I've enjoyed tinkering with my old road bike for a few years now, and recently I came across a great page by two enthusiasts who put into words exactly why I do it: it's fun, you get to know your bike better, and it saves you money.
On their site they collect handy tips and videos, from classic Brooks and Lepper saddles to replacing bar tape and retro tyres. What I appreciate most is that they also honestly point you to good professionals for those who'd rather not get their hands dirty.
I've noticed myself that the average bike mechanic often isn't very familiar with that old gear. Many parts of a road bike from the seventies or eighties require special tools, and some parts are hard to find. That's exactly why doing it yourself feels so good — you grow attached to it.
My tip for anyone who wants to get started: start small, for example with bar tape or tyres, and take a close look at the brakes and hubs. It's very satisfying when an old bike like that rides smoothly again after decades.
Source: Klassieke Nederlandse Racefietsen
A highlight on the autumn calendar: Musette & Bicyclette returns on Saturday, October 17, 2026, in Pouget, in the Hérault Valley. The concept immediately appeals to lovers of vintage bicycles: bring out your most beautiful old bicycle, put on some retro attire, and set off for a ride in an atmosphere inspired by the last century.
This year, everything takes place over a single day. Two routes to choose from:
- "As du Guidon" (Master of the Handlebars), 44 km, for hiking enthusiasts: traverse the vineyards of the Hérault Valley at a leisurely pace, stopping for delicious treats, entertainment, and discoveries of local heritage.
- "Pédale Douce" (Gentle Pedal), 16 km, accessible to everyone: families, curious individuals, or those who don't have a vintage bicycle but want to experience the event's atmosphere.
Around the rides, there will be local producers, tastings, and, to end the day, a swing dance in a festive setting. This is exactly what I love about these retro rides: the vintage bicycle isn't a museum piece; it's an excuse to ride together, peacefully, and take your time.
Registration for the rides is available on the event website:
https://rando-musetteetbicyclette.fr/
Source: Communauté de communes Vallée de l'Hérault.
The official Eroica Japan site has published details of the 'MITSUKUNI 150' course, held on November 1. Since I was curious how a route for an event on vintage bicycles is put together, I've sketched out the overview.
The start and finish are at the Eroica Japan headquarters, in the former Isozaki Elementary School. The distance is 151.8 km with 1,401 m of climbing: 16.3 km of unpaved road and 135.3 km of paved road. The start is at 6:00 a.m., and the cutoff is 7:00 p.m. on November 1.
The aid stations are distinctive too. Starting at the Tokai AS at the 10.4 km mark (Tokai Village Nuclear Science Museum), the course continues to the Hitachi AS at 27.1 km (JR Hitachi Station, seaside exit), the Juo Dam AS at 38.1 km, the Ota 7-Eleven AS at 63.6 km, and the Osakana Center AS at 73.8 km (Hitachi Fish Center), where lunch is available. Then come the Oarai AS at 95.6 km and the Hinuma AS at 120.4 km (Hinuma Nature Park), before reaching the Reynolds 531 AS at 132.8 km (Humming Road 513). The name is clearly a tribute to Reynolds 531 chromoly tubing.
What appeals to me most is the course design: slowly riding a steel-frame bike past seaside towns and a lake, with stretches of gravel along the way. Since nearly 90% of the route is paved, you could enjoy the character of the bike while piling up the kilometers. If you're considering entering, check the route details and rules on the official site.
Source: Eroica
I love a bike build with a story, and Bikepacking.com's latest Reader's Rig has a good one: Mer's 1996 DEAN Colonel, a vintage mountain bike set up as a bikepacking rig and put to work on Ozarks trails.
Mer lives in Northwest Arkansas, works in tourism, and has been around bikes for a long time, from volunteering at bike kitchens to working as a mechanic, head tech and eventually a shop owner. She helps organize the cycling group Dilly Dally. Early in her bike career she admired her coworkers' custom builds but never had the money for one. When she finally could spend, she went the budget route: the local nonprofit Pedal It Forward had received the frame as a donation, and she bought it, mostly complete, for $200.
The stock rims were cracked, so she moved the Shimano XTR M950 hubs, which she calls worth their weight in gold, onto 26-inch Velocity Cliffhanger rims. That also made tubeless tires possible, a good thing on rough Ozark terrain. The rest is mostly parts-bin pieces and a few budget components she wanted to try, such as a Microshift Advent MX drivetrain, a Surly fork, Paul cranks, MKS Gamma pedals and old Avid brakes.
Mer says it is not the fanciest bike she has built, but maybe one of the most fun. Personally, I find that the most appealing thing about old steel and titanium frames: they reward people who tinker.
Source: Bikepacking.com
Finisher medals are usually shiny metal, so the choice L’Eroica made for its 29th edition caught my eye. Every rider crossing the line in Gaiole in Chianti gets a medal made entirely of wood, printed with eco-friendly inks. The organisers present it as a way to leave a lighter footprint on the Tuscan landscape that has always been the backdrop of the ride.
