Has the vintage steel market crashed?

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by jamesdak

Boy, last weekends ride on the Holdsworth Professional showed that this ol' fart still isn't embracing bigger tires. The bike felt pretty good yet too mushy with the 700 x 30 tires. Today's ride on the newly finished Sancineto with it's 700 x 25 tires was just sublime.

What do you weigh and what pressures were you running?

[CNY rider]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

I dont know if I would say crashed, but cooled off for sure.

I think most of the older folks who loved riding these bikes are aging out

Why, I think I resemble this remark!
How dare you????

[rccardr]

Yes, the market as a whole is down, has been for a while. On the other hand, they ride just as well as they ever did, so there’s that.
Bikes from well known brands like Sachs, Colnago, DeRosa, Pinarello & Merckx to name a few do better than lesser known ones.

I’ve owned a rare high end Tommy and it was a nice rider but not many folks know the brand.

[denvervig]

I would add that prices also got a little out of hand relative to the alternatives whether it be a custom steel frameset, carbon, Ti, etc. I sold most of my steel stable that included three Tommasini's, a De Rosa, and a Yamaguchi and kept my Gangl and two track frames (one of which I took to the track this past week).

[dana_e]

much tire clearance/ sell the frame and parts in 2 batches, should get more in total $ wise

[vespasianus]

I think the market for anything non current has crashed and even then, it is hard. Try selling a 27.5" MTB. Ouch.

I think the market for older steel bikes was always hard and I think it is only getting smaller. As people mentioned, tommasini was always a smaller brand and people don't know it well.

Also, as a big tommasini homer and a lover of steel bikes, I would say $800 is a lot for a vintage bike with down tube shifters and a nasty looking scratch on the top tube.

Anything steel, 10 years older, with less than 10 speed and any cosmetic issue, won't over get over $500.

As for tires, these old small diameter bikes ride great with 25mm tires. Shockingly so.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

I dont know if I would say crashed, but cooled off for sure.

I think most of the older folks who loved riding these bikes are aging out, and those who are still riding prefer cushier tires and much wider gearing than will fit many older bikes/components. [...] On the supply demand curve, the demand is definitely drying up.

It's exactly that. And IF any younger folks do enjoy riding those bikes, they in general just aren't sitting on the same purchasing power or hoarding (err., collecting) space as those that squirreled them away in the '80s, '90s, '00s, and '10s.

[jkbrwn]

I just turned 31, so despite not being young, I guess one of the younger people on this forum. Even I haven't ridden an 80s Merckx SLX since 2012. Simply not as good as a modern road bike with disc brakes IMO. Vintage steel bikes are of no interest to me anymore whatsoever. A modern oversized steel frame? Sure. But vintage... meh. Wall art.

[Leoner]

I know they don't "ride as nice" but I still love them.

[froze]

I think it depends on the bike, some bikes have dropped in price, but others have gone up.

I think the trend we saw from 2006 to 2012 or so Japanese steel bikes went up in value, but now they have cooled off, yet British and Italian steel bikes are still going up from what I'm seeing.

The other thing was that back from 2006 to 2012 bikes that were in average condition were selling at nosebleed levels, those have cooled up dramatically regardless of where they were made, and that is about time because I saw a lot of beat-up bikes going for a lot of money and they weren't worth it. The bikes that are appreciating are ones that are close to new condition with factory original components.

Today’s bikes are more homogenous and mass-produced, compared to the rare specimens of the 70s, 80s, and even a few in the 90s that were mostly all handmade by craftsmen. Race-winning bikes, bikes with a pedigree, that have documentation of such, are always going to have appeal, vintage or new. Also, rare special edition bikes that have a limited number made with a sequence number. Bikes made by artists who are now dead like Pegoretti, will skyrocket in value.

Like classic cars, it will depend on the car, and having once owned a few classic cars I've seen the prices go up and down, but the same rules apply to them as it does to bicycles.

