merziac

Ya think?

georges1

Well I don't buy technology but reliability and solidity that are made to last. The video in question shows only carbon bikes with integrated headset and stem which are non adjustable, disc brakes and wireless transmission and there is absolutely nothing amazing in them.For classic and vintage people like me and others here,they are just carbon bikes with no real soul or artisanal craftsmanship. I am not talking about repairability of a severely dented carbon frame.

merziac

Again, BS.

botty kayer

I'd have a go at riding all of the bikes in that link of new bikes, but looking at them my over riding impression of every single one of them was meh. And that's if they cost say 1000 bucks, the fact they all cost multiple times that just makes me want to walk on by even faster.

At the cafe stop in my experience a nice C&V bike will be getting more attention and love from the assembled crowd every single time than virtually any carbon bike. Yes there will be some seething butt hurt guy with a 10k+ bike there convinced his bike is better in every single way and is jealous of the attention the steel classic gets, let him stew in his own juices. Cycling is much more than just peak performance, lightest weight and fastest speed, in fact the majority of cyclists don't prioritize those things, and definitely won't be spending good second hand car money on a bike that supposedly promises those things.

I have many times had people stop me on my steel bikes to compliment them, I even had a guy last week ask me if he could take a photo of me and my bike. I've got steel, ti and carbon bikes, nobody has ever said a word about the ti or carbon ones, and they're really rather nice.

Cycling is as much about how it makes you feel too. Riding any bike is better than riding no bike in my opinion, so I'm not coming from a place of hating carbon, but there's no romance of whiff of history for me with a carbon frame injected into a mold by a robot, and I don't care how much the company claim to have spent on R&D (cos as said above I don't care about 0.8% increased stiffness marketing guff), so paying a big chunk of change for a new carbon frame just doesn't seem worth it.

All my bikes, steel, carbon and ti are set up with decent tyres and brifters with at least 20 gears, and honestly the difference between them performance wise is negligible. My carbon bike is a few kg's lighter so if I was timing myself cycling up an Alp I'm pretty sure it would be a bit quicker, but I don't live near an Alp, and if I did I wouldn't care about how quick I went up or down it. The carbon bike has deeper section wheels that do help at holding speed when going along at a great clip, but only very marginally, and in terms of actual top speed on the flat I can get up the same top speed on my steel bikes as I can on my carbon bike, the engine powering them is the same after all.

The fact of the matter is I have more mates with modern carbon bikes than steel bikes, and when I go riding with them, not once ever has me on my old steel bikes been dropped or left behind, and they have often tried, but there is no massive performance disadvantage at all to C&V unless you are trying to win the Tour de France. A good spec'd steel bike can be built with decent 2nd hand parts for way less than 1/10 of the price of a new top end carbon bike, and there is no way in hell the carbon bike is 10 times better, it won't even be twice as good, its maybe nought point something percent better, so lets round that down to nothing, so the rate of return for splashing the extra cash is meh and not worth it imo.

My steel bikes are more than capable of doing all I want a bike to do for me. I don't hate or denigrate carbon bikes, but the carbon one I do own I got 2nd hand for a bargain price. It was superbike money once but I wasn't interested in it then. And like most C&V'ers I'm a bit of a tinkerer and like the process of sourcing parts and building bikes too, so that is also very much part of the allure for me.

Fundamentally I just think ALL new bikes are a waste of money, and like cars the biggest hit in depreciation comes in the first year, so I'd rather save the money to spend on extra cake and a fine wine/ nice beer at the cafe stop, where I can sit down with everyone else, and admire how mighty fine that sparkly paint job and chrome looks in the evening sun, and a smile will break out on my face and all will feel good in the world. I just won't get that from a plastic Giant.

botty kayer

In summary, Atlas Shrugged yes you are definitely missing something

nlerner

But WWER?

RB1-luvr

I love how much I learn on the c+v threads. Said differently; I am amazed at how little I know about bikes when I read c+v posts after 39 years of serious cycling.

smd4

You probably don't ride enough.

smd4

These are the bikes you think "qualify" for "this group?" As they sit, they pretty much disqualify you.

brianinc-ville

I can relate to a lot of these descriptors, but I've mostly been tool-not-jewel, rather than jewel-not-tool. I started using this forum as a grad student trying to keep my $40 Salvation Army Peugeot going for everyday transportation, when I couldn't afford to take it to a shop. Over the years I picked up other C&V bikes for other reasons, but for the most part I was always trying to learn how to put cheap old parts together into a really useful everyday transportation bike that I couldn't afford to buy new.

It's easy to forget, too, that for decades it was pretty impossible to buy a decent new transportation bike in North America, even if you had the money to spend -- from roughly 1980 to 2012, a 1950-1980 English 3-speed was actually a better option than anything new on the market. That has changed. Nowadays I've got more money, but no longer the time to mess around, so I ride modern city and cargo bikes that didn't exist when I joined this forum (Douze V2, Priority Continuum) and don't hang around here as much as I used to.

Bad Lag

I came to this Forum looking for info on maintaining my C&V bike - parts, advice, etc. The Forum was (and is) well beyond the "critical mass" needed to be vital and effective in that role, so I stayed. I suspect others are here for similar reasons. A common interest and need keeps us together.

