Eye Candy

I can't explain it but there is a simple pleasure in seeing a beautiful old bicycle. A part of me thrills at the lasting power of a well built bike, and I get joy from seeing my beloved simple and efficient machine as it was years before I was born. The classic clean lines will suck me in for hours of browsing just for the simple pleasure of seeing another bike of yesteryear on my screen. Intellectually I enjoy the fact that these old bike have often outlasted some of their infantile cousins. I love to see the colors and the insignias, the trademark decals, and when I see a bike today in a condition where the original paint and logos are intact it sometimes makes my heart beat a little faster. The revered old brands that inherently carry a bit of honor through the years. I find myself wanting to buy more and more of these old beautiful bikes, just to have access to them.

In that spirit, I have decided to post some pictures here for the simple purpose of eye candy. I enjoy posting about rides and experiences and breakthroughs and thoughts, but again and again I find myself finding it semi monotonous to say "hey, today I rode my bike". I like sharing my thoughts and my trials, but sometimes, dammit, I just want to oggle some nice bike flesh. So I have taken the opportunity to do some scouring and find what, to me, is bike porn. I often find myself looking at a bike and then thinking, "What would that be like with X handlebars?" or "I wonder if that paint color is original?" And thus begins another little journey onto the "internets" to see what I can see.

Disclaimer: There's bound to be some disappointment all around as I'm not always going to take the time and energy to positively ID these bikes. I want to look at them not do a thesis on the history of bicycles. If the details are at hand I will include them, but this is not an attempt to catolog the bikes. That said, if you happen to be reading this post and you happen to have some latent bike knowledge please feel free to put it in the comments. That way we can all benefit from your knowledge! One last thing--these are not, for the most part, professional pictures. I'm just gathering some shots I've found lying about the vast world of the web.

Without further ado:

The dashing Peugeot.

The classic Chicago Schwinn.

The irristible Sears Austria.

Step-through 3 speed.

Schwinn Suburban.

Typhoon.

Peugeot.

Tiger.