What state is retro biking in at the moment?

I was quite prolific on this site until about 2010/11, and appear to have drifted back into it. Some observations.

1. The for sale section is noticeably slower. What's different, though, is a few people really dominate it.
2. People are still complaining about sellers "profiteering" on sites like Ebay. I just don't understand this. No-one makes any proper money on this hobby apart from Evilbay, Paypants and the courier companies, unless they don't value their time at all.
3. Collecting ultimately makes many people stop riding. Definitely the case for me. I really use my bikes now, and that wasn't the case when I was on here all the time.

Perhaps the forum is declining. But then, all forums are on the decline. They are an older version of the Internet. Younger people don't use forums so much.

Still, I am glad the site exists.

I see the RetroBike logo as a brand name now, the actual meaning has been lost in translation somewhere. Cycling has ballooned as a whole so rather than a bunch of middle aged old farts on old bikes, we were the accidental vanguard of the new wave of cyclist that doesnt care so much about what they are riding anymore.

That weird peak of expensive but shit bikes (it was red, it had SR forks and was £1095 dammit!) at the end of the last decade has given away to much better value and with less snobbery towards the second hand.

I should mention that my Zaskar was in a sale when I bought it back in October 1993. It was reduced from £1895 in April down to the £1495 I paid . It was next to an Orange Alu of some sort but the Zaskar won out.

£1895 buys you a hell of a lot more now than it did back then

1999, I paid £1100 for a 28" inch Sony Bravia CRT telly from Powerhouse

2004 I paid £1600 for 42" Plasma

2014 I paid £799 for a 46" Sony W8 smart LCD telly and even that is around £500 now if you shop around

the money I spent on that Sony CRT would now buy me a 4K screen

Exactly, the goods we'd associate as high-end cost-wise back in the day are no longer as such. It becomes somewhat confusing (read ridiculous) when you see what, essentially is two wheels and some carbon, cost in excess of £5k when, for example, you can get an all singing and dancing laptop / mobile device for less. No matter what angle you look at, that's a fuck load of money for a recreational piece of equipment.

Back in the day, those £2k machines were equally unobtainable to many. I think the difference was that back then whilst most brands had some expensive flagship models, they didn't have many of them. Nowadays, because of all the different sizes and styles, there's a lot a more of them meaning a general uplift in the market as a whole.

Anyway, back to the original question. It's in a state of flux.

The selling market is saturated compared with 3-4 years ago; prices have gone up, demand has gone down
Folks are riding more than collecting
Cycling in general, is in rude health; those coming in or back are (mainly) buying new
The site isn't reflecting the future; the movement of years / era's would help

They'll always be a scene, it just changes :mrgreen:

al-onestare":1y90r9mp said:

They'll always be a scene, it just changes :mrgreen:

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Aye but part of it seems to include the 'Scott of the Antarctic' lookalike and beard sporting society :?

legrandefromage":adbvctm1 said:

2014 I paid £799 for a 46" Sony W8 smart LCD telly and even that is around £500 now if you shop around

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I cringe every time I read some of the prices you guys quote for goods. My plasma died last fall. Wanted another one, but all the manufacturers are phasing them out. Took a bit of searching, but I found a shop that still had a 2012 54" Viera in stock. $745 tax in (£412 your money). It's always been like that. San An frames advertised for double what they were here in MBUK in 96. Even my LP 12 was less money here than my cousin could have got it for me at the factory's storefront in Glasgow.

As technology in the industry moves at such pace, the bikes we view now are dated within years. Therefore, the bikes becoming classed as retro is increasing with every passing moment. With this growing genre of bikes comes a growing audience of fans and riders. Now, here is where Retrobike is in danger of becoming dated as the categories become too broad for the age diverse subscribers. I believe that a change is required to meet the new followers needs. My suggestion would be to split the bikes by decade; this is the most logical route and follows the lines of classic cars, bikes, music, art, and fashion. People can relate to particular decades in time far more than the current classification. I think that the technology is better captured and admired when viewed in each decade. I believe that BOTM could be drawn for each decade group too, which gives a fairer appreciation and acknowledgement for each timespan.
Retro is flexible term that we apply to our bikes. Remember that it is a sliding scale, and every bike built is on that scale. When I bought a 2007 Look road bike a few years back, it was admired by so many for its technology, but it's already viewed as dated by the local road club I ride with.

Benandemu":1pttjg6z said:

When I bought a 2007 Look road bike a few years back, it was admired by so many for its technology, but it's already viewed as dated by the local road club I ride with.

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its seven years old for heavens sake ! in a throwaway society thats positively ancient

for pity’s sake go and flog yourself with a hearty bunch of freshly picked stinging nettles for being such a skinflint

Benandemu":3sk11rhw said:

As technology in the industry moves at such pace, the bikes we view now are dated within years.

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But are they really dated in performance terms? There's no evidence I'm aware of that road bikes performance has changed by more than minute amounts - you can save a little weight and get a 3% benefit on climbs; that's about it.

And in mtbs, other than the change to 29ers, good suspension forks arrived in the early 2000s. The latest Enduro and All Mountain bikes are incredible machines, but probably worse than old tech for what 99% of riders do.

That's the funny thing about modern bikes. There are lots of genuinely better designs that could make them perform better, but no-one makes them.

This is interesting:

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/lat ... ator-27010

Re:

okay I'm going to be a fashion victim here but that link to a geezer who bangs on about Recumbents
is building bikes that very few people want.... nor would dare to ride without a massive flag on pole being strapped on its arse to make drivers aware of them

Not for me ... I'd rather sell my sole to the devil and buy a modern "normal" bike before I'd dap my arse in one of those.