Vintage Cycling dies a slow death...
11-04-22, 01:38 PM
#101
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In 1980 I ran into a belgian-block curb, went over the bars, knocked myself out, and cracked C6. I've had neck pain ever since, at times severe enough to keep me off the bike, but usually manageable with PT and anti-inflammatories (though I've had to cut back on those in the last year due to troubling kidney values). As a result, I need my bars at least level with the saddle or 1 or 2 cm higher. I really don't care how that might look to others, particularly those who care far more about aesthetics than actual riding.
11-04-22, 04:21 PM
#102
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In 1980 I ran into a belgian-block curb, went over the bars, knocked myself out, and cracked C6. I've had neck pain ever since, at times severe enough to keep me off the bike, but usually manageable with PT and anti-inflammatories (though I've had to cut back on those in the last year due to troubling kidney values). As a result, I need my bars at least level with the saddle or 1 or 2 cm higher. I really don't care how that might look to others, particularly those who care far more about aesthetics than actual riding.
11-04-22, 06:54 PM
#103
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There's a surprising amount of discussion around the hobby that is allegedly dying a slow death.
-Kurt
-Kurt
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11-04-22, 07:53 PM
#104
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The numbers of enthusiasts may be waning, but it's never going to die. There will come a day - perhaps 50 years from now when there are more remaining 1970s road bikes than 2010s because... steel.
I hope to be around and cogent enough to laugh about it after I take one of my steeds for a spin.
I hope to be around and cogent enough to laugh about it after I take one of my steeds for a spin.
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11-04-22, 09:27 PM
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Darn! I was just getting going!
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11-05-22, 08:47 PM
#108
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In 1980 I ran into a belgian-block curb, went over the bars, knocked myself out, and cracked C6. I've had neck pain ever since, at times severe enough to keep me off the bike, but usually manageable with PT and anti-inflammatories (though I've had to cut back on those in the last year due to troubling kidney values). As a result, I need my bars at least level with the saddle or 1 or 2 cm higher. I really don't care how that might look to others, particularly those who care far more about aesthetics than actual riding.
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11-05-22, 11:25 PM
#109
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personally I like vintage frames with modern components, so am more concerned by the move to all disc braking and all electronic shifting at the high end.
but if you look a at the vendors mentioned there is still a ton of support for the vintage ethos
RH: alloy cranks, berthoud saddles for starters, fenders and the tires
VeloOrange; Super nice long reach dual pivots that will let me do bigger tires than 28mm should I choose
Rivendell: is 99% bringing out a nice silver derailler
I think the more the big guys move away from "vintage" the more it opens things up for small producers (with probably higher prices)
I think the vintage ethos and aesthetics will live and inspire, but not necessarily be slavish identical to the past
but if you look a at the vendors mentioned there is still a ton of support for the vintage ethos
RH: alloy cranks, berthoud saddles for starters, fenders and the tires
VeloOrange; Super nice long reach dual pivots that will let me do bigger tires than 28mm should I choose
Rivendell: is 99% bringing out a nice silver derailler
I think the more the big guys move away from "vintage" the more it opens things up for small producers (with probably higher prices)
I think the vintage ethos and aesthetics will live and inspire, but not necessarily be slavish identical to the past
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11-06-22, 08:03 AM
#110
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In 1980 I ran into a belgian-block curb, went over the bars, knocked myself out, and cracked C6. I've had neck pain ever since, at times severe enough to keep me off the bike, but usually manageable with PT and anti-inflammatories (though I've had to cut back on those in the last year due to troubling kidney values). As a result, I need my bars at least level with the saddle or 1 or 2 cm higher. I really don't care how that might look to others, particularly those who care far more about aesthetics than actual riding.
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11-06-22, 11:00 AM
#111
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This thread is dying pretty slowly...
Vintage cycling will always be around. It's just that the vintage bikes will be completely different. I mean, there aren't a lot of us using an old penny-farthing as a vintage commuter these days, amiright?
DD
Vintage cycling will always be around. It's just that the vintage bikes will be completely different. I mean, there aren't a lot of us using an old penny-farthing as a vintage commuter these days, amiright?
DD
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11-06-22, 11:59 AM
#112
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I wonder to what extent events like the World Wars I and II affected availability of older bikes.
I wasn't around then but have read of steel and rubber drives and how Americans contributed everything they could. It's not hard to imagine lots of penny farthings and Wright Cycles and pre-war Schwinns being melted down. This leads to a type of scarcity not yet seen for more recent vintages. The closest thing is the utter disrespect for the bike boom era "gas pipe specials". Despite the millions made, I suspect they will eventually be scarce as hen's teeth.
I could be wrong.
