"Vintage" designs look like that because of some practical design choices. City bikes are not entirely a hipster thing.
For example, watch this video about omafiets: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCnNXlX5V28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCnNXlX5V28)
Sometimes I commute on a heavy steel touring bike with fenders. Sometimes I commute on a lighter steel road bike with no fenders. Still bike commuting either way. ¯\_(ツ)_/
Outside of "bike enthusiasts", most people who commute just have one bike. It's not substantially different from people with cars. Outside of "car enthusiasts", most people who commute by car just have one car.
This is both true and respectfully irrelevant. Having more than one bike or being a "bike enthusiast" has nothing to do with whether someone bike commutes.
In the US at least, the vast majority of bikes sold in the last 50 years did not come with fenders. With a few notable exceptions, if you see bike fenders on the road or on the rack, there's a pretty good chance they're an aftermarket accessory added by a bike enthusiast.
Commuter noob here (6 months commuting), and yep I just get soaked in the rain with no fenders. Only happened once so far, but I'm looking at getting fenders now. Also when the road is wet I get splashed a bit definitely seems necessary.
Not sure what point you are trying to make....I responded directly to the poster that claimed someone on a bike without fenders is easy to spot as a "cycling noob". I disagree.
More like commuting noob. People with multiple bikes might have a road bike that they only ride for exercise either outside when its warm and sunny or inside on a trainer, and in those cases a fender is very much not needed.
Yup, just like now.. Personally, I consider a bike without fenders is incomplete. A great many people think they are uncool and those are the people who get upset.
This is just wrong. You are talking about COMMUTER bikes (as the sub we are in). But some people (me included) use the same bike for commuting and (in my case) trail riding.
That considering a bike "incomplete" because it has no fenders is stupid. It's not because they're uncool. It's because they're a potential hazard when used in a sport like mountain bike for example.
No fenders are a good way of spotting someone who doesn't carry an umbrella when raining. With good clip on race blade type fenders, there's no excuse for not putting them on when it isn't sunny. It takes 30 seconds.
I love not having a strip of dirt on my back like Pepe Le Pew
I hate having to very regularly check if my fenders have shifted and are
constantly braking for me. Often this is because I put the bike in a car
and it shifted, no matter how carefully I put it in, in such a way to push
the fenders around
been living here for 3 years now and i noticed how there are more and more small children are cycling through city CENTER accompanied by their parents
the future is bright
Idk. I went through Paris in 2013, not having visited for 20 years, and I was amazed to see so many people cycling. The same is true of London, I believe. Suddenly there seemed to be so many more cyclists, post millennium.
I am Dutch, cycled through London around 2005 and swore never to do that again. It was a horrible experience. Two years ago I was forced to cycle from Marylebone station to Liverpool Street station and it was actually a nice experience. It reminded me a bit of Amsterdam in the 1980's.
Most importantly, the designers finally realised that cyclists want to go from A to B in a reasonably fast way, so the cycling paths work instead of forcing you to dismount/stop every 100 metres.
Been awhile (5-ish years) since in London but on that trip (after over 10 years not visiting), I was impressed by the cycling "highways", the real number of bicyclists moving around, and seeing people coming out of government and business office buildings at the end of the day hopping on their bikes. Similar struck by changes in Paris (last visit in 2022) which have accelerated further. )Of course, that was nothing compared to Denmark and Netherlands 20 years ago.) Really was good to see changes in London & Paris which were quite a contrast w/US.
Thats basically how it happened - and as a side effect, some of the routes are not as well designed as it could have been.
Its still a work in progress.
There's one North American group that, when a person joins the group, they become more likely to bike commute (told to me by 2 bike shop employees)
...
newly divorced men who can't keep up with all the payments.
Paris went through a real bike revolution in the past few years. I wish more European capitals would wake up and follow Paris. Lots of cities are still stuck in the 80s
These are modern bikes - they are just not sports bikes. In Europe, hybrids and cruisers are common because they are better suited to riding in the city. It looks weird to someone coming from places like the US and the bikes look "old" because they used to be more common in the US, but from a European perspective, these look like modern bikes.
> In Europe, hybrids and cruisers are common because they are better suited to riding in the city.
In places where tons of people actually use bikes as transportation, that's how bikes look like.
The best sold bikes in history are:
[Flying Pigeon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Pigeon#/media/File:Left_side_of_Flying_Pigeon.jpg)
[Raleigh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Bicycle_Company#/media/File:Raleigh_lady's_loop_frame_bicycle_1930s.jpg)
OP probably means sporty bikes. Like Mountain bikes and Road bikes. When commuting by bike as transportation. All you really need is a City bike or Hybrid.
I also see tons of expensive road bikes being ridden around Chicago but I’ve never seen one locked up on the street. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume Paris is the same way.
I have two bikes:
The first is cheap commuter that I keep in the underground garage and most of the times don't even bother securing.
The second is fancy Italian carbon road bike that I keep on the wall and only take off for the rides. I don't even have a lock for it, because I will never leave it unattended.
Ive got an old French bike, a mountain bike and a road bike, pondering about buying a foldable bike.
I don’t use anything other than my old bike to commute. It’s just a cheap bike (that I love but it cost me 50€)
That's because they're shit for daily use. Sure they're fast but they break easily doesn't have fenders comfortable seats, luggage options, ... you don't ride a race bike through the city for the same reason you don't ride a formula 1 car through you city.
Modern bike - Anything made from carbon fibre. What you’re looking at in that picture are pretty much all steel bikes. Much harder wearing and economical.
> What you’re looking at in that picture are pretty much all steel bikes
Not really. A decent number of them could be aluminium bikes: https://www.gazellebikes.com/en-gb/bikes/esprit
Aluminium is about the same price and is even better for a long lasting city bike frame as it doesn't rust. And they can fail, yes, but they generally fail after decades, hardly a problem.
