I have also noticed a ton of the guys who discover old bikes as a hobby, repaint one bike and outfit it with half of the chrome aftermarket junk from ebay, and when it doesn't sell for a hefty profit, they abandon all hope and you never see them at a bicycle show again.
bike hobby changing?
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Rat Rod
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Trends are always kind of funny. At some point, someone is going to look back 10 years from now at someone dressed up like Fonzie & Bettie Page and get a good laugh. Kind of the same reaction you get when you see a guy with a mullet standing next to a teal green mini truck with a pink heartbeat stripe running down the side. 
I guess it's usually the extremes that come and go quickly. The classics that are pure and not meant to be anything than what they are usually have the longest shelf life. As long as you don't get all hung up on stuff and just have a good time with whatever's the latest craze it really doesn't matter.
So much of it all depends heavily on who's in their 30s-50s with new found disposable income. That seems to be what drives the trends in the collectibles market anyway. Must....revisit....glory....days.
I guess it's usually the extremes that come and go quickly. The classics that are pure and not meant to be anything than what they are usually have the longest shelf life. As long as you don't get all hung up on stuff and just have a good time with whatever's the latest craze it really doesn't matter.
So much of it all depends heavily on who's in their 30s-50s with new found disposable income. That seems to be what drives the trends in the collectibles market anyway. Must....revisit....glory....days.
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Tater
E I E I O
.... I guess its just a vicious cycle that has to happen to avoid the stagnation. (Dibs on "Vicious Cycle" as a build name!)
I'm going to go to the garage now and start on "Vicious Cycle", I have a patina'd frame and a Girvin fork that I need to put to good use......
Don't forget to flip the handlebars and slam the seat too.
Except my glorydays would technically have been from about 91-97. I don't want anything from that time period except for those few certain bmx gems. But I'd love a teal truck with a pink stripe right about nowTrends are always kind of funny. At some point, someone is going to look back 10 years from now at someone dressed up like Fonzie & Bettie Page and get a good laugh. Kind of the same reaction you get when you see a guy with a mullet standing next to a teal green mini truck with a pink heartbeat stripe running down the side.
I guess it's usually the extremes that come and go quickly. The classics that are pure and not meant to be anything than what they are usually have the longest shelf life. As long as you don't get all hung up on stuff and just have a good time with whatever's the latest craze it really doesn't matter.
So much of it all depends heavily on who's in their 30s-50s with new found disposable income. That seems to be what drives the trends in the collectibles market anyway. Must....revisit....glory....days.
I kind of have the opposite opinion just because you don't tend to see these
or these
anymore, but they've got their modern equivalents in some of the full suspension designs and those derailers that never stay in tune.
In any event it's a bit like arguing over which turd is really the turdiest.
To me the thing that really stands out about vintage bikes is the style, whether it's motobikes, muscle bikes or tank bikes, they were oozing with style.
JaxRhapsody
Rhapsodic Laviathan
As long as I can inspire my friends to get on or get back on a bike, build up bikes, I don't care about fads. I'm picky about the bikes I want. Single speed cruisers, rigid mtbs, and road/cx bikes are all I really like. I have a bmx bike just for show- just to have it. I've seen many impressive builds on here. things I couldn't imagine doing. I've gotten ideas for builds, but I don't see it as copycat or poser if you do it with your own flare. If twenty of you built a bike like mine and made it yours, I wouldn't care. Theres only so many ways you can build or rat rod any vehicle. How many bikes here have 40's-50's car lights?
If the scene goes stale, it'll benefit us purist in it for ourselves. I'd rather the scene go stale and I can som rare obscure ir even popular part for $10, than when it was $85 in the midst of a craze. All it does is leave the people who had their heart in it to begin with. While mister $300 rollfast is cutting his losses. In this city a Schwinn World Tourist is almost a three hundred dollar bike, when you see more schwinn roadbikes than Next FS bikes. Ive seea schwinn roadbikes almost more than I've see a f150, and those are built here
If the scene goes stale, it'll benefit us purist in it for ourselves. I'd rather the scene go stale and I can som rare obscure ir even popular part for $10, than when it was $85 in the midst of a craze. All it does is leave the people who had their heart in it to begin with. While mister $300 rollfast is cutting his losses. In this city a Schwinn World Tourist is almost a three hundred dollar bike, when you see more schwinn roadbikes than Next FS bikes. Ive seea schwinn roadbikes almost more than I've see a f150, and those are built here
Technically you have to be at least 40 to have "glory days."
