So many bike sites seem to loathe "retro". Why?

[Betsy]

I share a similar perspective @pw_pw_la i just think that these places will always (and in a perverse way they also have a right to) exist and it's better that they exist on the surface web where they can be easily monitered.

 

[CassidyAce]

I can't say that I really notice much 'loathing' of retro bikes, either online or out and about. There might be a bit of gentle mockery of extremely long stems and the stopping power (or otherwise) of cantilever brakes but I just see that as fair game. We should be able to chuckle at ourselves, or our bikes, sometimes. This was never a hobby that I wanted to take too seriously, anyway, because that would destroy the point of it: fun and a counterbalance to much of the rest of life. In any case, the joking goes both ways: folk on here are happy to mock the latest attempts at greatness too.

As it is, I find that retro bikes—good ones, at any rate—get a certain amount of interest and respect, in the same way as vintage cars, and with the rise of gravel biking, my impression is that there has been something of a re-evaluation of early mountain bikes as gravel bikes avant la lettre even in channels with advertising revenues to earn from the big bike companies.

 

[Betsy]

Yes taking photos of one’s bike for the approval of other middle aged men of the internet?... not the kind of behaviour to take too seriously

 

[novocaine]

Wait till rapha does a "vintage" Jersey and watch retro get catapulted into the limelight.

 

[Imlach]

Bikes should just be fun new or retro the good the bad and the ugly.
This is one I had sitting about and just had fun with the Paint and e-bike conversion also the must have extras for shopping and it's 25+ years old

I just realised that there's 2 baguettes on the bike

 

[al]

I could have pointed you to one or two of my facebook groups and pages, but not a lot of point.

al.

 

[averagebiker]

I can't say I have seen any retro hate on the web but then I don't spend a lot of time lapping up many different sites and FB groups.

I frequent this fair website, a few genteel cycling related Facebook groups that are good at punting out negative wtats.......and Youtube. Oh yeah, and I do look at flea bay and marketplace for the chance of some more vintage tat to fill up my time

Why do I like retro when some (including some I count as friends) want the latest tech? Well for me MTBs hit their peak at the same time as me, in the early nineties! This is based on the riding I like which I would class as exploring/roaming without worrying about rough terrain buckling wheels. I guess this would be classed as cross country!?

So I don't need or want 5" of suspension front and rear and am unlikely to start shredding big drops and doing big jumps. I did all that on a BMX in the Eighties and consider myself lucky to have survived lol.

The closest I come to wanting new is for my increasing proportion of road riding where I can see a benefit of newer gear etc but not enough to drop several £k on it.

Now I did accidentally buy a gravel bike new 2.5 years ago and it was a revelation. It allowed me to combine road and light cross country and is really all I need these days. I couldn't resist the opportunity to buy an £800 bike for £350 as it was a display model lol

Now if anyone wants to flame me for my cycling choices, go ahead I couldn't give a hoot. As I had to remind a friend of mine recently, only I can decide what is right for me. So if you do see or receive retro hate laugh it off and leave them to their dull lives

 

[pw_pw_la]

I share a similar perspective @pw_pw_la i just think that these places will always (and in a perverse way they also have a right to) exist and it's better that they exist on the surface web where they can be easily monitered.

Fully agree with that.

Just wish people who like bikes weren’t hanging out there with them!

If that’s what they’re doing, anyway.

 

[Betsy]

Quite.. I suppose it's like having a pub frequented by a community of alt-right Klein owners.. you wouldn't go there for a pint whilever there are alternatives.. which (in this case) there are many!

4Chan is certainly an oddity.. there are transgender threads where folks can discuss openly and anonymously, which can only be considered a good thing but they stand shoulder to shoulder with trans-hate threads and the suicide thread..

 

[Tsundere]

Quite.. I suppose it's like having a pub frequented by a community of alt-right Klein owners.. you wouldn't go there for a pint whilever there are alternatives.. which (in this case) there are many!

4Chan is certainly an oddity.. there are transgender threads where folks can discuss openly and anonymously, which can only be considered a good thing but they stand shoulder to shoulder with trans-hate threads and the suicide thread..

I'm a Klein owner and I would say my politics are definitely to the right of Karl Marx, which seems to qualify you for the 'Racist Nazi scum' label these days But I know not of this pub that you mention but would definitely give it a try,

I like 4chan because it has something of the wild west about it, there's a lawless and anarchic feel to it, and contrary to popular belief there are posters from all over the political spectrum to be found there, and more importantly very little of the posts are political at all - outside of /pol/ which is a political board, so yeah, banned speech and hurtful opinions aplenty there.

Elsewhere though the usual rules apply, anything hateful or even unnecessarily rude, off topic or blatantly intended to inflame is usually taken down and the poster banned, for me though there is something refreshing about the format, anonymous posters, threads that die after a certain amount of time or after the bump limit is reached, low quality threads just wither, great threads have more life and often see high quality posts and pictures but they burn bright and die fast. There's no place for egos there, nobody knows who you are or where you are from so you are judged simply on what you have to say.

There is unpleasantness everywhere in the world, the best thing is to just accept that and try to spread as much positivity as you can. Be the good you want to see in the world and all that, and there is plenty of good on 4chan as elsewhere.

As for killers streaming live on there, it's true, but there have been multiple killings streamed live on FB, and gang rapes, you can't blame the platform for the behaviour of a few nutters though, 4chan also helped to get an ISIS training camp blown up in real time, and there have been a couple of occasions where they helped to trace missing kids. You can't just take the bad bits and form judgements based on that.

Bikes are something that have universal appeal, honestly I'll talk to anyone who loves bikes as much as I do, especially when they know more than I do, and if that helps to take someone's mind off certain unpleasant truths that are fuelling some internal rage then that can never be a bad thing, it's discussions like that which can perhaps bring people closer together, focusing on the things we have in common rather than the stuff that divides us is how we fix the world.