when and how did your retro obsession start

Got to thinking today how, less than a year ago, I started looking for a cheap old hacking iron to ride at Eroica Britannia.

My OH and workmates have labelled me as obsessive in that short time. For me, the nostalgia of the bikes I lusted after 30 years ago is addictive.

Who else has an escalating habit? ;-)

I bought an old Marin mountain bike,came on here to find information,now have 5 road bikes.How did that happen ?

I have been tinkering with BSA motorcycles for all my life, and I bought my first retro bicycle, a BSA of course, in the autumn of 2014 as project to help me through rehabilitation after a cancer treatment. The bicycle renovation project is much more short term and less costs involved than undertaking another motorcycle renovation. After a short while I was bitten by the bug and now have seven retro racing bikes in may stable.

The interest for the bicycles pushed me towards a healthier life as I am now a all year cyclist, commuting every day to the office, in the winter I am on a 15 year old hybrid bike, but as soon the snow clears and roads dries up I am on one of the retro bikes. There is so much more fun riding the old bikes when fit to do it properly!

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I started looking for something about £200 to ride Eroica but just kept seeing more exotic stuff culminating in me falling in love with a Gios. Soon after I found a Rourke in London which, with hindsight, I A) paid too much for and B) then spent too much money on I've since acquired a couple more complete bikes and I've got another in progress which will be a mid 90s 9 speed when finished. That will be 5. I seem also to be collecting good quality parts when I see them (I convince myself that I may never see them again if I don't buy them now)

I need to slow down though as I'm running out of space

I've only ever had old bikes! I got back into cycling around 2006/2007 when I got a 531-framed Raleigh off someone on Freecycle. I couldn't see much point in spending hundreds on a new bike when an old one would do it just as well and that opinion still stands today. You can ride something really nice that you can take pride in for the same money as a really crap new bike. I'm also out of space and my toybox is full of parts that I have convinced myself that I will never find again...

Was looking around London for a new, lightweight racer and found nothing remotely decent under £1000. But when I checked on eBay, I found I could get an absolute class machine, chrome, lightweight, absolutely beautiful for less half of that - and it looked like bike should look, straight top bars and skinny tubes.

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About ten years ago I thought it was time to do some exercise, there wouldn't be any point in having a modern bike so I bought an old Claud Butler. Then I made the mistake of reading about the characters involved in the bespoke bicycle manufacture of the 50's and 60's and it became a middle-aged obsession. Last week I found out I need a bypass, another plan gone awry.

Used to do a lot of cycling, havent for a while, had a hankering for a new toy, didnot know what I wanted, cold dark wet nights nerding on the interweb, likes the idea of hand-cut pretty lugs, went off it, found a fillet brazed Hobbs of Barbican from 1946 almost complete, locally, bought it for peanuts, spent too much on it but enjoying myself.
Still have all my adult bikes so garage is stocked. Cant part with good toys.

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My interest began when steel frames were not retro, they were the only frames, apart from the odd Vitus or Alan). I was gifted a Roberts when I was sixteen, bought the Raleigh Corsa (below) in 1984 and ordered a new SBDU frame from Ilkeston late in 1985.

All but three of the bicycles below have been owned from new; either by myself or a family member.

Jon.

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If it wasn't for these two characters, I doubt if I would have still been into the bike, as I creep towards 50 now. For me, Hinault and LeMond made "the bike" a spell-binding obsession which has lasted since the early 80s.



The fact that I met a bunch of like-minded lads who, like me would wreck their legs every week doing hundreds of miles (and still do!), made sure that this fascination for the bike is embedded in me to this day ....






Walking into the local bike shop as a teenager, with it's myriad of expensive framesets hanging from the ceiling, made me feel that I too, could be as good as my La Vie Claire heroes, if only I could save up enough money to buy a bike like theirs'! It was all about innovation too. Cycling was going through radical changes what with Shimano Indexed Gears, the Avocet Cyclometer, LOOK and Time Pedals, Oakleys, superlight steel and the carbon frames etc. Mr LeMond was a huge influence to all of us and a marketing man's absolute delight..



A Third Place in a Dundee APR on my new TvT, wearing my Oakleys and putting down the power via Time pedals and shoes, made me feel like I was on my way...



...Oh well, you can always dream!! :facepalm:

To this day I still watch my old VHS tapes of the 1985-1990 Tdfs and apart from my bike, are the most treasured possessions I have. Now, sadly removed from youtube, (thanks Channel 4!) Phil Liggett's World of Sport/ Channel 4 commentary from those years is still what rattles in my brain when I'm out on the bike . .

"and the finish line is as high as the eye can see....and HIGHER!!"

..from The 1985 Tdf with Hinault and Herrera breaking away on the stage to Morzine- Avoriaz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmpZTxr ... JQZI8pM_8w

...what a stage!!


It's all about memories. I hope that when/ if I am ancient that my brain isn't too addled to recall mine. My old pal, Bill, who is 92 years old now, still sits and reminisces about his life and his service as a Lancaster Pilot during the war. "It's all I have left!" he says.