I am presently 76 and have had just about every good bike that was made at one time or another. Older steel bikes are as good as anything on the road if you are a sports rider. Also 8 or 9 speed shifters are more than good enough. What in the hell do you care if it takes you 25 more seconds to get to the top of a hill than your equal age and fitness buddy with the $10,000 bike with Di2 and top of the line Carbon Wheels on it? I have a Look KG685 which is a climbing bike that weighs 16 lbs in XL size and I just set a personal best over a 25 mile course with 1,900 feet of climbing with my Lemond Zurich steel bike that is 5 lbs heavier ready to ride. The bull**** about bikes is simply getting too deep to avoid the smell of. The absurd number of speeds is not even impressing Euro-pros anymore. Tubeless tires may reduce the number of flats you get but if you do get one it takes a idiotic amount of time to get them back on the road again. New has ceased being better.