Where does a classic road bike fit in your cycling life?

[Hilltopperny]

For the years when I started riding road bicycles the majority were older steel bikes. I loved most of them and they definitely have a place in a stable of bikes if you have the time to ride them. They are beautiful in construction and there is just something about the road feel of skinny tubes and tires on smooth roads , but over the past few years I did not grab them off the hook enough to justify keeping them.

The last classic bike I had was a gorgeous Columbine. It rode amazingly and looked great as well, but I honestly only had it out a dozen times while it was in the stable. It was responsive and smooth riding, but half of the dozen rides I was pulling a Burley Solo with my son in the back. This was a high end race bike and I felt it was better to pass it along then have it languish in a hook, so off it went to a more deserving home!

I have enough rough roads and dirt/gravel out here to justify the two Allroad/Gravel bikes I currently ride. They see the majority of my ride time and I even enjoy riding them on the road!

I bought a $100 Battaglin aluminum frame and built it up with Campagnolo 11spd that and some cheap Token C45r wheels that were on my last high end frame set. I figure I can pull my son on the bike trail and take it out for some road fun if I have the opportunity for short money.

All in all I am at N=4 with my fat bike and that seems to be where I will be staying for the foreseeable future. If I had more ride time then a nice classic style steel bike with modern components would probably be the next thing to add, but given the fact that I have a new baby in the house, a toddler and a teenager extra time to ride bikes is in short supply!


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[Frankwurst]

I quit trying to over think a bicycle's purpose in the 70's. They just make me happy and that's enough for me.

[colker]

Classic road bike to me is something i commute long distances on, fast and comfortable. So yes, there is place: it´s right at the center of my cycling habit. All the other bikes are eccentric.
A classic bike must have technology i can deal with classic tools and must withstand abuse. Aluminum rims, steel forks and unless i am on cactus country, no tubeless.
I really want to have a classic touring bike, with racks and an old tech bag.
A rigid mountain bike to play around and i am set. Though i only have space for 2 bikes.

[AngryScientist]

For me, a "classic" road bike is the perfect machine. everyone's riding has evolved and just like everything else in the world - is falling more and more into "specialty" camps. gravel, roguh gravel, mid gravel, all-road......etc.

not for me. i ride 95% of everything on my classic stage race geometry road bikes. they are pretty good at everything.

New England is a perfect terrain to prove this out. i'll happily ride a roadie with 25c tires over tight twisty climbs and descents and for hours over well groomed dirt roads. it's all good.

unfortunately, that means i'll rip a RD off once and a while, haha

[mhespenheide]

We're into the realm of "need" versus "want" here.

Your current Seven fits the niche you're addressing handily. You don't need something beyond it, although if you're not in a small urban apartment and you have room, it's really convenient to have a dedicated trainer bike. (To me, it makes more sense for a dedicated trainer bike to be either a beater or aluminum or maybe titanium given potential sweat damage. Mine's Ti, but that's really only because I already had it.)

So ... why a classic road bike? There are plenty of good answers, but they all boil down to want. And that's totally fair, if you've got the money and the space. Whether it's because it reminds us of our youth, reminds us of reading Winning magazine or the newsprint VeloNews, if it brings you joy, go for it. There are far, far worse vices to chase out there.

For me, I agree with the idea that "classic" goes back a little farther; my classic road bike is a lugged Bianchi that mixes the last of the polished-silver-components era and the dirt-road-climbs-in-the-Alps-in-the-Tour era. It was my first good bicycle, so it hits the nostalgia/heirloom niche, and is just barely legal for Eroica CA so it ticks that box as well.

If I were living in Bend (and had the $ and space), I'd probably want five or six bikes: modern road like your current Seven, gravel/all-road, mountain bike, beater/townie, and classic road just for the joy of it. And then a dedicated trainer bike to try to have a shred of a chance of keeping up with @Andy_sti, even though I wouldn't really.

On the one hand, that's a little silly, but again, there's no real harm in it either. There's a distinct pleasure in a clean and waxed steel bike with lugs and a great paint job, with the neurons firing to control a friction shift on the downtube, or tanwall tires on a 32 silver spokes flashing in the sun, or hands draped over the hoods on Cinelli bars.

[charliedid]

I have no real interest in owning old bikes, classic or otherwise.

[colker]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

For me, a "classic" road bike is the perfect machine. ...

not for me. i ride 95% of everything on my classic stage race geometry road bikes. they are pretty good at everything.

That´s the beauty of the road bike. I treat it like a freaking tank riding over anything.
Something i admire about the stage race road bike is the maturity of the design. Geometry is all set. It is what it is. I always liked tradition.

[jamesdak]

Til the day I die.....I hope!

Pretty much everything I ride fits this.

This was my ride yesterday. 1985 Belgium built racer made by Eddy Martens. DT shifters and 23mm tubulars. Only concession on this one right now are the modern wheels but I also use some old alloys on it. 40 miles of pure steel goodness, other than the smoke in the air, cough, cough....



Then over the past two weeks 3 more old steel bikes have made their way into the stable including one like what the OP mentioned.

Late 80's Nova Special.



The other two were a late 80's Colnago Super and a 1991 Miyata 914SE.





