Where'd you see this retro thing going?

healthclinic11":2z0c8ok4 said:
retro will be like any collectable it will be for the rich. i see the loverly nos parts being sold and its just a matter of time till there gone.then only the rare garage queens will remain.for us average people they will once more become the childhood dream we saw in a magazine.
but that begs the question do we keep them as time warp beautifull pieces of craftmanship locked away to be looked at or ride like the devil.both options are beautifull in there own way

THE END IS NIGH !!!!!! LOCK UP YA DAUGHTERS :) :) :)

Ride like the devil :D
 
I think there is a danger that the bubble will burst and a lot of nice bikes will return to the back of sheds and garages, but longer term, you only have to look at the road scene to see that there is a steady stream of sensibly prices bikes, frames and parts about. Of course, quality will always find a level and even if prices drop back, as they did with classic and American cars and classic and veteran motorcycles, the 'good stuff' will always be more expensive.

However, the question is, what will be considered good stuff? The wide diversity of interest may be a saving grace for mtb's 'one man's Marin being another mans Kona'.
 
I think that there is increasingly an obsession with the prices of bikes and parts, rather than the 'value' of old bikes.

I never joined Retrobike to put together a collection of bikes that had any monetary value and don't see £££ signs when I look at old bikes.
Added to the fact that I rarely ever sell anything means that I have a huge collection of stuff which may be of value to someone else if I ever had a clear out, but has a personal value to me just the way it is.
I'm not in it for the money.

I joined because I already liked the way old bikes look, feel and ride. There is also a large helping of nostalgia and a long standing belief that new and top end isn't necessarily any better. Turns out I'm also quite obsessive.

I suppose I do sometime find it frustrating when I see battered old bike bits listed at ridiculously high prices, and more so when a perfectly original and complete bike, that has survived intact for twenty years, gets stripped and sold in parts to line someone's pockets.
This happens more and more. It's a double edged sword though, because without them there wouldn't be parts around to complete bikes which need them.

In the future I suspect there will be more interest in bikes from the early 2000's as 9 speed, 26 inch wheels and cable shifted gears become squeezed out of the MTB mainstream by whatever the magazines dictate is the next big thing.

Hopefully the variety and diversity of the whole retro scene will remain, and more and more accurate information about all the brands of bikes out there will become available to complement the many fine examples of bikes that are out there and on here.
 
I suppose it depends on why people are into retrobikes, for example I got into it as i saw it as a way of getting a half decent bike for cheap as chips money (relatively speaking). I diddnt chose retrobike as the genre i wanted but it just so happened that the bikes are from a time when I was heavily into mountain biking and buying one has sparked a memory that I have therefore fuelling the need (and greed) to want more. but sadly for me I am seeing some nice looking modern bikes that I fear will do the job I want it to do better through advances in technology and design ( I like the look of hydroformed, rounded off bottom brackets ect). so for me I may sell my stable and just buy a do it all bike I can have some fun on.
 
drystonepaul":xoj0mx6u said:
I think that there is increasingly an obsession with the prices of bikes and parts, rather than the 'value' of old bikes.

I never joined Retrobike to put together a collection of bikes that had any monetary value and don't see £££ signs when I look at old bikes.
Added to the fact that I rarely ever sell anything means that I have a huge collection of stuff which may be of value to someone else if I ever had a clear out, but has a personal value to me just the way it is.
I'm not in it for the money.

I joined because I already liked the way old bikes look, feel and ride. There is also a large helping of nostalgia and a long standing belief that new and top end isn't necessarily any better. Turns out I'm also quite obsessive.

I suppose I do sometime find it frustrating when I see battered old bike bits listed at ridiculously high prices, and more so when a perfectly original and complete bike, that has survived intact for twenty years, gets stripped and sold in parts to line someone's pockets.
This happens more and more. It's a double edged sword though, because without them there wouldn't be parts around to complete bikes which need them.

In the future I suspect there will be more interest in bikes from the early 2000's as 9 speed, 26 inch wheels and cable shifted gears become squeezed out of the MTB mainstream by whatever the magazines dictate is the next big thing.

Hopefully the variety and diversity of the whole retro scene will remain, and more and more accurate information about all the brands of bikes out there will become available to complement the many fine examples of bikes that are out there and on here.

Agree completely - bold bits highlighted for truth.

