I think you're right about the reasons for interest in 70's era machines. Much of the "core" membership of the list is composed of guys in their 40's and 50's who started riding in the 70's. In many cases, our classic "collections" started with dusting off the bikes we had bought new back then and just never sold. In my case, these were a LeJeune, a Windsor Pro, and an ALAN Competition, plus an ALAN SuperRecord and an A-D Superleicht I acquired in the 80's. In addition, for those of us in the US, our more recent acquisitions are mostly 70's or 80's vintage, as quality road bikes were very rare in the US before 1970, so few are found for sale here. The UK members have the advantage of a longer continuous history of quality road bike, so it is much easier for them to find bikes from the 30's through the 60's at reasonable prices. I think most of the US members find such bikes interestung as well, we just lack the knowledge of and access to them that our British friends enjoy.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
RALEIGH531@aol.com wrote:
> Bob,
> Nice to see you've reconsidered.
> I can see where shoe thing was pushing things a bit, but I'd rather hear
> someone's solution for finding cleated shoes to ride with than to see SPD's
> on their Raleigh or Peugeot!
> I find older bikes (1940-50's) interesting too; but the problem is lack of
> supply of the bikes themselves and of anyone with any firsthand knowledge.
> I live in an area that offers little hope of finding anything older than bike
> boom era bikes, not much I can do about that. Anything older will likely be
> balloon tired.
> My oldest bike is a 74.
> The list membership seems to me to lean heavily towards the 70's as their
> focal point. There are some members with early track bikes, but I think the
> numbers of early road bikes is very low.
>
> If anyone has older bikes they haven't told us about, please let us hear from
> you!
>
> Pete Geurds
> Douglassville, PA