Who is oldschoolbike?
12-27-18, 01:43 PM
#1
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Who is oldschoolbike?
I was born in Quebec, grew up in New Brunswick, and work(ed) in Ontario. I taught university Physics for a time, but mostly have worked in micro-electronics and photonics as a lab scientist. After a time racing in the seventies, I never hung up the bike and have been commuting, touring, hard-riding, and endurance riding ever since. I have an old-school single speed lightweight and an old school road bike, and a modern single speed commuter and a modern road bike, all four of them steel and with not a single Shimano part to be found among them. I do have some carbon fibre and even some titanium in the shed, so the Shimano thing is my my only "religion".
In the winter I tend to dive deeply into technical details and obsess about getting the bikes just right, and when spring comes I forget all that and just ride. Despite my alias, I do think that modern bikes are much better than pre-eighties bikes, and I can argue that most advances of the last thirty years are valuable. It's just that most new bikes lack the road feel a bike should have, and some modern componentry is obviously not meant to last. The way forward is to understand what you want and be prepared to figure out how to get it, and not just assume that more expensive is better. https://www.pinterest.ca/boliver523/...fted-bicycles/
In the winter I tend to dive deeply into technical details and obsess about getting the bikes just right, and when spring comes I forget all that and just ride. Despite my alias, I do think that modern bikes are much better than pre-eighties bikes, and I can argue that most advances of the last thirty years are valuable. It's just that most new bikes lack the road feel a bike should have, and some modern componentry is obviously not meant to last. The way forward is to understand what you want and be prepared to figure out how to get it, and not just assume that more expensive is better. https://www.pinterest.ca/boliver523/...fted-bicycles/
12-27-18, 03:33 PM
#2
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Welcome to Bike Forums, oldschoolbike! Interesting and well thought out introduction. Thank you for that.
12-27-18, 03:34 PM
#3
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Welcome! I have a soft spot for Quebec. VIsited once. (I had an aunt and uncle I loved there.) Montreal several times. Got my introducton to the idea I could race on a club ride with the Cyclotouriste Club de Quebec (sp) when I did as the club president told me to do the night before - trounced everyone going up the big hill.
As for bikes - I am not religious. But I do feel that the racing bike, that apparatus that does better at extracting everything a human can produce better than just about anything else ever invented, reached that apex decades ago. Very little has changed in that respect in the 40 years since my hardest race. The new bikes cannot extract anymore than my old Fuji did. Yes, they go faster. Yes the shifting is easier and you don't have to sit down to do it. So that 3 hours and 58 minutes that took me days to recover from would have ended probably 12 minutes sooner.
Now there I a couple of more recent changes that I love and will not go back on. Both of them I wanted when I raced. The top-mounted DT shifters that I would not hit with my knees when I clibed walls. Aero brake levers that would allow me to place my hands over the hood tops. I dreamed about doing that while riding my solo 100+ mile training rides in 1977. But brifters? Yes, if I raced now, I'd need them. But I don't race and I both don't need them or want them.
My real love - riding the road on fix gears. My club's vets said I needed to set up my second bike fixed to learn better pedaling style. Fell in love first ride (despite trying to coast and crashing). I'm still in love with those things. Own three and will get on one for about 30 miles as soon as I post this.
And materials - I haven't gone carbon and it may be along time before I do. Steel works for my on several levels. I love titanium and have since I did a short spin on a Merlin MTB almost 30 years ago. I have two ti customs including the fix gear I am about to jump on. Both have steel forks. Both have rides I love. Yes, big, fast descents would be better if I went 1 1/8" but I wold be sacrificing the quills I love. I ride clinchers. They are good, acceptable in price and easy but I long for the security of solidly glued tires every time I do a very fast descent. I may well go back to sewups, probably long before I go carbon.
oldschoolbike - 79pmooney. We might be cut from similar cloth.
Ben
As for bikes - I am not religious. But I do feel that the racing bike, that apparatus that does better at extracting everything a human can produce better than just about anything else ever invented, reached that apex decades ago. Very little has changed in that respect in the 40 years since my hardest race. The new bikes cannot extract anymore than my old Fuji did. Yes, they go faster. Yes the shifting is easier and you don't have to sit down to do it. So that 3 hours and 58 minutes that took me days to recover from would have ended probably 12 minutes sooner.
Now there I a couple of more recent changes that I love and will not go back on. Both of them I wanted when I raced. The top-mounted DT shifters that I would not hit with my knees when I clibed walls. Aero brake levers that would allow me to place my hands over the hood tops. I dreamed about doing that while riding my solo 100+ mile training rides in 1977. But brifters? Yes, if I raced now, I'd need them. But I don't race and I both don't need them or want them.
