What state is retro biking in at the moment?

[brocklanders023]

I'm on the cusp of doing what you've just described, Coomber. Having dusted off my retro bike 2 years ago, I've had a riot in the hills around Oporto, made a lot of new friends, but have wrecked the frame and half of the components in the process. I'm now considering very seriously moving on to a modern MTB, while keeping a nice retro bike in reserve, but I fear the following:

(1) What if I enjoy riding a modern 29er so much that I can't bring myself to ride my retro ever again?

(2) What if riding modern makes me soft -either gravitating to a lower level of fitness, getting lay on technical sections, less of an upper body work out due to having suspension, etc.?

That's not actually a problem. Get the retro built up as retro and do it well like a lot of people do, keep it your hobby. Ride it at nationals or local retro meets as and when you or the group has a retroday.

It's what a lot around here do, even the younguns (20s) have bought retro bikes and are enjoying riding them. Its a different pace and not about getting 40miles of hard off road biking done in a day.

Me I just suffer retro all the time as I quite enjoy it.

Yeah, seems quite a few have now got modern but kept back a retro for meets or special occasions. Don't see an issue with that. Got to do what puts a smile on your face after all.

I've always had modern but where as I used to go out quite often on the retro bikes I now find I grab the new one all the time. As mentioned before though, this is probably as much to do with limited riding time and a loss of interest from my pals as anything else.

I've just sold my most valuable and best condition retro as it just sat in the garage looking sad. I wanted to use it but never got the chance. My collection is down to one full bike and a project now which is as small as it's been for ages. I'll keep at least one though for the occasional trip out.

 

[Rodrigues]

best cycling summer in years (warm, dry, not too hot) = less men moaning on the internet (forums, not p0rn)....the kili flyer is getting ragged like it should

as for kids getting in the way, i have a (modern-ish) rockhopper with a child seat.....ok it stifles the crazy stuff but you can't beat an extra 15 kilos on the top tube for shifting the beer gut

(although i have to admit the endless 'why' questions are becoming a problem)

 

[wookiee]

Yeah, seems quite a few have now got modern but kept back a retro for meets or special occasions. Don't see an issue with that. Got to do what puts a smile on your face after all.

Bout sums it up for me

 

[FluffyChicken]

best cycling summer in years (warm, dry, not too hot) = less men moaning on the internet (forums, not p0rn)....the kili flyer is getting ragged like it should

as for kids getting in the way, i have a (modern-ish) rockhopper with a child seat.....ok it stifles the crazy stuff but you can't beat an extra 15 kilos on the top tube for shifting the beer gut

(although i have to admit the endless 'why' questions are becoming a problem)

Why 1997 ?

 

[Rodrigues]

...but why is it called 1997?

 

[sinnerman]

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 guess, for Some, a love of Bikes (old and New) exsisted Long before, the phrase Retro came into play, and long before the this website was formed giving us the excellent base to use and resource for Collective information Sharing.. I know it was for me.

I dont think a true Love for old bikes can ever fade, I think life and everything it throws at you can get in the way, restricting contributions to an On-line Forum, and I guess Boredom seeing the same all the time can also contribute to lesser posts.

I think those that have always fixed bikes will always fix bikes.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=302729&p=2268463&sid=ccfeee1fcb63eb6ca11499e6545f06d4#p2268463

 

[Ian Raleigh]

Since 1978 I've been riding racing bikes [not road bikes] and my all time favourite has been my Raleigh Panasonic in good
old 531c tubing, it still holds dear to my heart and its 'my' racing bike but what pee's me off is when modern newbie riders
come at the side of me and say.... ''so you ride a retro road bike then - did you get it off ebay''....

I tell them ''no I built this up myself back in the 80's and is a proper racing bike''

 

[mrkawasaki]

Nice to know your antennae still twitches Carl! I agree with your profiling - that those who have always fixed bikes will continue to do so, forum or no-forum. Having said that, in the context of 'Retrobike' - the activity coined after this forum's inception - then I'd guess a bigger percentage of us are more likely to have unwitttingly developed a love for old bikes. Surely when we all wheeled our new bikes from the shop in 1991 we thought they were state-of-the-art and tried to keep them up-to-date with bolt-on parts from various 'boutiques'. I find that nostalgia creeps like ivy upon me, replacing the one-time desire to have the latest and best with something apparently more fulfilling and worthy in these disposable times. Here is as good a place as any on the net to take part in such a group-cherishing - its been as much fun to watch others passion and excellence as it has been to share one's own dabblings. Credit to us collectively for saving an enormous amount of ferrous heritage for future generations...

 

[NeilM]

Credit to us collectively for saving an enormous amount of ferrous heritage for future generations...

Yup, I've long said to my kids; "when I die, you'll inherit all my crap!"

 

[mkozaczek]

Personally : All retro all the time

Second Spin : I can't keep up with demand

That about sums it up for me.