Vintage Bicycles, Oh My!

(My DL-1 Raleigh Vintage Bicycle)
 

I’m starting to get very alerted to the growing love of vintage bicycles as a first choice in a bicycle for those who want to ride a bicycle (again.) The obvious reason… beat the high price of gas AND for the other myriad reasons…reduce carbon, go green, get exercise ect.

Yes, and all the while looking incredibly chic and cool doing so!

But here’s what I’ve gleaned so far from my fellow bicycle bloggers. It’s a kind of round up of loosely related tidbits from here and there…

‘bicycle commuting’ is growing;

‘The term "Bicycle Commuting" took a major spike at the beginning of the second quarter of this year, almost directly coinciding with gas hitting $4 per gallon in the U.S’.

Okay, so bicycle sales are up as people want to bicycle commute. Here's where the next tidbit comes in....

Next Sweet Georgia Brown notes she was OUTBID! The vintage Raleigh Sprite she was promised was sold out from under her, and instead it was acquired by a vintage bicycle restorer with plans to turn around and resell it, and of course for much more money.

Now this is in keeping with my own observations. I troll Craigslist for vintage bicycles...I posted a while back and urged everyone to use Craigslist in 'Bicycle for Cheap'.

Times change. Just from my own little tracking I see the prices are going up and up, the resellers are trolling Craigslist with a lot of diligence. The cheap and reasonable bicycles are disappearing in a heart beat! Especially true, say for instance a Raleigh Superb, or just about any Schwinns from the 70’s, 60’s, 50’s. All kinds of vintage cruisers go fast too. This is especially and particularity true with the ladies bicycles category…hardly much interest in vintage ladies bicycles in days past…Fixie/Mixte Diamond frames ruled, step through frames got passed on. Well what this means… girls are riding(pretty) and they like cool vintage bicycles. Duh!

Another tidbit, this time from UrbanCycleChic who blogged/noted the NY Times article;

‘Jalopy Bikes with Techie Tyres’. The full NY Times article here. Basically it’s a heads up on buying brand new hi-tech tyres for your cruiser/jalopy vintage bicycle…

Over at Bikes in the City you can find just the cutest (vintage, if not vintage looking) blue bicycle ever… getting to be the huge, megawatt star in a TV spot. Read and see the whole video here.

All adding up to convince me that vintage bicycles are hot, so hot!

Oh, and this just in as I was writing this post. Please review or enroll in bicycle riding education/ etiquette class...I blogged about just such here. Anyway according to the NY Times bicyclists are ‘Moving Targets’. Read full NY Times article here.

Due to the big upsurge in bicyclist sharing the streets in Manhattan and elsewhere across the country there is an adjustment going on. Cars (drivers), pedestrians can get hostile.