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Actually Riding Your Classic or Antique Bike

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I don't know what 50 miles on a 25pound 10 speed equates to with a 40-50 pound single speed.

And with my terrain, I hope never to find out. 🤣😎😉 I can't push a bike that far, ....guaranteed.
 
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So i guess Don that means pedaling a 60lbs Ballooner means your getting three times the workout with half the distance traveled?? Man this sure works for me.... Thanks for that. RideOn. Razin...

My neighbor said the same thing. He belongs to a road bike club and has one of those super expensive lightweight road bikes.
 
Oh heck yes I ride my bikes, this morning I took the Panther for a ride to Pete's Mexican breakfast on 5th St. HB. Here are a couple more I keep in the living room because I ride them so often. Others are in dry shed outback.

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Oh heck yes I ride my bikes, this morning I took the Panther for a ride to Pete's Mexican breakfast on 5th St. HB. Here are a couple more I keep in the living room because I ride them so often. Others are in dry shed outback.

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Really cool bikes.. And I love your pup too.. What's his name... A place place in my heart for all animals..God bless them all...
 
I've been riding an 80-year-old Columbia recently. Single-speed, coaster brake, about as basic a bike as you get. A 35 lb. "Lightweight." When you consider the mass of the rider/bicycle as a system, having a modern lightweight bike doesn't make that much difference. I know there are a lot of Spandex-clad folks dressed up like they're running the Tour de France on 5 lb bikes made of rags 'n glue that say otherwise, but physics is physics. They go faster because they're stronger and they weigh less than me, not because their bikes are lighter than mine. I've read this whole 2-year thread. Lots of talk of gear ratios on single-speeds, multi-speed bikes, etc. But nobody has mentioned what people used to do back in the day when confronted with a hill: Dismount and walk your bike uphill. You get to see your bike from another perspective and life slows down for a while. You still get all the exercise.

My mom and dad took the opportunity to bike the newly completed Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive during WWII because there was gasoline rationing and no automobile traffic . My mom was riding a 3-speed, 60 lb. Raleigh and dad was riding the same 80-year-old Columbia I ride today. He said next time, he'd leave the bikes at home and do the same trip with shopping carts.
 
I’m guessing you’ve never ridden a modern top shelf bike. A night and day difference compared to the old bikes. Less weight, easier to pedal, and gears make a significant difference especially over distance. Don’t get me wrong I ride vintage most of the time but something to be said for technology when you want to cover a lot of ground fast-or as fast as this 60 year old can! V/r Shawn
 
I’m guessing you’ve never ridden a modern top shelf bike. A night and day difference compared to the old bikes. Less weight, easier to pedal, and gears make a significant difference especially over distance. Don’t get me wrong I ride vintage most of the time but something to be said for technology when you want to cover a lot of ground fast-or as fast as this 60 year old can! V/r Shawn
I've been on a friends $3,000 carbon fiber something or other. Definitely night and day difference. But like giving a '59 Les Paul custom to Phoebe Buffet to play "Smelly Cat," it wouldn't make much difference to me. I have a "modern" 2012 Trek DS 8.2 which is a Chinese frame with Bontrager everything else and I really like the gearing for uphill (not as much for downhill) and the front fork suspension. It's a great all-around bike for the casual rider. My other two bikes have personal history that makes them hard to shake: My dad's 1942 Columbia VG295 Sports Tourist and my own 1978 Schwinn Caliente 10-speed with the Shimano FFS front freewheeling system that I bought in 1979 new because it was last year's model and discounted. I bought it big because I was 15 and convinced I would grow into it and promptly stopped growing. I ride it anyway. If I were to rank them in order of (subjective) "ride quality," I'd say the Trek rides the best overall, the Columbia as well, but differently because it's such a heavy "lightweight," solid and smooth and the Schwinn the least well, though, again, there's nothing like a stiff welded Chicago steel frame to break the pebbles under your rims. It's a good example of brute force American Engineering.

So I really don't have any "good' bikes. Both the Columbia and Schwinn were near bottom-of-the line in their days and about the best that can be said for the Trek is I bought it at an actual neighborhood bike store and they don't sell them at Wal Mart.
 
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