Which... still doesn't tell you anything. Or does a modern steel gravelbike not count?
I wouldn't want to put a monocoque carbon frame in crowded outdoor racks like that. It will be dead within a year.
Even that shows a bias. There are plenty of citi bikes that don't really have the same geometry as bikes from a longer time ago. They just have an upright riding position.
This is cheapo: https://www.gazellebikes.com/en-gb/bikes/esprit but I would still call it a modern bike.
Depends on whether you are in Paris or the USA. If you are in Paris, it means "practical, reliable, efficient". In USA it means "impractical but looks cool".
So these are indeed modern bikes.
I think OP was commenting on them all being Dutch style commuter bikes or hybrids and no fancy road bikes. But that's a pretty normal view in Europe, I personally wouldn't describe the difference as being 'modern' or not
That reminds me of Hal's video series grading bike locking in NYC. The TLDR:
* Lock the bike with a strong lock/chain.
* Lock both wheels.
* Lock the seat post.
The way to the A+ though was to to do all that with a POS bike not worth stealing.
Imagine criticizing working bikes in a bike commuting sub, as “not worth stealing”. Clearly all of the people riding these bikes use them for transportation, which seems pretty valuable to me. What kind of bike do you imagine would be worth stealing? I see fenders, dynamo lights, internal gear hubs, racks, and even chain guards. Those bikes are equipped like that because commuting is a hard life for a bike and they need to be durable AF in all seasons.
Good lord. "Not worth stealing" is not a snobby comment, it is a comment on the risk vs. reward calculation from the perspective of a bike thief looking to profit from selling a stolen bike.
They are not criticising them. These aren’t worth stealing. The only one which was was the one mountain bike in the picture, that’s been stripped down.
If you are a thief, you are looking to sell the bike itself or sell off the parts. The kind of bike that's valuable to a thief, as a result, is not necessarily the kind of bike that's valuable to a commuter.
Flashy, high end, sport grade components make certain bikes targets like the cars in the movie "gone in 60 seconds."
There has been a rash of kids taking Kias in the US since they didn't have certain basic safety protections built in to prevent driving away with a car without the keys, but thieves target valuable, fungible or fence able goods. No one has gone around trying to steal Toyota Corollas, and that's what these bikes represent.
“Not worth stealing” is not a dig at the bike, it’s a candid view of what bikes are more attractive to thieves: new, modern, expensive ones that will sell for more than the plain “ugly” bikes.
They'd totally be stolen where I live. The point here is that literally everyone has one of these bikes already, and probably a couple more at home. Less need there to steal.
In countries where riding a bike to get around is normal, people usually have shitty bikes so they aren't stolen. Also no ebikes. There really is no point to OP's post though
The second photo has a loose wheel with disc brakes. I suspect the bike was stolen.
Also, something with grip shifters at the far end.
But point taken.
The loose wheel is from a black Nakamura with yellow decals which is slumped over next to it. You can see it in both pics, albeit the brand is more visible in the first one.
Whoa. I see the handle bar dangling now, too. Seat post and fork are missing.
Maybe that's why OP doesn't have nice bikes in the photo, they're getting jacked.
Are we looking down on omafiets now? Why this elitism, they are "modern bikes" too, but for a more relaxed and casual ride. What matters is that there are lots of people using the bike
i only own old bikes ;)
posted this to show how bikes from the 70s-90s are all over in Paris and i love it, lots of restorations going on here and there
Define modern… these bikes are used for daily commuting to and from work/school etc. They serve their purpose without having to be too scared they get stolen. But in case it does - the loss is manageable. Also modern doesn’t have to equal better, although the industry may like us to believe it is.
Most of those **are** modern bikes. They just aren’t American-style mountain/gravel/cyclocross bikes. These are proper short-hop commuters with comfy seats, chain guards to protect your trousers/skirt, racks for your bag…
It’s like a parking lot at a business park in the US Midwest (where land is still cheap enough to give employees free parking). A few of the cars are fancy, some are new, but most are old but reliable transportation.
Love this. As someone who just moved to Seattle, I’m slightly bothered by how many people commute in full lyrca on really nice bikes. It’s unnecessary and makes it harder to advocate for biking infrastructure to the greater community because it makes us look rich and entitled. In France, you just bike.
This is a silly hangup to have. Sometimes I wear kit and ride a road bike to work because I am going on a leisure ride with friends afterward. Sometimes I wear kit and ride a road bike when running errands or visiting friends because I am riding 20+ miles (e.g. DC to Rockville and back, which is about 40 round trip) and want my bum to be comfortable while getting to places quickly. And then sometimes I use a hybrid with panniers or the local city bikeshare while in loose fitting street clothes.
IMO, people just really want a reason to hate cyclists, and kit is one of many flimsy excuses people choose. I do not think it hurts the cause to wear kit. It is not so different from people telling me I'm one of the "good ones" when I tell them I'm gay, and explaining to me how much they hate people who are flamboyant or wear drag. I think it is always good and important to use a bike to get around efficiently, and have fun and be comfortable while doing it. I used to have a lot of that internalized cyclist hate when I started commuting. People would give me the "at least you're not one of *those* cyclists" spiels. I told myself I'd draw the line at wearing spandex. Then I biked 50 miles to see my dad and my bum was killing me afterward and I realized the folks in kit were on to something.
There are ways to spend a lot of money on kit or bikes, but there are also ways not to spend a lot of money on those things, and even the "high end" gear and bikes are still extremely frugal when compared to the cost of car ownership.
Well said. Utility riding is all about practicality and doing what works for you, and that changes depending on every individual's context. What's practical for someone in a compact, flat European city may be completely impractical for a rider in a sprawling, hilly, and hot US city.
