mountaindave 

My name is Dave and am a C&V addict.

It started about three years ago when I did a local vintage ride (the Cino). It took a year of incubation, but the disease finally took hold two summers ago. First it was a bike I intended to take with me on a trip that I wouldn't mind if I lost. Then it was a vintage tandem while I was on the trip. Then it was an ebay purchase of a match to a vintage bike I already had for my wife while I was on the trip... You can see where I'm going. It got real bad this past summer in the runup to the most recent vintage ride when a friend found me a nice Specialized Allez for my wife in a thrift store. It was like the floodgates opened and I couldn't stop finding vintage bikes that needed rescuing or just plain crazy deals on local CLs (sizes be damned).

Now I find myself searching CL of the city I am about to visit when I travel. It has so far that I have found a bike that wasn't even for sale, it was in the background of a picture of a different bike on CL (also drool worthy but this time I stuck to bikes in my size). I contacted the seller, found out it I had ridden with the guy on the Cino and he was willing to sell the bike he had bought for his son who didn't have any interest in it.

Here is the latest find:


Somehow I'm still married...

What's your story?

Corben

Hi Dave!

Henry III

My name is Henry and I'm a C&V addict. I started out with ballooners that got my interest in vintage bikes. I traded my 76 Suzuki Gt550 for a Giant OCR1 about six years ago and that got me on to my first road bike. Then the old cruiser stuff was losing interest but still loved vintage stuff and being bit by the road I just put two and two together and my first decent C&V road bike was a 73 Raleigh Competition with a mixture of Nuovo Record and Huret Jubilee derailleurs. I've got through a collection and finally whittled my collection to an 80 Cinelli SC with full SR and a late 70s guerciotti with full NR.

I've now gone one set further and gathered most of my tools to start framebuilding. So into of finding that grail bike from someone else I can build my own grail bike.

Michael Angelo 

You may need one of these real soon.....

https://fabrily.com/mylastmtbike

OldsCOOL

I am Batman.

RobbieTunes

"Dave's not here."

My name is Robbie and I am a C&V addict.
I have not bought a C&V bike or frame in 1 year.

I started at age 17 with a lugged Sears Free Spirit. In the early 80's, I took possession of a $10 Schwinn, probably stolen.
In 1989, I wrecked a Raleigh Technium. I was clean until 2008, when I bought an Ironman, and began the slow spiral.

Before I knew it, I was cleaning calipers, piece by piece, foraging through trader publications and trolling CL for victims.
Thinning didn't work. 12 steps for me, well, that meant 12 bikes, frames, or projects.

Going modern didn't work; I kept coming back to steel. They say you try other addictions, but always return to that first buzz.

Since I've started the Wraithadone program, I've been pretty straight.
No more C&V bikes, and I've sold a few.
I have slipped with a couple of modern babes that tripped me and beat me to the ground.
However, I can see through their schemes, and they won't capture me.

Wraith is my methadone.

Hudson308 

Hi, Dave.

My slide started just a few years ago, when I broke the frame on the bike my buddy sold me (see avatar). He was the original owner, but was the friend who could always say "no" after just one bike. After a giddy rattle-can sniffing weekend trying to create a cheap replacement, the withdrawals got real bad when the paint started chipping. Soon I was cruising CL for a better hit. The next LeTour Luxe score was so good that vintage steel was all I started thinking about. Then there was the Super Sport. Oh, man... I never knew lugless could be so good. Soon I began buying bikes on the sly, hiding in the garage instead of hanging out with my friends, always telling myself I could quit anytime. My wife began asking "honey, did you buy another bike again?" "Yeah, but that one's just for parts". "When's it gonna stop?" "Uh, I dunno... I know this guy who has alot more bikes than I do! I promise that's the last one I need". All I can say now is that fillet brazing is a gateway drug.

daf1009

My name is Duane and I DENY that I am a C&V addict...I only have 21 bikes...I NEED 21+1...must have soon...sooner rather than later...please let me get one soon...urgggggggggghhhh...just because I received a beautiful new one this weekend...that I have yet to be able to ride...does not mean that I do not NEED another...

Wow...maybe I am an addict! But...I MUST have one more...just...one more...then I can stop...

