Hello Friends,
Enjoying the various threads, though they are less technically-oriented today than other days. I'm always up for tempests in teacups, and will follow all of you down multifarious paths at the drop of a 'hairnet', especially where jargon is concerned. Maybe this (below) will start someone off in another direction.
snip << Use of the terms "vintage" and "classic" on E-Bay >> un-snip
Okay, here's a tangent from the 'classic', 'vintage', 'rare' et. al. discussion: I've just bought the early '70s, clean, 58.5 cm Peugeot UO-8 that some of you may have noticed on eBay this past week--to accompany a similarly sized PX-10 that I am building up from a frameset. Guess I like the Peugeots and their "arts decoratifs" graphics--and the "buy it now" price kept falling throughout the auction after there were no bids atall. I had to show that somebody cares! That poor sellers feelings could easily have been hurt, had no one bid and the auction been a failure. Right?
Yes, I shouldn't be spending even the meagre requisite sum, as I'm unemployed and won't even have the money until next week, but I mention it because I thought you might have fun with this question: is a clean, early-ish UO-8 . . .is it Classic . . . Vintage . . . (even, at this point (haven't most been abused and/or begun to rust))--somewhat Rare? As in "Seen Less and Less Frequently", I suppose--even if it was, as Sheldon Brown puts it on his website--"the choice of the Hoi Polloi" and sold by the boatload?
And yes, like that Raleigh Record auctioned earlier and mentioned recently, I fully realize this frame is (more or less) Gas Pipe--"lightweight" is a relative term--but it's sooo pretty (at least to me). I think there will be times when piloting this clunker around will be a joy. I'm picturing a bicycle based picnic in Central Park in the spring . . . . It's great to have a few weights of bike to choose from--variety being the proverbial spice of life. Just make sure to put those big cogs onboard, and take your time, looking around.
A UO-8 was not my first bike, but I'll bet it was for at least a few of you. (Admit it!) So with that in mind, I'll say: there IS wiggle room when it comes to the terminology--we do have to allow for the sentimental, lower-case classic (which is by one token merely vintage, or just "old") as well as Capital "C" Classic. AND YET, I know what just you mean. Some of the 'salesmanship' you see on eBay, etc. defies sense as well as plausibility. That is Quite Aggravating. I mean, is "Wow" a search-word for anyone? "Wow" is useless at this point. In the end, I'm agreeing with Paul that the terminology is hopelessly confused and debased. We can vent, but the rule of the marketplace--"buyer beware"--trumps all legislating. Maybe now's the time (just for fun) for a wave of 'truth in advertising' eBay listings--we could have fun with that, making some up!
Thomas (Tom) "Penny Foolish" Ward in New York City, New York . . .
. . . where I enjoyed meeting John Pergolizzi and many others of the "Brooklyn Vintage Velodrome Wheelmen" (dang but that's a mouthful) last thursday, in the rain. Good thing my Gitane tandem has those eyebolt fenders y'all were talking about--kept the water coming down from above, the direction from which it belongs. I floated home on the bouyancy of my 650B pontoons . . . . Don't ask me why, but I enjoy riding that (probably also gas-pipe) thing around alone. Keep 'em guessing, I say--and keep it in a low gear.
Postscript: during the discussion about CLB brakes, somebody (not me, I'm on a fixed income) picked up a NIB set of CLB-2's on eBay.... Real "modern" styling on those--like Brasilia in a brakeset.