torqueless wrote:
Quote:
really can't see it being that difficult and all you need to do is compare relative prices to understand the value argument. Safe to say, back then, no one here could afford an original just to go on a club run. The replica is affordable. Just.
Sorry Woz, but I'm going to have to take issue with that too. I've no idea whether the relationship still stands- you probably pay a sort of 'retro-premium' for a new steel frame these days- but back when steel was still state of the art, the price of a new top end steel frame actually tracked the average weekly wage remarkably closely over the years, in the UK anyway. About twenty quid in the mid 60s up to about a hundred in 1980. The average weekly wage is now about five hundred, and this frame sells for three times that.
Hear you. I'll agree to a point about a 'retro premium' for a new steel frame.
I do however think that would apply to something custom handbuilt from a small renowned frame builder using todays high grade steel with a superb individualised finish. Yes, effectively you would need to pay.
Alternatively, there are very decent new retro looking double butted Cro-Mo frames and forks (complete bikes) out there, all off the peg, and not necessarily banged out of the factory in there millions. The way the market is though, these will be targeted for urban, commuting, general leisure or say light off-road riding - Kona springs to mind for example.
I'm still a young spring chicken (

), but from blurred memory BITD getting a decent hand built frame in the UK was kind of the easy part and very reasonably priced. Getting say a Campag Super Record groupset together and all the racing exotica pre-EEA was the hard and expensive part.
I still stand by that not many people were riding TdF grade bikes in the 80s for leisure due to expense; you probably had to be a promising or keen competitive amateur to justify the expense. In the late 80s, the only SBDU bike I remember in the club was a Raleigh Road Ace with the AX gruppo.
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Favorite quote on Retrobike:
Not worth the petrol to take it to the tip so it's down to the angle grinder to make it small enough to put in the wheely bin.