I'm afraid of enjoying my bike.
03-13-19, 12:01 PM
#76
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Help me understand: if an older individual chooses to baby their vehicle of whatever make, of vintage status, as responsible and disciplined, but a younger person, such as myself, as silly and ridiculous?
Art is art. People have different ways of appreciating. I was just in a position to figure out if I wanted to look at it or experience it.
Everyone else has been providing great feedback to simply enjoy life. If asking a question and looking for guidance makes me silly and ridiculous, then I probably joined the wrong forum. But then again, you don't speak for everyone either.
I enjoy this forum and I will continue to use it, despite what "silly" and "ridiculous"questions I may ask or express.
It's about sharing knowledge and experience, not criticizing ridiculing.
Art is art. People have different ways of appreciating. I was just in a position to figure out if I wanted to look at it or experience it.
Everyone else has been providing great feedback to simply enjoy life. If asking a question and looking for guidance makes me silly and ridiculous, then I probably joined the wrong forum. But then again, you don't speak for everyone either.
I enjoy this forum and I will continue to use it, despite what "silly" and "ridiculous"questions I may ask or express.
It's about sharing knowledge and experience, not criticizing ridiculing.
As much as you would like to believe it, your bicycle is not art. Cycling fanatics may refer to their precious bicycles as art but that does not make it so. Especially as you are occasionally rolling through animal urine and garbage while cycling on the roads. I hope you wipe your bicycle down before you hang it on your wall
Older people babying their vehicles would be equally ridiculous assuming they are also referring to them as art and are scared to drive them.
And if you are sensitive and looking for strangers to only agree with you and tell you what you want to hear, you actually joined the right forum for the most part
Last edited by downhillmaster; 03-13-19 at 12:07 PM.
03-13-19, 01:12 PM
#77
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03-13-19, 03:49 PM
#78
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03-13-19, 05:12 PM
#79
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I will paraphrase Hinault: its not the bike, its the rider, stupid
03-13-19, 05:34 PM
#80
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I've visit the C&V board enough to understand that many folks here collect and restore bikes... and even baby and preserve them. Just look at the picture threads, or the threads with the home "bicycle museums". Plenty of mint condition rides that most certainly are not getting ridden much. Everyone oooh's and ahh's over them, and why not? Having nice bikes is a wonderful hobby no matter how one enjoys them. Ridiculing the OP for wanting to preserve a prize bike, especially when many others here do the same thing, is unwarranted in my opinion.
03-13-19, 06:11 PM
#81
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Let’s keep posts on point. The OP is asking for opinions. If you can’t contribute in a positive way, skip posting. No more ridicule.
03-13-19, 07:37 PM
#83
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The 55 year old me would tell the 23 year old me, "Ride the bike, when your 23, because you will never be at this moment ever again. You will not be 23 forever. The bike might not be with you, say in a year from now, because life is like that. Ride the bike, why you have that 23 year old engine to propel it, to feel the wind in your 23 year old face, and still have youthful optimism in your kit. Ride the bike, when you're 23, and 33, and 43, and 53. Make some history with each other, have some adventures together, drink/eat/and be merry, and most certainly, share some scars and stories together. Grow to be old lifelong friends. Because in the race, on an unclear path, all we are is our experiences. The possessions should be the means, not the ends."
That's what the 55 year old me would tell the 23 year old me. For what's worth (your mileage may very).
That's what the 55 year old me would tell the 23 year old me. For what's worth (your mileage may very).
03-13-19, 09:09 PM
#84
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The 55 year old me would tell the 23 year old me, "Ride the bike, when your 23, because you will never be at this moment ever again. You will not be 23 forever. The bike might not be with you, say in a year from now, because life is like that. Ride the bike, why you have that 23 year old engine to propel it, to feel the wind in your 23 year old face, and still have youthful optimism in your kit. Ride the bike, when you're 23, and 33, and 43, and 53. Make some history with each other, have some adventures together, drink/eat/and be merry, and most certainly, share some scars and stories together. Grow to be old lifelong friends. Because in the race, on an unclear path, all we are is our experiences. The possessions should be the means, not the ends."
That's what the 55 year old me would tell the 23 year old me. For what's worth (your mileage may very).
That's what the 55 year old me would tell the 23 year old me. For what's worth (your mileage may very).
