Monday, December 1, 2008

Design of Vintage Bicycles and The Question of Restoring Vs Reconditioning

Every now and then, you'll find the old rusting remains of what is an ancient bicycle in your basement, a bequeathal from your grandparents of which you would probably be less concerned about than the dust collecting in your laptop keyboard. However, it pays to take a second look at these objects because they could very well turn out to be a gem, or one of those rare classic vintage bikes that sweep a lot in value these days (think museum, or even EBAY!). Are you just going to stand there doing nothing when a mini-treasure just sits there right under your feet? Then maybe you should quit complaining about not having the cash flow for your next season.

Okay. So you did take a second look at the bike. You asked a few people around and found out that its a Netherlandish or nederlandish design from the days when your greatgrandpa had more teeth, and that it has a good amount of value. Then the next important question is, what do you do with it? Do you restore or recondition it?

Vin Vullo, apart from having strong opinions on the ills of modern bikes and cyclists wearing tight fitting clothes (see Wheeling Through History, The Boston Pheonix May '08), has also been buying and selling vintage bicycles since the 1960s. In 1995 as the internet gained in popularity he founded Menotomy Vintage Bicycles and moved his business to the web at OldRoads.com. His company's web site has many tools and resources for people interested in vintage bicycles, including a picture database, an online price guide, serial number charts and a dozen discussion areas where collectors can post questions and provide answers for other bike collectors.


I've collected a series of nice video presentations he gave on vintage bikes through Expertvillage. He walks us through from an introduction to vintage bikes, to the question of restoring vs reconditioning.

While you're at it, also pay special attention to design elements in the common style of vintage bikes, for a lot of those elements have carried on and are seen in present bikes as well. For example, apart from the double diamond frame design which I already talked about in a previous post, the remnants of the cantilever frame design has also stuck in road bikes and cruisers.
Another point of interest is the front fork design. You may see a relation between the front suspension of Jeff Jones' Monster Truck MTB and vintage fork designs of balloon tired bicycles from the 1930's. Nothing extremely 'out of the book', if you ask me :


The Monster Truck MTB (courtesy Wired Mag). Check out the similarities in front suspension design.

Schwinn B-10 E. Courtesy : Copakeauction



Enjoy the presentations.



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Intro To Vintage Bicycles




Intro To Vintage Bicycles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com



What Makes Vintage Bicycles



What Makes Bicycles Vintage -- powered by ExpertVillage.com



Why Do People Collect Vintage Bicycles?



Why People Collect Vintage Bicycles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Styles of vintage bicycles



Vintage Bicycle Styles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Balloon Tire Bicycles (1940's)



Popular Vintage Bicycles: 1940s -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Middle Weight Bicycles (1950's)



Popular Vintage Bicycles: 1950s -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Sting Ray Bicycles (1960's)



Popular Vintage Bicycles: 1960s -- powered by ExpertVillage.com



3 Speed Bicycles (1970's)



Popular Vintage Bicycles: 1970s -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




English 3 speed bicycles



English 3-Speed Bicycles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




English Rod Brakes



English Bicycle Rod Brakes -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




English Bicycle Cable Brakes



English Bicycle Cable Brakes -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Pre and Post War Vintage Bikes



Pre-War & Post-War Vintage Bicycles -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Vintage Bike Serial Numbers



Vintage Bicycle Serial Numbers -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Vintage Bicycle Rims



Vintage Bicycle Rims -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Vintage Bicycle Hubs



Vintage Bicycle Hubs -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Vintage Bicycle Tires



Vintage Bicycle Tires -- powered by ExpertVillage.com



Vintage Bicycle Reflectors



Vintage Bicycle Reflectors -- powered by ExpertVillage.com



Vintage Bicycle Accessories



Vintage Bicycle Accessories -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Vintage Bicycle Head Badges



Vintage Bicycle Head Badges -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Vintage Bicycle Literature



Collecting Vintage Bicycle Literature -- powered by ExpertVillage.com



Do You Restore Or Recondition A Vintage Bicycle?



Vintage Bicycles: Restore or Recondition -- powered by ExpertVillage.com




Restoring A Vintage Bicycle



Vintage Bicycles: Restoring -- powered by ExpertVillage.com

3 comments:

Phil said...

Thanks for the nice videos. Also want to point out that even belt drives aren't anything new. They've been used on motorcycles for many years, and Strida first introduced it in their folding bikes back in the 80's.

Anonymous said...

The monster mtb is actually a rigid fork, not a suspension.

Anonymous said...

Ron, Both bikes are without front suspension. By your logic, you could say any rigid fork was designed to replace a suspension fork. I know its more compliant, but thats all.