Hello All,
I thoroughly enjoy riding all my vintage cycles; actually, I dont own an off topic bike.
When preparing for a ride, I like Chucks philo. of checking the bike as if you're doing a preflight inspection on a homebuilt airplane. Some bikes have wheelsets and components that date back to the 40s. I think about catastrophic failure as I'm bombing down a hill, doing a big gear climb or relying on brakes that have a patent date of 1951 to quickly slow for a fast changing light.
I accept and have adapted to yesterdays technology and know no other way. But I do consider metal fatigue and the possibility of failure when riding old stuff, I guess thats the trade-off.
See you at the next vintage ride, Dave Martinez Fremont Ca
"brianbaylis@juno.com" <brianbaylis@juno.com> wrote:
Mark,
The answer to your question is obvious. RIDE THE CRAP OUT OF IT! It has plenty of time to hang on the wall when you're at work or sleeping.
Although I enjoy riding my classics with the "modern" crowd (most of whom are scared to pieces to decend at high speed on their high tech junk) some of the time, just to show them what's up. But honestly, I find it more fun to ride with the vintage crowd. Maybe you need to find some guys who dig the older stuff to pal around with some of the time.
Brian Baylis
La Mesa, CA
I ride a 27 year old Woodrup every chance I get. Rode in Spartanburg SC last tuesday for about 70 miles with a regular group that were using "state of the art" bikes, while my woodrup was definitly a conversation piece, it was also able to do anything they could do, from steep climbs (well...could have used a few more gears, and the flex kept pulling my shifter out into higher gears) to 40mph descents. It is wonderful to ride the steel, especially on longer rolling rides. Does anyone see a problem with riding such a bike? should I place it on the wall and let it be seen or continue to use her for her intended purpose?, one note: she is all original with exception of tirers and seat.
Mark Shells