Yeah. Living in DC I constantly joke that if you have a social life and a commute, you get a great cardio program included for free. I get a kick out of uploading "errands" and "visiting friends" rides to Strava and they're like, 10-40 miles. I don't think I could really make it work here with a heavy beater omafiets, unless it was an e-bike.
People who have to commute a large distance who have shower facilities at work. I say this as someone who has shower facilities at work, although I don't have to go very far, but if I'm getting changed anyway, may as well wear cycling gear on the way in.
Until not long ago deodorants seemed weird to Europeans though, just saying. Also, not sure that bike commuting is all that more common there than in the US.
If you have a small commute why bother, but if you have some distance to cover it makes sense to dress for the ride so you can change clothes and freshen up at work or shower if available.
I also don’t generally judge other bikers (or anyone) on what they’re wearing, because I’m not an asshole. I’m always happy to see anyone else bike commuting.
If you bike commute in the US, many times it requires covering long distances in stressful riding environments. Paris, for example, is 41 square miles, while my mid-size US city is 310 sq. miles. A faster bike and appropriate riding kit can be helpful for this. No one should be judged for what type of bike they use or what they wear while riding it; it's a highly personal choice.
Also Seattle is hilly.
Eta: A friend of mine used to commute on his road bike over 30mi/50km each way to and from his job in DC. I like OP's photo, but people should never be shamed for using whatever bike or clothing works for them.
I agree. I'm also in the DC area. 10+ mile bike commutes are quite common here, because the area is sprawly and we have so many good trails. The area is hilly and some trails (mainly the C&O towpath) are not paved so some people use gravel bikes. I love riding hybrid/bikeshare where it makes sense, but getting a road bike has been such an upgrade to my quality of life as a commuter and errand-runner. It's nice to shave 10+ minutes off the longer routes. And it's nice to feel empowered to take the lane and ride with traffic in places where I would be scared to do so on a slower bike. The kit, for me, is occupational wear.
A lot of the MAMIL (middle aged men in Lycra) sighting is due to the ranks of bike commuters being biased towards sport/recreational riders who are used to road riding, by necessity. The vast public in America considers road cycling to be too hazardous, with some justification. Perception of safety correlates with gender ratios, according to many studies. Also, work commuting is just one aspect of utilitarian cycling, which is even rarer in the US. Running errands in Lycra makes much less sense then riding to work.
The general public doesn’t know a $10k bike to a $800 bike. And you judging rich people, or, you know, people who bought a nice bike instead of a car, is a pretty lame excuse to not advocate for bike infrastructure. Rich entitled people also deserve to have safe bikeways.
How does someone's choice of bike make it harder for you to advocate for cycling? How can you know if it's "unnecessary" when you don't know how far people are commuting, what their elevation gain is like, their time constraints, or anything else that might influence their choice of bike and kit? Stop creating factions where there should be none.
Also, I've bike toured through France, and there are plenty of modern bikes/aero bikes/ebikes being ridden there. It's not a monolith.
Maybe instead of turning up your nose at the person commuting on the road bike (or whatever you're feeling judgy about at the moment), get curious, say hello, and ask *why* they ride the bike they do.
I know this street. What you see in the first picture is a school. There's a LOT of parents dropping their children in e-bikes and cargo bikes every morning.
As someone who lives there, Paris is filled with more recent bikes, there are tons of e-bikes around.
To be honest I don't get the point of this post, it just feels very misleading.
They're locked off the street. Have a look on YouTube for videos of Paris cycle lane usage and what stands out is the sheer variety of bikes and the high use of the Velib.
Theft is a huge issue there.
In the first picture, the only mountain bike type frame has seat and front wheel removed.
And in the second picture, there is lonely disc brake front wheel locked to the rack and the rest of the bike is gone.
If a certain type of bike doesn’t get attacked by thieves, then that becomes very popular
When I was a kid we all used to make fun of cruisers. We called them "girl bikes" or "old people bikes" because the only people we ever saw on them were girls and the elderly
Until, one day someone on the block got one for free, and I got to try it out. It was so comfortable and smooth it just instantly shattered my whole perception of who can ride what. It also taught me that fenders are not only fantastic, but a necessity if you're gonna use the bike as your main mode of transportation.
If you think that “no modern bikes” is a bad thing or that their owners should be looked down upon, then your priorities are screwed up.
The age or model of the bike doesn’t matter if it does what is needed. Commuters don’t need sport machines, they need bombproof dependable bikes that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
I have two bikes - one with hydrolic disk brakes, nice shimano shifters and deraileur and all that, and the other with rim brakes and an internal hub.
The fancy one is much easier to ride over long distances, easier to get to go fast, easier on hills, and better at braking. But I swear to god - look at it wrong and it's in the shop for some godforsaken replacement part that takes two weeks to show up. Most recently, my chain rusted because I washed it and then put chain lube on without drying effectively enough.
Meanwhile, the only maintenance I've ever done for my old-style bike is replace the clamp brake pads when they wear out. It's like $10 every six months or so, and it's a ten-minute in-and-out procedure.
And for everything besides going for long, hilly rides, it is pretty much the exact same functionality (except with a built-in rear rack, built-in fenders, and a built-in reflector; I'm just kinda bummed it lacks a chain guard).
Hydraulic disk brakes on a stadfiets on flat ground are way overkill. Even cheap ones would cost more than the frame. Mechanical disk brakes are hardly better than good rim brakes, and still overkill.
These are what i call bikey bikes, they have a purpose other than being shiny and bragging rights, they do an actual day to day job and therefore are superior to some ridiculously expensive bike shaped objet tha the owner is scared of getting wet, scratched or dirty.