I wasn't around then but have read of steel and rubber drives and how Americans contributed everything they could. It's not hard to imagine lots of penny farthings and Wright Cycles and pre-war Schwinns being melted down. This leads to a type of scarcity not yet seen for more recent vintages. The closest thing is the utter disrespect for the bike boom era "gas pipe specials". Despite the millions made, I suspect they will eventually be scarce as hen's teeth.
I could be wrong.
11-06-22, 12:04 PM
#113
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I've been told that one of the locals (who is still active in the bike business) spent a lot of his youth riding an Ordinary around instead of a conventional road bike. Not sure why...
Steve in Peoria
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11-06-22, 12:49 PM
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Remember when an air cooled VW was in front of every other house on your street?
Admittedly that was 50 years ago.
Today there are still specialty mail order concerns that carry almost every part for VWs. Most of those quality German parts are now made in China. I am sure It’s a prosperous niche market.
Most likely main street auto shops would turn you away because the old school tech on VWs is so out of step with what’s on today’s vehicles.
Our bikes are more or less the same.
I can see a day coming when the bike shop
kid answers , “True a wheel? We don’t do that here. I remember an old guy who could do that. Last I hear he died from the epidemic.”
Admittedly that was 50 years ago.
Today there are still specialty mail order concerns that carry almost every part for VWs. Most of those quality German parts are now made in China. I am sure It’s a prosperous niche market.
Most likely main street auto shops would turn you away because the old school tech on VWs is so out of step with what’s on today’s vehicles.
Our bikes are more or less the same.
I can see a day coming when the bike shop
kid answers , “True a wheel? We don’t do that here. I remember an old guy who could do that. Last I hear he died from the epidemic.”
Last edited by embankmentlb; 11-06-22 at 12:55 PM.
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11-06-22, 01:23 PM
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11-06-22, 01:36 PM
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out of curiosity (sea kayaking sucks up any of my play $$ that bike don't) what was his kayak business?
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11-06-22, 01:37 PM
#118
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I wonder to what extent events like the World Wars I and II affected availability of older bikes.
I wasn't around then but have read of steel and rubber drives and how Americans contributed everything they could. It's not hard to imagine lots of penny farthings and Wright Cycles and pre-war Schwinns being melted down. This leads to a type of scarcity not yet seen for more recent vintages. The closest thing is the utter disrespect for the bike boom era "gas pipe specials". Despite the millions made, I suspect they will eventually be scarce as hen's teeth.
I could be wrong.
I wasn't around then but have read of steel and rubber drives and how Americans contributed everything they could. It's not hard to imagine lots of penny farthings and Wright Cycles and pre-war Schwinns being melted down. This leads to a type of scarcity not yet seen for more recent vintages. The closest thing is the utter disrespect for the bike boom era "gas pipe specials". Despite the millions made, I suspect they will eventually be scarce as hen's teeth.
I could be wrong.
1., In countries where scrapyards pay you for the steel and not asking you to pay for your things to leave them there, bike-related theft is generally more common. By nature bicycles are the perfect victims of that kind of crime, unlock, casually ride away, 2 corners from the spot no one cares about you. At the yard, the same, no one bats an eye over 100kg steel or alu frames if others cash in tons of mixed stuff.
2., many owners - of anything not necessarily bikes - have no clue what they have, and think if its old, no one needs them anymore, since everybody wants the new stuff in a digital world. This can be sad, if they also visit the scrapyard, or Christmas for friends/relatives/people on the street if they put out for "free to pick." I saw this with my neighbor whom I begged and offered help to try to sell his 50's Leica before he is forcing me to '"take it or its going in the trash, I'm cleaning the garage today, so now or never". German guy, was aware that Leica was a better brand back when he bought it new, but still insisted on the "no one wants a film camera these days". Same with street picked bikes, where I left my number behind with a note saying I picked it, call me if it wasn't there for this - I couldn't let them being kicked around on the street after 2 weeks, so decided to save them. Lady called, she was super happy that someone other than the city or the metal junk collectors took it and gave me another one, so I got a pair of almost NOS 70's/80' German time machines.
3., There are times every now and then, when certain trends change the consumer thinking in a way, that it renders the current tech almost immediately obsolete, or at least its financial value to zero. We tend to think, that because something was mass produced, it is and will remain endlessly available, we don't take the chance - actually might not even care - at the moment hen we could get these for cheap if not free, and maybe we only notice them decades later when the only nice examples exist are in the hands of collectors or "dealers" who were smart and stocked up betting on the future giving us the painful memories, when we could have these as well for dirt cheap. For most objects in their lives there was a point, when they became not needed, some are rising later to the desired unobtanium status thanks to some fashionable trend, some not. What I personally find interesting, that often this has nothing to do with how good/bad/cheap or expensive the item was when it was new.