I do have some more modern style bikes like two of those funky C.F. Trek Y Foils but most of my wheels will be classic steel. Heck even my upright, 3 speed errand runner is 1972 steel. Looks like a piece of junk but if you look closer you'll notice a NOS crank, new chain, leather washers on all mount points, new saddle, new stem, new pedals, light converted to LED, new brake pads, etc, etc.



Funny story on this old bike is a year or two ago some punk youngster hollered some rude stuff to me on the bike path while I was on this. Insulted the old beast for no reason. So I dropped it into top gear, blew by his young spandex covered butt and proceeded to pull away for about another 1/2 mile before he turned off in shame. Lucky for me because I was about to have a heart attack, LOL! True story though!

And even my newly configured "gravel bike' is classic steel. A mid 80's Orbea Cabestany. The same model Pedro Delgado raced to victory in 1985. Earlier this week I took advantage of all the frame clearance and threw on some 700 x 32 knobby's and flat MB pedals.



And as to true classic, it doesn't get much more classic then my pretty much unmolested, Opus III. 6 speed of Superbe Pro goodness with this ol' beauty.



Or if you want "really steep" how about this classic racer?



Although.....to be honest. This one is listed for sale locally. Every since the dog wrecked me on my Jake to Snake I've been unable to ride this. Had a major grade three seperation of my AC joint and when I try to get into position to ride this things still pop in my shoulder. Stupid dog!

Anyway...enough rambling.... needless to say I love classic steel and hope it is always in my life.

[prototoast]

I would consider the Seven to be a classic road bike. 28-30mm tires aren't giving up anything in terms of performance. The gearing is maybe a little low for racing, but you could easily change that, and even then, with 11 and 12 speed groupsets, you can get the racing gears and and endurance gears at the same time. Unless you're a sprinter, 48x11 will be fine for amateur racing.

Maybe in your mind, a "classic" road bike has a 53/39 and 23mm tires, but from a functional standpoint, your Seven fills that niche perfectly fine, so there's really no need (not that there's no "want") for a more roadly road bike.

[tv_vt]

I have a Merckx MXL built in 94 and a Merckx Corsa 01 with Freuler extensions built in late 90's. They weigh 21 and 20# and have 10 or 11 speed stuff on them. I can fit 30mm tires on the MXL and 28s easily on the Corsa.

I totally love riding them. Just a total joy. The ride is great, the fit is great, and they just look so dam cool with their lovely paint jobs (that you don't see except on customs anymore) and level top tubes.

[Spinner]

I love riding my classic road bikes (Serotta CIII, 2 x 9; Serotta CIII, 3 x 9). Both are fitted with 23 tires mounted on Open Pros; 99% of my riding is on good pavement and I don't find the ride to be jarring whatsoever. I even ridden these bikes on well maintained packed gravel roads and trails without issues.

When I do have the need for something better suited to gravel, my Rambouillet outfitted with 28s does the trick.

On the other hand, if I lived in a rural area where gravel roads were the norm (we used to call them dirt roads), I'd likely put bigger tires on my Rambouillet.

[bocobiking]

This thread seems to posit an overly simplistic dichotomy, one that makes it impossible for me to respond to the issue. I love, and only have, steel road bikes with steel forks and 23mm tires. Most are older than 1990, one is a brand new Gunnar. But all of them have triples with low gearing, all have dual pivot rim brakes, and several of them do not have racing geometry. The older ones have downtube friction shifting; the Gunnar has Shimano 10 speed integrated shifting. So, are my bikes "classics" or "moderns"?

Sometimes I think dichotomies like this are created by, and serve the interests of, bike industry marketers, the better to sell you the "modern" bikes.

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Nomadmax

Steel road bikes with SL/SLX tubing and Campagnolo components for me.

Steel forks especially for me often. The lively snap to neutral give a feel carbon just does not possess...

I ride my 1985 Colnago resto-built SLX bike a lot. 11s Chorus and either Zipp 404s w/25mm or some super-lights with 25mm Vitt pavs.

No other bike I have seems so connected to me and the road quite like the way it responds. It is a few lb heavier than my 585, but you are not aware of the weight of it. Contrary, as much as I like the glide of the 585, the Steel Nago/steel fork stays constant weighted or unweighted on skittery pave or lighten Gs rises etc.

I still have trouble comprehending how skinny little diameter tubes on a 61CM frame is so stiff. It needs to be pushed or it is less pleasant to JRA on. Outta a dozen plastic/Ti/and other steel bikes I have, nothing is like it. The way nothing is like the 585 in the plastic dept.

It seems the pinnacle road bike, it will soon be 30 years that she has been under my watch which is also special...

And it will fit a pretty fat tire, but it just does not need fat tires IMO.

[mtechnica]

I like vintage road bikes, mostly for aesthetic reasons but they ride pretty good. Unfortunately I can’t be bothered to ride them over modern road bikes most of the time because they feel/are slower and less comfortable.

My only vintage road bike now is an Eddy Merckx corsa extra (SLX) with dura ace 7400 and 8 speed. It’s literally as good as it gets for vintage.

[XXtwindad]

"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."

And therein lies the rub,
as the Bard would say.
I caught a glimpse of myself
In the mirror the other day.
Only so long you can hold Dorian Gray
At bay.

The hard cold truth
Doesn't need a skilled sleuth.
I'm a prime example
Of a MAMIL
And one that like his teeth
With all their enamel.

So give me lower gearing
So that my ligaments won't be searing
And toss in some fat tires
For that will surely slake
My cycling desires.