How is it to own a vintage steel bike

Published at September 20, 2023

Is it a good idea after all? Well I always wanted one and this was actually my first ever road bike.

There are lots of vintage steel bikes for sale in The Netherlands. They come in most variety of conditions. There are sad half-dead ones (vastly popular amongst most hip of the hipsters of Amsterdam). There are museum grade ones in perfect state. Old hip people ride them on long distance cycle roads. And then of course a great variety of in-betweens.

Someone asked me once if it is a good idea to buy vintage steel bike for everyday riding and this is what I answered. I thought this might be actually interesting to some of you.

Road biking

There are no problems at all in using vintage steel as a road bike in The Netherlands. I do 1.5K km annually on my 1979 Cilo out of a pure pleasure. Of course there is a difference with a modern carbon beasts, but on a dutch roads (if you’re not racing) it is not that important. It is all flat, no need to shift frequently, no hills to get everything from the brakes. So you can live with low amount of gears and friction shifting perfectly well.

Your speed is determined mostly by your legs and physical condition. Then tyres and maybe clipless pedals. You can fit modern ones and be on-par with new bikes in this department.

City commuting

Now what’s about city commuting, e.g. in Amsterdam. This is absolutely different story

I won’t be riding vintage steel bike daily in Amsterdam because of these reasons:

• Cobblestones. By default those old bikes are using 23mm tires. You can fit 25mm with no problems at all, but it won’t do you much better. Then you can fit bigger tires if your brakes allow them, but hey, that is ruining your look and why not just get a city bike then?

• Brakes. Because of their construction, pre-aero brakes are sub-optimal when you reach levers from the top. You just can’t break good enough from the hoods. So, you will definitely hit some tourists crossing bike lane without looking. Of course, on drops there will be much more braking power, but vintage handlebars are brutal in terms of drop depth. It’s not comfortable in the city at all.

• If your vintage bike is shiny and beautiful it will seize to be like that very soon because it will be ruined by weather, bike racks, careless people, etc. Hmm… I think actually it will be stolen sooner than that. Get insurance, man.

Other caveats

• Repairs sometime require odd tools that have to be found on ebay. Or parts that can’t be even found even on ebay, but on some odd websites in Switzerland. There were English standards, French standards, Italian… who knows what else. And we are here in the middle of it all.

• When you wash it, you’re hurting old decals pretty bad. So if you have “you precious”, stick to riding it only on dry days.

• It get rusty. It’s steel, come on.

• Less options to adjust it to fit you. Quill stems need to be replaced altogether to fix your reach. Saddle fastening can be… imaginative and so on.

• Random grandpas give you compliments on a road… wait, is that a caveat or not? Mooie fiets…

---

Okay, so this was purely my opinion. Your mileage may vary. Let me finish with some cool links to cool people.

1. http://www.willemsvintagebikes.nl/ This guy is awesome. He is restoring unique steel vintage bikes and sells them for a dime.

2. https://www.damskobikes.com This is professional shop for restored vintage bikes.

3. https://www.facebook.com/ArnasVintageBikes/ The same, but as a Facebook group member anyone can sell anything there.

There is eBay and other Facebook groups of course. If you’re in The Netherlands, then you should know Marktplaats (which is kinda mix of Craigslist and eBay). But this is a wild territory and if you buy a dead horse, don’t blame me responsible. Haha. Have a nice ride!