Is my bike retro?

chakaping

Retro Newbie
Hello all, I'm new here. Found the site while google-ing for "retro" and "bike", surprisingly.

I would put my 1997 Team Marin firmly in the retro category, but it seems the focus here is more on early '90s bikes - it's all cantilevers and quill stems in your piccies.

I'm sure it's been asked many times before, but is there a watershed year where bikes become "retro" or is the definition more vague than that and linked to material, geometry and bike set-up (in which case my bike definitely is retro)?
 

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I'm of the thinking that over 10 years old is retro, 20 years is vintage.

got some nice white industries cranks on there, they're retro.

At the end of the day we all love to see old steeds that innovation or technology has passed them by and are no longer cutting edge - state of the art gear anymore, the stuff we liked back in the day when we were young and money was tight.

I'd say its retro enough, but thats me, everyones attitude to it is different.

Welcome ;) RBG
 
Same year as my Vit T2 which is currently entered in BOTM, so i'd have to say retro.

Welcome to retrobike btw :D
 
tbh i prefer mid 90's bikes, and as a bit of a fan of marins....nice bike!
 
You could set up categories such as:

Youthful Retro
Retro
Retro Vintage
Vintage

I'm not sure what years you would use for each category though
 
Nice ride, old skool Specialised fibrecage on there, had one of them on my Fisher Advance back in 89'(couldn't afford the Hoo Koo E koo back then)
Bet the rides harsh without tyres though ?? :LOL:
 
Looks more retro than my bikes. At least you wont get any punctures with that bike :LOL:
 
And it's cheaper than going tubeless too.

I've just got myself a new Giant Anthem (which does pretty much the same XC job as the Marin, but much quicker), so I've decided to put the Marin back to original-ish spec.

With the eye for detail some of you have, I should have put the Panaracer Smoke and (worn-but-original) Marin Quake tyres on before I took the pic.

I've also got the original 'Marin Lite' stem, flat bars and bar ends in the garage - along with the Rock Star fork and Ritchey Vector saddle.

The only new bits will be the 2007 XT rear mech and shifters, the cassette, headset and probably the BB.

I can come and post another pic when I've done all that, if people are interested.
 
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