Goodbye old friend

Brian B

I am retiring my old Alu/carbon Orbea Vitesse which is now 11 years old. Originally bought as my first decent road bike at £1500 after a few years of dabbling on the road in the winter on a cheap entry bike whilst still mountain biking mostly. After more full carbon bike purcahes it has been my back up bike and winter steed and has outlived three carbon bikes that have been damaged in one way or another.

During its life it has been over every moor and high hill from Wales to the tip of Scotland and over such passes as the Galibier, Tourmalet and up Mt Ventoux at least 7 times that I can remember and round the Fred Whitton sportive 3 times.

Its sad to see it go but its getting replaced by another bike which will have the same duty and will be my back up bike.

Anybody else retired an old bike with good memories attached?

ugo.santalucia

I had to sell my Look due to moving to London and lack of space, but I had only had it for 4 years. Interestingly the guy I sold it to then sold it to a guy in Scotland a couple of years later and one day browsing the LFGSS forum what do I see? My bike... it felt weird I have to say

slowmart

If you can hang onto the bike, you will regret selling it. Period.

iron-clover

I haven't yet had to do this, but its looking like I might have to in the next year or two as the stable expands. I would be loathe to part with my humble machine because as you say- there are lots of memories attached to it. I would only get rid of it if it happened that a replacement was much more comfortable to ride, although I doubt that will ever be the case as my current machine is a size too small so its not overly aggressive.

However, if you've had your machine for 11 years and it has outlived several other bikes then I'd be inclined to keep it. It obviously fits you like a glove and for a winter/ back up bike it doesn't need to be massively high performance so I'd probably hang onto it.

MountainMonster

I tend to move my bikes on fairly quickly. The Carrera Virtuoso I just sold was roughly 2 years old, but well used in those 2 years. It made way for a new bike that will work as a do it all bike for me, once I've got all the spare tyres I need. I've been loving moving over to a bike which is a bit more purpose built for me.

It is sad to see it go, but selling the bike hurt much less than selling my Jaguar early in 2014. That was a killer!

Old_Timer

It is your bicycle, you should do as you see best. My personal feeling is that if the bicycle is going to someone that will ride it, and keep it up properly, there is no problem at all. Its those that get trashed out and end up in the tip that I think are a waste. JMHO.

mpatts

I chop and change quite a bit, as I always think it's better than to have owned rather than do own (if the former is greater in numbers than the latter). About the only permanent stable member is my 1978 Raleigh Ti.

simon_masterson

Yes, as per the thread I posted about it at the time, I retired my old Falcon in November last year, at the age of 34 (the bike, not me!). My dad bought it around 1980, and I rescued it from the shed a couple of years ago. It was in pretty poor condition. I replaced just about everything on it and it became my main road ride. I had plans to respray it but unfortunately I underestimated/was ignorant of internal rust, and the fork rusted through; in fact it snapped spectacularly when I was out on a ride. I decided it was probably too risky to carry on with the frame, so it's retired. If I ever own a house with a bike space, I plan to hang it on the wall.

Brian B

iron-clover wrote:

However, if you've had your machine for 11 years and it has outlived several other bikes then I'd be inclined to keep it. It obviously fits you like a glove and for a winter/ back up bike it doesn't need to be massively high performance so I'd probably hang onto it.

Unfortunately I have found a crack on the frame where the aluminium meets the carbon rear end and has forced the frame into retirement. Wheels group set etc are going towards an old carbon frame.

desweller

Give the frame a good clean and polish and mount it on the wall!

Old_Timer

Brian B wrote:

Unfortunately I have found a crack on the frame where the aluminium meets the carbon rear end and has forced the frame into retirement. Wheels group set etc are going towards an old carbon frame.

Then you seem to be doing the right thing with the frame, maybe the idea about cleaning her up, or a spray, then mounting that frame as a way of saying thanks to it for all the miles you two enjoyed over the years. Cheers 8)

iPete

DesWeller wrote:

Give the frame a good clean and polish and mount it on the wall!

I nearly did this with my first road bike, put 24,000 miles into it but fell out of love when I took a smaller framed fixed bike for a ride.

However it was an Allez frame and luckily for me someone nicked it from the back garden.

ugo.santalucia

iPete wrote:

However it was an Allez frame and luckily for me someone nicked it from the back garden.

I've had many bikes, but none was as good as the Allez... just a rather ugly but extremely good frameset.

ugo.santalucia

iPete wrote:

However it was an Allez frame and luckily for me someone nicked it from the back garden.

I've had many bikes, but none was as good as the Allez... just a rather ugly but extremely good frameset.

Brian B

My replacement bike came today. Built it up but will wait until a day with good weather to test it out.

http://www.rosebikes.co.uk/bike/pro-sl- ... plate=true

pinno

^ Smart looking machine.

I bought my Alu Pinarello some 6 years ago and done plenty of miles on it. Then I bought a Wilier and relegated the Pinarello to a winter trainer clad in lights and crudcatchers. It saw a further 3 winters, always holding up and always easy to handle. In November 2013, I had a rush of blood to the head and bought a C40 'cos I always wanted one. After a happy few rides on it (because it served no real function), it sat in the shed until one day in mid October. I ventured out on the Sunday run, summer bike mothballed away, on the Pinarello and the shock to the system after cruising seemingly effortlessly on the Wilier was too much to bear.
Following yet another rush of blood, the cruds and the lights got quickly swapped over to the C40 and now the Pinarello is sadly gathering dust in the garage.
I cannot sell it, my 'friend' will go on the wall all shiny and looking as best as it can.