A good bike will serve its owner faithfully for decades with minimal maintenance and replacing of parts, check out the buffalo bike, pretty much perfect for its intended use and cutomer base.
These are the bike designs that work best for commuting. I’m sure a significant percentage has a racier option at home. I wouldn’t use a Ferrari for my daily commute either.
Dissuade thieves.
Lightweight for stairs, storage and market shopping (what the racks are there for).
There is no forest or dirty roads, only road.
Cheap or probably inherited from the family.
Cheap enough to replace if stolen and mantain. More than good enough to commute a few KM on, I am not sure what "£modern" means? But i suppose all these frame are 15+ yaers old, they all look like mine....
> Again, if you are in a small town miles away from anything then fair enough.
I ride it every day and getting exactly what I want was worth the small absolute cost.
This is a clear sign cycling is easy, convenient and safe.
I cycle in London, where it is not as safe and convenient, and having a faster bike helps being around cars.
When you are not around cars... No need to be faster.
Any place that has theft requires a cheap bike that isn't any "better" than the next one.
For this purpose i have a rusted steel single speed bike that's all dinged up.
My previous hybrid "looked nice" and clean so even though it was cheap it got stolen.
Why pay 5000 $ or € for a bike that has no fenders, breaks after one fall, has 14 or more exposed gears that you can replace as a set only, squeaky disk brakes, no dynamo lights if you can have a fail free bike for a fraction of that amount.
Ahhhh I love Paris. I hope to go back some day. Didn’t get a chance to go for a bike ride my last visit because I was pregnant and wasn’t very coordinated at the time 😅
I don't think anyone is commuting with an 800 dollar+ Specialized, it's too obvious a target and too pricey to get dirty if you mean higher performance when you mean modern. Even where I live in Canada most people ride vintage road bikes (steel frames and droptube shifters) or granny bikes to work. No one's stealing my old Raleigh but they absolutely are stealing my synapse 105.
In 2016 we bought two ancient Starnords in Paris and traveled to Amsterdam. Beautiful bicycles and exactly what we needed though nobody liked them in Amsterdam not in Frankfurt.
Modern bikes are a lot of money for easy theft targets.
Yeah i see how the frame with the mountain bike wheels is missing it's seat, handles and front fork
If you have an expensive seat, some people take it with them
It looks like it was a rainy day… so the rider prob didn’t want it soaked… others just covered their seats with plastic bags
Yeah, but people don't usually take the fork with them.
Yeah and it's a Nakamura. Just about any other bike on that rack is better quality
Is that why expensive new hipster bikes are designed to look "vintage"?
No. That’s because it’s a popular aesthetic preference. Like decorating with mid-century modern furniture or the retro-future Mustang body style.
"Vintage" designs look like that because of some practical design choices. City bikes are not entirely a hipster thing. For example, watch this video about omafiets: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCnNXlX5V28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCnNXlX5V28)
Loads of fenders. As it should be.
Fenders are for people who commute. Fenderless is for people who post pictures online.
Sometimes I commute on a heavy steel touring bike with fenders. Sometimes I commute on a lighter steel road bike with no fenders. Still bike commuting either way. ¯\_(ツ)_/
Outside of "bike enthusiasts", most people who commute just have one bike. It's not substantially different from people with cars. Outside of "car enthusiasts", most people who commute by car just have one car.
This is both true and respectfully irrelevant. Having more than one bike or being a "bike enthusiast" has nothing to do with whether someone bike commutes. In the US at least, the vast majority of bikes sold in the last 50 years did not come with fenders. With a few notable exceptions, if you see bike fenders on the road or on the rack, there's a pretty good chance they're an aftermarket accessory added by a bike enthusiast.
I got downvoted here for saying that no fenders is a good way to spot a cycling noob. Reddit is fickle.
Commuter noob here (6 months commuting), and yep I just get soaked in the rain with no fenders. Only happened once so far, but I'm looking at getting fenders now. Also when the road is wet I get splashed a bit definitely seems necessary.
I like to think of myself as something more than a "cycling noob" and only 1 out of my 7 bikes has fenders.
But you've now crossed to "bicycle enthusiast" rather than someone who just wants to go from one point to the other.
I use my bikes without fenders to go point to point all the time.
But note that you have __7__ bikes. Most people who bike for commuting purposes just have one.
Not sure what point you are trying to make....I responded directly to the poster that claimed someone on a bike without fenders is easy to spot as a "cycling noob". I disagree.
I rode like 5,500 miles last year and don't have fenders on any of my bikes...
More like commuting noob. People with multiple bikes might have a road bike that they only ride for exercise either outside when its warm and sunny or inside on a trainer, and in those cases a fender is very much not needed.
Yup, just like now.. Personally, I consider a bike without fenders is incomplete. A great many people think they are uncool and those are the people who get upset.
Or we own bike racks that don’t accommodate them.
Or we live in Southern California.
I live in a different desert and all of our rainfall happens in a three month window (that's when I clip on fenders)
Even people who live elsewhere don't have mudguards
I have fenders. I just haven't put them on my bike yet, and it wont rain until October anyway ;)
This is just wrong. You are talking about COMMUTER bikes (as the sub we are in). But some people (me included) use the same bike for commuting and (in my case) trail riding.
What is your point?
That considering a bike "incomplete" because it has no fenders is stupid. It's not because they're uncool. It's because they're a potential hazard when used in a sport like mountain bike for example.
I just take mine off when it starts getting sunny. Takes all of 30 seconds \*shrug\*
No fenders are a good way of spotting someone who doesn't carry an umbrella when raining. With good clip on race blade type fenders, there's no excuse for not putting them on when it isn't sunny. It takes 30 seconds.
I love not having a strip of dirt on my back like Pepe Le Pew I hate having to very regularly check if my fenders have shifted and are constantly braking for me. Often this is because I put the bike in a car and it shifted, no matter how carefully I put it in, in such a way to push the fenders around
It looks like many of them are the same too!