My real love - riding the road on fix gears. My club's vets said I needed to set up my second bike fixed to learn better pedaling style. Fell in love first ride (despite trying to coast and crashing). I'm still in love with those things. Own three and will get on one for about 30 miles as soon as I post this.
And materials - I haven't gone carbon and it may be along time before I do. Steel works for my on several levels. I love titanium and have since I did a short spin on a Merlin MTB almost 30 years ago. I have two ti customs including the fix gear I am about to jump on. Both have steel forks. Both have rides I love. Yes, big, fast descents would be better if I went 1 1/8" but I wold be sacrificing the quills I love. I ride clinchers. They are good, acceptable in price and easy but I long for the security of solidly glued tires every time I do a very fast descent. I may well go back to sewups, probably long before I go carbon.
oldschoolbike - 79pmooney. We might be cut from similar cloth.
Ben
12-27-18, 03:58 PM
#4
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Funny, I raced in the 1970's too ... taught physics lab in graduate school ... ended up in the video game business but recently took a job as a researcher for a product company in Los Angeles.
12-27-18, 04:31 PM
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Welcome!
Never raced. Majored in Physics. 
Taught undergrads when I was in the graduate school. Doing bioinformatics now.
I was born in Quebec, grew up in New Brunswick, and work(ed) in Ontario. I taught university Physics for a time, but mostly have worked in micro-electronics and photonics as a lab scientist. After a time racing in the seventies, I never hung up the bike and have been commuting, touring, hard-riding, and endurance riding ever since.
Taught undergrads when I was in the graduate school. Doing bioinformatics now.
12-27-18, 05:30 PM
#6
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I was born in Quebec, grew up in New Brunswick, and work(ed) in Ontario. I taught university Physics for a time, but mostly have worked in micro-electronics and photonics as a lab scientist. After a time racing in the seventies, I never hung up the bike and have been commuting, touring, hard-riding, and endurance riding ever since. I have an old-school single speed lightweight and an old school road bike, and a modern single speed commuter and a modern road bike, all four of them steel and with not a single Shimano part to be found among them. I do have some carbon fibre and even some titanium in the shed, so the Shimano thing is my my only "religion".
In the winter I tend to dive deeply into technical details and obsess about getting the bikes just right, and when spring comes I forget all that and just ride. Despite my alias, I do think that modern bikes are much better than pre-eighties bikes, and I can argue that most advances of the last thirty years are valuable. It's just that most new bikes lack the road feel a bike should have, and some modern componentry is obviously not meant to last. The way forward is to understand what you want and be prepared to figure out how to get it, and not just assume that more expensive is better. https://www.pinterest.ca/boliver523/...fted-bicycles/
In the winter I tend to dive deeply into technical details and obsess about getting the bikes just right, and when spring comes I forget all that and just ride. Despite my alias, I do think that modern bikes are much better than pre-eighties bikes, and I can argue that most advances of the last thirty years are valuable. It's just that most new bikes lack the road feel a bike should have, and some modern componentry is obviously not meant to last. The way forward is to understand what you want and be prepared to figure out how to get it, and not just assume that more expensive is better. https://www.pinterest.ca/boliver523/...fted-bicycles/
I agree with much of what you wrote. You should spend some time on the classic and vintage forum where you will find a lot of like minded people (of course it may be a bit of an information bubble,
.I raced in the 80s and early 90s and I still like and ride steel bikes.
12-27-18, 05:46 PM
#7
Still kicking.
Welcome to the forums.
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Appreciate the old bikes more than the new.
Appreciate the old bikes more than the new.
12-27-18, 08:12 PM
#8
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Welcome
12-29-18, 10:08 AM
#10
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Welcome! I'm very much old school also but for different reasons.
12-29-18, 12:19 PM
#11
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Thanks for all the welcomes.
I am surprised nobody commented on the no Shimano thing. Are there more Shimano-avoidists out there among the non-racing crowd than I thought?
I am surprised nobody commented on the no Shimano thing. Are there more Shimano-avoidists out there among the non-racing crowd than I thought?
01-08-19, 10:31 PM
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Bienvenue! Aussi Québécois mais je roule sur un vintage steal bike à Tokyo!
01-09-19, 03:55 AM
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There are possibly a few ShimaNo people around the vintage cycling scene;... but we can't answer without knowing how many you thought there are.
I worked in semiconductors in the 70s, last electronics job was in optical routers. Not as a scientist/researcher. Somebody had to sell the stuff, back when selling was fun.
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Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
Vintage, modern, e-road. It is a big cycling universe.
