Barrettscv 

Nostalgia plays a part in collecting items from a former era. I could not have used an adult lightweight bike as a new bike if it was originally sold prior to 1970. Coincidentally, my interest in C&V bike is strongest in bikes built after 1970.

Do you have a C&V bike that predates your generation? Do you have a sentimental interest in the bike, or is you interest purely rational?

(flame suit on)

CliffordK

I guess that all depends on your definition.

I bought my old Colnago when I was 16 and still in HS, and have owned it for over 3 decades.

The frame itself, though, was probably made when I was 2 or 3 years old.

Why did I buy it?
Well, at the time I could afford a good used bike... and I suppose that was the general type of bike my father was riding.

I think of bikes based more or less on the generation of the bikes.

50's - Balloon Tire Cruisers, curved tubing
60's - English 3 Speeds
70's - 90's - Steel 10 speeds (and more).
90's - 2000's - Aluminum, CF, brifters, and 1 1/8" steer tubes.

I'd probably jump on the right Cambio Corsa bike if I found it at the right price. But, really don't have a lot of interest in the old balloon tire cruisers or English 3-speeds. I consider all the "quality" 10 speed road bikes as still relevant today.

gaucho777 

I was born in the early 1970s, but that doesn't stop me from wanting a pre-70s Cinelli or Masi.

I raced in the mid-80s to the early 90s, and that's a sweet spot in my collection. However, the bike I ride most often is older than I am.

Barrettscv 

Yes, this makes sense, lightweight road bikes were scarce prior to 1970 and the bike boom days. 99% of bikes sold before 1970 were heavy mass market bikes.

mobilemail

This question would assume I've begun my adult years....

probably a bad assumption....

But to the spirit of the question, my C&V bikes would have been new about when I hit voting age and drinking age.

bikingshearer 

My frames date from 1961, 1967, 1978, 1982-ish and 1986, to when I was 4, 10, 21, 25-ish and 29, respectively. None of them have the original equipment, and only the oldest one has more or less period appropriate gear on it.

I have had the oldest one since I was about 15 or so, and it was literally a barn find. I rode it for a year or so, and it hung around unbuilt up and largely ignored for the nest almost 40 years, until I had it repainted and got the components to build it up again. It carried me on this year's Eroica California 40 mile ride.

The other frames are all marques I lusted after and could not afford in my ill-spent youth, but I have been fortunate to acquire them in my ill-spent adulthood.

Barrettscv 

Great reply, thank you

cb400bill

I was born in 1959. My current bike's ages are spread out a fair amount.

1961 Legnano
1974 Viscount
1985 Trek
1993 Raleigh
2006 Cannondale

So I guess the oldest two pre-date my adulthood.

icepick_trotsky 

I was born in 1985. All my C&V bikes, by definition, predate my adulthood.

I seem to gravitate most to bikes from the late 1980s. I have no specific personal attachment to the era, as I was a small child, but the aesthetics and mechanics of the day just speak to me.

MZilliox

I have a 1970 Mercian that is a decade older than me, just fell in love with it on first sight. I am looking for a bike from my 1980 birth year though, and that would be just for fun's sake.

USAZorro

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. No. No.

Chombi

All of them are from very late to just after college years except one which places me in grade school (5th or 6th grade) when it was built....

davester

Hmmm. My oldest bike I bought brand new. It still feels like my new bike. I guess that makes me C&V too.

michael k

My Interests are purely Irrational.

Grand Bois

Most of the bikes sold in the U.S. were heavyweights because they were bought for children. Bicycles did not start becoming popular with adults until the seventies. There were quite a few teens and pre-teens in my area that had Varsities, Continentals ans Steyr Clubmans in the sixties. It was 1960 when I got my Puch Bergmeister. Fads and fashions often start and end earlier in Southern California.