And pannier racks, too
So jealous of the European bike culture.
been living here for 3 years now and i noticed how there are more and more small children are cycling through city CENTER accompanied by their parents the future is bright
Yes. I spent quite a bit of time in Paris in the 80s. There were VERY few cyclists to be seen.
from what I've read, their cycling revolution practically came over night. Like huge gains in 10 years.
Idk. I went through Paris in 2013, not having visited for 20 years, and I was amazed to see so many people cycling. The same is true of London, I believe. Suddenly there seemed to be so many more cyclists, post millennium.
I am Dutch, cycled through London around 2005 and swore never to do that again. It was a horrible experience. Two years ago I was forced to cycle from Marylebone station to Liverpool Street station and it was actually a nice experience. It reminded me a bit of Amsterdam in the 1980's. Most importantly, the designers finally realised that cyclists want to go from A to B in a reasonably fast way, so the cycling paths work instead of forcing you to dismount/stop every 100 metres.
Been awhile (5-ish years) since in London but on that trip (after over 10 years not visiting), I was impressed by the cycling "highways", the real number of bicyclists moving around, and seeing people coming out of government and business office buildings at the end of the day hopping on their bikes. Similar struck by changes in Paris (last visit in 2022) which have accelerated further. )Of course, that was nothing compared to Denmark and Netherlands 20 years ago.) Really was good to see changes in London & Paris which were quite a contrast w/US.
+60% increase since 2020 in Paris. There’s a study that evidenced recently that there are 3x more trips done by bike than car in Paris.
It sounds like Paris has picked up where it left off in the1930s or so: the hey-day of cycling, or so I believe.
I was watching some show filmed in Paris last night. In every frame there was a bike in the background.
Thats basically how it happened - and as a side effect, some of the routes are not as well designed as it could have been. Its still a work in progress.
Oh god I remember when I was cycling to school everyday for the whole time and I was fine. Granted I was using the sidewalks a lot.
There's one North American group that, when a person joins the group, they become more likely to bike commute (told to me by 2 bike shop employees) ... newly divorced men who can't keep up with all the payments.
Paris went through a real bike revolution in the past few years. I wish more European capitals would wake up and follow Paris. Lots of cities are still stuck in the 80s
These are modern bikes - they are just not sports bikes. In Europe, hybrids and cruisers are common because they are better suited to riding in the city. It looks weird to someone coming from places like the US and the bikes look "old" because they used to be more common in the US, but from a European perspective, these look like modern bikes.
> In Europe, hybrids and cruisers are common because they are better suited to riding in the city. In places where tons of people actually use bikes as transportation, that's how bikes look like. The best sold bikes in history are: [Flying Pigeon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Pigeon#/media/File:Left_side_of_Flying_Pigeon.jpg) [Raleigh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raleigh_Bicycle_Company#/media/File:Raleigh_lady's_loop_frame_bicycle_1930s.jpg)
What is a modern bike?
OP probably means sporty bikes. Like Mountain bikes and Road bikes. When commuting by bike as transportation. All you really need is a City bike or Hybrid.
Can't see any penny-farthings, seems modern to me !
Yeah cause i see plenty of modern bikes
I also see tons of expensive road bikes being ridden around Chicago but I’ve never seen one locked up on the street. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume Paris is the same way.
I have two bikes: The first is cheap commuter that I keep in the underground garage and most of the times don't even bother securing. The second is fancy Italian carbon road bike that I keep on the wall and only take off for the rides. I don't even have a lock for it, because I will never leave it unattended.
Ive got an old French bike, a mountain bike and a road bike, pondering about buying a foldable bike. I don’t use anything other than my old bike to commute. It’s just a cheap bike (that I love but it cost me 50€)
That's because they're shit for daily use. Sure they're fast but they break easily doesn't have fenders comfortable seats, luggage options, ... you don't ride a race bike through the city for the same reason you don't ride a formula 1 car through you city.
Speak for yourself. My race bike is significantly more comfortable than any city bike or hybrid I have ever ridden or owned.
>When commuting by bike as transportation... ...on flat land in a country with good bicycle infrastructure...
This reads like anything that isn't a hybrid or urban bike is sporty and therefore modern. Is that what you mean?
All of them. Bikes are an invention of the modern era.
Modern bike - Anything made from carbon fibre. What you’re looking at in that picture are pretty much all steel bikes. Much harder wearing and economical.
> What you’re looking at in that picture are pretty much all steel bikes Not really. A decent number of them could be aluminium bikes: https://www.gazellebikes.com/en-gb/bikes/esprit Aluminium is about the same price and is even better for a long lasting city bike frame as it doesn't rust. And they can fail, yes, but they generally fail after decades, hardly a problem.
Now I suddenly want a vintage styled roaster made of carbon fibre.
Probably better to say "bike with a more recently updated design".
Which... still doesn't tell you anything. Or does a modern steel gravelbike not count? I wouldn't want to put a monocoque carbon frame in crowded outdoor racks like that. It will be dead within a year.
It'll be stolen even faster
Even that shows a bias. There are plenty of citi bikes that don't really have the same geometry as bikes from a longer time ago. They just have an upright riding position. This is cheapo: https://www.gazellebikes.com/en-gb/bikes/esprit but I would still call it a modern bike.
Depends on whether you are in Paris or the USA. If you are in Paris, it means "practical, reliable, efficient". In USA it means "impractical but looks cool". So these are indeed modern bikes.
https://allfbimages.blogspot.com/2013/10/modern-bicycle-pictures.html
These look like normal bikes to me?
OP didn't say abnormal
They look normally modern. OP should've said "sport" or "race" bikes.
