obrentharris 

I love modern bikes; index shifting, clipless pedals, wide tires, mountain bike suspension, air-hardening steel, brifters, the whole 9 yards!
I also am very fond of first quality bikes built before the Nuovo Record years of the seventies and have been looking for one off and on for years.

'70s bikes are nice too. I own 5 of them. Maybe I'm the odd duck here but growing up with them, racing them, wrenching on them, has left me a little bored with them.

Perhaps we who collect them are insuring that they will not be highly valued in the future. There are just too many of us collecting the seventies bikes for them to achieve the value that can come with rarity anytime soon. Much more rare are the bikes like the Cinelli Model B belonging to @iab or the 1958 Paramount belonging to @merziac. I can find plenty of nice Nuovo Record bikes for $600 to $700 dollars. Not such an easy task with the older bikes. Cambio Corsa? Even more rare. Even more costly.

I'm not worried about the fact that upon my demise no one may appreciate my bikes the way that I do. I'm sure they will find other vessels to pour their passion into.
Brent

SurferRosa

Sorry, I didn't see what was so hilarious about preferring '70s paint schemes.

RiddleOfSteel

@ctak and I were discussing this very thing yesterday as we ambled through Seattle traffic while moving some furniture. As we are both late-Gen X / early-Gen Y (Millennial) and know some other BF members that are in our age bracket, we are more or less the 'inheriting generation' whenever that ends up taking place. I am certainly extremely thankful for the internet and the contributions of BF members and everyone else in the Boomer (and older) generation to various sites and getting what is often lost information, catalogs, and other invaluable knowledge and experience.

Assuming the vintage market dips and prices of all bikes, frames, and components come down considerably, that will allow other people to get into it (this is not implying some sort of 'unfair' exclusion on my part) that may have been somewhat interested before, but now have half fallen into it, perhaps on a whim or via uncertainty of how much they will like it, and, well, wouldn't ya know it? They catch the bug, too.

I really like '80s bikes for their larger focus on weight, performance, 700C standards and twin bottle cages. It makes it so easy to put all the modern stuff on it. That being said a good DB 531 frame is one of my favorite things. Darn Paramounts and nice tires...

The 'new kids' will work their modern gearing and big tire ethos into the old stuff, and the blending and evolution continues. I'll be sure to pick up (or more likely, build) a proper fully-NR/SR bike at some point. Carry the torch and all of that, at least on the consumer end of things.

With the increased mindset of modularity with modern bikes--perhaps temporary is a better word?--perhaps the reverence for originality shown to C&V bikes won't translate to bikes sold in the last 20 years. But...humans are a nostalgic bunch, so we'll probably do that. Lance, Pantani, Ulrich bikes will be lost, then found, then restored, for all sorts of purposes and reactions. We'll talk about special carbon buildups for Froome's Pinarellos (different from off the shelf examples with the same name) etc etc.

If we can keep these old rides rolling, I think that will be better for everyone. Such examples of longevity! Things fade, and the wave passes us by. Keep up the communities around these bikes and others, and that's a lasting element that will always be appreciated, and often remembered.

3alarmer 

...permit me an observation, kid. The last time the prices on nice steel frames and bikes dropped dramatically, a lot of them got drewed and fixed geared. Which, OTOH, makes the ones that remain slightly more uncommon, but I ain't holding my breath on how these bikes will turn out in the end. There are probably more jacked and chopped '55 two door Chevy hot rods around in my town than there are stock restorations. nttawwt

RiddleOfSteel

Well then that is the risk that is run, and all of us are powerless. Of course, since I can't speculate on every single scenario, it goes without saying that largely, all super nice bikes will continue to be priced high enough and kept in protected condition so that they don't meet the same fate. The ending that befalls the varying lesser bikes of course varies. Duesenbergs aren't worth less because all the people that really really really give a rip about them are dead and all the younger generations are disrespectful savages--there are things that, barring massive catastrophe, are preserved. Anything less, who knows. Paramounts are preserved, and Prologues, Circuits, and Pelotons are left to fend for themselves. I don't think the fixed gear thing will happen again--big tires and 1X gearing are a lot better outcomes, and at least use the RD hanger! It's still an ugly configuration in my eyes, so you'll never see me desecrating a frame in such a way (Campy triples FTW), but we'll see it. Or some of us won't and be spared the horror.

3alarmer 

...stuff like this will become more common. nttawwt, but it will probably never get re-associated with the original parts, which have been stripped and sold off. Or this. I guess it's better than junking them out, but there's a lot lost in the transition to a "town bike".

3alarmer 

RiddleOfSteel

jackbombay

Out west there are plenty of guys doing well making steel frames!

Motivation is fickle, I have not ridden bikes much the last 4 months due to a broken toe and weather and work, so I am not feeling fit, at all, yet somehow on my ride yesterday on my new to me 1972 Raleigh Super Course I smashed a bunch of my PRs on Strava, ones that I set on my carbon road bike, when I was quite fit, uhhhh, I'm not totally sure what to make of this. Yea, I went at it hard today, trying to twist the cranks off the bike, and I knew I was hauling pretty good, but, I ride my carbon bike that hard too.

Ultimately for me, I ride bikes to deprive my brain of oxygen, and, I do like to feel strong, when I get out of the saddle I like to feel tough, but when I'm not fit I feel like I want to sit back down... I don't care about racing. In light of all this, my bike doesn't matter all that much to me, but I am a math/numbers geek, so it does raise an eyebrow when this old steel antique put a notable hurting on my carbon road bike PR's...


