On Thu, 2005-03-03 at 11:15 -0500, marcus.e.helman@gm.com wrote:
> If you own both, which do you ride more?
I ride and race 99% of the time on modern bikes. I have two, one for commuting/winter and one for races. Both are about six years old. I commute about 120 miles a week, get the other 120 in training rides and races. I like old bikes, but for training, commuting and racing I prefer my two modern bikes. The winter bike is a Sandvik ti / carbon fork / Campy Centaur bike. The racing bike is a Landshark steel / carbon fork / Campy Record bikes. Wheels get swapped in for different rides. Both bikes are approaching "vintage", according to my more weight- and trend-conscious teammates. :)
I am 36 years old.
I own a 1981 Moser w/ Nuovo Record, a 1987 De Rosa w/ C Record, a 1983 Molteni Merckx with Super Record that I haven't finished building yet, and Ed Litton has a Masi and a Pogliaghi of mine that are being restored, plus I have a box or two of parts for those frames, when they're done. There are some other vintage bikes too, and mountain bikes both older and newer. I never was into the vintage stuff until a year or so ago, so I'm just starting my collection. When I was racing I could never afford to keep the old bike, so I always had just one road and one mountain and one track bike at a time.
I'd like to maybe do a sunny 100 miles on the Merckx when it's done, ditto for the Masi and Pogliaghi. But modern stuff is what I ride. Makes sense to me: I can get parts and consumables anywhere, they fit right, (There's nothing worse than a 60cm bike with a 57cm top tube!) I have the same shifting, braking and rider interface on both my "riders", I like 10 cogs in back, carbon bars and seatposts and forks really smooth out the ride of a steel bike, Campagnolo's Ergo shifting is very nice, and I find the modern stuff very easy to work on. I've broken bars, stems, frames, seatposts, seats, chains and cranks. I'm a big guy. I like the engineering that goes into the modern stuff and I know what silly-light stuff to avoid. I've retired probably five cracked steel frames in fifteen years of riding. My modern bikes are expendable, although I've had them both for a while. I wouldn't feel bad if I had to replace one tomorrow. I'd feel awful if I damaged a neat vintage bike.
This whole old is good, new is bad series of diatribes gets so OLD! I know which bike Coppi would pick.
Anyway,
Morgan, four hour ride today -- Morgan Fletcher, morgan@hahaha.org Oakland, CA