shopco43

t has been almost twenty years since Deb and I bought our bikes, and as I look around me it seems they have become things of the past; anachronisms.

In 1994 we needed to sell our bicycles. Gios Torino for me, Tommasini for her and a Salsa tandem Ross Shafer built just for us (a twenty-something pound starship c’83). Ten years later the world had turned a corner and I had almost lost sight of it. There was one point in the lost decade I had the opportunity to ride a Trek Madrone, the one in Postal colors, but buying a bike in 2004 pretty much left me adrift. Everything I knew, or thought I did was obsolete, bicycles had changed that much. The day of the ’73 Bianchi Specialissima was gone, never to return.

2004 turned out to be the right time for us to dump our current rides, a lower-end Trek and a Gipiemmi equipped Faggin and enter the new millennium. We wondered into the right shop at the right time and walked out with a pair of (what I just learned) were called “Spine Bikes”. These were bicycles with a metal “spine”, i.e. head tube, down tube, BB, and chain stays mated to carbon top and seat tubes and seat stays. To my eye they looked funny with their fat sloping top tube but oh my goodness, the ride! They had the light responsiveness of the Madrone with added road feel that (in my opinion at the time) could only be achieved via metal. I have read that these bikes were produced for only a few years and by only two makers; Specialized mated carbon with aluminum and Lemond with Titanium. Also in 2004 Shimano introduced their 7800 Dure-Ace, a highly reviewed Gruppo noted for its performance and beauty.

So, twenty years down the road are they vintage? I dunno. I will say this; they still amaze me and neither one of us would trade our Lemonds for anything on the current market.

PeteHski

Why don't you ask the C&V crowd? What difference would the answer make anyway?

CrimsonEclipse

Vistage is the year the grapes are picked for a specific wine.
The word has been abused to mean "old" or "obsolete" so now Vintage can mean anything you want it to mean.

terrymorse 

Ah, the good old "bonded" frames, with carbon tubes glued to metal lugs. It's something the industry tried for a few years -- before learning how dumb an idea it was.

I suppose there are people out there who collect bonded frames for their novelty.

wolfchild

How old does a bicycle have to be to be considered vintage ?

George Mann

Before 1990?

3alarmer 

.
...there's already a long and boring opinion thread on this: What constitutes a Classic or Vintage bicycle?

zandoval 

I guess its kinda like a new car at the dealers lot. Once you drive it off the lot it is suddenly old.

In many ways I now see the vintage classification on bicycles meaning, "can no longer easily find parts for it"

Wildwood 

1987 is often used to connote the break between 'an older bike' and 'a vintage bike'. But there is no real definition of vintage. No definition for Classics, either.


I rode a Lemond spine bike at an InterOp demo day event. I was impressed. Almost as good a ride as the Calfee that I had purchased just prior.

GamblerGORD53

Before threadless, carbon, sloped frames, helmets, bungie forks and balloon tire MTBs.
>>> Oh I forgot the biggest one, before TRIPLE deFaileurs.

indyfabz

shelbyfv

Yes, 20 years seems to be the minimum for most things, including bikes. Inexplicably, BF has excluded bikes with a certain type of shifter from the group. Given that element of random, feel free to call it what you want.

staehpj1

The older I get the more laughable the 20 year rule seems, but yeah that is often used.

Trakhak

As I understand it, one poster suggested that early brifter bikes should be segregated from other C&V bikes. Result: a thread from a mod headed, "We Have A Present For You."

The present turned out to be that all-early-brifter-bikes forum. In the 2 years since, that forum has accumulated 87 threads.

cb400bill

The unoffical BF policy is that if you think that your bike is Classic and/or Vintage, it is.

MikeWMass

Actually, Lemond (which was owned by Trek at the time) made spine bikes with aluminum Chambery and Alp D'Huez), steel (Buenos Aires, Versaille, Zurich and Croix de Fer) and titanium (.Tete de Course)

shopco43

My post was meant to be nothing more than a chatty way of bragging about my bicycles, my longevity (I was born the same year Tullio’s parallelogram derailleur was introduced to the marketplace) and as a comment on the rapidity of cycling’s “advancements”.

Having said that I must now add that of all the responses this post has received “terrymorse” and he alone has had the insight and experience to pull the covers off of the mountainous volume of my B.S. I am (of course) going to “like” his post, but that hardly goes far enough in extolling the virtues of this remarkable young man. How this individual has accomplished the vast time devoted to riding his bicycle while sharing almost 6,000 gems of wisdom on this forum, to say nothing of a PhD in materials science is nothing short of miraculous.

The only criticism I might offer would be to advise him that his talents are being horribly wasted spending his time here. It is quite obvious that he is desperately needed in the aerospace industry and should apply post hast to the Skunk Works.

I confess, with all humility, that it is only with the combined effects or duct tape and superglue that I have managed to keep the pathic thing I have laughingly called a bicycle together. I hereby offer my sincere apologies to all present. Not only do I swear to never darken your door again, but I will also end the abomination of my existence by riding my bicycle in traffic without a helmet.

Broctoon

"Vintage" is a term for bicycles (or cars, clothing, or whatever) that are old but interesting, collectible, and potentially valuable... as opposed to just being old and junky.

Stuff that's just old often has corrosion (oxydation) that we call rust. On vintage stuff, we call that same corrosion "patina."

shelbyfv

woodyj21

I purchased my first non-Big-Box-Store bike last week at 41 years old. The Bianchi Grizzly is one year younger than me. That was a somewhat odd expirience, LoL.

But I'm excited to be here!!

SoSmellyAir

Just like wine (CrimsonEclipse ), if your bike is older than all of your kids, it is vintage.

terrymorse 

Just in case anyone takes what is written in this place seriously, I:

• am not young
• don’t have a degree in material science (did take some undergrad courses in it—body centered cubic babeee!)
• never worked at the Skunk Works (did work in a different division of the same company--not telling which)
• enjoy wasting my time on BF

squirtdad

used to say older than me, now I say younger than me.

Vintage is a mindset. and in my case it is an argument with my brains saying I am not vintage and my knees saying yes you are

squirtdad

pics please the general forum lacks photos as a general statement

PeteHski

When it comes to cars I consider Vintage to be primitive pre WW2 junk. So for bicycles I would be thinking of a similar era. I certainly wouldn’t call anything that was made only 20 years ago “Vintage”. I wouldn’t even call it “Classic”, which in my mind is pre 1990, although I might soon revise that to pre 2000 as the years tick by 😂