YES!

I love a fresh build where everything works perfectly, but I also thoroughly admire bikes that are worn out, used up, and have obviously been beat on, not neglected, but *worn out*. There are far too many bikes that don't ever get to experience the glory of getting worn out...

This past summer I was on a ride on my 1963 hercules, I stopped at the local shop about 8 miles away, the mechanic commented on my bike, he said, "Why are you riding that?" And I responded with "All the bikes need love." And he thought I meant that all my bikes were not rideable and this was the only one I had that was reasonably functional. First off, I've been wrenching on bikes since he was crapping in his pants, secondly, all my bikes are well maintained, and thirdly, "Love" does NOT mean "wrenching", "Love" means power from my legs, this is something that all bikes need :-)

RiddleOfSteel

As long as they're not sawing off hangers and various other necessary and original braze-ons, I will live, and there is still hope. That is not my preferred look. I will do my best to preserve some of the '80s (now that this thread is bereft of pictures...allow me to remedy):

Darth Lefty 

What happened to the 1890s bike boom bikes?

horatio 

Scrap metal for the Great War?

Wildwood 

The point is:

They are only bikes. Anyone collect horse drawn carriages?
Only a few people care. How many people really want your collection?

But the prettiest ones can forever be beautiful in our minds. And our internet images.

jamesdak 

^This and later even.

ryansu

When I got back in the cycling in my late 30s I thought going fast on a racy road bike, in my case aluminum frame/carbon fork, was the most worthy goal and only reason to ride. Once I realized I was a Fred I mellowed a bit though my heart belongs to lugged steel now my basic philosophy is if you are riding a bike that fits and puts a smile on your face - chapeau!! everything else is just opinions.

That said I would venture that there will be garages full of vintage bikes that go to the scrap yard when the boomers expire, its your hobby/passion not your kids and after you are gone what does it matter? I certainly wouldn't want to burden my daughter with curating my collection of old steel.

I guess the bigger question is what are we going to do, planning wise, to be sure our old steel finds a good home before we are gone? The Swedes have an interesting take on dealing with stuff in general as you age called dostadning (death cleaning)

Ok that got heavy back to bikes, think I will go for a spin

non-fixie 

My expectations, based on a few things that I've noticed over the years:

• bikes with famous names on them will increase in value as they get older.
• nice-riding steel bikes (meaning mainly geometry, not price, tubing or even build quality) will keep being loved by those who ride them. The next generation of real riders will pick those up and keep them afloat.
• cheap frames, as long as they are well-made, are currently being re-manufactured into new "retro" bikes with an increasing level of success. I expect that to stay for a while, even move on with new trends in what's retro. This is being fueled by the environmental lobby.
• and in the end steel frames in general are relatively easy to recycle (and to convert to verktyg 's favorite Kia cars )

My two cents.

Example of a re-manufactured old steel frame:

noglider 

Hey, maybe steel frames will even see a comeback. By that, I mean that maybe steel will be the material of choice for big makers of new bikes. I don't know what would bring that about. Aluminum is cheaper.

USAZorro

Everyone is missing the obvious answer here.

Don't die.

You're welcome.

Carry on.

3alarmer 

...once the plastic carbon fiber bikes start spontaneously exploding en masse, and the aluminum fatigue crash fatality rates start to rise, my garage will become my fortune.

iab

Of Cinelli's 2020 bike and frame offering, 6 are carbon, 4 are aluminum and 18 are steel.

https://cinelli.it/en/bikes-frames/

repechage

That is an interesting date. The "safety" bicycle was not universal, pneumatic tires were catching on. Many brands had proprietary parts that only fit that brand. Technology was moving quickly, the automobile in two decades arrived displacing bicycles and later public transportation (using the Red Car history as seen in Southern California) San Francisco's rail network almost vanished too.

The "great" wars consumed metal all over.

The bicycle with the cable pull derailleur shift system has had a long run, sure it has changed, but There are plenty of bikes made in the 30's-40's that could have parts manufactured today employed, yes, some modifications, widening the rear triangle as an example but amazing in the ability to use parts from divergent eras.

That adaptability will be the key to keeping these bikes as bicycles, sure, they may not be collected, but used for enjoyment and transport.

Bikes as scrap problems? ebikes and the current crop of bikes for hire.


In the immediate future- all of us "friction" shift guys may not see a terrific appreciation. The age group that expected index shifting his here. They like index.

The falling stock right now? Cambio Corsa shift bikes, if one cannot reach down and back to manipulate the levers, you have a single speed.

repechage

They are an aspirational lifestyle brand now.

iab

I have an interest for old bikes, long before most here were born. I get a lot of "those are cool". Won an award with one of them once. But the fact of the matter is there is limited interest in them and they sell for a "bargain" price compared your fancy Eyetalian machine from the 70's/80s. Fine by me, not complaining.

So what going to happen with those 70s/80s bikes? I'll stand by my earlier post, but I think the writing is on the wall. Electric bikes will be the thing in 30 years and downtube shifters will be regarded the same way as my Vittoria Margherita - quaint. "Manual" bikes will be an oddity, just like my bikes today. So if you are in it for the money, sell now or forever hold your peace.

iab

Isn't all of cycling?

Reynolds 531 

I have also been working on my immortality. So far, so good