Wileyone 

In 20 years I won't have to worry about it.

nlerner

Yeah, I wonder if I’ll still be able to throw a leg over this one in my 9th decade.

T-Mar

My all time favourite bicycle is Italian but mid-range Japanese C&V bicycles generally offer the best value. Having said that, the nation which would win from a count of the number of their bicycles that I've owned, is Canada, and three of those Canadian bicycles are in my Top 5.

sced

I picked Spain just to give it a shot in the arm, but I don't really have a preference other than "it's a good deal". I also have 2 Italians, 2 French, and a Limey. My Macario from Madrid.........

Germany_chris

Japan out manufactured everyone in the era we're talking about, this isn't uncommon knowledge.

johnnyace 

My thoughts exactly. Back during my road racing years (mid-late 80s) I rode a Bianchi Specialissima, now I don't even look at Italian bikes (maybe it's the average price!). I seem to be collecting French bikes, and particularly lean towards those made with Reynolds 531 (like my Gitane TdF and Peugeot PX10). They hit the sweet spot for me of both comfortable and fast. Also have two Peugeots made with Reynolds 501.

The Japanese bikes I own or have owned are just very well built, nice riders, and easy to work with, in ways that the French bikes aren't.

Having said all this, my next bike will most likely be an American-made (here in Oregon) custom. Or an Alex Singer.

Hajo

Where are all the Dutch brands? I am a big fan of Gazelle bikes, there have to be more fans to Dutch bikes here?

fabiofarelli

Almost everything I own is in storage now because of building a new shed. This is what's available now, Dutch, Japan, Dutch, italian, French and five Italians. And a Dutch/Italian complete bike. In storage bikes and frames from the same countries plus some Belgian. And one from Taiwan.
For European guys I think this is a strange poll.

Wileyone 

This is the original post...

"Which country of origin do you prefer for C&V bikes?Which country of manufacture do you prefer in a C&V bicycle? Probably no surprise who the "winner" will be, but a fun poll nonetheless. "

With the original post we could be dealing with bikes running over 100 years.

joesch

Im happy with either Campy or Dura Ace components.
So many great C&V Italian frame makers !

botty kayer

It's a tie for me, with 4 Belgians, and 4 Italians, and 1 English one making up the numbers. I did have 2 English ones but my Brian Rourke was killed by a labradoodle, so I now hate that type of dog.

fettsvenska 

I chose England because my dream bike is a Hetchins. One of these days I'll find the right one.

nlerner

Okay, this thread led me to do a country-of-origin inventory of the fleet:

Country: #
UK: 10
Taiwan: 4
USA: 2
Austria: 1
China: 1
France: 1

dweenk

I chose France because I couldn't have more than one pick, and I have a soft spot for Motobecane. That said; I like British bikes - especially 3-speeds. I suppose I neglected Japanese bikes because during the bike boom of the early to mid seventies they were so common that they seemed to be domestic. And I chose to keep my money invested in a small house, boring utilitarian automobiles, and savings in many forms; but there was a small boat or two.

Bogester 

One of each please. If I have to pick one it’s USA for the Sch(win)n!

merziac

USA
5 Paramount's
5 Merz
2 Strawberrry
1 TIcycles/Strawberry
1 Bornstien/Strawberry
1 Ritchey
1 Scott Paisley
1 Trek OCLV USPS 5200
2 FUSO
And probably more.

Wildwood 

Vintage roadies
Austrian - 3
Belgium - 1
Dutch - 1 = probably got the most miles last year
French - 1
German - 1
Irish - 1 (Irish branded UK Holdsworth)
Italian - 5
Spanish - 1
Swiss - 1
UK - 2
USA - 1

Modern road bikes are: 1 Italian, 4 USA (each from a small volume builder)

Edit: Golly, I can’t pick a favorite country -
but a favorite rider probably has:
a comfortable saddle,
expensive tires rolling on
smooth hubs with
a clean/tuned drivetrain
and gearing appro for the route.
On a mildly sunny day
with courteous and minimal auto traffic.
The rest is Gravy.


Grail rider = a good bike with all the right conditions being satisfied.





Grail on!

Trakhak

I voted Italian, because the local bike store I haunted in New Haven the early to mid-1960s stocked Atala, Frejus, and Legnano. (They stocked Peugeot, too, and occasionally got a Paramount in by special order, but the Italian bikes were the beauty queens.) Legnano's team color (chartreuse, or whatever it was); Atala bikes in pearl violet; Frejus bikes in those stunning tube/contrasting panel color combinations that only an Italian designer could pull off. (Still dream of owning matching Frejus road and track bikes painted milky-coffee tan with red or blue panels.)

Are most people voting according to the greatest number of bikes from a given country that they've owned? Or according to (like me) the country of origin of the bikes they desired when first smitten with bike lust? If the latter, and if it hit you in the 1970s, you likely voted for French or British bikes; if in the 1980s, probably Japanese bikes or American bikes.

If bike lust didn't hit you until the modern era, then Japanese bikes would probably have been the practical choice, because they're generally the most affordable of the bikes from the C&V era.

fabiofarelli

Both, I collect those I wanted and could not pay ...

NatusEstInSuht

Don't forget about Rocky Mountain, Brodie, Norco and Fiori, Gardin, Bertrand, DeKerf, along with Canadian-made Raleighs and Peugeots.

johnnyace 

As of this morning (7/14), Japan is still ahead with 24 votes (out of 91), with Italy sneaking up behind with 20. I had stated in my OP that "probably no surprise who the "winner" will be...," which I figured would easily be Italy. So yes, I'm a bit surprised.

ClydeClydeson

Re. Canada

We used to have quite a significant bike industry here. If you own a Peugeot or Raleigh between ~50 and 30 years old in North America, there is a very good chance it was Canadian Made. And it wasn't just frames and forks - I have rims and cranks and lots of other parts that were made in Canada decades ago. A common configuration frame + fork + most non-moving parts Canadian made, most moving parts French made.

Raleigh Canada also used to do a lot of contract manufacturing of lower-end bikes sold at box stores. For instance, Millenium bikes that used to be sold at WalMart were actually made by Raleigh Canada.

Norco was originally a relatively low-cost bike brand (most models had nutted axles), although few if any were actually made in Canada. Then the whole 'freeriding' mtb thing coincidentally started basically in their backyard and they capitalized on that.
Kona, Brodie and Rocky Mountain came from around the same place but their bikes were generally leaders in the industry rather than followers. Few of them, except for a few RMs and Brodies, were ever actually Canadian made. There are also a handful of smaller builders, DeKerf, Cove, etc, but these were made in much smaller numbers.

On the other end of the country there was Marinoni, Mikado, Cyclops, Velo Sport, Devinci, Miele, CCM, and others - these were actually 'made in Canada' bikes for the most part, up until around 2000. A handful of those got bought out by Procycle of Quebec through the years, along with Rocky Mountain.

cudak888 

Any bicycle from the Klingon planet of Praxis.

-Kurt

Wileyone 

That's right next to Belgium isn't it?

noglider 

Do you mean in quality or quantity? In quality, without a doubt, and likely in quantity, too, at least in our markets.