How old does a road bike have to be to be considered retro?

NeilM said:

There are certain names I am seeing, who may have been producing bikes for decades, but who's products are still considered classics, Mercian would be just one example. Then there are the framebuilders, like Argos, Rourke, Yates and Roberts who have been building for many years, plus the new generation of frame builders, who are taking their inspiration from earlier times. A day at Bespoked in Bristol showed dozens of examples of builders like Shand in Scotland, who are producing brand new steel bikes that could be considered retro or classic.quote]

Good point Neil.

I would suggest the"Bespoked"bikes you referred to would fairly be regarded as retro (now and in the near future), as building in steel is clearly"looking back"and taking inspiration from an earlier period - hence the term retro is properly applied to these machines.

The builders (e.g Chas Roberts) you mention are clearly classics in the true sense (they also have"history") and these framesets are built to order for a particular customer - or that is the core business of the builder.

It is difficult imagining aluminium or carbon bikes ever being classic as they are made in large volumes in a few"standard"sizes and not for individuals - also, for me, there's zero romance.

An exception to this would be"team bikes", meaning Bradley's TdF or Olympic TT machine.

Good debate.

Roadking.

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Tel":2hs546lb said:

You may want to research your understanding of retro; it is commonly defined as things from the recent past or in the style of. Eg an 80's road bike would be retro in the eyes of almost anyone apart from a handful of forum members it would seem

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roadking":1xqxv83q said:

Roadking.

P.S on a personal note (and maybe relevant to the discussion), how could I consider my 80s bicycles as retro - I've had three of them from new?

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