I've never owned a bike that's older than me, but I'd like to.

fietsbob

My Classic Bike I still have, was a frame I built myself with resources, around, friends and the community college .

the bike I built ~ 1959/60 Parts changing, was allowed to be stolen while I was in the Navy in the end of the 60's.
a 3 speed with a 3x3x3 drivetrain.

I got an RB1 frame much later..

HTupolev

My only C&V bike was given to me earlier this year by my grandfather... he'd gotten it over a decade before I was born, which I think means it predates my adult years.

gugie 

Great minds think alike, at least that's my excuse.

My first entry into C&V was a 73 Raleigh International frame. It was the bike I wanted when I was 15, but settled on a Super Course MkII.

Now I wish I had never sold the Super Course!

lord_athlon

My newest bicycle is from 1986.
I too was born in 1986.

non-fixie 

I've spent my teenage years (the seventies) on a "sports bike", a three-speed Batavus Flying Dutchman of moderate weight. I had no particular interest in "racing bikes" at the time. Cars were my thing. Sports cars especially.

I bought my first racing bike on April 30th, 2009 on a flea market, just because, well, I was looking for something to buy, I'd never owned one, and it was just €20.

It needed some work (full overhaul, broken rear axle), and just about every internet query I did at the time landed me on this forum, so I became a member (to be able to see all the pics). I never left.

I'm at least as interested in the stories behind the bikes and the brands as in the bikes themselves, and currently I'm working my way through the fifties and sixties.

As this thread desperately needs pictures, I'll post one of my favorites:

SJX426 

No to all.
Like @clifforK, I think owning a Cambio Corsa would be cool. Then a bike with the next gen of cable lever rear control and rod front RD control. The more frequent I come to BF the more interest there is in older bikes. Most of the interest is in drive trains with frame design/build second.

KonAaron Snake 

I'm not sure why you'd need a flame suit...I think it's a great thread topic.

In the beginning I followed the same model that most of us did...I was most interested in the bikes that were prevalent and unobtainable when I was in my mid-teen years. The two I was especially interested in were Merlin and De Rosa. At the same time, one of the bikes I've most enjoyed over my life was a 1949 Schwinn Triplet that I trash picked and restored with my dad. I think that bike helped spark my interest in C and V...as did walking into Via bikes at around 14 and meeting CR member Harvey Sachs. A friend's father also had a very early De Rosa built Merckx, and while it was a dinosaur (Super Record???), it was also very beautiful.

As I hung out here learning about the differences between eras, and having gone to a few of the c/v events, I began to get more interested in some of the older stuff that wasn't around in my era. The clearances were more relaxed! It came with eyelets! I started acquiring more bikes from before my coming of age, and even my birth. At this point my collection is about half coming of age and after and half pre-coming of age.

Dave Cutter

As (barely) a teen in 1964.... I acquired a 1 year old 1963 Schwinn Varsity 10 speed, road bike. I lived in a small Midwestern town and at the time there was only one other 10 speed in the town. Then a guy brought his "racing bike" back from college... and there was 3.

I own and ride both modern and Vintage bicycles. I have an affection for mid-80's Japanize made bikes. But I have limited space and the N+1 rule requires me to continually sell (as well as buy) my vintage collection. My oldest bicycle at this time is an '88 [cro-moly] Trek 360 with switchable friction/index DT shifters.

I love the down-tube shifters. That... I am sure is a left-over from my early days.

wheatfly

Interesting question. I like 80s to early 90s stuff as far as what I look for to buy. I was born in 82 and had no interest in cycling until just the last few years. Never looked at magazines as a kid or new anyone into road bikes.


Not really sure what the attraction is or exactly where it comes from. I'm thrifty, like the grins per dollar factor of bikes and the variety. I've always liked cars, trucks, motorcycles, dirt bikes, sports cars etc but never had a place for anything or even owned something in most of those realms. Bikes seem to scratch an itch for variety and not be nearly as costly or space consuming as cars so that has a lot to do with it.

jimmuller 

Not many things predate my adult years. I guess it depends on how you define adult years.