Cycling UK Forum

I nominate the Schwinn Voyageur, which I lusted after as a teenager, finally bought with the intention of taking long voyages,
then sold with no voyages completed less than a year later to buy my first car, also a classic. (That was a mistake.)


Schwinn Man - you can't spell Schwinn without win

https://thecabe.com/forum/threads/voyageur-ii.88545/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARCM2kiibj0

I read 'classic' as the definition of something thats an exemplar of its type. As far as classic cars are concerned its meaning has been trashed by defining any car from a certain age.

With the multiplicity of different bikes around something like my 1971 Mercian would be a classic classic.

Al

Gideonreade,

I'd be interested to know what your thoughts on the durability of that OCLV frame are. I have one of those (2000) and with Dura Ace 7700 it is - purportedly- exactly as Lance Armstrong used in his first few Tour de France victories ("victories"?). It certainly looks good and rides nicely. But at 22 years old, I am given to wondering if it is getting a bit long in the tooth (the cognescenti would use terms here like "soft", etc.). I can tell no difference in ride quality after 20+ years, the paint is still good, some newer frames I have ridden are not as nice, and I always come back to it. It was raced, but slough off any of the concomitant trauma. Of course the engine is getting soft......

GideonReade wrote: ↑11 Apr 2022, 8:23am

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

Yes, it came with a 53/39 chainring. I swapped it out for 42/32 Stronglight chainset. My son was a youth(14) when he had the bike, and was racing on restricted gears, so the max gear he could have was 42x13. This didn’t stop him doing a 10 mile time trial in 23 mins on it! I just dropped the front mech down a bit and it worked fine with the 42/32 rings.

That above is so helpful (in another thread, about re-gearing my Pinnarello), that I've reposted it there.

And I've just realised I forgot to mention my 1998 Trek Y5 MTB. That must be a classic as people are still asking the same money I paid for it new.

https://www.cool386.com/y5/y5.htm

Mine is the more tasteful (!) purple and orange model. A nineties bike in seventies colours - perhaps is was made retro?

Unfortunately, I think it's becoming both redundant and homeless...

These are what I class as classics... All from the late 1940s to 1960 era.

Ah, so it's drop bars that confer classic status!

Nope, it's "low" gears that nobody on this forum can push any more

Or matching mudguards?

GideonReade wrote: ↑11 Apr 2022, 8:07pm Nope, it's "low" gears that nobody on this forum can push any more

So my lovely 1993 Diamond Back Ascent EX and 1996 Fire Mountain don't make the cut!

Colin's British eagle touriste is defo imho a classic however my 501 hack isn't....something about quality there too 531+ classic 501 down a hack....!

The Cyclopedia of Peetee quotes:
A classic bike is in the eye of the beholder and is represented by technology of a design that is prior to that which they use for their regular ride.

Perhaps "classic" is subjective. As someone has already pointed out, it is applied freely to any very old car. The Ford Capri is a car I never liked and which, to me, looked ugly and lacked practicality at the same time, but it is regarded as a classic by many. The original Mini looked good and was very practical, so I find it easier to see why someone would like it. I'd not want either cluttering my garage today, though, because they are obsolete. They are substandard in several ways compared to modern equivalents. Sadly, many old bikes are obsolete too, with replacement parts hard to get. But at least a bike has a small number of parts to maintain, compared to a classic car. All the same, I prefer to ride something that I can readily find new parts for when the need arises.

pwa wrote: ↑12 Apr 2022, 7:45am Perhaps "classic" is subjective. As someone has already pointed out, it is applied freely to any very old car. The Ford Capri is a car I never liked and which, to me, looked ugly and lacked practicality at the same time, but it is regarded as a classic by many. The original Mini looked good and was very practical, so I find it easier to see why someone would like it. I'd not want either cluttering my garage today, though, because they are obsolete. They are substandard in several ways compared to modern equivalents. Sadly, many old bikes are obsolete too, with replacement parts hard to get. But at least a bike has a small number of parts to maintain, compared to a classic car. All the same, I prefer to ride something that I can readily find new parts for when the need arises.

It was I who mentioned the Ford Capri up the thread, it was arguably a speed machine and Babe magnet - what more does a young lad want . Another car that came to mind was the Morris Minor Traveller, a really practical car based on the popular saloon version which is also a design classic. These days if I could only have one car then neither of those would be my preferred choice, but then few people choose to drive a classic car as their daily wheels.

I quite like old bikes whose designs have stood the test of time or were not really bettered, so long as I can sensibly source parts for them I’ll ride them and they work as well today as they did say forty or more years ago. The guys of the past rode similar machines and put in enormous mileages so old bikes and their designs can work very well. Would I pay good money for a recognised and mint condition classic bike? Probably not ‘cause mostly I like to use stuff rather than polish it, but I can see someone buying one as an appreciating investment. Would I pay reasonable money for a (to my taste) classic bike? That dependants what it was and I’ve more bikes that I need already, but I’d certainly be tempted if something crossed my path.

At the risk of repeating myself, my first bike was a green Carlton with a 4 speed deraileur but I don't think of it as a classic