Have we killed RetroBike?

[dyna-ti]

As things grow they develop,Surely there is a place for all bikes both modern new builds ,The period correct and the Mongrels ,and lets face it the there are plenty of mongrels here,if you want to look deeply at each bike
For instance
I started building a Raleigh Ti with cooks ,amp etc purple this and purple that
But even i wouldn't disagree with you, that it looked like a dogs breakfast.
Through me posting up pics of this mongrel and being told it looks bad it helped me decide on returning it to its period detail
Namely Full xtr,xlite,blue king headset,etc etc
This i will do but retain my bonty/king wheels[so it will still be a little bit tainted]
Without this forum and its members honesty i wouldnt have a nice bike,i'd have thrown together a pile of parts
Anyway im really crap at putting my point across so i hope you get what im whittering on about

! last note though ,I know a bike forum that is too cleaky
It is conneced to a LBS i know and prob has only 12 members,i joined[secretly to check it out] put up a couple of posts that was too old fashioned it would seem and left feeling unwelcome
Dont want to scare people away
think of it as a place of education

 

[barry2017]

You make a lot of good points. Much as we love older mountain bikes, the subject only has so much mileage, and some of the threads here reflect this.
But I think the diversity and friendliness of this group, as well as the sheer amount of knowledge in it, means we'll keep going.
So I think it's great that we allow more modern bikes, with a bit where us "purists" can go.
I think most mountain bikes designed in the last 15 years are actually awful, but I wouldn't want to be part of a community that was solely made up of people that was
a)my age or older; and
b)routinely sneering at anyone who dared to come in with a bike that didn't measure up to our exacting standards.
In the words of Groucho Marx "I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member".

 

[hairstream]

"I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member".

Here, here.

 

[Wold Ranger]

Retro flava

I feel It's not only about the bikes, it's the whole "Kalma" of the sport that is rapidly changing, which is typified within the evolution of "The MTB"
What we do on the bikes "offroad" now is so different that the typical "retro" HT just can't cope with.
What was considered dangerous and for the pro FR stars just a decade ago, the ordinary rider is now taking on as matter of course.
An "off" was considered an uncommon event, now a ride without a major stack is considered a bonus by many I ride alongside (and a season without a major bone breakage or flesh wound trauma too--including myself despite my half century plus of years)
I feel "retro" is an entertaining but nevertheless important reflection of where the sport evolved from, marked by the bikes, but we tend to take it far too seriously and that's the anthesis of our sport, stop making it fun and it dies.

 

[john]

Retrobike is dead, long live Retrobike!

I hope it's not dead - spent a fair bit of time over the last couple of weeks working on the site.

Anyhow to address some of BBs original points.

-> When the site started and for maybe the first couple of years pretty much everybody had the same / similar idea of what retro was / is. We never put a deifinition on it becasue if was indefineable. Over the last few months we have had an influx of new members whose definition differs slightly. Hopefully the readers bikes split will allow these newer members and their bikes to be accomodated alongside existing members and what one might describe as their 'old-school' view of retro.

-> The site, unlike our bikes needs to move on and progress. This can be seen with the 'chat' split and readers bikes split. I see both moves as entirely positive, hopefully this will help us keep out focus through into our fourth year.

-> I really don't think we'll ever be in the situation of having nothing to discuss or having covered absolutely everything. Sure some recycling of threads and topics is to be expected but that should be embraced by existing members not treated in a negative way. Think about classic cars, that's a hobby not too disimilar to ours which spawns countless magazines, meets and businesses. That shows no sign of slowing. I'd hope retro/vintage/old bikes could continue to be discussed on a couple of forums.

-> I don't see much wrong with the threads highlighted (I even posted one). At the end of the day it is a hobby and a sideline (and beleive you me this comes from someone who has put countless hours into 'retro' through this site and my own bikes). Maybe we could question the merits and virtues of all threads compared to heavier topics like, I dunno, "How to solve world hunger". Further if you dislike the topics don't respond or start some more interesting threads of your own.


To sum up I think the site and membership is in good shape and am looking forward to 2009. Things change and move on, we at retrobike have to change and move on to an extent also. One point I would agree with is that this current endless debate on "What Is Retro" is futile. Retro is more or less whatever you want it to be!

 

[JeRkY]

Well said!

 

[haggis]

Have to agree with The Boss and chewed pencil. I think Retrobike is flourishing. Over recent months there have been mentions in some of the major publications, there's someone (from on here i think) blasting around on an Aquafade Yo Eddy and pace rigid forks in MBR(?) this month and more and more members all the time. So yes opinions will vary as to what a retrobike is especially if you have over 4000 registered users and more than 300000 posts. Being that i started mountainbiking in the mid nineties, bikes from this era is what i regard as retro. I stumbled across the site whilst looking for info on my Kilauea which is now a very modern retrobike, the only thing retro on it is the frame. Isn't that what we do though? You buy a bike and then some wee bling headset or cranks catch your eye and before you know it you've changed every component on the bike. How many bikes from back in the day came as standard fully decked out in ringle, pauls mechs and syncros revolutions cranks, machine tech brakes, hubs and ceramic rims and the all important flite saddle? None or very few. Because we modernised them.

 

[legrandefromage]

We


Fear


Change....

 

[Shamus]

Lets split it...

canti -brakes

V- and discbrakes

 

[kaiser]

All beginning to sound more like an off season bun fight quite tame too by other forum standards. Personally I view the 'all posts since last visit' button so any splits have no relevance anyroads, you could do this if you ain't happy :? I wonder if peoples heckles are really up about the split or is it an ownership thing were you feel a bit of ownership through contribution and 'the man' has came along and changed things.