QFT.mrkawasaki":1uckx292 said:Is 'retrobiking' for life??! My perspective is that the first few generations of retrobikers never had it so good and defined the pastime as we recognise it now. As well as the website development (hats off JV) lots of good things came about easily (such as the rides and the Mountain Mayhem jamboree) but a few negatives inevitably gatecrashed the party.
I've long campaigned that, for all the good that is inherent in BoTM, the competitive element did/does harm and that the 'award' only served a capable few. There emerged some sort of unwritten universal 'standard' by which builds should be done and the threat of a public haranguing was only a misrouted cable away - the Achilles Heel to the much-vaunted 'character' of this forum. Competition between mountainbikers should take place on the XC/DH course, not the computer IMHO.
Paradoxically a lot of the early self-styled standard bearers of 'how-to-do-retrobiking' do not seem to lasted - some have perhaps gone to the dark net underground where outdoing your fellow builder/investor is the raison d'etre and others burnt themselves out chasing and perhaps achieving their nostalgic goals in too short an order.
Forums were equally new to us all and have their own corrosive aspects, somehow pouring fuel onto mere whisps of opinion. Again, damage was easily done and good people who do not care for keyboard one-upmanship prefer to move on rather than fall into the tedious traps set. Moderation became a chore and your new hobby could soon be tarnished if you were unlucky enough to want to build the wrong bike the wrong way and dare to show it off (without a chain)...
Ebay was the facilitator 14 years ago - new access to bikes and parts that had been stored expectantly since the mid-nineties flooded into view and at reasonable cost. We filled our boots - buying way more than we initially planned for, caught on a wave of accessible nostalgia. A simple first rebuild suddenly became a collection! Now, the wisened Ebay generation have of course upped the price for pretty much anything that can be called 'retro' and those halcyon days long gone.
Which brings us to the here-and-now - the forthcoming Icon-O-Classic show might be arriving in the nick of time to take stock of the state of this pastime and chart its next phase. If nothing else it will be an interesting 'audit' on the enthusiasm and energy of current stakeholders and activists.
I always enjoy your select and wonderful posts.
Simply class.