What "thing" from when you started, would be out of place now.

[Andy in Germany]

It never got better than these really
View attachment 808489

I think that's a Raleigh Lizard: when I started high school these were what the cool kids rode. They had an impossible number of gears: I recall was 21.

They also had that exciting new technology of quick release wheels. I remember one kid at school would always lock his through the back wheel on the basis it was harder to take off, and you couldn't ride it away. Unfortunately another kid always locked his through the front meaning that you could have a complete bike fairly quickly, if lime green and about 30kg was your idea of the ideal bike.

 

[Gwylan]

My mate still does it ! In Knutsford each year.

It's in the name.

 

[tyred]

Sidewall bottle dynamo. I had one of those. You don't see them much but I think they are still about.

I still have one on my early '90s MTB/touring bike, paired with modern LED lamps with stand lights. It works fine and is always there, should I need lights.

Last week, whilst waiting for the ferry in Oban, I got talking to a young (~21) Canadian girl who was on break year and doing some "bike packing."

She was looking at my bike and didn't know what the dynamo was and "OMG, you've got no brake rotors!"

I suddenly felt like a relic from a long-lost era!

 

[tyred]

It never got better than these really
View attachment 808489

View attachment 808491

I love an old MTB.

 

[Gwylan]

Shorts with real chamois.

Still got one pair, with bretelles. Where do you ret tre right crème for them?

 

[Pblakeney]

Still got one pair, with bretelles. Where do you ret tre right crème for them?

No idea these days.
Ever tried explaining what chamois cream was really for to anyone under 40?

 

[Hover Fly]

All this talk of old bike lights has had me racking my brain, trying to remember the brand/model of those little black dual front lights (1W?) connected to a 1Kg+ black bottle battery in bottle cage, must be from ~2010. Think they came from Ribble.

BLT?

Edit, memory not gone completely yet:
https://www.retrobike.co.uk/threads/blt-sla-lightset-problem.317110/

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I actually used one of these in the '80s.


View: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDFhIjzOHe8/

I remember having one of those, when I rode to school
(one of those lilac Elswick Mistral's)

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Woollen, ribbed, tights, with an outer panel

 

[Vapin' Joe]

A spare tubular strapped behind the saddle.

It looked so cool.

 

[Webbo2]

A spare tubular strapped behind the saddle.

It looked so cool.

Till you tried to fit it covered in sticky glue or if it was dried up glue. It would roll off on the first corner.😂😂😂

 

[Windle]

Yep and I needed braces with mine as the elastic was no good.

Snap! Possibly literally. I'm not sure bib shorts had been invented back in the eighties when I started riding either, and if they were I wouldn't have been able to afford any.

 

[VinSumRox]

I think I understand the decline in popularity...

I suppose they were better than my jeans

 

[Dogtrousers]

Yep and I needed braces with mine as the elastic was no good.

I wear Ronhill trackers in winter (following the demise of Altura Winter Cruisers and Ronhill Bikesters). I have to wear braces with them

 

[raleighnut]

The perceived wisdom back then was that centre pulls were safer in bunched races because side pull calipers hit the rim with a different force on each caliper arm. Later proved to be bollocks.

My Carlton came with Weinmann 'Dynamic' twin pivot sidepull brakes'