Wildwood 

RetroGrouches may lack for small gears, but out-of-saddle climbing is a technique we learned before road cogsets looked like pie plates.

Saddles - I custom mine for better comfort, assuming suspended leather.



What's funny are comments insinuating riders of modern equipment are better or more knowledgeable cyclists. What a riot!
Unsafe to take hands off bars, ... I need discs to stop in time,... Tubeless 38s @60psi make my road bike faster.... my top tube bento box is cute ... I Strava'd today ....

Wildwood 

Not the Yaw, but the Pitch.
And truly, many have not been cycling long enough to even know the answer.

Wildwood 

Is it possible to be retrogrouchy one day and non-retrogrouchy the next? Without smugness? Maybe. Guess I might be an alternating grouch.




To be 100% honest = not much has changed in 60 years. ‘Tubes’ got fat, forks got unbent, silver became black.


Amazing the similarities, some people just don’t have the experience to know.

yaw

Yeah Wildwood you seem to be an all out fantastic person, so experienced, and able to climb out of the saddle is really impressive, but I don't trust people with dirty oily chains. You may as well eat the neighbourhood pets for pleasure each full moon.

PeteHski

it would be like the "need" to carry a spare shift cable.

rsbob 

I believe the gauntlet has been thrown down for King of the Retro-grouches. May the one-up-manship begin. It may deserve its own thread.

Wildwood 

Folks of my generation (retro), don't move fast enough to catch the pets.
I use wax - my mustache ends, a plant based variety, of course.
Carless (personal choice), I feel free to oil chains guiltlessly, as needed.

Jax Rhapsody

I guess in a way I could be. I don't like how modern bikes look, that much, new cranks like 105's are gods damned ugly, di2 is just dumb to me. I don't mind disc brakes and brifters.

SoSmellyAir

I don't know about ugly but 105 FC-R7000 cranks sure look odd. The first time I installed one, the asymmetric drive side crank arm made me think I had installed the non-drive side crank arm at the wrong angle.

PeteHski

I think 105 cranks look fine. Nothing there that strikes me as “god damned ugly” anyway. Di2 is not really “dumb” either. So I would say that does qualify you as a genuine retro-grouch.

Jax Rhapsody

I don't see the need for electronic shifting. And yeah, these things are ugly and asymetrical compared to more traditional cranks found on older roadbikes and SS.

Effing ugly.

LesterOfPuppets

I like the looks of the 7000 better than the 5600, 5700, and 5800 personally.

5500 were the last decent looking 105s though.

yaw

Cranks are fashion statements now, are they?

PeteHski

There is no need for many things, but that doesn’t make them ‘“dumb”. The only thing I don’t like about Di2 is the hard wiring. Otherwise it is a sublime shifting experience.

As for the 105 cranks, posting photos of them doesn’t really change my mind about their aesthetics. They still look fine to me. I actually think it would be quite hard to make a truly ugly crank. What feature of ithis one do you find so ugly? Or is it just because it doesn’t look retro?

LesterOfPuppets

How do you like the Bullet cranks?

Jax Rhapsody

Because retros look better, they're asymetrical, chunky like walmart bike cranks, they're ugly, don't have a clean look, funny looking. I'm not trying to change your mind, I'm voicing my opinion.

LesterOfPuppets

And then there's this

https://www.instagram.com/thanksshimano/

rsbob 

Luckily, I guess, there is no way I could create enough power to that.

Didn’t much care for the all black group sets and now that I own two all black Ultegra, I still don’t care for them. Gun metal gray would be a nice compromise.

Camilo

Having a bike (one out of 6) that has electronic shifting and hydraulic disc brakes, I will never encourage anyone to get either. Neither is necessary for my riding, and probably nearly every other rider (note: i didn't say it isn't necessary for everyone, just me and most others).

That said, I enjoy my bike with electronic shifting and hydro brakes. There's nothing wrong with them except the expense of the shifting and the fact that I think cable rim brakes are easier to install and maintain. I'm glad I have this set up, but it's not necessary and I likely won't buy another bike with electronic shifting and hydraulics.

rsbob 

I have two road bikes with Ultegra. One with discs and the other standard calipers. When I switch from the disc bike to the caliper, I have to remind myself to brake sooner with more effort. In the rain, there is no comparison in braking performance - but the disc shrieks can get a little annoying when wet.

Retrogrouch or dinosaur, that is the question.

PeteHski

I was just curious about the retro-grouch mindset. I don't know why you felt the need to post pictures of it as we both know what it looks like. Ironically, it's the clean look I like about modern bikes.

PeteHski

So e-shift and hydro disc brakes are not necessary, but you enjoy having them. I can say that for pretty much every item of hobby kit I own!

PeteHski

I can't say I'm a fan of the patterned carbon finish on this pic, although I haven't seen one IRL.

Jax Rhapsody

Some of them do look pretty clean with the internal cable routing. I don't dig the relaxed, beach cruiseresk frame some have or had. I like brifters, but the cables splayed all over the front bothers me a lil bit- like it's more acceptable for a mtb to look like that to me, or maybe a cx bike. Those cranks look like they belong on an excersize bike, though. I like five spoke style old school ones. On the same light; I don't like most mtb cranks either for similar reasons. Gimme a mix and match of old and new, like mid00s bikes I guess. I'm the same way with cars, like; I like the Charger, S550 Mustang and such on the outside, hate everything else outside the drivetrains on the inside.

daviddavieboy

I have a few saddles I would like to try this on but I don't have the guts to attempt this myself. Is it a difficult process ? Are special tools needed? I also have a couple to practice on beforehand.

_____________

I would like to think we keep to ourselves until some smug upstart bashes one of our prized memory inducing bicycles for being too old.


Then there are some bikes with a foot in multiple eras.


Out for a spin on some gRaVeL