Hi Alex
RK has covered this very well, and if you read it a few times, it''ll sink in better. "It's hard to explain nostalgia to a generation living in the here & now". John, DB & Hamster also fill in the blanks that RK hasn't covered.
Nostalgia is really what it's all about, you know, memories of riding a certain bike at certain times in your life OR as RK says, looking back on your life when you're our age and realising that you can now afford the dream bike you always wanted.
I recall reading a story from a younger rider on a forum once about inheriting a "metal bike" from someone and wondering if the old shed was of any use at all as decent road bike. The guy knew his stuff about bikes in general, but only from his own carbon fibre era. In short he was mocking the quality of the steel bike. It was a Paganini kitted in Campagnolo.
He tweaked it back to health over many posts, and finally got to ride it, apprehensively I add. His next post after the ride made me smile like a twit. "Superb, surprisingly smooth & fast, comfortable, effortless" He gushed for several posts. The last thing I read of his was "Converted". He found not only the courage to give the bike an unbiased chance to impress, but the honesty to admit it was seriously good, so good he now preferred it over his carbon job. It's a true story I swear ... It's out there somewhere.
Myself, "I ride a Faggin with full Campagnolo 1988 Chorus Groupset". I have others now, many others, all bought in this recent boom, all excellent, all investments of sort because they are true 1'offs. There are NO others like them out there OR very few in top condition. Put it this way, " upto 1990 at least, the vast majority of quality bikes where Hand Built, as in, hand built by a specialist frame builder who had learnt his trade of many many decades of building. Thats just the frame. Imagine a guy, standing for days at a work bench hand polishing lugs so they are a "perfect fit", then assembling all the tubes etc in a jig, ready for brasing. It was a complex & precise task to make perfect frames, that took not just skill, but great skill and dedication.
I've had my Faggin since 1984, I bought her in Hamburg when I lived there through the 80's depression in Britain ( I was there from 1981-1986 ). I bought it from the Von Hacht brothers (when they where just a tiny little cornershop). I rode with these guys several times, turns out they weren't just bikeshop guys who liked to ride but world champions, each in their own right. I wanted a Colnago, but they insisted the Faggin was the better build despite its name being less well known. Colnago where churning out bikes hand over fist in 1984, and they knew it. Faggin where still trying to survive in a cut throat market.
I have ridden that bike for over 70,000 miles (more like 100,000), never a hitch, glitch, nothing ever went wrong with it bar a puncture every now and again. Thats it. I've never & I mean never, stripped and re-greased because it has never needed it, not once. It got a refit in 1989 at a shop called Keith Coppells of Maghull Liverpool. His handywork is what I ride now, same frame, newer groupset, immaculate ride. I've hammered this bike, treated it like a Shirehorse pulling a barge, throw her over walls, snow, rain, sun, wind, yet still she runs like a dream. Not a bad investment of £1000 for a bike that still whups carbon stuff regualrly.
Steel is a smoother ride. So Alex, I could happily tell stories all day long about where my bike has been with me, Switzerland, Germany, Jersey, Britain, but the end point would be "she has never let me down, not a single once". It's 1 and only failure was the 12 teeth rear cog shattering on a hill in Jersey, but thats god damn Campag copy merchants Shimano for you.
Buy 1 Alex, ride it for a while, then find out what the hell it is, who made it and why you love it so much. The journey will leave you amazed, informed, but definately hooked, then addicted, then it'll be "welcome to bike addicts club". Final note "my nephew has a £2000 carbon job and it looks very cool, rides like a dream, is fast, solid, but for my mind uncomfortable on long haul. It's just 3 years old. Lets see what its like to ride in another 25years, lets see if his Shimano bla bla hubs are still smooth after 70,000 miles. I think you know what I'm saying Alex, "its like the first time you meet the right woman, you swear you won't let het get under your skin, tie you down etc, but after 30years marriage you realise she's the only thing in your life thats been there throughout, knows the bumps and twists, but stayed solid & relaible. This is what It's like to own a bike for so long, thats why they are She's not he's, because they become a part of you, an extension of what you are in this world. Later buddy, I'm rambling now, but that's bikes for you "the only love affair you are allowed whilst still married". Yours Laz.
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