Personally, it's never seemingly become some decision, I just stuck with the bikes from an era I was perhaps most active and most enjoyed cycling and mtb-ing. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I've also been raised with longevity and practicality in mind. My very modest collection of steel framed bikes will do me - I've never truly aspired for kit that looked unbecoming to my talent, ability or fitness on a bike.

I like that the bikes I've got are either nearing, or a little over 20 years old, yet fundamentally, I suspect, will still be largely as good in another 20 years time. And if it was good enough, then, for me to enjoy, why should that hugely change. I'm not a luddite about new developments or modern bikes - I just don't want it personally - but then what I choose, now, is things that have stood the test of time. That I've got more of them, than BITD, is probably partly about having more disposable income, and / or the collecting / obsessing thing - but I've reached my natural limit, with a very modest number of bikes that I'm happy with (5, albeit only 3 immediately ridable, the other 2 have kit allocated, just need time to put them all together). Although I'd also like a steel Stumpie from the early / mid 90s, I also don't want to get to a point where I'm just collecting and not using - I'm kinda there already, and it's not like bikes are the only thing I collect or obsess about.

I despise the disposable nature of consumerism in modern society, and like you, sometimes the seemingly cynical nature of some on the scene takes the jam out of my donut. I get that bikes, parts and spares from the "retro" era will inevitably get rarer - but to a certain degree, I suspect the audience will too. Sure, new and younger people may get drawn to it, more as a trend or icon, than anything else, but that tends to be a passing thing, it's only natural that there will be less and less people who rode bikes from that era. The notion may likely endure, but the era will likely diminish and get more selective.

As to money - well I'm sure some can always, perhaps cynically, manage to make a buck on fashions, here, and there - but I doubt anybody is going to get rich from retro bike kit - and getting an increasing share of a decreasing market (well in terms of a time era, anyways) doesn't seem particularly robust from a business perspective.
 
i think we are a niche corner of the market.....it would be wrong to expect a large amount of people born in 1995 to eulogise over bikes from before their time, they will consider 9 speed as retro (along with carbon fibre if the oil runs out!) and things will move on........most of us do this for pleasure as opposed to financial gain, and its likely most of our treasured builds will form someones less valued inheritance......personally, the bikes i own are just a vehicle to spend a small percentage of my year in the company of like minded folk who frequent this part of the net.......the bikes are just that, sharing time online, or in person, with those who overlook the cost in cash and time spent to be part of this is my major gain........that will span generations..... :D
 
Not too sure if all the parts will really become that hard to find. Sure, boutique stuff from companies that went belly-up will at some point be impossible to find. But the regular stuff? not a chance.

Selle Italia has realized that the retro scene is big bucks, hence the new Flite 1990 and turbo 1980 saddles.
Panaracer obviously is aware of it too, judging by the steady trickle of new amberwall Smokes and Darts.

If we annoy Shimano long enough, they might start to make some M730-735, M900 and M950-952 parts again.
 
I found myself in here by accident, looking for parts for my GT karakoram that I was couriering on and wanted to be able to leave outside buildings and it still be there when I came out. NOS XT was cheap as chips at the time. 8 years or thereabouts on, I'm still here..... and no NOS XT to be found cheap as chips anywhere. And suddenly I daren't leave a nice retro lying around either.
 
Raging_Bulls":2zls7wg3 said:
Not too sure if all the parts will really become that hard to find. Sure, boutique stuff from companies that went belly-up will at some point be impossible to find. But the regular stuff? not a chance.

Selle Italia has realized that the retro scene is big bucks, hence the new Flite 1990 and turbo 1980 saddles.
Panaracer obviously is aware of it too, judging by the steady trickle of new amberwall Smokes and Darts.

If we annoy Shimano long enough, they might start to make some M730-735, M900 and M950-952 parts again.

I'm not sure I'm buying it.

There may be some ground swell for a while, but surely the demograph will largely dwindle. As it is, it's probably not that sizable.

For companies that still can very easily pump out some of their old designs, easily - there may be a quick, albeit moderate, buck to be made from the retro lovers.

But for the big companies with roadmaps, they have bigger fish to fry. I can only see limited runs, if numbers were encouraging, but otherwise, I fail to see it - their strategy has never been about encouraging backward compatibility, it's always been about reinventing the wheel and, to a certain degree, planned obsolesence.
 
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