Although I do not feel it, I am chronologically an "old fart". I have enjoyed cycling since I got my first bike at age 12.

Like you, I also like the classic style, steel bikes. I am both a "classic" and "vintage" aficionado. With one exception, over my lifetime, all my bikes have all been steel, 2X5 ten speeds with drop bars.
The exception is a steel, eight speed IGH, an homage to the classic English bikes. It's even black in color.

For all intents and purposes, I only ride my 50 year old Bob Jackson ten speed. We have been everywhere together, doing all sorts of rides - loaded touring, fast club rides, commuting 70 miles/day, etc. These days my riding is mostly restricted to daily fitness rides which I enjoy immensely. Shortly after I finish typing this, I will go on my daily ride.

I'd never noticed this is the most frequented Board. Similar to my attitude about others' bike choices, whether carbon fiber, e-bikes, C&V or whatever, it just doesn't matter to me.

Life is short, enjoy your time while riding.

steelbikeguy

It is fun to get a custom frame made for you, with all of the quirks and details that make you happy!
A side effect is that you don't have to fret about minor abuse, unlike some precious vintage bikes, because there's no legend about how the bike is supposed to look, etc.
Also.. modern paint is so much more durable than the bikes of the 70's!

I did see Dave Kirk's booth at the 2009 NAHBS in Indianapolis. Pretty nice stuff.



Steve in Peoria (my precious vintage bikes are "sunny day" bikes, but my custom bikes get abused and enjoyed in all weather)

georges1

Nice lugged framed steel bikes

smd4

Can one get a custom carbon frame?

mhespenheide 

Yes. Landshark, Crumpton, Parlee, and Sarto come to mind. I'm sure there are others. Calfee, too, maybe.

brixxton

“To ride a bicycle is in itself some protection against superstitious fears, since the bicycle is the product of pure reason applied to motion. Geometry at the service of man! Give me two spheres and a straight line and I will show you how far I can take them. Voltaire himself might have invented the bicycle, since it contributes so much to man’s welfare and nothing at all to his bane. Beneficial to the health, it emits no harmful fumes and permits only the most decorous speeds. How can a bicycle ever be an implement of harm?”
― Angela Carter\\

“When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle

gugie 

The C&V part I like best are the people. Older people, people who get my old movie references, mostly guys who aren't out to pound me into the pavement and prefer riding cooperatively rather than competitively. We wait for the slowest riders at the top of a hill, knowing it's a lot more enjoyable to share the experience rathern than "win".

We enjoy the veloship enough that many of us will do a week long tour together. Outside of myself, I met most of these people through BF C&V:

Chr0m0ly 

If cycling is a sport than I agree with everything you've posted, but there are many riders for whom the bike is for transportation, not racing. Having bicycles classified as sporting equipment while losing it's position as a vehicle for transportation is one reason it is difficult to get more cycleing infrastructure and why cycling is less popular in the United states than say, in Holland.

The new sleek bikes are undeniably faster and lighter, and if you are trying to shave seconds, or just love the aesthetic, or want the most recent mechanical developments than by all means go modern. But if your interest lies in commuting, touring, picnics, going to the beach, meeting friends up for coffee, tinkering and tuning, making the old beautiful and usable, being able to afford trying many different geometries and frame materials to discover your preferences, than you could be much better off with vintage.

As for other sporting equipment I love hiking with my Jansport external frame pack from the 70’s, shooting my one piece wood and fiberglass bows from the 60s and 70s, riding vintage motorcycles, winter camping in wool, and let me tell you, if you haven’t tried to tele-ski, well my friend, you are missing out! 😊

Eric F 

I did a nice little group ride yesterday with a handful of guys of a similar age. We rode at a fairly casual pace for a while, stopped to have coffee together, worked together in a brisk paceline, regrouped at the top of the climbs on our route, and then rolled easily along together as, one-by-one, riders peeled off to head home. It was a very enjoyable ride with people I enjoy riding and chatting with. Here's the shocking truth...Every rider in the group was on a light, modern, carbon fiber road race bike with carbon fiber wheels. Some even had electronic shifting, disc brakes, and tubeless tires.

gugie 

Hey, some of my best friends ride carbon...

brixxton

I like being able to fix things in the dark. I don't want to need batteries.
I have a sailboat built in 1976, she's perfectly capable of curcumnavigating the planet . Her hull is thick fiberglass , max speed 8knots .
The modern sailboats have underwater "wings"
that enable to reach 30 or 40knots. Will they be still sailing in 2080?
Just a comparison

gugie 

I think that the standard reply is "pix or it didn't happen", as "fork's bent" doesn't fit well here.

Eric F 

For carbon fiber bike folks, that would be "it didn't happen unless it's posted on Strava". It is... https://www.strava.com/activities/8986062269

I've found that I'm way less likely to take pics on road rides than I am on MTB or gravel bike rides.

gugie 

Clearly you're not stopping enough. Here's proper the way to do it.

Eric F 

Beer(s) after the ride, sure. Beer during the ride, not for me.

Best (for me) so far - Waffle first...


6 hour mixed-surface ride with 1800+ fine folks, and a good friend...



Beer after...