On the heels of XX's evolution of the tire thread and after gawking at the '86 Nova project, I've been thinking a fair bit about what place a classic road bike has in my garage going forward.....and I'm curious to hear other perspectives.
When I say "classic road bike", I'm thinking of what most of us rode on the road for the last twenty years - 23-25mm tires, standard or compact gears maybe maxing out at a 34x28, steepish angles, and an efficient position for riding at 18-20mph solo over varied terrain.
I didn't think I would ever be without a bike like that - and yet here I am now, at N=1 with what could be described as a
semi-modern all-road bike that has sub-compact gears and pretty fat 30mm tires, and handles more like the bike you want for a spirited century than an invigorating romp through the twisties. My #2 and #3 bikes on the way (gee, who-wouldda-thought..) are all-road disc/gravel/deep-gravel options that I'm picking up to hit the trails and dirt-roads in Central OR. Which means I'd be getting to bike #4 before selecting a "classic road bike" and that has me wondering if or why I'd even need or want that in my garage at that point.
One argument I can find is that such a bike makes a great trainer - something to put on the rollers and to go out and hammer hill repeats on when the only goal is really to ride hard just for the sake of it. Of course, I can do that on bikes #1-#3 above too, but in general, one can keep a trainer running cheaper than the buffed out specialty bikes that take up the first few hooks.
Or for those who still race on the road in packs - or who may race again next year, if such a thing is a thing again - I guess that bike is still a passport to a reasonably competitive time in the lower categories where skill and experience can overcome the losses of round tubes, spokes, seatposts, and handlebars - or off too-narrow tires. It is certainly cheaper to replace and repair a classic than something that may break in half if you sit on the top tube, or if the bars swing round the wrong way.
Another argument is that such bikes keep us connected to the heart and soul of road riding as we once knew it to be - the times when our heroes were young and we dreamed of all things Italian. Maybe the shock of small irregularities in the pavement jarring up through 23s at 100psi still serves a purpose - or of wrestling a 39x25 up a 10% grade. Maybe it connects us to the images we have of ourself on the bike - or of what it means to ride with panache, efficiency (and cartilage) be dam'd.
Maybe there's an aspect of this too that is regional - I'm moving somewhere with aluring dirt, but if I were in SoCal or parts of the NE, or certainly if I was in France or Italy, it would be a different calculus. And we can't negate that road bikes must be ridden on the road - where big dumb animals are piloting big dumb death missiles - and must have reasonably decent roads to be ridden, which city and county budgets are struggling to keep providing.
Anyway, I'd hoped by the time I got to this point in the post I'd have come up with an answer.
The truth is, I don't know if or where a classic road bike fits in my cycling life at this point.
Also me -
I want this Mondonico!