I miss old roadster bikes

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tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
I love a good roadster myself. I have several. When I'm cycling, I am a tourist, a utility rider or just a pootler so speed isn't my priority. I love the comfort, the relaxing ride, the simplicity of the hub gear and the knowledge I'm riding a product built to be durable and easy to maintain, not to be fashionable.

The rod braked stuff looks nice and usually have laid back angles and are very relaxing to ride but the brakes are hopeless in the rain. I do ride the 1951 which belonged to my Grandfather quite often though and I love it, but only in the dry! The same goes for my 1939 Elswick. I also have a 1931 Elswick step through which is a very stately ride and has drum brakes so stops very well in all weathers but I just don't enjoy riding it in the same way for some reason.

I have a 1958 Raleigh Trent sports roadster which is great to ride but it has 4 speed Cyclo-Benelux derailleur gears. There's a knack to using this gear system and it works well enough in practice but with a 14 - 20 block and 48 tooth chainwheel, it lacks low gears for this area.

I have an early '80s roadster, the frame probably originated behind the iron curtain and I rode it an awful lot, even did a few tours on it and I loved it despite it's humble origins. I had tweaked it a bit with alloy rims, bars and cotterless cranks. Sadly the bottom bracket shell broke last year. It's not worth spending money on. I keep toying with the idea of having a go on it with my arc welder but am aware it would probably melt the braze in the lugs. I keeping hoping to find a suitable (i.e. free) frame to re-home the components. I really miss this bike.

I also have a slightly tatty Raleigh Pioneer which I built a single speed and I sometimes toy with the idea of painting it in black enamel, fitting some north road bars, a sprung leather saddle and converting it to three speed to create a more modern take on the vintage roadster.
 

All uphill

Still rolling along
Location
Somerset
Rideability and comfort trumps old skool fashion and nostalgia. Give me a good hybrid any day.

I'm very happy with my 1990's Marin, however...

..RIding Ms AU's new Cube trekking bike was a bit of a revelation. Much lighter than it looks, big tyres and well chosen gears.
 

tyred

Legendary Member
Location
Ireland
Incidentally, you can buy Koolstop salmon brake blocks for rod braked bikes. I'm unsure whether or not they'd be worth the extra expense on chrome wheels.
 

Oldhippy

Cynical idealist
Every time I see the heading for this thread I think Ol' Roadster Bikes is a great character name for someone in a quirky budget Sci fi film.
 

Gillstay

Über Member
Partly, but it also makes the bar/stem relationship better and keeps your centre of gravity lower.

Modern bikes all seem to have very high bottom brackets. My understanding is it was mostly done for litigation reasons (people clipping their pedals as they rode round corners). But it's all part of the move towards bikes being performance-oriented as opposed to transport-oriented.

Often we seem obsessed with the weight of bikes rather than how good they are to use. I know the brakes on old roadsters are dreadful (actually put some Kool-stop Continentals on and things improve a lot!) but they are very comfortable and practical machines to actually use. You don't need special clothes and the maintenance is easy - a teaspoon of gear oil every now and then. For many people, the getting to work bike was more or less perfected in about 1930.

I once rode a perfect old Sunbeam which must have been from the 40's or 50's and the ride was amazing, so comfortable and the brakes were better than my modern mountain bike.
 
OP
OP
C

chris667

Guru
Rideability and comfort trumps old skool fashion and nostalgia.

I understand where you're coming from, but I found all the old roadsters extremely comfortable.

As for rideability while I take your point that it's nice to have a lightweight, it's also true that all the components on a modern hybrid are much more disposable. It strikes me that there are a lot of bikes that simply aren't designed to be used. For reliability, I think you can't really beat a Sturmey 3 speed, which is why there are still so many of them.

I also think that with alloy rims there's much more potential for decent braking. I'd probably go with centrepulls, there are some lovely centrepull brakes now.

Not as good as a disc still but certainly good enough that I'd be happy to ride one down a hill in traffic.

Anyway, I have put an offer in on a certain auction website on something locally. Pictures if it happens!
 
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