Lots of chat in comments about The Good Old Days®, when men rode steel and Campy.
I missed those halcyon days of yesteryear, having come to “serious” cycling late in life (I didn’t start racing until I was in my mid-30s). During high school and college I rode a series of Schwinns — five- and 10-speed Varsity and Continental behemoths — but when I took up cycling again in the early 1980s it was astride a Centurion LeMans (either a 10 or 12).
I had the chance to do the right thing when I went shopping for my next bike. But instead of buying a Bianchi from a local shop that is no longer in existence I went to the Dark Side and bought a Trek 560 from Criterium Bicycles. it was a purple-and-yellow monstrosity that looked like a rolling pustule. An acid flashback must have driven that particular purchase.
A couple more Treks followed. First came a mountain bike (an 830 Antelope, I think), then a 1200 (broke the frame at the right rear aluminum dropout in a city-limits sprint outside Española), and finally a 1500 (a courtesy upgrade from Trek with steel dropouts).
I finally went Italian with a Campy-equipped Pinarello Prologo TT time-trial bike (an old Team Crest machine bought used from Denver Spoke), but this was a mental lapse, on a par with a bald-headed fat bastard who thinks that driving a Maserati will get him laid.
Next came a series of road and mountain Specializeds in steel, aluminum and carbon (we had an amazingly compliant rep in Santa Fe, ol’ Special Dave). My first “real” cyclo-cross bike was a steel Specialized Sirrus road bike that a frame-building acquaintance doctored, adding canti’ posts and subtracting the chainstay bridge.
’Cross is what finally put me back on the road to steel for real. My first really real ’cross bike was a Day-Glo yellow Pinarello, bought cheaply with the assistance of Tim Campen, then at Veltec. Then I met Brent Steelman at Interbike Anaheim and all hell broke loose. First it was a Steelman CC in Excell steel, then a series of Eurocrosses in Dedacciai, Reynolds and True Temper, even a time-trial bike (another mental lapse, but screw it, I’ll start racing multisport again, just you wait and see).
I’ve since ridden a ton of aluminum, titanium and carbon bikes from a variety of manufacturers — Bianchi, Voodoo, LeMond, GT, Look, Cannondale, Jamis, you name it — but I still reach for the steel first. Usually it’s the Nobilette or one of the Eurocrosses, but I even like the inexpensive steel from outfits like Soma and Voodoo, and it’s hard to find a shop rat who doesn’t ride something from Surly.
And there ain’t a Campy-equipped bike in the lot. Not among the rolling stock, anyway.
Mad Blog Media 
Patrick:
I prefer steel. My Campy thing came from getting it on a used Alan aluminum in ’84. Every race frame from that point on got the same gruppo–not a new gruppo–the same ’84 gruppo. Parts only got slightly upgraded when repairs required replacements.
On my current Cervelo Soloist, it’s FSA, Shimano, and mid-priced Look pedals. Nothing awful, but nothing polished to a soft, blinding finish.
Sherman, set the way-back machine for the late 70’s. Here we see Larry test-riding his first “pro” bicycle after pretty much wearing out his SR Semi-Pro with what may have been the first version of Shimano 600. Nice looking stuff but the cassette rear hub crapped out within a few hundred miles and NOBODY would warranty it. Larry comes back after riding two bikes and sez, “I like the shifting, brakes, etc. on THIS bike but I don’t like the way it rides, while I like THIS bike for ride quality, but don’t like the feel of the components. Another Campagnolo-phile was born that day as a Campy Nuovo Record equipped Mondia (from Switzerland) was assembled for me.
Once I started wrenching, I got a fair amount of freebie Shimano stuff over the years but never liked any of it much and sold most of it off as-new, using whatever parts from Vicenza I could beg, borrow or in a pinch when I had to, actually BUY. The old bike shop line was, “Campy wears in, the other stuff just wears out”
When I met my future wife in Italy, discovering she felt the same way about the parts from Vicenza was just another reason to fall madly in love with her. My love for her, Italy and Campagnolo’s stuff has yet to fade.
FTC disclaimer — Campagnolo is an official supplier to CycletItalia though we bought it even when (horrors!) we had to pay retail!
Somewhere I mentioned that I’m still shifting my Cannonball’s front derailleur using a 1996 Chorus lever. Still feels as sweet as when I first put it on the bike. Not bad, AFAIC.
I’ve got 60,000 miles on my steel Holland with all Dura-ace (8 speed) and the thing keeps on keeping on with a tune up every couple years. Yes the Campy stuff is beautiful and I have to assume good especially for the price.