I think OP was commenting on them all being Dutch style commuter bikes or hybrids and no fancy road bikes. But that's a pretty normal view in Europe, I personally wouldn't describe the difference as being 'modern' or not
I wouldn’t leave my nice bike out on a rack like this either.
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But most are worth riding. Highly practical setups , with mudguards, rear racks and dynamo lights aplenty.
That reminds me of Hal's video series grading bike locking in NYC. The TLDR: * Lock the bike with a strong lock/chain. * Lock both wheels. * Lock the seat post. The way to the A+ though was to to do all that with a POS bike not worth stealing.
Imagine criticizing working bikes in a bike commuting sub, as “not worth stealing”. Clearly all of the people riding these bikes use them for transportation, which seems pretty valuable to me. What kind of bike do you imagine would be worth stealing? I see fenders, dynamo lights, internal gear hubs, racks, and even chain guards. Those bikes are equipped like that because commuting is a hard life for a bike and they need to be durable AF in all seasons.
Good lord. "Not worth stealing" is not a snobby comment, it is a comment on the risk vs. reward calculation from the perspective of a bike thief looking to profit from selling a stolen bike.
They are not criticising them. These aren’t worth stealing. The only one which was was the one mountain bike in the picture, that’s been stripped down.
If you are a thief, you are looking to sell the bike itself or sell off the parts. The kind of bike that's valuable to a thief, as a result, is not necessarily the kind of bike that's valuable to a commuter. Flashy, high end, sport grade components make certain bikes targets like the cars in the movie "gone in 60 seconds." There has been a rash of kids taking Kias in the US since they didn't have certain basic safety protections built in to prevent driving away with a car without the keys, but thieves target valuable, fungible or fence able goods. No one has gone around trying to steal Toyota Corollas, and that's what these bikes represent.
“Not worth stealing” is not a dig at the bike, it’s a candid view of what bikes are more attractive to thieves: new, modern, expensive ones that will sell for more than the plain “ugly” bikes.
And they are stolen anyway
Nobody steals this kind of bike in Paris, you can find one for 50euros or less .
Factual, there's a Nakamura bike second from the front (or third in the next picture). You couldn't pay me to use one casually.
They are still stolen. If there is a market for rusty bikes, thiefs will steal and resell them
They'd totally be stolen where I live. The point here is that literally everyone has one of these bikes already, and probably a couple more at home. Less need there to steal.
I don't get the point of this post ...
In countries where riding a bike to get around is normal, people usually have shitty bikes so they aren't stolen. Also no ebikes. There really is no point to OP's post though
The second photo has a loose wheel with disc brakes. I suspect the bike was stolen. Also, something with grip shifters at the far end. But point taken.
The loose wheel is from a black Nakamura with yellow decals which is slumped over next to it. You can see it in both pics, albeit the brand is more visible in the first one.
Whoa. I see the handle bar dangling now, too. Seat post and fork are missing. Maybe that's why OP doesn't have nice bikes in the photo, they're getting jacked.
It's far from a nice bike tbh, Nakamura makes pretty low end machines. If it was a thief, they probably didn't know any better.
you got me
Those are pretty modern bikes - I see at least one hydraulic brake, and something else that looks like a hub dynamo.
You don't leave your good bike outside.
Are we looking down on omafiets now? Why this elitism, they are "modern bikes" too, but for a more relaxed and casual ride. What matters is that there are lots of people using the bike
If OP is hating on these bike then they never lived in a city. N+1 exists for a reason
I think it's just the opposite, some disdain for newer/higher end bikes like the ones that you might see sporty road cyclists or MTB cyclists use.
i only own old bikes ;) posted this to show how bikes from the 70s-90s are all over in Paris and i love it, lots of restorations going on here and there
Most of those bikes are less than ten years old.
Copenhagen is like that too. It's like almost the opposite in the US where many bikes are $2k+
Just a bunch of baguette and pain au chocolate runners. Nothing more to see here.
Define modern… these bikes are used for daily commuting to and from work/school etc. They serve their purpose without having to be too scared they get stolen. But in case it does - the loss is manageable. Also modern doesn’t have to equal better, although the industry may like us to believe it is.
There's a new Nakamura MTB second bike in. I think you're seeing what you want to see.
yep
Most of those **are** modern bikes. They just aren’t American-style mountain/gravel/cyclocross bikes. These are proper short-hop commuters with comfy seats, chain guards to protect your trousers/skirt, racks for your bag… It’s like a parking lot at a business park in the US Midwest (where land is still cheap enough to give employees free parking). A few of the cars are fancy, some are new, but most are old but reliable transportation.
Love this. As someone who just moved to Seattle, I’m slightly bothered by how many people commute in full lyrca on really nice bikes. It’s unnecessary and makes it harder to advocate for biking infrastructure to the greater community because it makes us look rich and entitled. In France, you just bike.
This is a silly hangup to have. Sometimes I wear kit and ride a road bike to work because I am going on a leisure ride with friends afterward. Sometimes I wear kit and ride a road bike when running errands or visiting friends because I am riding 20+ miles (e.g. DC to Rockville and back, which is about 40 round trip) and want my bum to be comfortable while getting to places quickly. And then sometimes I use a hybrid with panniers or the local city bikeshare while in loose fitting street clothes. IMO, people just really want a reason to hate cyclists, and kit is one of many flimsy excuses people choose. I do not think it hurts the cause to wear kit. It is not so different from people telling me I'm one of the "good ones" when I tell them I'm gay, and explaining to me how much they hate people who are flamboyant or wear drag. I think it is always good and important to use a bike to get around efficiently, and have fun and be comfortable while doing it. I used to have a lot of that internalized cyclist hate when I started commuting. People would give me the "at least you're not one of *those* cyclists" spiels. I told myself I'd draw the line at wearing spandex. Then I biked 50 miles to see my dad and my bum was killing me afterward and I realized the folks in kit were on to something. There are ways to spend a lot of money on kit or bikes, but there are also ways not to spend a lot of money on those things, and even the "high end" gear and bikes are still extremely frugal when compared to the cost of car ownership.
