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Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 10 Apr 2022, 2:27pm
by GideonReade
simonineaston wrote: ↑10 Apr 2022, 8:28am
Given this, an RSW 16 is as much a classic bike as is a 753 Raleigh team special.
Recall that the UCI have
twice banned small-wheeled bikes for being too fast and better than those with large wheels... it's because of the partisan and antedeluvian UCI that most of you are still carting around on cycles designed back in the Arc!
Twice? Once for each wheel?
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 10 Apr 2022, 2:39pm
by thirdcrank
Your OP had me googling Angmering Cycling Club
About us:-
Angmering Cycling Club was created as a community club in January 2015 to promote cycling as a healthy activity and to provide opportunities for safe cycling in its many forms to club members.
https://www.angmeringcyclingclub.com/
It's tempting to believe that anything from pre 2014 is seen as historic. I'm unclear in what spirit the comments are being made but if you find them unacceptable, perhaps a word to the organisers might be appropriate, explaining how they are failing in their aims. Over the years, a lot of potential cycling club members have been deterred by equipment snobs
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 10 Apr 2022, 2:47pm
by GideonReade
Good grief no, it's no more than joshing.
I think the pre 2014 concept makes (local) sense.
Obviously it would be much harder to obtain classic status in the (was) CTC!
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 10 Apr 2022, 9:51pm
by Carlton green
Jamesh wrote: ↑10 Apr 2022, 11:58am
Carlton green wrote: ↑10 Apr 2022, 9:34am
To me ‘Classic’ is a term applied to an item that captured the spirit of the times and was either popular (widely used) or widely desired. So a Ford Capri would classify as a classic car (widely desired) and a Raleigh Roadster as a classic bike (widely used).
Ford Capri no way Morris minor or mbg yes!
I don't get modern fords though!!!
Tastes vary, but I always wanted (really, really, really needed) a Capri - as Lads do - but never got one. I’d agree about the Morris Minor being a classic and my Mrs would certainly agree about the MGB.
Classic Bike: Claud Butler Dalesman, really wanted one of those too.
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 10 Apr 2022, 9:54pm
by Jamesh
I did have a moggie traveller which was too far gone for me to restore....
I also had a scimitar which was a Capri on a night out in Newcastle..... !!!!
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 10 Apr 2022, 10:23pm
by GideonReade
(blows whistle)
I'm not usually averse to a bit of off-topic deviation, but Capris, MGs, etc etc definitely do not count as classic bikes.
Nor do Norton Commandos, Vickers Viscounts, SRN4, Pacific class, or whatever non-pedalled means of nostalgic locomotion is proposed!
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 10 Apr 2022, 11:10pm
by TrevA
My son had an Angliru, a yellow and black one in about 2002, when they first came out. It was quite a heavy bike, came with a Campag Mirage groupset. He loved it, but I’d hardly call it a Classic. To me a Classic is something either old, rare or unusual, usually all 3. A Bates with Diadrant forks or a Curly Hetchins is a classic. A gas pipe job from 1975 isn’t, neither is a 20 year old heavy alloy bike with a low end groupset.
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 2:19am
by Chris Jeggo
A classic bike has XXVII" wheels.
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 4:44am
by pwa
I don't feel that a bike has to be one that I like in order to be a "classic". Take, for example, the Raleigh Chopper, which I remember being a much desired object for kids one Christmas. At the time I didn't crave one as some kids did, and nothing has happened since to make me see the Chopper as anything other than a gimmick. As a bike it was rubbish. But the Chopper is a classic kids' bike because of success it enjoyed in its sector of the market, and the fond memories people have of getting one or having friends who got them.
The OCLV in the OP is a classic because it was a name that made a big impact in its sector at the time, convincing many doubters that in the world of competitive road cycling carbon was the future. It was a turning point. It is a significant name in the history of race bikes.
I have no use for either a Chopper or an OCLV, but both are classics because of their place in the history of bicycles.
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 7:18am
by Nearholmer
Interesting post, and it brings out two criteria that seem, eventually, to get agreed upon in these ‘classic’ discussions whenever they occur;
- objects of desire at the time, so things that were considered ‘best of breed’ at the time. This doesn’t always mean huge sellers, because sometimes the best of breed was too expensive for many people to afford, but it’s the one they would have had, if they could; and,
- technically very influential designs, whether or not they sold in huge numbers. Going back to ‘grey porridge’ motorbikes, the early DKWs were gigantically influential, would probably have been considered ‘porridge’ some years ago, but no serious collection of the history of motorcycles would be complete without one. The bike that would be the same would be whatever the first significant hybrid was to emerge from 1980s mountain biking, because that set the trend for utility cycling thereafter ….. but I’ve no idea what it was!
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 8:23am
by GideonReade
TrevA wrote: ↑10 Apr 2022, 11:10pm
My son had an Angliru, a yellow and black one in about 2002, when they first came out. It was quite a heavy bike, came with a Campag Mirage groupset. He loved it, but I’d hardly call it a Classic. ... is a 20 year old heavy alloy bike with a low end groupset.
That's exactly the description of my Angliru, except it's blue and rather pretty. The only explanation I can think of for the "classic" tag is the rim brakes. Which are still a current technology on race bikes, aren't they? Well, and the high gears (posted elsewhere).
Heh heh - it's not a "young" club, in terms of the membership. Maybe our friends mean "classic" in the sense "thirty years ago I could push gears like that"
Unfortunately neither can I
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 8:52am
by mattheus
GideonReade wrote: ↑10 Apr 2022, 10:23pm
(blows whistle)
I'm not usually averse to a bit of off-topic deviation, but Capris, MGs, etc etc definitely do not count as classic bikes.
Nor do Norton Commandos, Vickers Viscounts, SRN4, Pacific class, or whatever non-pedalled means of nostalgic locomotion is proposed!
What about Mozart?
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 8:53am
by Jdsk
Nearholmer wrote: ↑11 Apr 2022, 7:18am
Interesting post, and it brings out two criteria that seem, eventually, to get agreed upon in these ‘classic’ discussions whenever they occur;
- objects of desire at the time, so things that were considered ‘best of breed’ at the time. This doesn’t always mean huge sellers, because sometimes the best of breed was too expensive for many people to afford, but it’s the one they would have had, if they could; and,
- technically very influential designs, whether or not they sold in huge numbers. Going back to ‘grey porridge’ motorbikes, the early DKWs were gigantically influential, would probably have been considered ‘porridge’ some years ago, but no serious collection of the history of motorcycles would be complete without one. The bike that would be the same would be whatever the first significant hybrid was to emerge from 1980s mountain biking, because that set the trend for utility cycling thereafter ….. but I’ve no idea what it was!
Those feel right to me.
Jonathan
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 8:56am
by Audax67
Thinking a bit more about it, vintage, veteran and classic are how you describe something old in order to sell it.
Re: What is a Classic Bike anyway?
Posted: 11 Apr 2022, 9:02am
by GideonReade
What about Mozart?
I think he goes into a separate thread about if/what music people recreate in their heads while riding?