But commerce follows close behind. Classic Rendezvous has both an email list and a classified section to provide the closest thing to a solid marketplace for vintage bikes that an enthusiast can find. One collector, Douglas Brooks of Rochester, N.Y., lovingly describes it as the kind of place where you see “devotion usually reserved for religious zealots and neurotic dieters.”

The passion of Classic Rendezvous devotees, though, cannot obscure the fact that the vintage bike market is by all accounts both small and thin—a truly esoteric cul-de-sac of a marginalized sport. Buying a bike in hopes that it will appreciate is inherently risky, in light of the size of the market. If, like millions of Americans, an enthusiast has caught the bug by watching Lance Armstrong win six consecutive Tours de France since 1999, and is determined to purchase a bicycle as an investment, a few absolutes apply.

VALUE JUDGEMENT Collector-quality racing and touring bicycles, like musical instruments and firearms, sit at the pinnacle of functional art. But the vintage bike market in the United States remains relatively slim and shallow. This makes purchasing  a bicycle as an investment vehicle rather risky.

To begin with, the buyer must invest in a proven marque. Beyond Confente, the other solid bet is the French cyclotouriste bikes of Rene Herse. What Confente has become for collectors of road-racing bikes, Herse’s bikes of the 1950s and ’60s are for the touring crowd. While Confente made frames alone, Herse took a holistic approach to bicycle manufacturing; he crafted proprietary lights, fenders, stems, bars and drivetrain components. Each bike was a comprehensive solution for getting riders from point A to B in a comfortable, elegant and completely self-sufficient fashion.