Cyclocross has come a long way. Toe clips, barcons and steel bikes are all relics of the past. Although many of the vintage ‘cross bikes are things of beauty, they pale in comparison to the lightweight machines of today. And before, dear reader, you think (as some of the comments in my cheeky, satirical “Old bikes suck” piece suggest) that this is not some sort of ploy to try and get you to buy new ‘cross bikes, I assure you that’s not the case.
The ubiquitous Alans
If anything, if you’re like Uncle Matt, you cherish your old Alan or steel rig. But by cherish, I mean it hangs in the basement in your shrine to vintage rides. I wouldn’t race on my old Alan if you paid me to.
30-40 years ago in Canada, it wasn’t exactly an easy feat to even procure a ‘cross bike. If you were lucky and knew a shop which carried ‘cross machines, you could get a nice steel ride, with cantilever brakes and bar-end shifters. But for many of us, our first cyclocross bike might be an old road bike that you’d squeeze in some fatter tires, with little-to-no tire clearance, or something you found at a garage sale. Some people would use what was basically a hybrid bike, that might not even have canti brakes. But you made it work.
Suntour Bar Cons, quill stem, toe clips, neon leopard Cinelli gloves & a ladies Swatch. 1st season of cyclocross, 1988: pic.twitter.com/QZpzGJxA
— JD Bilodeau (@JDBilodeau) July 30, 2012
Of course, if you were serious, you’d get yourself a quality steel bike. If you were really serious, you’d get an Alan, which was the dominant ‘cross bike for decades. Those steel bikes were great–bombproof–but they also weighed about as much as a nuke. Carrying those things up hills for an hour usually meant you had a dent in your shoulder after the race. Of course a benefit to a steel bike would be that if you did somehow break it, you could always weld it back. My brother broke his Cyclops ‘cross bike the night before a race and our relative managed to weld it at 9 pm on a Saturday.
Vintage cyclocross bikes.
I wasted the morning looking at them. I started the morning thinking Alan 1×6 was the best… moving towards the Gios 2×6 now.
Anyone got a vintage CX bike obsession? pic.twitter.com/h8gfpKx5DM— Camille McMillan (@camillemcmillan) February 27, 2020
The Alans were most popular for pros as they were featherweight. Almost all the top pros would use them in the ‘80s, often rebadged as a Guerciotti or whatever their team…
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