But when you were 23, did ever listen to a 55 yo’s advice?
I know I didn’t—I often made the fatal assumption that I knew it all.
Or as we say in Spanish: Nadie escarmienta en cabeza ajena.
And lest the mods and censors get all bent out of shape over the use of Spanish, here is the translation/explanation:
https://www.spanishdict.com/answers/...-what-it-means
03-13-19, 09:54 PM
#86
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In all honesty, after reading all the feedback, it would be a mistake not to enjoy the bike itself. I thought about all the touring possibilities and it gave me something to look forward to this summer. I might use it for randonneuring! We shall see. Overall, everyone has been extremely helpful and I am happy to have been able to express my thoughts. You guys rock.
03-13-19, 10:44 PM
#87
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I wish the 23 year old me hadn’t sold the first real bike I bought when I was 15.
But I did have some adventures her.
But I did have some adventures her.
03-14-19, 01:56 AM
#88
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I've had this thought for a book title for a little while: All My Favorite Bikes Have Top Tube Dents.
I encourage you to ride your 1000! Had an '82 myself and it was very very nice. Well made (and well-repaired) with a sublime ride quality. Light enough, but never fragile, and I had a 63cm version. It takes a lot to ruin steel, or to even get to a point of Ship of Theseus. Easily repaired, and for not that much. It can be repainted or powder coated (for a lot less).
Most of my fleet very much outclasses my ability to ride/race. I mean, I can hustle and climb and sprint alright for a short amount of time, but still. A Guerciotti Super Record??? How do I own one of those? Or a Davidson, or a Masi or a Paramount (or two) or anything else? I hop on a bike and we partner in wherever we go. We get to know each other and become friends (yes, an inanimate object!). Get to know your Miyata. Not that it will make you care less about it or care less when it gets scratched, but man, man and machine is really cool.
I am beyond over the whole collector car craze and old cars being sold for a zillion dollars. Practically speaking, you could make that $12M Ferrari with newer and better metal, more accurately, with more durability and safety, for a lot less than $12M. That old car could burn to the freaking ground, and all it's done for the last four decades is be driven (or pushed) from storage to a trailer and back. Another title transferred, another owner who stores it some place else and never drives it. That is sad as can be. Drive something that is meant to be driven. Ride something that is meant to be ridden. W.O. Bentley-era Bentleys get very much driven by their owners, and those things are priceless. Repairs? Maintenance? Yup. Par for the course.
I encourage you to ride your 1000! Had an '82 myself and it was very very nice. Well made (and well-repaired) with a sublime ride quality. Light enough, but never fragile, and I had a 63cm version. It takes a lot to ruin steel, or to even get to a point of Ship of Theseus. Easily repaired, and for not that much. It can be repainted or powder coated (for a lot less).
Most of my fleet very much outclasses my ability to ride/race. I mean, I can hustle and climb and sprint alright for a short amount of time, but still. A Guerciotti Super Record??? How do I own one of those? Or a Davidson, or a Masi or a Paramount (or two) or anything else? I hop on a bike and we partner in wherever we go. We get to know each other and become friends (yes, an inanimate object!). Get to know your Miyata. Not that it will make you care less about it or care less when it gets scratched, but man, man and machine is really cool.
I am beyond over the whole collector car craze and old cars being sold for a zillion dollars. Practically speaking, you could make that $12M Ferrari with newer and better metal, more accurately, with more durability and safety, for a lot less than $12M. That old car could burn to the freaking ground, and all it's done for the last four decades is be driven (or pushed) from storage to a trailer and back. Another title transferred, another owner who stores it some place else and never drives it. That is sad as can be. Drive something that is meant to be driven. Ride something that is meant to be ridden. W.O. Bentley-era Bentleys get very much driven by their owners, and those things are priceless. Repairs? Maintenance? Yup. Par for the course.
.
.
Last edited by rossiny; 03-14-19 at 02:02 AM.
03-14-19, 05:37 AM
#89
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O.P., I hope your bike isn't lost or stolen. You could wind up spending the rest of your life trying to replace it, and wind up with 30 or 40 bikes, and an incurable addiction. Along with all the rest, broken marriages, bike racing posters on every wall, a bike repair stand in the living room, high-end pantographed parts strewn about everywhere, incoherent babbling of technical terms and obscure acronyms, chronic saddle sores ... it's a terminal disease, and the latter stages can get quite ugly.
