Has the vintage steel market crashed?

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by El Chaba

In a Giant Specialized world, that is exactly the market served by companies like Daccordi.

for sure, but I get the question.. who is routinely riding a bike with aero levers (or whatever they are called), DT shifters, and toe clips on a regular basis? I mean, I know there is the CV email list and those folks probably do, but would even they be keen on something like this or are they all about the actual classic/vintage bikes?

I'm sure there are some folks who buy this, so I guess that's why it's available..

[Old School]

Originally Posted by charliedid

And the tubing and handlebars and the saddle and the tire clearance and if I'm tooling around on a bike like this it's decades old.

Ever wonder why Volvo doesn't still make a 240 DL? ;-)

Who buys these things?

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1983-volvo-242/

[spoonrobot]

There's a funny observation about the Volvo. It was (or is for the lucky few) a imminently useful car for the way most people use their cars and want to use their cars.

However, it was also turned into a race car, where it had no use to the way most people use their cars, or wanted to use their cars.

A lot of regular cyclists spent their entire riding life buying various iterations of this:


When they would have been a lot better off with iterations of this:


This is obviously a grand over-simplification while also being misleading - the bicycle industry was allergic to performance oriented practical bicycles until about 5 minutes ago while at the same time the consumer base was completely blind to anything that wasn't a facsimile to what was raced in the TdF.

[fourflys]

^ I can agree with this.. I get this for sure..

[5oakterrace]

Heck, that is my old car. Loved the 240s. Safe. Reliable and I did a ton of the maintenance myself saving a bundle in the process. Electrical could be dicey but that was on a car with 200,000 miles Could never figure out why they stopped making them. I guess the market changed for the latest and greatest. I would have kept buying one.

Well....I am also content with what I think are pretty good older bikes - and I stay away from the electrical stuff and aero - please - I am the biggest aero hang-up when I bike, not a comparatively minor tweak of a bar or tube. And weight? C'mon I weigh 200. I am not going to squawk over a few bike pounds. But... steel? Nah. It rusts

[froze]

Originally Posted by Old School

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1983-volvo-242/

I saw a 1993 240 4-door just now with just 79,240 miles, and they wanted $11,500, that was a nationwide search on several different sites.

Those cars never appealed to me, especially after test-driving the GL version back when they were new, it was slow, the gas mileage wasn't great, and it sounded like I was driving in a tin can, the interior was about as plain as they could make it even though the GL had leather and other luxury upgrades. The only two things those 240s had going for them were superior crash survivability and an engine that could easily last 500,000 miles, those two things by themselves were a major plus, I just couldn't get over the other weak points to buy it.

It seemed like it took an eternity to get to freeway speed, it was that slow, and you would think being so slow it would get fantastic mpg, nope, just 23 on the freeway. I was going to buy it for my wife to drive, it was to be a family car, which meant I would have to drive it on the weekends, and slow cars just aggravate me like crazy, so I took it back to the dealership and walked away from it.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by Old School

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1983-volvo-242/

I owned three of them that one is all you! :-)

[charliedid]

If I am doing Eroica I am going full costume and that would start with the bike. I'd wan't my old Raleigh Professional or a Pink Bruce Gordon, not to mention the outfit I'd put together.

[PSC]

My wife sold my 88 240 wagon with about 277k miles and got $6100 for it. The trailer company picked it up and got as far as Moses Lake on I-90 and the trailer caught fire and everything was a total loss.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by spoonrobot

There's a funny observation about the Volvo. It was (or is for the lucky few) a imminently useful car for the way most people use their cars and want to use their cars.

However, it was also turned into a race car, where it had no use to the way most people use their cars, or wanted to use their cars.

A lot of regular cyclists spent their entire riding life buying various iterations of this:


When they would have been a lot better off with iterations of this:


This is obviously a grand over-simplification while also being misleading - the bicycle industry was allergic to performance oriented practical bicycles until about 5 minutes ago while at the same time the consumer base was completely blind to anything that wasn't a facsimile to what was raced in the TdF.

Sorta but yeah...

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by PSC

My wife sold my 88 240 wagon with about 277k miles and got $6100 for it. The trailer company picked it up and got as far as Moses Lake on I-90 and the trailer caught fire and everything was a total loss.

Trailer fire is the weird cousin of the dumpster fire.

[Ken Robb]

1970 164 and 1971 142. Both were dogs that took forever to get up to highway speed. Brakes were very good and the seats were wonderful. A/C was like a squirrel farting in front of a fan. No rattles. I was never tempted to buy another.

[martl]

Originally Posted by charliedid

And the tubing and handlebars and the saddle and the tire clearance and if I'm tooling around on a bike like this it's decades old.

Ever wonder why Volvo doesn't still make a 240 DL? ;-)

Who buys these things?

If the inherent question is, who needs these? you are asking the wrong question. Cycling, as discussed in here, is a hobby.
Definition for a hobby is doing unnecessary stuff for the fun of it. Classic biking is a subgenre of cycling.
I follow, besides the paceline, two other major web forums; bike forums and the german rennrad-news.de. On both, the "Classic/vintage" sections generate the most traffic and have the most viewers...

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by martl

If the inherent question is, who needs these? you are asking the wrong question. Cycling, as discussed in here, is a hobby.
Definition for a hobby is doing unnecessary stuff for the fun of it. Classic biking is a subgenre of cycling.
I follow, besides the paceline, two other major web forums; bike forums and the german rennrad-news.de. On both, the "Classic/vintage" sections generate the most traffic and have the most viewers...

I asked who buys them not who needs them.

[martl]

Originally Posted by charliedid

I asked who buys them not who needs them.

Typically people who dont need them. No one needs a vintage bike, a Volvo 240, a vinyl turntable, an Eames Loungechair or a mechanical watch for that matter.