70's VINTAGE BIKES WHATS WRONG WITH THEM?

[1 CycleNut]

Why do people always try and discourage me when I get a hold of an old 70's beauty to fix up? Theese old bikes were made to last and were made out of good materials. I really like some of the workmanship on the Lugs SUPER ! STEEL RULES, Carbon---Man made ****! Light true but JUNK! Old bikes are like fine wine they just keep gettin better with age.... DON't YOU ALL AGREE????? Terry S.......

 

[Sidmyre]

no comment

 

[James Bruce Gil]

Absolutely nothing wrong with them at all. I am still riding one to and from work every day. It is the same road bike that I used to ride in the 70's

The reason; Well it seems to stand up to the tough going on the concrete roads better than my newer bikes.

The down side is that the Suntour parts are becoming difficult to find around Sydney these days. It is becoming more and more Shimano: Yuk!

Kind regards,

 

[Cyclist14]

Why do people always try and discourage me when I get a hold of an old 70's beauty to fix up? Theese old bikes were made to last and were made out of good materials. I really like some of the workmanship on the Lugs SUPER ! STEEL RULES, Carbon---Man made ****! Light true but JUNK! Old bikes are like fine wine they just keep gettin better with age.... DON't YOU ALL AGREE????? Terry S.......

HECK NO!!!

 

[Rompinrhino]

 

[fatbottomedgirl]

My thrift-store townie , a Centurian Signet, I assume is from the late 70's or early 80's and I love it. I didn't realize how much of a difference steel vs aluminum made until I bought my Felt 90.Not that the felts not fast, but its so much stiffer that it doesn't take torn up pavement, gravel and other messes the way the Centurion does . The steel just seems to be more forgiving and stable, even if it doesn't climb or get as fast. Of course the other benefit of an older bike is you don't have to be paranoid locking it to the rack - the dumb druggies looking for a bike to steal and sell won't know what you've got and will take a crappy mongoose because it looks fancy!

 

[shetzer]

I'm with you 100%. 70's & 80's steel bikes are works of art. Thankfully ebay came around & I can find all kinds of em for cheap. I love smokin guys on multi-thousand dollar carbon, Ti, Al kits on my classic rides.

 

[RC2]

STEEL RULES, Carbon---Man made ****!

I have a great steel frame from the early 90's that still gets ridden... nothing wrong with quality steel frames.

But why is steel any less man-made than carbon fiber? You lost me there...

 

[Ottis]

i myself have a bike made (mostly) in WEST germany... It performs in any weather better than anything else. there isn't even a single speck of rust on it ( i take care of it too well)

 

[James Bruce Gil]

My thrift-store townie , a Centurian Signet, I assume is from the late 70's or early 80's and I love it. I didn't realize how much of a difference steel vs aluminum made until I bought my Felt 90.Not that the felts not fast, but its so much stiffer that it doesn't take torn up pavement, gravel and other messes the way the Centurion does . The steel just seems to be more forgiving and stable, even if it doesn't climb or get as fast. Of course the other benefit of an older bike is you don't have to be paranoid locking it to the rack - the dumb druggies looking for a bike to steal and sell won't know what you've got and will take a crappy mongoose because it looks fancy!

F.b.g,

This is the long and short of it all. Do you want to trash your good bikes to get and from work?. I have a whole range of bikes, but the steel ones hold up best on irregular concrete roads and so on.

PS

Since I last posted on this thread my old blue, frame finally gave up the fight. A huge fatigue crack developed at the bottom of the saddle tube where it joined to the to the crank cylinder. I probably could have breathed a little more life into it with a weld, but it was showning signs of fatigue elsewhere as well. It had been flexing excessively for several months.

I have now resurrected one of my eldest son's (who's now 38 Years old), high school bikes to commute. So I have updated from a 30+ year old frame to a 25 year old one.

Have a good Christmas all of you!

Kind regards,

 

[allezkmiec]

Why do people always try and discourage me when I get a hold of an old 70's beauty to fix up? Theese old bikes were made to last and were made out of good materials. I really like some of the workmanship on the Lugs SUPER ! STEEL RULES, Carbon---Man made ****! Light true but JUNK! Old bikes are like fine wine they just keep gettin better with age.... DON't YOU ALL AGREE????? Terry S.......

