As far as old bikes not providing quality transportation or sporty fun for the price, I disagree. Even if you remove all the additional enjoyment I get from possessing pieces of history or appreciating long gone craftsmanship or reveling in that special feeling that comes from riding springy steel, very often the low end of the collectible scale bikes I own or have owned are still a bargain. And then let us not even consider that some of the bikes that I have enjoyed for a period of time I have then sold for a profit. It seems that others have my values too.
Even if you take the scenario of a middle tier bike with quality components costing $500 and needing just about everything consumable replaced you still can get a bargain the way I see it.
New tires on sale -$50 new tubes 10 chain 15 cables brake and shifter 15 rebuild wheels with modern quality db spokes $70 for spokes replace brake pads with something good and half classic looking - 20 bar tape 15 new bearings high quality 10 new or used quality saddle 50 to 100 new brake hoods 15 to 30 grease, shoe leather, rubber gloves, and bandaids to cover my fingercuts $2 touch up paint $10
There we go. For perfect functionality and often mid fi flash and panache, I can easily get a tuned up, spruced up, functionally good as new bike that is additionally a piece of history and has the ride qualities I appreciate for about $800 complete. I spend $500 for the original bike as is and then replace everything that usually wears out that could affect performance. Sure I've spent quite a few hours of my time for tear down, parts search and build up but for less than a grand I have something extraordinary that I can't get new. Even for a more collectable bike bought at double the $500 cost and restored with collectable parts, repainted and obsessed over the total is still coming to less than $2000. The extra grand buys the collector increased bragging rights and often more involvement in the hobby but even at that cost, the result is still a bargain compared to what is available. By the way even vintage replacement parts are still cheaper than brand new modern parts which frequently wear out at higher rates anyway. Even in a down economy if I sell one of my bikes I rarely loose money. I doubt stamp or coin collectors get more thrill per dollar spent than I do even though these items have an agreed on market value and bikes don't.
Garth Libre in Miami Fl USA