There are people in the world who don't care if a vintage car, bicycle, motorcycle, or even a house appreciates in value, they want to see these things preserved. Jay Leno; Anne Brockinton Lee; Harold and Nancy LeMay, are huge into preserving cars, as are a few other people.

So, if you have resources to buy a rare bike due to what I mentioned earlier and want to preserve one or more, then do so, and you'll have fun doing so, just don't get into whether or not it's going to increase in value, do it to preserve them.

[mhespenheide]

I will counter that vintage bikes ride great, and I'm only middle-aged, but agree that the market has largely collapsed. It hit a recent peak in the United States after Eroica California was new or relatively young, but those buyers who wanted to try out a vintage bike or got nostalgic over the bikes of their youth bought a single bike and held on to it, or bought it, rode it for a few years, and then sold it. There was a small hiccup in prices during covid when new bikes weren't available and all of the used market spiked upward, but right now there are deals to be had on new bikes, so that's gone now, too.

There are a handful of companies whose bikes still command higher prices. And a handful of framebuilders or small shops whose work still command higher prices. But those need to be well-known, like Merckx/Colnago/De Rosa. Maybe Paramount. If you can find the right buyer, a Serrotta or Bruce Gordon or Eisentraut could still sell for a good price, but might not in a local market.

And the market has been on a trend downward for a while, so the guys who are collectors are probably already sitting on large collections of nice bikes. A scratched Tommasini is just not going to generate much demand, as nice as it might ride.

[ocslick]

Originally Posted by jkbrwn

I just turned 31, so despite not being young, I guess one of the younger people on this forum. Even I haven't ridden an 80s Merckx SLX since 2012. Simply not as good as a modern road bike with disc brakes IMO. Vintage steel bikes are of no interest to me anymore whatsoever. A modern oversized steel frame? Sure. But vintage... meh. Wall art.

Couldn't disagree more, just built this one up and it makes me smile more than any modern carbon disc brake bike. I would say its a great time to buy these super high quality steel frames and turn them into something beautiful with modern drivetrains which is where I think much of the best advancements have been coming from.

[m_sasso]

Originally Posted by ocslick

Couldn't disagree more, just built this one up and it makes me smile more than any modern carbon disc brake bike. I would say its a great time to buy these super high quality steel frames and turn them into something beautiful with modern drivetrains which is where I think much of the best advancements have been coming from.

Like, very nice!! Stem is a bit high for me, however I am not riding it

[Talrand]

Originally Posted by ocslick

Couldn't disagree more, just built this one up and it makes me smile more than any modern carbon disc brake bike. I would say its a great time to buy these super high quality steel frames and turn them into something beautiful with modern drivetrains which is where I think much of the best advancements have been coming from.

That would be more tempting if any major manufacturer made rim brake electronic groupsets. The Red on your Colnago is only going to get harder and harder to get/repair.
The only company I know off that's in that niche is Wheeltop, and an AliExpress-only brand might have limited appeal to the steel Colnago target demo.

[5oakterrace]

Originally Posted by merckxman

Yes, I think it's over for vintage steel. The people driving the market have aged and moved on, new riders could care less.

I agree. I think demand for normal bikes - period - has fallen. Some blame the expense. But the big companies offer bikes at almost every price point. The cheaper bikes do not have all the high end stuff but they probably ride as well as the high end stuff from 10 years ago.

Some blame the danger of road riding and hence the gravitation to gravel. I do not know about that. I live on a dirt road and I see it as more dangerous than tarmac. Drivers go too fast down the middle of the road. Bike riders will ride down the middle of the road. And the road is narrow. Not good. Bike paths are better.

I see the issue as our gravitation to easy. Bike riding can be hard. Cell phones make driving more dangerous but the internet also keeps a lot of us at home - the lure of easy. E bikes are easier. They keep older folks active which is good. They are hard for the previously inactive, but the lure is "easy."

Sell a vintage bike? How about sell any "normal" bike.