Classic Steel Bikes: old is new again

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I see that several major bike makers are offering vintage or classic style bikes again.

Steel is real, man!

Lugs aren’t bugs!

These big makers must’ve noticed how so many folks are enjoying riding and just plain looking at their once-cast-off classic bikes.

A steel bike with supple forks and compliant frame-tubing just loves to ride. A little flex is good for you. Plain colors plus earth-tones look pretty good, too. Some of these new offerings are including leather, too, a la a Brooks saddle.

Steel is also thrifty.

Specialized has its Allez Double Steel at a super-budget $610!

Fuji has its Connoisseur at $1k.

In 2010 Raleigh’s *lugged* Record Ace will join the Clubman. As regards price, their blog says “No one is going to have a nicer steel road bike available for the price.”

Masi has had a revived brand for a few years now, including steel bikes in race, rando and urban modes.

The revived Motobecane brand is offering steel as well in select models from the top to the bottom of their line-up and across most of their range.

80’s race heroes seem to be reviving their tooling: Gios, Colnago and De Rosa all have steel race frame offerings.

Of course, dozens of short-run custom and “constructor” bike builders have been thriving over the decades. But they’ve been booming of late — with popular trade/public shows in each region of the USA. Many have always emphasized steel. No material is better for a small shop to work with. The recent boom in that scene is undoubtedly something that the big companies have noticed and are responding to with their off-the-shelf goodies.

An interesting twist is that steel has been real for awhile and in wider variety in Japan than we can get here. And it looks like it’ll be that way for a bit longer. I saw several Gios and Raleigh bikes in a Japanese bike magazine that aren’t available here. The versatile format with fenders, lighting and a rack is very popular in Japan — and fast catching on here, too. …Will more big builders start thinking of the USA in this light?

Here’s a link to Raleigh of Japan: www.raleigh.jp/catalog09/index.htm. Check out the Club Special or the steel Cro-Mo Carlton. British pragmatism, indeed!

To bring the science in… I suppose that steel has a rep for being “flexy.” Not that this should bother most mortals. Besides, it helps give steel its “great ride feel” reputation. Still, some folks, like Jan Heine at “Bicycle Quarterly,” think that tasty flex — as offered in quite a few older steel bikes — is just fine in certain places on a bike. Sean Kelly won most all the existing Classics on a flexy, swingset of a bike (OK, so it was aluminum). Jan and pals have promoted an idea in bike feel that they call “planing” where a bike has a springy, liveliness that seems to give back to its rider. So that some say, in short, that flex doesn’t necessarily mean losses or slowness. Or, at the least, that there aren’t studies showing that it does. Of course, steel bikes can be built thick’n’stiff, too. And there’s no reason why other materials can’t offer tasty flex, as with Sean’s old Alan. Hmmmm, a watts-meter, anyone?

Then there’s weight. I suppose you won’t see steel on a Weight Weeny’s record-setting 8-lb bike, but you can easily sort it out under 18 lbs if you like. And that’s dandy light for an everyday bike. By no means does today’s steel have to be caught in the 1980’s groupo range that yielded 24-lb typical race bikes.

But the real point of this post is that some big makers today realize that lots of people just plain LIKE steel. It’s affordable, safe, easy to build with, less toxic, recyclable, repairable. Yow!

*FUJI: www.fujibikes.com/LifeStyle/ClassicSeries/Connoisseur.aspx

*RALEIGH: www.raleighusa.com/2009/07/09/out-of-the-bagthe-record-ace

*SPECIALIZED: www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=45678&eid=4350