Is my bike vintage?

[Gravity Aided]

Now I have spent most of the day binge watching Arrested Development. I fear I may be right, they even blanked the "C" in "Cat" off a bulldozer in another episode.

 

[Paulus]

Also, the "suicide levers" denote a lesser quality bicycle. The extended brake lever additions were not as effective as the regular brake levers were, operated from the hoods, hence the term. This bicycle appears to have been prepared for Tv, which means a fictitious or obscured name has been applied, so as not to inadvertently advertise or otherwise a non-participating bicycle company.

The suicide levers were fitted to some good bikes of their time.
My 1975 ,531 framed Dawes Galaxy has them, as has my Falcon Black diamond.

 

[Gravity Aided]

The suicide levers were fitted to some good bikes of their time.
My 1975 ,531 framed Dawes Galaxy has them, as has my Falcon Black diamond.

I have never seen such a thing. I am guessing this bicycle may be a Schwinn or a Takara or Shogun.

 

[DCBassman]

Stem-mounted levers are dangerous in a crash, can puncture your gut or seriously damage genitals, any genitals, but particularly male.
In use: had one on an old Peugeot mixte, found it very convenient. You takes your choice...
Merry Christmas, by the way

To take this further, and given that I am a pretty sedate cyclist, if I were unable to turn my Revell mixte into fully indexed gearing, I'd probably source some Simplex stem shifters. But it turns out that modern technology wins the day, and, subject to the next test ride, this 1984/5 bike will be fully indexed even with its original Suntour front derailleur. Took some luck to find what works, and will doubtless need tweaking, but flat bars and indexing is ALWAYS the way to go for me.
Vintage rules, with some messing!
My old mixte thread

 

[WesternBikingGirl]

To take this further, and given that I am a pretty sedate cyclist, if I were unable to turn my Revell mixte into fully indexed gearing, I'd probably source some Simplex stem shifters. But it turns out that modern technology wins the day, and, subject to the next test ride, this 1984/5 bike will be fully indexed even with its original Suntour front derailleur. Took some luck to find what works, and will doubtless need tweaking, but flat bars and indexing is ALWAYS the way to go for me.
Vintage rules, with some messing!
My old mixte thread

My lower frame mounted levers have me bending down so far that it encouraged me ride it like a single speed. It helps me find my favourite ratio for when I get a single speed.

 

[DCBassman]

My lower frame mounted levers have me bending down so far that it encouraged me ride it like a single speed. It helps me find my favourite ratio for when I get a single speed.

Understood. Where I live, on the edge of Dartmoor, gears are essentail, if you're as old/unfit as I am. I spent my school years commuting on an "English Racer" type single-speed, in Essex, which is pretty flat where I was. So much depends on local terrain, or the terrain where you might just venture...

 

[Gravity Aided]

My lower frame mounted levers have me bending down so far that it encouraged me ride it like a single speed. It helps me find my favourite ratio for when I get a single speed.

You get used to downtube shifting, if you use it a lot.

 

[WesternBikingGirl]

Oh I have but after my thumb index shifting on the mtn bike I just got into single speed type riding to see if I could do it. And having them down there means it's not as tempting to shift.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

You get used to downtube shifting, if you use it a lot.

You do, and I grew up riding a drop bar "racer" with DT shifting, but even if you are used to it, it's less ergonomic than thumb shifters on flat bars. The ultimate in that respect is actually a Sturmey 3-speed trigger shifter!
I ride both DT and thumb shifted bikes on a regular basis, and I probably change gear twice as frequently with the thumb shifters, whereas with the DT levers I'm more likely to suffer riding in a sub-optimal gear for a short distance.
DT shifting requires a somewhat different riding style; changing gear only when it's safe to take a hand off the bars to do it, rather than when you want the gear which might be on a bend or a potholed section of road when you really need both hands on the bars.
One of the less acknowledged reasons I believe road racing bikes have got faster in the last couple of decades, is the near-universal adoption of brifters and the fact this facilitates quicker and more frequent gearshifts. Riders no longer need to suffer either grinding or spinning in the wrong gear because they needed both hands for controlling the bike rather than using one to change gear. It might only be for a few seconds here and there but all those short stretches ridden in the "wrong" gear add up to a reduced average speed over a race.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Point well taken, as I use thumb shifters on the 26" drop bar tourer due to the circumstances involved, especially with the loaded bicycle and the need to keep hands on the bars oftimes. Brifters and bar ends are nice solutions for those with wider wallets. Although I have a couple of bicycles so equipped.

 

[carpenter]

I can, and do, use downtube friction shifters but I feel safer with brifters - I think that with the number of cars on the road, they just make sense as I can concentrate more on my surroundings (getting older and slower in so many ways)