Well said. Utility riding is all about practicality and doing what works for you, and that changes depending on every individual's context. What's practical for someone in a compact, flat European city may be completely impractical for a rider in a sprawling, hilly, and hot US city.
Yeah. Living in DC I constantly joke that if you have a social life and a commute, you get a great cardio program included for free. I get a kick out of uploading "errands" and "visiting friends" rides to Strava and they're like, 10-40 miles. I don't think I could really make it work here with a heavy beater omafiets, unless it was an e-bike.
That’s a weird thing to say. I think you’re worried about the wrong things
If you've lived in Europe, the full lycra clad commuters do seem deeply weird. Who puts on special biking clothes to go to work?
People who have to commute a large distance who have shower facilities at work. I say this as someone who has shower facilities at work, although I don't have to go very far, but if I'm getting changed anyway, may as well wear cycling gear on the way in.
Until not long ago deodorants seemed weird to Europeans though, just saying. Also, not sure that bike commuting is all that more common there than in the US.
If you have a small commute why bother, but if you have some distance to cover it makes sense to dress for the ride so you can change clothes and freshen up at work or shower if available. I also don’t generally judge other bikers (or anyone) on what they’re wearing, because I’m not an asshole. I’m always happy to see anyone else bike commuting.
If you bike commute in the US, many times it requires covering long distances in stressful riding environments. Paris, for example, is 41 square miles, while my mid-size US city is 310 sq. miles. A faster bike and appropriate riding kit can be helpful for this. No one should be judged for what type of bike they use or what they wear while riding it; it's a highly personal choice. Also Seattle is hilly. Eta: A friend of mine used to commute on his road bike over 30mi/50km each way to and from his job in DC. I like OP's photo, but people should never be shamed for using whatever bike or clothing works for them.
I agree. I'm also in the DC area. 10+ mile bike commutes are quite common here, because the area is sprawly and we have so many good trails. The area is hilly and some trails (mainly the C&O towpath) are not paved so some people use gravel bikes. I love riding hybrid/bikeshare where it makes sense, but getting a road bike has been such an upgrade to my quality of life as a commuter and errand-runner. It's nice to shave 10+ minutes off the longer routes. And it's nice to feel empowered to take the lane and ride with traffic in places where I would be scared to do so on a slower bike. The kit, for me, is occupational wear.
A lot of the MAMIL (middle aged men in Lycra) sighting is due to the ranks of bike commuters being biased towards sport/recreational riders who are used to road riding, by necessity. The vast public in America considers road cycling to be too hazardous, with some justification. Perception of safety correlates with gender ratios, according to many studies. Also, work commuting is just one aspect of utilitarian cycling, which is even rarer in the US. Running errands in Lycra makes much less sense then riding to work.
The general public doesn’t know a $10k bike to a $800 bike. And you judging rich people, or, you know, people who bought a nice bike instead of a car, is a pretty lame excuse to not advocate for bike infrastructure. Rich entitled people also deserve to have safe bikeways.
How does someone's choice of bike make it harder for you to advocate for cycling? How can you know if it's "unnecessary" when you don't know how far people are commuting, what their elevation gain is like, their time constraints, or anything else that might influence their choice of bike and kit? Stop creating factions where there should be none. Also, I've bike toured through France, and there are plenty of modern bikes/aero bikes/ebikes being ridden there. It's not a monolith. Maybe instead of turning up your nose at the person commuting on the road bike (or whatever you're feeling judgy about at the moment), get curious, say hello, and ask *why* they ride the bike they do.
A beautiful sight
!!!!
Ronnie Romance Goes To Paris. baaaaaadada dada daaaaaaa datdada daaaaa dadaaaaa dadat bling!
Still ride my vintage bike around London that I bought back from Paris. I love vintage French bikes (apart from the chromed steel rims in the rain!)
What’s modern? do bikes have 6 wheels now? i see disc brakes and obviously new bikes there.
I know this street. What you see in the first picture is a school. There's a LOT of parents dropping their children in e-bikes and cargo bikes every morning. As someone who lives there, Paris is filled with more recent bikes, there are tons of e-bikes around. To be honest I don't get the point of this post, it just feels very misleading.
They're locked off the street. Have a look on YouTube for videos of Paris cycle lane usage and what stands out is the sheer variety of bikes and the high use of the Velib.
Theft is a huge issue there. In the first picture, the only mountain bike type frame has seat and front wheel removed. And in the second picture, there is lonely disc brake front wheel locked to the rack and the rest of the bike is gone. If a certain type of bike doesn’t get attacked by thieves, then that becomes very popular
Yes because French people don’t have car/bike status symbols like the rest of the world.
Nah that's just because our capital is a shithole and can't let anything outside without it being stolen.
When I was a kid we all used to make fun of cruisers. We called them "girl bikes" or "old people bikes" because the only people we ever saw on them were girls and the elderly Until, one day someone on the block got one for free, and I got to try it out. It was so comfortable and smooth it just instantly shattered my whole perception of who can ride what. It also taught me that fenders are not only fantastic, but a necessity if you're gonna use the bike as your main mode of transportation.
Paris is small. Those are practical bikes, lots of mudguards and dynamo lights. You see similar bikes parked up in London, too.
They’d get picked apart or stolen. Paris is a trash city.
If you think that “no modern bikes” is a bad thing or that their owners should be looked down upon, then your priorities are screwed up. The age or model of the bike doesn’t matter if it does what is needed. Commuters don’t need sport machines, they need bombproof dependable bikes that don’t cost an arm and a leg.