Campagnerdo 

I'm not addicted. I can stop any time I want to.

scozim 

My name is Scott and I'd like to think I'm not a C&V addict but looking at the walls in my shop blows that theory out of the water. I bought my first C&V bike (84 Gitane Sprin) to use as a winter indoor trainer machine so I could leave my 97 Bianchi Trofeo for the nicer weather riding. Then 2 weeks later it was an (84 Gitane Tour de France). It sort of started snowballing after that - my dad gives me his extra bikes and some parts, a rider on our group rides gives me all of his old laced up Mavic tubular rims, a customer sells me a bike for $20, the pawn shop has one for $37 . . . . . yeah, guess I'm addicted.

My neighbor calls me "Recycle Bicycle North" (that's name of our lbs) but is also jealous because he says if you're going to have a hobby it might as well be a healthy one. My wife, just rolls her eyes, shrugs her shoulders and stays out of my shop.

scozim 

bikemig 

We'll see if we can get @puchfinnland to post on this thread; he has a great 12 step sig line.

I'm not an addict because I have no idea how many bikes I own. I prefer to live in denial land.

icepick_trotsky 

Hi, my name is Ben and I'm a C&V addict. I once was complaining to a friend about the ride of my aluminum road bike. He recommended I get a Surly to switch to steel. I was hesitant, so I picked up a Peugeot on craigslist to try steel out. The rest is a downward spiral.

Now I can't stop scouring craigslist every day, despite the fact that I have two unassembled bikes in the basement demanding my attention first. Help!

bici_mania

I am an addict. I check CL and ebay multiple times a day. I am unable to pass a yard sale if I see a bike. I've had the cops called on me because I was lingering around bike stands taking pictures of bikes on the rack.

People have commented on it, but I point out there are worse things to which one could be addicted.

My two most recent bikes my wife doesn't yet know about.

The Golden Boy 

Hi, My name is Dave.

I think I'm getting this thing under control. I didn't even bid on those NOS XC Pro brakes yesterday. I only checked the auction 15 or so times during the day. And only an hour or so of sobbing in self-defeat afterwards.

See?

horatio 

I've been off the koolaid a couple years. Until I recently came across an '82 Colnago. Now I'm scanning CL every day (and reading this darn forum again!) If only I had time to ride now.

Sixty Fiver

I don't have a problem.

Don't even know why I am here.

plodderslusk

Just sent an SMS to a guy selling a Merckx with Superbe Pro, working on a Marin Pine Mountain 87, a DBS from 80 and setting up a ratbike with a rusty Concorde Aquila frame. I need another roadbike in december a bit less than I need another hole in my head. However I hope that Merckx isn't sold.....

mountaindave 

The rules to recovery?

Rule #1 - You do not talk about bikeforums.

Rule #2 - You DO NOT talk about bikeforums.

Rule #3 - If someone says "bent fork", goes titanium, or is tapped out, the buy is over.

Rule #4 - Only two wheels to a bike.

Rule #5 - Only one bike at a time.

Rule #6 - No clipless, no carbon fiber.

Rule #7 - The buying will go on as long as it has to.

Rule #8 - If it's your first time at C&V, you must buy a bike.

puchfinnland

Thanks for the mention!
I miss you guys...
a lot has happened in the last year and half.
Im living in Baltimore, working on boats in Deale Maryland, the commute is killing me, over 1 hour each way...which cuts into my freetime and computer time.
I think I am a recovered addict now!
I have not purchased a bike for myself in well over a year.
I bought a flipper last November and now its gone.
I bought my NEW WIFE a bike she is happy with in the summer (nothing C&V but she does like it.
I unfortunately have not been in the classic saddle.
currently looking at houses ans we need to move out of an apartment.
still have my reduced fleet and a handful of projects and really have no thoughts of the collection growing currently.
I miss you all,
Mike

bikemig 

This post isn't helping. I read the post and had a sudden urge to check out craigslist . .

Lascauxcaveman 

I'm not addicted. I'm merely an enthusiast. Or more of a dilettante, maybe. Poseur, probably. I just want to keep my hands (and my legs) busy; nothing wrong with that.

curbtender

You guys all need sponsors...

mountaindave 

Campagnolo or Shimano?

garyus

"Are there any sexual problems"? If anybody remembers the tv show.