We now have a split age group for bikes on our forum.
In many ways I agree with the decisions made.
Like others on here I got tired of turning to the reader's bikes section to find a proliferation of pants.
I used to relish tapping the 'Readers Bikes' link to find a new, beautifully built bike, completely in-keeping with my unwritten version of 'retro'.
No one had told me what a retro bike was. I just knew. I knew what it meant to me and adjusted my thoughts to meet the values of others whose definition I hadn't been made aware of.
Through this process I've come across many bikes, comps, riders, events, races, differences-between-countries that I would never have even thought about before stumbling on this site.
That to me is what RetroBike is all about.
People should use common sense and a bit of bloody intuition.
It should be obvious what a 'retrobike' is without having dozens of threads, and hundreds of attempts at explaining it.
The split-of-years-bikes in essence makes complete sense to me.
As the site grows (isn't the whole idea of having a stand at races, and rejoicing at being featured in mags, about trying to attract new members?) we will undoubtedly entice members who wouldn't 'naturally' find us.
I found the site because I was 'looking' for people who praised the 'old' bikes in the same way as I do.
I consider myself very privileged that someone had the foresight to set the bloody thing up so that I had an outlet for my introverted feelings.
Anyway.
Through this process of actively 'seeking' members we will (and have) undoubtedly come across people whose natural persuasion may not be 'retro'.
Instead, it may be an article in a magazine, the topic of which seems a little cool, and PC-like (as in the current back-in-yer-face retaliation from Microsoft against an horrendously bad advert from Apple - I thought these times had disappeared with the dismissal of John Sculley?) which has caught the eye of people wanting to be 'in' with the latest fad of grabbin dads bike from the garage and posting pics of it all over here without a bloody clue as to its insignificance.
Have we killed retrobike?
The whole idea of anything retro is that it is of a period. After a while therefore, anything worth saying or discussing will be said. It can't go on forever with any 'real' meaning - despite what the sixties and the modern media might tell us.
After a while all the same old topics will be rehashed to such an extent that the original 'feeling' has long since past and the inevitable 'neo-retro bike' website will arise.
The whole point of typing:
If we have to question the virtues and merit of bikes posted under 'Readers Bikes' - and I agree something had to be done - then please also stop posts in the 'Retro MTB Chat' like:
• What contemporary value of 'retro'?
• What makes a Retrobiker?
• What was your SECOND mountain bike?
(and these are just from the first page, before I got bored and couldn't be arsed to read anymore).
As soon as we start asking these sort of questions, the whole purpose of the site (for me) is lost and we may as well start a pool of info for the new 'Neo-retrobike' website.
In many ways I agree with the decisions made.
Like others on here I got tired of turning to the reader's bikes section to find a proliferation of pants.
I used to relish tapping the 'Readers Bikes' link to find a new, beautifully built bike, completely in-keeping with my unwritten version of 'retro'.
No one had told me what a retro bike was. I just knew. I knew what it meant to me and adjusted my thoughts to meet the values of others whose definition I hadn't been made aware of.
Through this process I've come across many bikes, comps, riders, events, races, differences-between-countries that I would never have even thought about before stumbling on this site.
That to me is what RetroBike is all about.
People should use common sense and a bit of bloody intuition.
It should be obvious what a 'retrobike' is without having dozens of threads, and hundreds of attempts at explaining it.
The split-of-years-bikes in essence makes complete sense to me.
As the site grows (isn't the whole idea of having a stand at races, and rejoicing at being featured in mags, about trying to attract new members?) we will undoubtedly entice members who wouldn't 'naturally' find us.
I found the site because I was 'looking' for people who praised the 'old' bikes in the same way as I do.
I consider myself very privileged that someone had the foresight to set the bloody thing up so that I had an outlet for my introverted feelings.
Anyway.
Through this process of actively 'seeking' members we will (and have) undoubtedly come across people whose natural persuasion may not be 'retro'.
Instead, it may be an article in a magazine, the topic of which seems a little cool, and PC-like (as in the current back-in-yer-face retaliation from Microsoft against an horrendously bad advert from Apple - I thought these times had disappeared with the dismissal of John Sculley?) which has caught the eye of people wanting to be 'in' with the latest fad of grabbin dads bike from the garage and posting pics of it all over here without a bloody clue as to its insignificance.
Have we killed retrobike?
The whole idea of anything retro is that it is of a period. After a while therefore, anything worth saying or discussing will be said. It can't go on forever with any 'real' meaning - despite what the sixties and the modern media might tell us.
After a while all the same old topics will be rehashed to such an extent that the original 'feeling' has long since past and the inevitable 'neo-retro bike' website will arise.
The whole point of typing:
If we have to question the virtues and merit of bikes posted under 'Readers Bikes' - and I agree something had to be done - then please also stop posts in the 'Retro MTB Chat' like:
• What contemporary value of 'retro'?
• What makes a Retrobiker?
• What was your SECOND mountain bike?
(and these are just from the first page, before I got bored and couldn't be arsed to read anymore).
As soon as we start asking these sort of questions, the whole purpose of the site (for me) is lost and we may as well start a pool of info for the new 'Neo-retrobike' website.
