Doing a pre 1988 road ride on Sunday http://retrorendezvous.co.uk/a-lancienne-the-lake-district-vintage-cycling-festival/ and a friend has kindly lent me this bike, he has inherited from his father its immaculate! not sure what age it is!!
Looking like rain on Sunday and me hilly roads and the wet are not a good mix 😯

[url=https://flic.kr/p/vNGrKA]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/vRoG1c] [/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/vypb2b] [/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

I’ll ride it for you!

That is a beauty, If I owned it I would ride it and lovingly clean and polish it for most of the following week. But I wouldn’t want to borrow it just in case I stacked it, there would be too much guilt involved.

It’s too nice not to ride!

Of course if you don’t own it….

Well if it doesn’t fit you and the saddle is uncomfortable it will not be nice to ride plus the brake levers are horrible in the hand compared to modern hoods that are wide and have rubber on them. It will also be heavy and the brakes are rubbish.
I’m sure the retro heads with rose tinted glasses will love it.

Bloody hell man, lighten up.

It’ll ride like a bike of that vintage does, and be fun for that difference.

Better throw your vinyl out, eh?

Lighten up or man up?

My folks will have ridden worse than that fully laden on mountain tours before they had children nearly 40 years ago!

Better throw your vinyl out, eh?

Why would I do that when I just bought a new belt for my Rega?

While I’m happy to put up with the foibles of vinyl replay to enjoy the aural benefits, I still wouldn’t want to ride a bike that didn’t fit me with shite brakes and uncomfortable hoods however nice it looked or had the ability to seduce weak minds with its shiny red and white retro paint job and quaint Victorian tobacconist logo on the downtube.

LOL, aural.

Meh, vinyl is measuarably worse in just about every way, but we both dig its sound.

Sounds like a good analogy to me 😀

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price to pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
Here’s your ticket, welcome to the tombs
They’re just public mausoleums
The living dead fill every room
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing

Funcitonal things die when you stop using them, it’s a last resort.

Thanks for that Northwind. Never heard that before. Brilliant song.

Nice bike that.

To some degree Mr Smith is right, but it is of an age that most of us would have had experience of, and remember only too well.
But it looks lovely, wouldn’t change a thing on it if it’s a proper retro event, but would change saddle and shifters if it was to be used more frequently.

As is it looks lovely.

I have a Mercian frame in 531c in the loft, it was ok to ride if a little heavy, there’s a reason it’s still in the loft
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, it might fit you like a glove and the rose tinted waves of nostalgia will wash over you as glide through the bucolic English countryside as its halcyon charms seduce you.

Quick spin to work and back, feels about right hoods are in the wrong position for me,luckily the route I am doing has add ons so can pick and chose what length and height as I poodle along.Only problem is attire now have a Old school Rapha trade jersey and cap , white or black shocks Mmmmm

Only one off as I failed to get my feet out of the toeclips in time I,m hooked on this type of bimberling!
https://www.strava.com/activities/344467203
[url=https://flic.kr/p/uYfwKU]Untitled[/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/uYp13x] [/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr
[url=https://flic.kr/p/vCDPFN] [/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

That’s some nice shrubbery.

That cake looks teh awesome.

I could take up bimble-road shortly….

The free cake and sandwich stops were immense Pie and beer at the end!! Iate my entry in food!