WHAT IS BETTER - WHO MADE IT?

Since the first bicycle and its components were made, there have been literally thousands of different bicycle and bicycle component manufacturers.  Some fell by the wayside and some remain today.  There is no best maker of bicycle components!  Each manufacturer has produced some pretty impressive stuff and each has allowed flawed technology into the world of the vintage road bicycle.  With this in mind, manufacturers will not be compared to one another when "user friendliness" is the issue.  However, when collectability becomes the concern, forget about does it work well or not.  Who made it and how old is it become the defining characteristics.

Campagnolo, Shimano, Suntour and Simplex are the most common names that will present themselves as you begin to wander through a veritable maze of who made what and when.  Campagnolo and Shimano are, without a doubt, the big dogs in the vintage road bicycle component arena.  I have used each of the rear derailleurs pictured and found them all to work very well, even the half plastic Simplex offering.  Campagnolo and Shimano still offer the widest assortment and range of components.

Weinmann, Dia Compe, Modolo and Mafac are equally well known in the world of old road bicycles.  Their products will surface frequently on old road bicycles.  It would be a daunting task to list and describe the virtues of each and every make.  More detailed information is readily available on the WWW for most, if not all, of the components available then and now.

As one moves back further in time, name like Gian Robert, Huret and Benolux will crop up from time to time.  Needless to say, the older components are the more difficult they will be to find.  Their collectable value does increase with age but this does not mean that older automatically demands great monetary value.  True, as the vintage disappears in time, one would think that the collectable value would skyrocket, but such is not always the case.  Interestingly enough, rare is not a really special word in the vintage road bicycle arena at the present time.  That, however, is all but bound to change as the interest in collecting and riding vintage road bicycles increases.

The interest, in collecting and riding vintage road bicycles, is relatively new.  This statement is not meant to disqualify those of you, who have been riding and collecting, these wonderful old bicycles, for a long time.  The sport/interest is growing, at a very rapid rate, thanks to the invention of Ebay.

Ebay, quite simply, made acquiring a vintage road bicycle, as easy as one, two three.  For an item to be collectable, it must be, at the very lease, Familiar, Interesting and Available.  Ebay added the third ingredient, availability, to the mix.  At the time of this writing, the sport/hobby of collecting and riding vintage road bicycles, is growing incredibly fast.

With this in mind, rare and obscure will begin to surface as desirable qualities for an old bicycle to have.   This, of course, is just a prediction but signs of it coming true are already beginning to surface.  Bicycles, that I left at the Dump, two years ago are now worth money.  Rare items, that are all but unheard of today, will fetch big bucks tomorrow, even if they don't work all that well.

The older a bicycle component, the more collectable it will be, all things being equal.  There will never be any opportunity to change that self evident truth!  But, who made it is a concern that does move about, from time to time.  And, who made it, often times, assigns both collectable and monetary value, to a vintage road bicycle component.

Once again, we are speaking of collectable value not "user friendliness".  When it comes to collectable value of vintage road bicycle components, Campagnolo leads the way.

NEXT - WHAT IS BETTER - CAMPAGNOLO?