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Shouldn't they be flat caps?
The death or birth of retro bikes?
- Thread starter Bimly
- Start date
lensmansteve
Kona Fan
Well, I'll be 64 in December, and have been riding bikes since I was about 3- but had a long break when I started riding motorbikes until I was about 30. I was a convert to the mountain bike- 26" wheels with wide tyres, brakes that actually worked, wide range of gears, comfortable riding position.. I've bought road bikes since, but the mountain bike is still the go-to bike for me. And I like steel frames too, they can last for decades (centuries?) if looked after, and they're so nice to ride. What I said earlier about consumerism is epitomised by the change to aluminium alloy frames and cheap and heavy suspension forks, that's not progress in my book. I suppose everyone has a favourite era, mine is late 80's to mid 90's- no surprise I'm on this site then.. 
Re:
It's groundhog day.
We either evolve or die. If only this site did the former, we could be at the forefront of the new retro, whilst what we love moved to vintage, still fuelling our fires but giving an opportunity to the new breed to learn (as well as us).
It's groundhog day.
We either evolve or die. If only this site did the former, we could be at the forefront of the new retro, whilst what we love moved to vintage, still fuelling our fires but giving an opportunity to the new breed to learn (as well as us).
Some really interesting posts in this topic.
Few people get nostalgic about or collect early 1900s children's toys because the children of that generation are all dead. Beyond a few museum pieces, and a few eccentric individuals - the mountain bikes of the 80s and 90s will eventually go the same way.
This is why treating them as "investments" for your retirement is probably doomed as a wall of old blokes will probably be trying to sell them all at the same time (probably in the next decade or so). Yes, even those early Paces, Fat Chances and Kleins will be looked at with mild indifference and attract no misty eyed watchers on eBay one day.
The only hope is that some future hipster like group decide retro bikes are cool like vinyl records. But as others have noted, the young seems less interested in possessing physical objects or at least the physical objects we obsessed over.
Few people get nostalgic about or collect early 1900s children's toys because the children of that generation are all dead. Beyond a few museum pieces, and a few eccentric individuals - the mountain bikes of the 80s and 90s will eventually go the same way.
This is why treating them as "investments" for your retirement is probably doomed as a wall of old blokes will probably be trying to sell them all at the same time (probably in the next decade or so). Yes, even those early Paces, Fat Chances and Kleins will be looked at with mild indifference and attract no misty eyed watchers on eBay one day.
The only hope is that some future hipster like group decide retro bikes are cool like vinyl records. But as others have noted, the young seems less interested in possessing physical objects or at least the physical objects we obsessed over.
lensmansteve
Kona Fan
Yup, interesting posts indeedy. You're right, greencat, values of old things are related to the number of people of an age that are in the market for a bit of nostalgia. It's a first-world thing, nostalgia..
I didn't covet a curly Hetchins when I was a youngster, or my Grandad's 1940's Hercules- in the same way that my 80's bikes aren't of any great interest to today's yoof. What concerns me a little, though, is the lack of practical engineering skills apparent in said yoof. But again, I think 63 year-olds were saying that in the 1950's!
I didn't covet a curly Hetchins when I was a youngster, or my Grandad's 1940's Hercules- in the same way that my 80's bikes aren't of any great interest to today's yoof. What concerns me a little, though, is the lack of practical engineering skills apparent in said yoof. But again, I think 63 year-olds were saying that in the 1950's!
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