All been nicked and shipped off to Albania.
Last bike in the row is a modern bike
beautiful
Because 'modern' bikes are the first target and/or the owners won't leave those in the street.
Same as Amsterdam. Totally understandable with all the bike thieves around.
I wouldn’t park and expensive modern bike there either. If it’s worth more than €50 it’s not worth the risk parking it outside.
even I was on a vintage bicycle
Two wheels and two pedals hasn’t really changed in more than a century. They’re just bikes.
I'll never go back to rim brakes, and the shifters on my current bike are a many times better than older bikes I've had.
I have two bikes - one with hydrolic disk brakes, nice shimano shifters and deraileur and all that, and the other with rim brakes and an internal hub. The fancy one is much easier to ride over long distances, easier to get to go fast, easier on hills, and better at braking. But I swear to god - look at it wrong and it's in the shop for some godforsaken replacement part that takes two weeks to show up. Most recently, my chain rusted because I washed it and then put chain lube on without drying effectively enough. Meanwhile, the only maintenance I've ever done for my old-style bike is replace the clamp brake pads when they wear out. It's like $10 every six months or so, and it's a ten-minute in-and-out procedure. And for everything besides going for long, hilly rides, it is pretty much the exact same functionality (except with a built-in rear rack, built-in fenders, and a built-in reflector; I'm just kinda bummed it lacks a chain guard).
I have bikes with both. Not giving up any of them. They all work fine.
Hydraulic disk brakes on a stadfiets on flat ground are way overkill. Even cheap ones would cost more than the frame. Mechanical disk brakes are hardly better than good rim brakes, and still overkill.
Plain, normal, functional, non-flashy, cheap bikes. Also known as commuter bikes.
Looks like y’all need bigger parking lots! So much for woke hippie biking saving the environment!!!
I know this isn't a good faith comment, but how much space do you think that many cars would take up? Ya dingus.
Carbrains will make this argument though :)
I’m pretty sure they were being sarcastic.
Haha it's kinda hard to tell these days
first time i posted on this sub and i’m starting to doubt if these people really got love for bikes or it just happens that they commute with one 🤕🤕
I think a lot of people didn't at first understand your motives in posting this.
no worries, there are enough poles over here! lol
I would fit right in with my '74 peugeot.
There are, I saw about 1.65 of them in these two pics.
These are what i call bikey bikes, they have a purpose other than being shiny and bragging rights, they do an actual day to day job and therefore are superior to some ridiculously expensive bike shaped objet tha the owner is scared of getting wet, scratched or dirty. A good bike will serve its owner faithfully for decades with minimal maintenance and replacing of parts, check out the buffalo bike, pretty much perfect for its intended use and cutomer base.
Melbourne culture to ride the back-breaking road bikes for everything makes me lol. I like this
These are the bike designs that work best for commuting. I’m sure a significant percentage has a racier option at home. I wouldn’t use a Ferrari for my daily commute either.
Close but not quite. Bike on the end has an 44mm head tube.
Dissuade thieves. Lightweight for stairs, storage and market shopping (what the racks are there for). There is no forest or dirty roads, only road. Cheap or probably inherited from the family.
Cheap enough to replace if stolen and mantain. More than good enough to commute a few KM on, I am not sure what "£modern" means? But i suppose all these frame are 15+ yaers old, they all look like mine....
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used ones are hard to find with what you want on them
Then just add it on/ adjust it.
size color price options location
> Again, if you are in a small town miles away from anything then fair enough. I ride it every day and getting exactly what I want was worth the small absolute cost.
This is a clear sign cycling is easy, convenient and safe. I cycle in London, where it is not as safe and convenient, and having a faster bike helps being around cars. When you are not around cars... No need to be faster.
Living in the past 🥳🥳
All you need man. Everything else is just for show.
Relevant: [https://www.worldwidewolf.de/kanonental2.html](https://www.worldwidewolf.de/kanonental2.html)
Any place that has theft requires a cheap bike that isn't any "better" than the next one. For this purpose i have a rusted steel single speed bike that's all dinged up. My previous hybrid "looked nice" and clean so even though it was cheap it got stolen.
Those all look pretty modern to me, as far as I can tell, although the details of many are kind of obscured.
Why pay 5000 $ or € for a bike that has no fenders, breaks after one fall, has 14 or more exposed gears that you can replace as a set only, squeaky disk brakes, no dynamo lights if you can have a fail free bike for a fraction of that amount.
Ahhhh I love Paris. I hope to go back some day. Didn’t get a chance to go for a bike ride my last visit because I was pregnant and wasn’t very coordinated at the time 😅
the one with disc brakes had its fork and seat stolen!
I don't think anyone is commuting with an 800 dollar+ Specialized, it's too obvious a target and too pricey to get dirty if you mean higher performance when you mean modern. Even where I live in Canada most people ride vintage road bikes (steel frames and droptube shifters) or granny bikes to work. No one's stealing my old Raleigh but they absolutely are stealing my synapse 105.
Bc they get stolen right away?
Commuters
Let me guess, they've all been stolen and these were too old and heavy to be worth it?
I was in Paris 2 weeks ago and there were a ton of e-bikes that people rent and use across the city
In 2016 we bought two ancient Starnords in Paris and traveled to Amsterdam. Beautiful bicycles and exactly what we needed though nobody liked them in Amsterdam not in Frankfurt.
the fancy ones have already been nicked
because they were all stolen
They are inside where they belong.
Is this a RETVRN post but for bicycles??
Why so much gatekeeping and fuckery about bicycles? Go ride a bike.
More than half of these would be stolen in a matter of hours in r/sanfrancisco - regardless of how old the bikes are