Originally Posted by
mstateglfr
"30 years old isn't very old. Yes, my original iPod and iPod mini are newer but my Sony Walkman is 44 years old. Used the Walkman while mowing my lawn and it played like it was streaming off Spotify. And my portable CD players? Sony something I think and Sanyo CP10 - 39 years old."
Of course a 30 year old bike is old. Not many people own and ride bikes from 1990 or earlier, and this is especially true for enthusiast cyclists- they tend to stay within probably a decade of the current year for the bike they ride. <--that isnt a rule, its an observed tendency.
Just because you own and regularly ride bike frames made before 1990 doesnt mean those bikes arent very old. Good lord- the perceived badge of honor and logical disconnect that comes with that imagined badge is truly wild to see.
I picked the decades based off of what I've seen riding around NYC, upstate NY, and the SF Bay Area. Most of what passes me by on the road is fairly new, with the occasional bike that can give my 20 yr old Bianchi a run for its money. I very rarely see downtube shifters or lugged steel, and not for lack of trying - I remember having a chat with a guy on a Raleigh with chromed lugs and original Dura Ace while heading over the Walkway over the Hudson; and just yesterday I saw someone with downtube shifters heading into Woodside... but those are the exceptions, not the rule.