Whoa! Way to go Charley! Back when I lived in San Diego Bill Holland was THE MAN. A friend of mine had a custom steel built by Bill and painted by JB about ten years ago. Gorgeous bike. You are wise to own and keep one, I’m jealous. I’ve yet to own one of his yet, and I’m not sure that it’ll happen as I spoke with Bill last year about having a steel frame built for me and got that news that (horrors!) he’s just doing the ti thing now. That sucks, but you gotta sell what sells.
See what I mean about modern steel frames not getting any respect? They’re the Rodney Dangerfield of framesets.
You know Holland’s Bikes out in Coronado? No relation to Bill Holland, but back when I worked at that shop we used to get his mail and phone calls a lot. I miss working at that shop, the beach was only three blocks away….sigh.
As for the Shimano Vs. Campy thing, I started out with Shimano 600, then moved to Dura Ace 8 spd back when Campy Ergo was a little, shall we say,…rough? And like O’G, once I had a couple bikes with Shimano, it proved difficult to change allegiances. I think it’s common that you stick with what you start with, if only to make switching wheels and buying tools simpler. The next bike, or perhaps the one after next (how’s that for bike geek speak?) will probably have SRAM on it, Rival or Force.
Then again, the medical bills I have laying around here left over from my most recent bike accident add up to an amount that only Velo News regards as the price of an “affordable” road bike. So a new bike might be a ways off.
And just for the record, I have two Surlys in the stable: a Long Haul Trucker and a Cross Check. Ah, steel.
John: Holland’s on Orange Avenue. My wife, daughter, and I went there almost every morning during a recent vacation. We’d eat breakfast at that greasy spoon next door, where you can sit at the counter or pick up breakfast tacos at the window on the side of the building. Can’t remember the name. Good breakfasts!
My daughter really wanted a beach bomber. Like we don’t have a gazillion beach bombers in Houston (it’s table top flat and requires exactly one gear). Didn’t buy the beach bomber, but my wife did buy a bike bell.
my favorite bike(I have seven) is my masi criterium 5 spd every time I ride it I feel like fast Eddy
I think I remember envying that Pinarello twenty years ago. DIdn’t you have two of them? And I had one of those crappy Alan aluminum frames rebadged as a Guerciotti. And a Bridgestone MB1 for a pit bike. These days everyone is getting a Ridley X-Fire (carbon). I might have to get me one.
Jeff: Yep, that would be my old shop, the only bike shop of the “island” of 16,000 people and a Navy base. Next best thing to printing money. I can’t recall the name of the greasy diner next door either, those of us at the shop never ate there. Probably had something to do with our shop getting a lot of their rats coming over to our side through the attic. You probably don’t want to hear any more, do you?
I’ll tell you one thing about working at Holland’s, you got really good at fixing flats on beach cruisers. Did you ever get a chance to take your bike or a rental down the 10 mile long bike path on the strand? That was my old bike commute. No way I could afford to actually live in Coronado on a shop rat’s salary, I had to live in the cheap part of town down south.
Oh, and if you’re ever there at 7am on a Saturday morning you must jump in the weekly Coronado road ride with the Crown City Cyclists (http://www.crown-city-cyclists.org/); who, I’m proud to say, I still call “my club” even though I’ve been gone almost a decade. Great people, great club! In fact, staying on thread here, there’s a guy in the club with a 25th anniversary Paramount (complete with 14 caret gold plated fork, which he uses daily!) equipped with 50th anniversary Campy (with 14 caret gold plate trim). Talk about a head turning bike!
If it wasn’t for the high cost of living, the ridiculously low wages, the lack of real mountains, the traffic, the air pollution, and sharing the place with millions of other people, I’d be back in San Diego in a heartbeat.
SoCal’s got great weather, or at least HAD since LA’s temp was 113 the other day, hottest on record. We’ll retire to a true Mediterranean climate as soon as possible since Italy sticks out into that particular sea. Most of the negatives John writes about don’t exist there unless perhaps you choose to live in the middle of Napoli, but if that’s my only chance I’d take it, rather than retire here in the USA, no matter where I could live!
Wife still has s Centurian LeMans. Was her commuting bike for a few years, then spent a decade in her bro’s basement in Nebraska. Zero percent humidity, climate controlled: the thing looks show-room floor new.
Must have sold a lot. See quite a few downtown.
Yup – carbon bikes rock and ride very, very nice. However, the old school steel cannot be denied.
My most used bike in the garage continues to be the ’97 Ibis Hakkalugi – for many reasons. Add in my old Fat Chance and Bridgestone bikes to the mix as well, now vintage and not ridden much.
Still, I’m not totally addicted to any frame material and own bikes outta carbon and aluminum as well. Even so, If I was going for the dream bike – would be steel frame and fork. Probably a Steelman.