meanwhile, in Madrid....

lou74

lou74

Retrobike Rider
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Apparently last Saturday, the 6th, marked the 30th anniversary of the Grundig world cup race at the Casa de Campo in Madrid. I was invited along by a Couple of guys i've bought stuff off. There was a good turn out of 20 or so like minded people with some lovely shiney old bike, some i'd not even heard of before (Alkon, spanish brand, this frame was more or less a Manitou copy coplete with the easton varilite tube set). After making new friends and cooing over verious bikes, my battered Funk blowing minds again, being forced to use my terrible spanish as nearly no-one else spoke english we set off for a gentle ride around the part, 23km according to strava, following what was the circuit for the race, more or less.
then there was a very spanish 3 course lunch by the lake which took nearly as long as the ride!
Fair to say the retro scene is alive and well in spain......

yes, there were 2 near identical Trek OVLC carbon Y's with spintechs

66-CasaDeCampo'24-62.jpg
 
lou74 said:
Apparently last Saturday, the 6th, marked the 30th anniversary of the Grundig world cup race at the Casa de Campo in Madrid. I was invited along by a Couple of guys i've bought stuff off. There was a good turn out of 20 or so like minded people with some lovely shiney old bike, some i'd not even heard of before (Alkon, spanish brand, this frame was more or less a Manitou copy coplete with the easton varilite tube set). After making new friends and cooing over verious bikes, my battered Funk blowing minds again, being forced to use my terrible spanish as nearly no-one else spoke english we set off for a gentle ride around the part, 23km according to strava, following what was the circuit for the race, more or less.
then there was a very spanish 3 course lunch by the lake which took nearly as long as the ride!
Fair to say the retro scene is alive and well in spain......

yes, there were 2 near identical Trek OVLC carbon Y's with spintechs

View attachment 837681
Click to expand...
Looks like a great event!!
 
I spend a bit of time in Spain as my wife is Spanish. I’ve not seen one retro bike whilst there at all. I just assumed that the retro scene was tiny.
 
d8mok said:
I spend a bit of time in Spain as my wife is Spanish. I’ve not seen one retro bike whilst there at all. I just assumed that the retro scene was tiny.
Click to expand...
I think it's very much a case of knowing where to look. There are still bargains to be had as there are still people that think "it's just an old bike" while at the same time it and XTR parts will cost the same as the do in the UK or Germany.
Had a good day out chatting old bikes (in Spanish) and getting some fresh.
 
Spanish myself, although long time living abroad. It's true that the retro scene is much smaller than in other countries. First, the MTB wave came a couple years later than elsewhere, and local brands like BH or Orbea initially did a very poor job at copying the American designs, while imported bikes were crazy expensive due to the adverse FX rate.

And Spain has always been a roadie country, so MTBs took longer to catch on, late 80s and early 90s were the golden years of Delgado/Indurain!

But yeah, if you look hard enough, there are a few retro freaks to be found...
 
I live in Spain, the retro scene isn't huge but it does exist. I'm not aware of any RB type forums here, but there is a general appreciation of older bikes by serious cyclists, although maybe not the younger ones. My LBS appreciates all mine when I take them in now and again, he even has a couple himself and works on some for others too. I think the bias is towards road bikes though, as said above Spain has always been mostly road cycling, now though it's MTBs (modern ones and effing E bikes are possibly at least as popular as road).
 
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