This Christmas - New Year's, a survey of the classic bikes seen in NYC show me that nice classic bikes are never seen chained up to a pole. Mostly, the NY winter welcomes crummy delivery bikes (must have seen thousands of them) and uglified fixies. The basement of my mother's building has two locked bicycle rooms for a total of 160 apartments. I estimate over a hundred locked bikes but the doorman assures me that the "good" bikes are not kept downstairs in the bike rooms but upstairs or in individual lockers provided for each apartment.(The main bike rooms are nice though and are heated with working air hoses for convenience!). By good bikes I hope the doorman is including old classics in pristine shape and not just Specialized Tarmacs. Among the classic bikes I saw locked downstairs were an all Dura Ace Somec from the early 80's (6 cog and horizontal rotational quick releases on brake calipers) .... A PX10 daily rider - very loved and very used with Pletcher rack, and distressed paint but a replacement rear derailleur ... A beautiful lavender and purple Basso with Shimano 600 and a bunch of 70's low ender bike boomers along with many English 3 speeders tarnishing away.
The bikes seen being ridden by athletic looking folks up and down Riverside Drive and in the Central Park loop were mostly modern bikes but there were quite a few dt shifted Colnagos and DeRosas also sighted. On the weekend or during early rush hour I could easily see one classic bike for every 20 modern bikes. Commuters wear very practical Fred looking clothes and the Pro likes or the Pro-lites wear slightly heavier versions of mid weight tight fitting modern biking togs.
I attended the monthly meeting of the BVVW held in downtown Manhattan. This meeting included very friendly, very knowledgeable folks who are all regulars on this list. Everyone knew whatever I know about classic bikes plus much more. I hope my contribution of enthusiasm was appropriate because that was about all I could add.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl USA fresh from NYC, the venue where Sir Raleigh laid his cloak down in the mud for a lady who rode a fixie with no fenders.