Originally Posted by canklecat

If we're talking C&V related pet peeves, I'll omit some bike stuff that bugs me but is unrelated to classic and vintage bikes. As far as non-C&V bikes, for commuting, errands or whatever, anything goes.

• Chainring guards on any style road bike. Might as well just fit an entire chain guard and make it really functional as a rain bike.
• Unicorn forks. Yeah, all my bikes have 'em. And they're functional. Probably a bit more aero too. But they just don't look right.
• Ditto, most of the stuff gugie and others mentioned, in terms of functionality including rear wheel removal for flat repairs.
• Straight forks. They just don't look right on a pre-1980s steel bike. But I'm still a sucker for those seductively curvy swoopy French forks.
• Flipped North Roads or swept bars on anything other than a path racer. I tried that on my early 1990s Univega, flopping the albatross bars. Then I saw a photo a friend took of me on a group ride and was kinda horrified. So I flopped the bar back to the upright swept position as the bicycle gods intended.
• Upward-angled stems. Yeah, I know, they're practical. And okay with flat or arced bars for rigid mountain bikes. But combined with a flipped swept bar, that upward angled stem on my Univega looked atrocious, like an Escher optical illusion gone awry. Besides returning the albatross bar to upright position, I switched to a longer horizontal stem from a road bike to get the bar a bit lower and to look "right" (to me).

Stuff that doesn't bother me - which even surprises me:

• Turkey lever/suicide lever brake extension levers. Honestly I never had any quarrel with those on my 1976 Motobecane, other than interfering with the fit of my Kirtland Tour Pack handlebar bag. Those worked fine for slowing the bike and seemed appropriate even for casual group rides and commuting. The only real issue was the original steel rims, not the braking power.
• Stem shifters. Yeah, I swapped to downtube shifters. But that was mostly due to peer pressure. I entered a few crits and time trials in the 1970s and didn't want to look too dorky on my 30 lb hi-ten steel frame bike that was obviously unsuited to racing anyway.