You beauty - let everyone see what you've got!

[LuckyPierre]

Many thanks to Christopher for getting this forum in place.

Let's start (well, Europa has already started) by showing off our bikes. A couple of simple conditions - no carbon and no aluminium frame components should just about do it. Even I wouldn't want to be stuck with steel rims - but if you've got 'em, flaunt 'em.
Alan from the Canberra Bicycle Museum says that the term 'vintage light' is the usual one for what many (some?) of us are talking about - bikes of the 1970's and 80's. He says that vintage light classes usually exclude indexed gears, which became available in 1985. That means Tojo wouldn't fit, so I'm sticking with 'retro' and making up our own rules!
I'd like each contributor to add a new topic for their bike, rather than have one big long topic with lots of bikes in it. Anyway, let me know what you think we should do.

Can contributors please re-size images to 320x240 pixels before posting them? It's really easy in PhotoBucket and I'm sure that other image servers have similar facilities
Thanks
Peter

[europa]

This is a direct copy of my post from the 'First Post' thread, in which Christoper suggested we had our darlings buried in the shed ... hence my outrage

Garage? Garage? I'm outraged. My Europa lives INSIDE. Sheesh. You can't leave a lady out in the shed.



I bought her in the mid eighties and she's essentially unmodified (though currently wearing a Shimano 600 front derailleur). Ofmega 'R' groupset. In her commuting days, she wore mudguards, a carrier and a dynamo (I had one of the early halogen lighting systems on her and boy are they bright).

I was talking to the technical director of the AIS here a few weeks back and it turns out he used to run the shop where I bought her, only for a couple of years, but he may have been the bloke who did the sale. Anyways, he was able to clear up her history a bit. In those days, Europa were importing frames and building them up, as well as making some of their own. My bike is probably a Nishiki frame (good quality frames in those days) and with the good gear, she's a sweetie.

Dat's my girl.

Richard

[heavymetal]

How old does a bike have to be to qualify for the Retro biking area?

Or is it just no carbon and no aluminium?

[garden_lark]

Edited - re-sized photo

[mikesbytes]

How old does a bike have to be to qualify for the Retro biking area?

Or is it just no carbon and no aluminium?

And/Or distance? 50,000k +

[mikesbytes]

Canberra Bicycle Museum
Edited - re-sized photo

[ShanDog]

WHOA! is that a bedhead on wheels??

[garden_lark]

indeed!

it's the Evandale Nightmare, which frequents the evandale village fair and national penny farthing championships in tasmania every february.

people have been making bicycles from bed heads for more than 100 years now.

[LuckyPierre]

How old does a bike have to be to qualify for the Retro biking area?
Or is it just no carbon and no aluminium?

I'm not going to be pedantic about it, but I'll put some suggestions in the 'sticky' when I get back from the museum this afternoon.

[garden_lark]

mikesbytes, why did you say

Canberra Bicycle Museum

??

here's another precious ride...


Edited - re-sized photo

[mikesbytes]

mikesbytes, why did you say

Canberra Bicycle Museum

The bed head bike is in the Canberra Bicycle Museum

[garden_lark]

The bed head bike is in the Canberra Bicycle Museum

Ahh... A bed head bike, not this one. The builder of this bike has made several, mostly back at home in Dublin. This one lives in Murray Street, Evandale, Tasmania.

There are lots in the UK. This pic is from 1930.
I've seen a tallbike made from a bunk bed head, too. Oversize tubing eat your heart out.


Edited - re-sized photo

[garden_lark]

let's have another.

my friend recently rode from perth to adelaide on this bike at age 70, using pack racks and back packs no BOB or panniers.

*hero*


never mind the cannondale with the try-hard 16 spoke rims in the background...
Edited - re-sized photo

[McPete]

First up is my mum's Uni bike, a 70s vintage Bennnett 10-Speed ladies bike:

Then there's my Apollo III road bike, a mid 80s creation and it still goes like the clappers

[cludence]

I have too many to list so I will go with my earliest known one which is a pre 1930's super elliott which I plan to restore and a 1970 ladies bike which I am assuming was made for and sold by Lenny Rogers as his name is on the decals on the down tube. It is almost as new a when it was bought.

Karen.

[Akadoo]

I bought this Hercules just for the 3-Speed (stamped 1986), but after cleaning it up it looks too good to trash. Now it hangs in the workshop taking up space. I put in the alloy seatpost for riding, the origional steel one is back in place now.

It has origional tyres, there is quite a bit of rust on the chromed bits which I have cleaned as much as possible and preserved with silicone wax.
Is this one of the last of their productions? I am interested to learn more.

[cludence]

Well here's my superlite. Got a bit of work before I will be riding it. Got a nice comfy seat here I will be putting on it.

[davo231481]

so does my 94 giant mtb qualify for old or is it too new? ive just upgraded my $7 dunger recycled from the tip,through the generosity of a friend, and cant stop wanting to ride my giant anywhere.yes ive got the bug but do i come back here for advice on caring for my bike or wander off to be laughed at by the mtb site???? ps only alloy is the seat post, rims and brake /gear selector combo thingy

[davo231481]

well i guess by the deafening silence that i have been exiled to the mtb site. the tribe has spoken.

[mikesbytes]

A panel of art experts were once asked to define art. All declined to provide a definition.

Burn plenty of Glycogen
training log

[LuckyPierre]

well i guess by the deafening silence that i have been exiled to the mtb site. the tribe has spoken.

Sorry, I'm finding a litte collection of posts where the unread flag isn't appearing - yours was one of them.
No, I wouldn't condemn you to the mtb site - put your beast up. I'd prefer things that were a bit older, but I'd prefer very flexible rules 'rules' even more! The fact that it's largely an 'alloy-free zone' means that it has to be a good thing!

[europa]

My son's Gitane Esprit

She dates from the seventies. He scored her last year. Come summer, we converted her to a track bike but now he wants to ride to school every day - up and down the Expressway hill I wouldn't let him ride his OCR2, so I've rebuilt the Gitane - using some of his old bits, some bits from the Europa now they aren't needed and some new.





Mavic wheels - original
Shimano Eagle 2 rear derailleur - original
Six speed cluster - new - originally five and the six really didn't want to fit in there but with a spacer and removing the spoke protector (it fouled the dr) the six now does
Original chainrings complete with massive warp so I can't adjust the front dr properly
Shimano600 front derailleur - NEW - bought it last year and it did a couple of months on the Europa
Suntour friction shifters - from the Europa
Weinman brakes and levers - original - with new cables and pads they actually stop the bike
The rest is more or less original.

A grand old bike works again

Richard

[wombatoutofhell]

that gitane has inspired me richard-my little brother has an old gitane racer (no idea what model) rusting mums back yard. I might drag it out and see if I can resurect it. Might see if my old malvern star dragster's still there too.
My other brother has a Malvern Star racer that dates from the 50's. It was upgraded a bit during the 80's when her got it-was originally a 3 speed derailleur which was the weirdest contraption i ever saw on a bike. he replaced it late 80's with a custom built Farliegh bike-no idea if anyones heard of them. He was working with Bob Farliegh at the time at Goldcross Cycles back when they only had 1 store. he still has that bike too, in great condition.
I'll try to get some pics

[MichaelB]

Richard, is it just me or is there only one shifter on the down tube of the Gitane Yet it has twin fron chain rings as well ? Where is the other one hiding ?

Cheers

Michael B

[LuckyPierre]

I can see it - I can't be as blind as I thought! The tip of it is just peeping up over the down tube - it shows up nicely against the pink bar tape.