frank.youngman
Retro Guru
Re:
I started three years ago by doing a complete renovation of an Orange clockwork,I then made three Cannondales.In my case I have sold my Beast because I was never going to use it given that I have a 2004 Specialized Enduro which is so much more capable offroad than a 1990's rigid bike.I have been using the Clockwork and an ordinary 3.0 series Cannondale but they just kept on morphing into road bikes so today I have ordered up a new Specialized Roubaix.I will still keep the Orange as a pootling around sort of bike because I enjoy riding it and nostalgia wise it was the first decent mountain bike I ever bought.
Price wise things have been interesting recently.There are still people trying to make some sort of market,especially in NOS items,but I have found the price of everyday secondhand items has dropped substantially.The three Cannondale frame and pepperoni forks cost between £26 and £34,which proves how unfashionable this brand has become,despite this there are sellers asking three figure sums for quite ordinary Cannondale frames and forks.One or two of the eBay power sellers reduce me to tears of amusement at their prices,can't imagine they sell much.
When I first joined this forum I was slightly put off by the elitist attitudes of some of the members.A lot of people have been very kind but every now and again you come up against the catalogue perfect brigade,the period correct only permissable point of view and of course the Klein people.I find some of these attitudes vaguely amusing,I lived through the 90's and well remember how much people modified their bikes at the time ie purple bits,lightweight bits and later improvements like V brakes.The Roubaix I have just ordered has a 105 groupset but the brakes have been downgraded to Specialized own brand,so I will replace these with a pair of Ultegra brakes to rectify the problem,which is typical of what happened BITD.
I think retro bikes will continue but logically as younger members come in the definition of retro will change,so what is retro now will in a few years become vintage.
I started three years ago by doing a complete renovation of an Orange clockwork,I then made three Cannondales.In my case I have sold my Beast because I was never going to use it given that I have a 2004 Specialized Enduro which is so much more capable offroad than a 1990's rigid bike.I have been using the Clockwork and an ordinary 3.0 series Cannondale but they just kept on morphing into road bikes so today I have ordered up a new Specialized Roubaix.I will still keep the Orange as a pootling around sort of bike because I enjoy riding it and nostalgia wise it was the first decent mountain bike I ever bought.
Price wise things have been interesting recently.There are still people trying to make some sort of market,especially in NOS items,but I have found the price of everyday secondhand items has dropped substantially.The three Cannondale frame and pepperoni forks cost between £26 and £34,which proves how unfashionable this brand has become,despite this there are sellers asking three figure sums for quite ordinary Cannondale frames and forks.One or two of the eBay power sellers reduce me to tears of amusement at their prices,can't imagine they sell much.
When I first joined this forum I was slightly put off by the elitist attitudes of some of the members.A lot of people have been very kind but every now and again you come up against the catalogue perfect brigade,the period correct only permissable point of view and of course the Klein people.I find some of these attitudes vaguely amusing,I lived through the 90's and well remember how much people modified their bikes at the time ie purple bits,lightweight bits and later improvements like V brakes.The Roubaix I have just ordered has a 105 groupset but the brakes have been downgraded to Specialized own brand,so I will replace these with a pair of Ultegra brakes to rectify the problem,which is typical of what happened BITD.
I think retro bikes will continue but logically as younger members come in the definition of retro will change,so what is retro now will in a few years become vintage.
