shifting for the general population, but I could imagine sometime in the future when arthritis could cause an inability to shift. Or, perhaps it could help keep certain members of the population on their bikes.

Algorithmic shifting? Maybe catching that hill approach just right, but I like manual transmissions in cars, and am not quite ready to cede control of my legs.

Wildwood 

Yes, I should be more clear - I would feel funny (today) riding top-end bikes. I would feel funny (in the future) of riding a 10lb wunderbike. To the point of being faster or more comfortable, I'm more than satisfied with an 18lb (60cm) bike, with Campy Chorus/Record 10sp, compact double from 2004. And I already have the 10s triple on a different bike, for when the hills feel even taller.

To the electronic shifting helping an arthritic condition - yes, that might help if the condition was ONLY in the fingers.
Maybe lightly assisted e-bikes will keep future old roadies running with the fast crowd. Me? - happy to be slow & steady, if I finish with a smile.

But then again I've been wrong in the past.

edit: I'm a roadie, mtn bikers should upgrade from the old stuff, and probably into the future. No doubt since that equipment gets beat-up. I upgrade much of my backpacking gear every 3 years, downhill winter skis = 5 or so, not my roadies or kayaks, or X-country skis. Bang for the buck applies across all the hobbies.

CliffordK

Titanium knees to go with your Titanium Wonderbike?

I can ride with the fast crowd... as long as the ride is less than a minute Or, perhaps that is just a Strava illusion.

I have very mixed feelings about an E-Boost. Too often one sees people with E-Motorcycles, which does get them outside in the fresh air, but they miss the exercising.

But, a 50W boost might be nice at times. Not doing all the work, but a little supplement. Still,it is hard to hammer hard if one isn't doing the pedalling.

Maybe my niece or nephew will get into racing. They already want to race, but at this stage, I can still put the hammer down and kick up a bit of dust. Ten years from now, that could all change, and I could imagine heading out on a training ride where they would want to simply cruise at 25 MPH with me wheezing at 15. The Armstrong Pharmacy anybody?

BTW:
an 18 lb bike isn't bad. I've only broken the 20 lb barrier this year. Maybe I'll try a few mods to get my bike down to 17 But usability mods will erase that.

Namida12

I started riding again in 2010, and I have no idea what happened to my skinny tired mechanical brake bicycle I used to travel about town when I was a teenager. I know I parked it in the garage when I started to drive, and when I moved away from parents home believe it was still parked in garage. In 2010 I found a Torelli in a garage sale, 6 months later I purchased a taller Trek Antelope 820 Mountain Bike that needed care and love. The Trek got care and love, and spent 275 miles in my care before I discovered a scratched and dented Cannondale R600 was easier to spin up the pedals when going over inclines. The R600 got bar ends and a new owner, when I finished assembling a R800 Cannondale display frame with period correct new components.

The R800 was a new bicycle with all new never used components. It was a restored or built as a new original bicycle except for the brakes. Then it became trash in the bicycle rack while mounted on my car, when a new car owner drove into car while it was parked. I learned an expensive lesson with that bicycle, do not overpay for new never used old parts, as Progressive Insurance or I am guessing other insurance companies will never replace the bicycle, nor the time and money spent building a new classic bicycle. If that had been a 1958 corvette restored with less than 1,500 miles I could have gotten some satisfaction, but after 2 years of hassle with Progressive I was shorted $1,500 by them on the receipts to build that bicycle.

I now have a older Italian Basso Bicycle I ride on Sundays occasionally, and a Classic KHS with showroom original decals & paint that avoids all automobile racks. But I ride a 2009 Fuji SST 1.0 that took me 3 years to assemble as an 11 speed Sram Force. I enjoy the feel and response of a 17.82 pound Fuji bicycle and for the moment am delighted with this bicycle.

Do I want it to last 40 years? No, but hope it continues to be fun to ride the next 3 years, as I will upgrade to a newer carbon bicycle sporting disc brakes, and Sram's wireless shifter on the next one I own.

Wildwood, guess I am different from you. I am old, not quite dirt, yet I lust for a "14lb, electronic shifting, wunder-bike". My body can not use the all the capabilities of the Fuji I currently ride, but its response is amazing and I can ride up inclines I could not coax from me on my last Cannondale. I still want to spin the pedals on the newest & lightest I can afford and understand how to assemble.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/644955...57644176380365

JR

reppans

Yes absolutely.... For one, I feel better about buying redundant and/or higher quality products when I know they'll last forever. But more importantly, I love my good quality "old" bikes since they can be locked up outside without worry. I have an early 80s rigid frame mountain bike (really the beginning of commercial mountain bikes) with full Shimano DeOre XT componentry and it still rides like a dream... it's a bit heavy, of course, but as the saying goes: "30lbs bike/1lb lock or 21lbs bike/10lbs lock."

For security reasons my modern, more expensive mountain and road bikes see most mileage close to home on known recreational and exercise loops, while my older bikes travel more and are used for impromptu exploration of new places. I hate the ball and chain factor of later model/expensive bikes when exploring.

FullGas

new sloping top-tube carbon bikes have absolutely zero appeal.

but otoh, love my new 1370 g wheelset with carbon bits...

Wildwood 

I'm not against driving every component to a new technological level and making bikes more efficient, go for it all out. Drives the industry and to a small measure, the economy. Buy custom frames from American craftsmen would be my only recommendation. But for me at 65 and 30 continuous years, regularly on 2 wheels, faster is not the goal. Quality saddle time and smiles are enough of a bonus over the fitness aspect. Oh yeah, I DO hope nice tubulars hang around.

Wildwood 

+100.
Keep the newest and best wheels backward compatible to my old 10sp.
I run tubular for weight reduction, but have not ponied-up $$$ for carbon rims or hubs.
Nice tubular vintage wheelsets are a bargain for older classics.

philbob57

Reasons:

My 1973 bike, which I purchased used in 1981, has always felt great to me. It turns out it's almost exactly what Competitive Cyclist's French Fit recommends for someone with my measurements. With my short legs/long torso, today's square geometries probably wouldn't feel as good, so I'd have to go the custom route to get another bike that fits as well.

I've got exactly the 12-speed half-step gearing I want. I never need the top gear, and I need the lowest gear only early in the season and, maybe, when I'm very tired.

I'm retired. I didn't invest all that well, and my mother needs financial help.

I don't race. As for a 14 lb bike, I could get a bike that weighs the equivalent of -26 lbs by losing 40 lbs myself, and I'd still be heavy for my height.

I think I'd like indexed shifting, but I don't have to do much shifting riding Chicago's North shore anyway. Besides, I can adjust my derailleurs myself (and do most other maintenance myself). I'm not sure if I have the patience to maintain a modern drivetrain.

I hate flat black on a bike, and most of the newer bikes I see have too much flat black - and garish decals, too - for me.

Not to mention inertia....