03-14-19, 07:33 AM
#90
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O.P., I hope your bike isn't lost or stolen. You could wind up spending the rest of your life trying to replace it, and wind up with 30 or 40 bikes, and an incurable addiction. Along with all the rest, broken marriages, bike racing posters on every wall, a bike repair stand in the living room, high-end pantographed parts strewn about everywhere, incoherent babbling of technical terms and obscure acronyms, chronic saddle sores ... it's a terminal disease, and the latter stages can get quite ugly.
03-14-19, 07:51 AM
#91
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You are young to have a wall hanger but your issues are valid. I bought a well used Italian team bike wall hanger from an elderly gentleman who was moving into assisted living, painful to watch him move around. That bike was art to him, he changed in front of that bike. I could tell it was the bright spot in his day, made him feel good to just look at it. I asked what it was about it that made him hang it but he did not know or would not say but he knew every paint chip and advised me the preventative maintenance needed before a ride.
I ride it ride it a dozen of so times a year and it is a lovely ride, but at 68 I am cautious, slow, don't lean my bikes against a wall, etc. When arthritis all too soon keeps me out of the saddle I might just have to have a wall hanger or two.
I ride it ride it a dozen of so times a year and it is a lovely ride, but at 68 I am cautious, slow, don't lean my bikes against a wall, etc. When arthritis all too soon keeps me out of the saddle I might just have to have a wall hanger or two.
03-14-19, 08:22 AM
#92
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I'm going to say something that people after this post won't read, but here goes anyway.
The original poster has taken the good advice to heart by now. I don't see the point in lecturing him any more. It worked. This is good news.
The original poster has taken the good advice to heart by now. I don't see the point in lecturing him any more. It worked. This is good news.
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“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
03-14-19, 08:26 AM
#93
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I like the advice
In all honesty, after reading all the feedback, it would be a mistake not to enjoy the bike itself. I thought about all the touring possibilities and it gave me something to look forward to this summer. I might use it for randonneuring! We shall see. Overall, everyone has been extremely helpful and I am happy to have been able to express my thoughts. You guys rock.
In all honesty, after reading all the feedback, it would be a mistake not to enjoy the bike itself. I thought about all the touring possibilities and it gave me something to look forward to this summer. I might use it for randonneuring! We shall see. Overall, everyone has been extremely helpful and I am happy to have been able to express my thoughts. You guys rock.
I think you’ll be glad and not regret your decision.
As a 56-year-old who early developed a love for bikes and cycling, the looks of a bike has always been part of the appeal as, of course, has been the performance. When exceptional form and function meet, it’s magic.
I just purchased a classic Eddy Merckx bike because I couldn’t keep my eyes off it. It’s beautiful to me, and part of the attraction are memories of taking my own gran fondos on steel road bikes when I was a teenager. My wife asked if I was going to ride the Merckx. Yes I will. I hope often once the weather changes.
If I bought a classic that predated my experience, I think it would give me more pause, but I think I would ride it with respect and admiration. I would learn as much as I could about cycling in that era and, in my imagination “borrow” some memories as I ride. I think I’d also enjoy riding with others occasionally who would appreciate it for what it is. Then I’d clean it as necessary and hang it on the wall again. I’ve found that bicycles are generally hardy, and if riding it adds to the patina, that becomes part of the charm.
I think you could enjoy a lifetime of use from your cherished bike and it still be a piece you can hang on the wall as art. I have a hunch that creating your own fond memories associated with the machine will make it all the more appealing. The history you create just may make others “down the road” appreciate it more as well.
By the way, my wife and I display our “beautiful to us” road bikes on a two-up rack in the living space of our apartment, and my commuter bike is displayed on a stand in my office. I don’t have space for an “art only” bike, but I’m not against that concept and can see why someone would preserve a bike (or more) in addition to the riders in the stall. I just don’t think I could resist riding it on occasion.
Last edited by mcpastor; 03-14-19 at 09:10 AM.
03-14-19, 09:10 AM
#94
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Tom, this is a forum, and people are sharing their thoughts on his question. Some may feel it's a lecture, and writing styles differ, but most of this is just us talking to ourselves. At 23, while some of the words may not be a casually courteous as he would like, he can take them with a grain of salt...give him some credit.