Easy there, big fella. Time to cool off with the fanaticism.

I'm 23, and a racer. I ride a carbon Trek, and love it. But that being said, my first bike was a lugged steel Colnago with Super Record. I rode that bike for 3 years, and loved the way it felt. However, I like my Trek better; it's much lighter, accelerates much faster, climbs and corners better, and gives (in my opinion) far better road feel. Nice steel bikes feel great, that's for sure, but I'll take my Trek any day.

And as for carbon being man-made and steel being natural... steel alloys used in bike frames are just as man-made and lab-tested as any carbon fiber. Call a wrought-iron pennyfarthing natural if you want, but steel is just as manufactured as carbon, ti, aluminum, magnesium, etc. You can't dig a bike out of a mine.

Steel may be real, but my bike is faster.

-Matt

 

[waxbytes]

...Carbon---Man made ****! Light true but JUNK! .....

Steel is a man made alloy of iron and carbon. Steel often with includes chrome and molybedenum elements as modifying alloys. Steel is not found in nature and is as truly man-made as any material.

 

[peet9471]

The real problem back then was the way they started to mass produce them before they knew what they needed. European bikes were mostly lugged with beautiful craftsmanship which took a lot of time and made the cost higher. Some companies tried to mass produce bikes by lining them up in a jig and making big fat welds. If a company took it's time they could do a good job with steel. Aluminum was another story. The tubes had to be double butted to be strong and light. Twice as thick on the ends where they had to be silver soldered into the lug. Consequently you had all sorts of stickers which tried to convince you that their bikes were top quality. Just about any company's high end bikes were a pretty good purchase but the low-end mass-produced bikes suffered. They had the cheapest componets, often from the same company that we knew and loved for the good stuff. If you have one that survived, it was probably a good one to start with.

 

[James Bruce Gil]

The real problem back then was the way they started to mass produce them before they knew what they needed. European bikes were mostly lugged with beautiful craftsmanship which took a lot of time and made the cost higher. Some companies tried to mass produce bikes by lining them up in a jig and making big fat welds. If a company took it's time they could do a good job with steel. Aluminum was another story. The tubes had to be double butted to be strong and light. Twice as thick on the ends where they had to be silver soldered into the lug. Consequently you had all sorts of stickers which tried to convince you that their bikes were top quality. Just about any company's high end bikes were a pretty good purchase but the low-end mass-produced bikes suffered. They had the cheapest componets, often from the same company that we knew and loved for the good stuff. If you have one that survived, it was probably a good one to start with.

Peet,

I wont have to worry about this relatively recent technology. The new stuff is fantastic on good going. The ones I trust on the tough roads are steel, brazed into sockets!

Greetings of the season,

 

[10timesbetter]

my bike is from the 70's, i'm assuming, it's been in our garage for quite a while, i took it with me to school and fixed it up, it runs great, I wouldn't ever buy an aluminum or carbon bike, not that they aren't nice, i'd just worry they'd snap, pittsburgh has way too many potholes, it might not look as nice as some of the newer bikes, but it's 30 year old, and has a bit of life in it, so that's gotta say something

 

[JohnO]

I have both, each excels in its own area. My carbon framed, 10 speeded, Zipp wheeled Trek is a hotrod, just flies on the downhills.

My 70's vintage Falcon San Remo is a prime example of the 1970's British framebuilders. The Trek is maybe four pounds lighter, and aside from the indexed shifters (convenience) and aero wheels (performance) there isn't much difference in them. I think the Falcon has a more refined ride to it, but that may just be personal preference. Sure is a classy looking ride.

One area where there is a great difference is in fit and finish. The Falcon has near perfect paint, chromed lugs and fork ends, and the brazing around the Campy fork ends blends them in like the fork was cast in one piece. Whoever built this bike was proud of it, and it shows. The Trek's paint is, well, Trek paint. It may as well have been punched out of a cookie cutter for all the effort that was put into finishing a $4k (in 1999) bike.

We may have learned a lot about materials, but we've sure forgotten how to put a bike together.