Like many, I poured over each MBUK to see what whats were the best whats to have. By about the year 2000, I'd noticed a trend towards the new whats not being quite as good as the old whats . This started my journey into looking backwards at the old whats that I'd never seen before. Car boot sales would then supply me with the gorgeous old (barely 7 year old whats at the time!) whats that I simply never knew existed. I then went 'retro' before I'd even known what retro was
My personal experiences over the years:
Pre Retrobike
Chicksands - 'why is your bike so clean?? do you ever use it?' An armour plated Dual Slalom rider pointing at my Zaskar - a bike that had covered some 30,000 miles by that point - we were riding an fast XC route at the time, his DH full bouncer would have been ludicrous
Post Retrobike
An Enfield bike shop (his brother is/was a member here somewhere) - 'why are you sticking with that old stuff?' ensuing mildy heated debate that new isnt always better and the subtle realisation that I was starting to lose interest in the then new of 2009
Evans Cycles - £2k tourer with a £9.99 headset - the sales guy at a loss to warrant it then angry as to why I was pointing it out
...And then the bicycle shop - yes, that bicycle shop. It may have been only 6 months or so but fark was there a lot of angst against the older equipment. I took it upon myself to educate the guys there as to what came before and how what they were riding evolved. Nope! Bad idea! I did get my revenge oh so sweetly though. They held a staff ride after work in the summer evenings. By this point I'd been commuting for 3 months and in that time transformed from sweaty fat bloke to slinky potential race winner. The shop manager was some 15 years younger than me and a triathlon participant (true!! Honestly!!!) so was always the ride leader as the rest of the ragtag followed behind. The last part of the route involved a blast along a reservoir dam - flat, tarmac and fast. Me and my 18 year old Zaskar held our own! CLACK! went my XT thumbie shifting across the 8 speed cassette, its sound reverberating loudly, declaring my gear change ready for the charge. '......' went the managers 10spd shifter with barely the whisper of a summer fart.
He beat the arse off me of course, but I stayed within buzzing distance of his back wheel, leaving the the 17, 18 and 21 year old workshop guys long ways behind... All on brand new 2010/11 models of course!
I had my own retro inspired customers there that would only come to me, they were running some seriously nice old steel, MTB and road and just wanted someone sympathetic not some goggled eyed yoof confused by a simple downtube shifter.
Anyway, I am now one of those old farts and I would be one of those that rolled their eyes at the approach of a me, daft old geezer with a daft old bicycle
or ten