What I like more than the sustainability angle is the story they attach to it. In competitive sport the wooden medal is the prize for fourth place, the one that just misses the podium. At L’Eroica, they say, we are all fourth. Nobody finishes first, there is no stopwatch to beat and no ranking to climb. Everyone still gets to the finish, powered only by their own legs, over climbs, white roads, dust and mud.
The text also notes that wood has a living quality metal does not: each grain pattern is unique, which echoes the individual stories of the people on the bikes. It is described as a symbol of sustainable cycling and of a community where the first and the last rider share the same spirit.
For those of us who ride and collect old steel bikes, that fits. The point of a vintage ride has never been the result; it is the beauty of fatigue, the thrill of getting there on a machine that is decades old, and respect for the places you cross. Personally I find a wooden medal a much better souvenir than another piece of metal in a drawer.
Source: Eroica
Among the many things revolving around the 29th edition of L'Eroica, the one that intrigued me most is the Concorso d'Eleganza dedicated to the bicycle. We are used to seeing it for vintage cars, much less for two wheels, yet the idea makes deep sense: the bicycle has always had its own elegance, made of design, materials and the hand of the great frame builders.
The contest is organised by Eroica together with Biciclette d'Epoca, the leading magazine in the sector. The story that accompanies it starts from Karl Drais's Draisine, ancestor of all velocipedes, and moves on to the Italian production that set the standard. I also liked the quote from Giancarlo Brocci, the creator of Eroica, who calls himself a 'genetic inelegant' but admits he appreciates elegance as whatever improves human relations.
The bikes in competition fall into two large families: preserved and restored. It is a distinction that anyone in the vintage world knows well, because respecting the original as it has come down to us is quite different from bringing it back to factory condition. What the rider wears also counts, since in classic cycling events the whole ensemble is part of the show.
There are nine prizes, one for the best example in each category, plus three cross-category awards. The Premio Fedeltà goes to the most complete and coherent bike from the point of view of restoration; the Combinata d'Eleganza rewards the pairing of machine and clothing; the Best in Show will be published and analysed in issue 78 of Biciclette d'Epoca.
Entry costs 35 euros, with the deadline at midnight on 29 September 2026. The bikes were on display on Friday 2 October from 9 to 12 at the Luciano Berruti monument, the contest starts at 14:30 and the awards ceremony is at 17:30. A prize, I would say, for those who love steel frames even when they are standing still.
Source: Eroica
Eroica Valkenburg celebrates its tenth edition in 2027, and the organization promises one to remember. The motto on the official page: ten years of heroic rides, ten years of unforgettable roads.
Valkenburg is described as one of the true cycling capitals of the world, tucked into the hills of South Limburg close to the Belgian and German borders. Legendary climbs start almost at the door, and cycling history is felt everywhere. For the jubilee, the best of ten years of Eroica Valkenburg is brought together.
There are three routes. The Heritage is the shortest: 75 km with 650 meters of climbing, featuring well-known hills from the Amstel Gold Race and three special stops. The Classic covers 100 km and 1,000 meters of climbing, entirely on paved road. The Monument is the longest, a tribute to ten years of Eroica: 125 km and 1,225 meters of climbing, with 25 km of gravel (white roads) and 100 km of asphalt, the monumental caves along the way, and five special stops.
Sign up before December 31, 2026, and the Sunday ride costs €80 instead of the regular €90 (members of Eroica CC pay €70). The Saturday ride costs €25.
The organizers urge riders to dust off their steel bikes, polish their leather shoes, and find their favorite wool sweater. It fits this kind of ride perfectly.
Source: Eroica
The course details for SHOGUN 190, the longest route at Eroica Japan on November 1, have been published, so I went through them. It is a course that shows off the appeal of a long-distance ride on classic bicycles.
The start and finish are at the Eroica Japan headquarters, the former Isozaki Elementary School. The total distance is 187.6 km with 1,618 m of climbing. About 21.1 km is unpaved and about 180.4 km is paved, so most of the ride is on tarmac, with dirt sections mixed in here and there. The start is at 5:30 in the morning, and there are ten aid stations.
The lineup of aid stations is interesting. AS1 is the Tokai Village Nuclear Science Museum, AS2 is the seaside exit of JR Hitachi Station, and AS5 is Hitachi Osakana Center, where you can stop for lunch. The route winds north and south along the Ibaraki coast. It continues through Oarai, Hokota, the “So-ra-ra” cycle station in Omitama, and Hanuma Natural Park, and AS10 is named after Reynolds 531. Reynolds 531 is the name of a chromoly frame tubing, so it is a playful touch for fans of classic bikes.
The cut-off is something to watch. You must reach AS10, Humming Road 513, by 19:00 on November 1. It will be a long day, so nutrition and pacing will matter.
The route is also published on Ride with GPS. Personally, I think a day spent on a steel-frame bike riding along the coast from morning until evening would be a special experience in itself.