Another name for glory days is a "mid life crisis."
No way, dude. Your glory days typically run from Junior or Senior year in High School to your mid 20s.... they're even shorter if you get married young.
The mid-life crisis occurs when you try to recapture those glory days, and the MLC typically occurs between your late 30s and age 50.
Now, excuse me.... I gotta go paint my 'Yota Taco a vivid shade of teal, and come up with a cool motif for the hot pink stripe....
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I guess maybe I'm weird but I'm trying to capture the older crowd's glory days, I was born in 1985 and like anything older than 1985. To me that's kinda when the automotive and bicycle fields (as well as music) started on the downward slide. Lots of computer controlled junk, plastic, and companies obsessed with making everything as cheap as possible just to make more money instead of taking great pride in making the best product they possibly could. To me the old '50's cars with all the tons of chrome trim, the '60's with the first real muscle cars, and the '70's with big custom vans and shag carpet... man those were the days... and I never even got to enjoy them.
I kind of have the opposite opinion just because you don't tend to see these
or these
.....
I gotta say, those 890-style stamped brakes are almost pointless, and border on being completely ineffective for stopping a bike at-speed. That being said, you do still those on some kids' bikes and as front brakes on c/b-equipped cruisers sold in a state that requires a front brake.
As for the Wald #4 stem, c'mon: that's a great stem. It costs $5, it's made in Kentucky, it's ugly as sin, and I've never had one fail me under its intended use. Sure, take it offroad and it'll fold in after the first significant bump, but I've been running one on a Worksman street machine for close to 3 years without any issues.... not even gettin' rusty, b/c I wipe my bike down if I ride in the wet.
Stop it. Plenty of awesome bikes from the late 80s/early 90s; these were the "glory days" of American-built mtbs. Full size vans from the 70s remained throughout the 80s; the Econoline switched in 92, but the Chevy G vans continued unchanged well into the 90s, and the Dodge Ram/B-series stayed the same until its demise in 2003. Yeah, grills and headlamps changed, but the underpinnings were the same. Even the ford 300 straight 6 and the slant 6 Dodge engine survived into the 90s. The only thing stopping you from putting an ugly mural and shag carpeting on one is a lack of conviction.
The only thing stopping me from doing it is my wife, AKA "the voice of reason". I think I'm gonna get me one with no windows and do it up anyway.
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Actually I just bought a 1980 Dodge van with a slant 6 in case you haven't seen it in the "Other talk" section. The newer ones just don't have the same vibe and by that time they were starting with computer controlled fuel injection and loading a bunch of sensors into them making them a pain in the butt to work on. I'm not going the full on shagginess with mine but taking styling cues from that general era. As far as bikes go I'm into ALL bikes but I'd say the "Glory days" were 1950's Schwinns, 1960's-70's Muscle bikes like the stingray, spyder, and flying wedge, then the 80's BMX craze. Then I guess the 90's was the mountain bike and road bike craze, then 2000's it all kinda went to China. Every generation has it's own style, I just like to kick it old school.
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Congrats on the old Dodge! Gotta love those vans. I, personally, have a soft spot for short body Dodges with no windows, but they're all cool. (I'm gonna have to get an Econoline myself; I prefer body-on-frame to the unibody Dodges and pre-Express Chevies.) I hear you about the latter-day complications making it harder for the shadetree mechanic, but EFI isn't all that bad, and I for one would trade a little more complication for a little less pollution.
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Thanks, My dodge is a short wheelbase and has no windows other than the doors (fixed windows) so I might either do a dark tint or one way glass so no one can see inside. Or if I wanted all I'd have to do is swap out the doors for ones with no windows or the swing out windows. Probably go for the swing out windows because it can get hot in the back of a big cargo van. I hear you about rather having body on frame as a frame doesn't rust out as easily but mine has been stored in a garage out of the Indiana road salt since 1987 so rust is not an issue and I plan to take some truck bed liner to the underside to prevent rust from forming.
Same here, except I have the added perks of Type 1 Diabetes, as well as heart problems, 2 things nobody in my family has had yet. If I was going to do a midlife crisis , I probably should have knocked that out in my 20's:banghead:60's seems to be the average lifespan of men in my family, been thinking about hitting that midlife thing a little earlier ...