He can save this collection of the thoughts of many people who were spurred by his post to describe how they see the topic.
He's going to be fine, and the bike, like ours, will likely outlive him. Some of the responses may seem like lectures, but for many of us, it's just what we would say to him, over something brewed, cold or hot, (Right before we picked up the check.)
The next step is to find him and ride with him, not shut down the responses. This question/answer can't have a life without some kind of continuance.
Turning it from "I asked a question on a forum" to "I asked a question on a forum, and it's amazing what happened" is up to us.
It's not what "what have you said?" in life, it's "what have you done?" and how you did it.
The OP's excellent topic, and the forum responses, led me to take arguably my most pristine bike for a ride. The bike sang.
He can save this collection of the thoughts of many people who were spurred by his post to describe how they see the topic.
He's going to be fine, and the bike, like ours, will likely outlive him. Some of the responses may seem like lectures, but for many of us, it's just what we would say to him, over something brewed, cold or hot, (Right before we picked up the check.)
The next step is to find him and ride with him, not shut down the responses. This question/answer can't have a life without some kind of continuance.
Turning it from "I asked a question on a forum" to "I asked a question on a forum, and it's amazing what happened" is up to us.
It's not what "what have you said?" in life, it's "what have you done?" and how you did it.
The OP's excellent topic, and the forum responses, led me to take arguably my most pristine bike for a ride. The bike sang.
Last edited by RobbieTunes; 03-14-19 at 09:21 AM.
03-14-19, 12:57 PM
#95
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All of that is true, @RobbieTunes. Nothing wrong with talking with each other here. I'm not trying to shut the thread down. In fact, it's a good topic for discussion.
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Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
Tom Reingold, tom@noglider.com
New York City and High Falls, NY
Blogs: The Experienced Cyclist; noglider's ride blog
“When man invented the bicycle he reached the peak of his attainments.” — Elizabeth West, US author
Please email me rather than PM'ing me. Thanks.
03-14-19, 02:37 PM
#96
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As we say in Gotham, "I gotta guy", I'll put a good word in for you...
Nice ride...
Last edited by Giacomo 1; 03-14-19 at 04:47 PM.
03-15-19, 01:53 PM
#98
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To the OP - If we haven't scared you off already, consider posting your location in the "User CP (Control Panel). You can be a bit vague if you'd like, for example, Portlandia (general Portland OR area). There's an excellent chance other members will be nearby to share a beer, ride, or wrench. I'd probably remark to you that you might try tilting your saddle up more and shortening the loop to your rear brake if I saw you in person, but maybe that works ok for you. 
Seriously, though, the amount of help you can get from this group will grow exponentially if/when you develop a personal relationship with some of us - the kind that you can only get in person. Bikes don't fix themselves over the internet. Speciality tools that are only needed once in a blue moon can be borrowed from many BF members, including me.
But we've gotta know if you're a plane flight or a bike ride away!
Seriously, though, the amount of help you can get from this group will grow exponentially if/when you develop a personal relationship with some of us - the kind that you can only get in person. Bikes don't fix themselves over the internet. Speciality tools that are only needed once in a blue moon can be borrowed from many BF members, including me.
But we've gotta know if you're a plane flight or a bike ride away!
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If someone tells you that you have enough bicycles and you don't need any more, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
If someone tells you that you have enough bicycles and you don't need any more, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
Last edited by gugie; 03-15-19 at 03:10 PM.
03-15-19, 02:47 PM
#99
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This is not a good analogy, BUT
I once bought a collectible Jim Beam bottle, USMC Eagle Globe & Anchor. No one said not to open it.
Oops.
Beat just looking at it.
I once bought a collectible Jim Beam bottle, USMC Eagle Globe & Anchor. No one said not to open it.
Oops.
Beat just looking at it.
Last edited by RobbieTunes; 03-15-19 at 06:37 PM.
03-15-19, 03:28 PM
#100
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Looking at the cockpit, I was first thinking, that's short compared to a lot of bikes I see on this site. But then I see what you mean at the cable hanger. Yeah, that's a pet peeve of mine, too.
I think the only way it could stay that way over time is if you don't ride it.
Beautiful bike, though.
Check out the TDF riders' non-aero cable lengths in old youtube footage. It's minimal. And classy.