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11-06-22, 04:30 PM
#119
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More likely rolling their eyes at us clinging to 80-year-old technologies, while they pursued innovative materials and designs in their day.
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11-06-22, 10:12 PM
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If "not intended for fenders or racks" is now considered an innovative design, then what is the world coming to?
Anyways a lot of this modern stuff is just old stuff warmed-over. Take the Bayliss Wiley freehub, of 1938, for example. Give Shimano a few years and they'll be introducing the straight-cage front derailleur and non-slant parallelogram rear, once AI has been trained for the perfect overshift. Jan will start saying that chain gap doesn't matter! And I'm sure someone already did electric shifting in the '50s using leftover WWII mercury switches, relays, and thyratron tubes from a scrap B29s and Teletype machines to drive a Le Cyclo helix off of a zinc carbon photoflash battery. Sold the patent to Mavic, which they developed into Mavic Zap, and the rest is history I suppose...
Anyways a lot of this modern stuff is just old stuff warmed-over. Take the Bayliss Wiley freehub, of 1938, for example. Give Shimano a few years and they'll be introducing the straight-cage front derailleur and non-slant parallelogram rear, once AI has been trained for the perfect overshift. Jan will start saying that chain gap doesn't matter! And I'm sure someone already did electric shifting in the '50s using leftover WWII mercury switches, relays, and thyratron tubes from a scrap B29s and Teletype machines to drive a Le Cyclo helix off of a zinc carbon photoflash battery. Sold the patent to Mavic, which they developed into Mavic Zap, and the rest is history I suppose...
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Owner & co-founder, Cycles René Hubris. Unfortunately attaching questionable braze-ons to perfectly good frames since about 2015. With style.
Last edited by scarlson; 11-06-22 at 10:20 PM.
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11-06-22, 11:22 PM
#122
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Soon to be seen in Shimano's technical documentation:
"--XTR powered by RTX --
Nvidia RTX technology allows the new plunger-type single-pulley XTR rear mech to calculate the perfect overshift in nanoseconds - every time".
Mechanically, of course, the new XTR derailleur resembles a 1936 Simplex Champion.
"--XTR powered by RTX --
Nvidia RTX technology allows the new plunger-type single-pulley XTR rear mech to calculate the perfect overshift in nanoseconds - every time".
Mechanically, of course, the new XTR derailleur resembles a 1936 Simplex Champion.
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Owner & co-founder, Cycles René Hubris. Unfortunately attaching questionable braze-ons to perfectly good frames since about 2015. With style.
Last edited by scarlson; 11-07-22 at 08:08 AM.
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11-06-22, 11:41 PM
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If "not intended for fenders or racks" is now considered an innovative design, then what is the world coming to?
Anyways a lot of this modern stuff is just old stuff warmed-over. Take the Bayliss Wiley freehub, of 1938, for example. Give Shimano a few years and they'll be introducing the straight-cage front derailleur and non-slant parallelogram rear, once AI has been trained for the perfect overshift. Jan will start saying that chain gap doesn't matter! And I'm sure someone already did electric shifting in the '50s using leftover WWII mercury switches, relays, and thyratron tubes from a scrap B29s and Teletype machines to drive a Le Cyclo helix off of a zinc carbon photoflash battery. Sold the patent to Mavic, which they developed into Mavic Zap, and the rest is history I suppose...
Anyways a lot of this modern stuff is just old stuff warmed-over. Take the Bayliss Wiley freehub, of 1938, for example. Give Shimano a few years and they'll be introducing the straight-cage front derailleur and non-slant parallelogram rear, once AI has been trained for the perfect overshift. Jan will start saying that chain gap doesn't matter! And I'm sure someone already did electric shifting in the '50s using leftover WWII mercury switches, relays, and thyratron tubes from a scrap B29s and Teletype machines to drive a Le Cyclo helix off of a zinc carbon photoflash battery. Sold the patent to Mavic, which they developed into Mavic Zap, and the rest is history I suppose...
11-07-22, 06:08 AM
#124
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You're saying Axis technology gave us di2?!
Makes me wonder what we were fighting for..
Last time I checked, the Spitfire was made of 531 and controlled with cables.
Makes me wonder what we were fighting for..
Last time I checked, the Spitfire was made of 531 and controlled with cables.
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Last edited by scarlson; 11-07-22 at 08:03 AM.
11-07-22, 07:41 AM
#125
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It's been an awfully long time since VO sold a lugged bike. I thought they had an American builder making them and I can't imagine with their lack of brand image as a premium brand either entity in that relationship could make any money. And the Asian factories that allow VO to make money just don't do lugged for the most part.
Doesn't RH offer frames? They had that special run of lugged frames recently, which as I recall sold out.
Doesn't RH offer frames? They had that special run of lugged frames recently, which as I recall sold out.