Nostalgic vs. Antiquarian Views on the Vintage Bicycle Hobby

 

Occasionally I am asked about collecting old bicycles made many years before I was born. The questioning usually proceeds along the lines of, "What connection do you have to such old bikes?" or "Why bother with bikes that are so old?", or "Do you collect bikes from when you were a kid?". 

These kinds of questions are reasonable, especially from someone outside the vintage bicycle hobby. It may appear strange to collect something that far pre-dates me or my involvement with cycling.

The answer lies in the debate between people in the hobby who are involved from a sense of nostalgia, versus those who are involved from an antiquarian sense. The nostalgic reaches back to a time when he or she was young. The antiquarian approaches has an eye toward a broader history, the bike evoking a particular historic period and all the related circumstances.

 

The nostalgic usually has a deep personal connection to what he or she collects. He or she collects the really expensive bikes that he or she could not afford (or that his or her parents could not afford) way back when. Or he collects bikes he saw in ads as a kid, but was too small to ride at the time. Or perhaps he seeks bikes he owned as a child, trying to grasp something from a time when things were simpler in his life [the famous "rosebud" scene from Citizen Kane comes to mind]. 

 

Sometimes nostalgic collectors have a scholarly approach to collecting, but this is often secondary to the "throwback" element of a time from an earlier period in the collector's life.

 

The antiquarian seeks out bikes that are much older than he or she is. Antiquarians look for old bikes  evoking a particular style or which symbolize a historic period. They wish to preserve and ride bikes as a form of respect to earlier times and to maintain an older history. Often, the antiquarian has a scholarly approach, researching the construction methods, companies, people, and histories of that earlier time.

 

This is not to say that collectors are necessarily all one thing or the other. Often, collectors have some mixture of nostalgia and antiquarian appreciation. But my experience is that most collectors tend to be more one than the other, or at least they lean toward one of the two camps.

I lean more toward the antiquarian camp. I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, well after the bikes I collect became "obsolete". I appreciate the historical significance of old utility and sporting bikes, particularly those made in the US and England. I enjoy learning about how the bikes were made, what the company history was, how the bikes were used, and the roles they played in society. I love seeing a nice, but well-used old bike that did real work "back in the day" and now is a well-preserved gem. I do have at least a little nostalgia in me though - the most important bike to me is my grandfather's 1936 Schwinn Henderson. It has a deep family connection for me that I would not trade for anything else.