[CR]the future of vintage bicycles

(Example: Framebuilders:Chris Pauley)

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:05:20 +1000
From: "Joel McFarlane" <tomacropod@gmail.com>
To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
Subject: [CR]the future of vintage bicycles

reading, as I do, the CR list and others, I'm constantly impressed by the knowledge and experience displayed in discussions about classic bicycles and cycling in general. It seems to me that the most knowledgeable and experienced contributors are those who were actively involved with bicycles and bicycling during the relevant time period - which makes sense. My question is, can what extent can the sort of vast knowledge displayed here be passed on without that direct experience?

As someone who was, in a cruel irony, born in the year that the CR list appropriately makes the cut-off between modern and classic (1983), I and others of my generation can never have the 1st hand experience of the sort which makes other members of this forum so valuable. Working as I do in the modern bike shop, will my knowledge and experience of modern bikes ever be used in a "classic" context? I find it hard to believe so. This is not intended as yet another post debating the cut-off year or its redefinition over time, but rather whether knowledge of the post-war golden era of the racing cycle will ever lose definition, as we lose those who were involved at the time?

Feeling my age,

Joel McFarlane-Roberts. Canberra, Australia.