The long list:
Gazelle, Zieleman, Presto, Raleigh, Eddy Merckx, Bottecchia, Ciöcc, Rossin, Colnago, Bianchi, Viner, Colner, Moser and lots of other nice, classic frames.
Gazelle for the logical reason that, when I started racing and even before that, lots of good racers (including my neighbour Theo de Rooij) were riding Gazelle. And of course the fact that I spent a few years of my life at that company.
Zieleman and Presto, because they're nice vintage bike brands. Several guys I race with rode Zieleman. I remember Eric Roelofs and André van der Horst. For some reason I've always been thinking that André's dad had something to do with Zieleman.
Presto: I know it because of Jan Legrand (especially him) and Peter Serier.
Raleigh again because of Legrand and because all Dutch guys from my generation have grown up with the TI Raleigh racing teams.
Eddy Merckx bikes are (were) just good, nice and classy and Eddy is a legend.
Bottecchia because the good ones are pretty rear, because the SCIC team with Saronni and Roy Schuiten rode these and because Teun van Vliet had one as a junior. Teun was one of the best juniors of my generation.
Ciöcc is even rarer and the 1st one I remember with a Ciöcc is Jacques Hanegraaf. Also as a (world class) junior.
Colnago: almost everyone had one or more or just dreamed about it. I grew up with the idea that this was the ultimate frame and finally got one. Not extremely special though.
I've always had a tick for Bianchi. Was it because of Fré de Jonge or because of the legendary Bianchi teams?
Rossin? Don't know. Same as all the other (nice) Italians.
I can go on like this for a while. But let's see what crosses my path and how it turns out.