Source: Eroica
Behind the white gravel roads of the Chianti and the vintage bicycles there is daily work that never shows up in the photos: caring for the landscape. For the 29th edition, L'Eroica is renewing "Adotta un chilometro" (Adopt a kilometre), in partnership with the Benefit Company Terrecablate.
Since 1997 L'Eroica has looked after and promoted the province of Siena. Each year 17 municipalities in Siena welcome thousands of cyclists from all over the world along the two permanent routes of Terra Eroica: L'Eroica in Gaiole in Chianti and Eroica Montalcino. Together they make 290 kilometres through hills, vineyards, medieval villages and gravel tracks.
The initiative works like this: with the support of local associations in the 17 municipalities, cyclists, volunteers and residents symbolically take charge of the stretches of road that cross their own area, and look after cleaning, removing litter and maintaining the verges before, during and after the race passes.
Terrecablate Reti e Servizi, a Tuscan internet and telephone operator, supports the project as a Benefit Company rooted in the Sienese community.
It seems to me a concrete way to remember that vintage cycling is not just nostalgia: if we want to keep pedalling on these roads twenty years from now, someone has to take care of them today.
Source: L'Eroica
I like it when a great vintage cycling festival looks beyond steel bicycles and wool jerseys to the people who will come after us. For the 29th edition of L'Eroica, pupils at the middle school in Gaiole in Chianti have a leading role, as part of an interdisciplinary project that began back in September.
The project starts from the publication "Le 40 parole della mobilità sostenibile" (The 40 words of sustainable mobility), produced for the 40th anniversary of the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security, and involves the Carabinieri for Biodiversity in Siena and the Siena command of the State Highway Police (Polizia Stradale).
The programme is packed. On Thursday 1 October at 11:00, in the Auditorium of Casa Eroica, there is a special lesson with Giancarlo Brocci, the founder of L'Eroica: the pupils present their work on sustainability and the local area, while the Highway Police runs a workshop on road safety. At 17:00 the pupils join Brocci, Franco Rossi, the mayor and the Carabinieri for Biodiversity at the official opening, and straight afterwards they plant a tree for biodiversity.
On Friday 2 October from 15:00, the Mini Eroica and Giocociclismo, designed for the youngest children, take place in the heart of the village. On Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October, during race days, the pupils greet the cyclists at the finish line in Gaiole.
I personally find it lovely that a vintage bicycle can also become a way to talk about safe roads and respect for the landscape.
Source: L'Eroica
The Chianti gravel roads that L’Eroica uses every autumn are usually described through numbers: distances, climbs, how many riders show up on vintage steel. So I was happy to see the event's official podcast, presented with the magazine Biciclette d’Epoca, going in a different direction for its second season.
The first season was about places: the white roads, the historic villages and the monuments of Chianti, and why the event feels magical. The new series, tied to the 29th edition, asks a harder question: why does it keep moving so many people? Instead of objects and landscapes, it focuses on the people who ride.
It is built around five words, in five episodes. Fatigue (Fatica) is the essence of the pedal stroke and the value of personal redemption. Slowness (Lentezza) is a rediscovered rhythm that lets you savour every kilometre. Silence (Silenzio) is the intimate space to listen to yourself and the land around you. Care (Cura) means love for details, for vintage mechanics and for human connections. Community (Comunità) is the feeling of belonging to a vast global family.
Care is the one that resonates most with me on a forum about classic bicycles. Anyone who has spent an evening cleaning a 1970s hub or hunting for a period-correct saddle knows that restoration is mostly patience. The organisers put it neatly: in a fast world, true modernity lies not in speed or technology but in the ability to find yourself on these roads.
It is a nice reminder that old bikes are as much about a way of riding as about steel and lugs. If you are going to listen to one episode first, I would start with the one on slowness.
Source: Eroica
Vintage cycling is often described as a balance between preserving memory and respecting the landscape, and the organisers of the 29th L’Eroica have leaned into that idea with a sustainability partnership announced for this year’s edition.
Roy Roger’s, the Italian clothing brand, is once again behind the object every rider pins to their back: the official 2026 back number. It is made entirely from secondary raw materials, meaning high-quality recycled fabric, and printed with certified eco-friendly inks. The idea is to show that the look of historic cycling, steel frames and wool jerseys included, can sit comfortably alongside modern environmental practice.
The partnership also carries a solidarity side. This year the cause is AIL, the Italian Association Against Leukemia, Lymphoma and Myeloma. AIL Siena Grosseto will have a presence in the centre of Gaiole in Chianti, where riders and visitors can contribute to research and to support for haematological patients.
On the practical side, participants can collect their technical pack, which includes the back number, at Base Eroica from 5 p.m. on Thursday, October 1.
It is a small detail, but I like that something as simple as a race number becomes a statement about circular economy. For an event built on keeping old bicycles alive, it feels like a natural fit.
Source: L’Eroica
