This is a funny topic. Two or three years ago I refinished an old Flanders road frame as a path bike for riding around flat old Cambridge. It was very simple, just black with oyster contrasts, a Brooks saddle and matching tape, tubulars on old Fiamme rims, single gear, etc.. The first month or two that I was riding it, I was stopped, or returned to my parked bicycle to be greeted by smiling, white-haried little ladies at least 70 years of age, and probably well more in one instance. They all had these sort of wistful looks and would say things like 'What a fine machine that is', or 'I remember a bicycle just like that . . .' and then trailing off into the distance of a fond memory.
I was baffled by it, but after a month or two of this, I sort of realized that they were remembering bicycles of their youth, or perhaps an early beau's ride. One of them even winked at me!
David Allan Feller
Cambridge, UK