tkamd73 

SpeedofLite 

I wonder when the term "retro-grouch" first gained popularity among cyclists.
I don't think I first heard it used until maybe 20-30 years ago.
But I think this letter sent to Bike World "Readers Comments" in 1976 qualifies the writer.
It reads like a script for the Dana Carvey character on Saturday Night Live.
May Mr. Frillwan be resting or riding in peace.

iab

Mr. Frillwan is correct. Anything after 1929 is just being dandy for dandy sake.

No derailleurs. No aluminum. No quick releases.

Seat posts and seat clamps are separate things. Brakes get clamped on, not bolted on. Seats are leather, nothing else. You get 1 chainring. If you want more than 1 grear, turn your wheel around. Drinks on your handlebars, nowhere else.

70sSanO

I’m not sure of the grouch part more than a realization of what works as I have aged.

The truth is that I don’t need 1t spacing on a cassette. Go back a few decades and I might want to play the KOM game. It’s funny, for a number of years I didn’t ride, I surfed with my kids and their friends. I learned first hand in the SoCal lineups that “old guys only rule” in their minds. Sixteen year olds on longboards are like gnats.

I built my ‘88 Cannondale from the frame using yesterday’s high end parts that people/shops were trying to get rid of; and have loved that bike. During the interim years it hung from the rafters and I rode my ‘86 so it is in really good shape.

I ride it as a triple these days with a 14-34 7 speed and I am having a blast. I still have downtube shifters, but I would go electronic if programable to 7 speeds were available. I just don’t want to take off my 7400 non-aero levers for cheap Touney or Microshift. I have some Campy Ergos but my somewhat arthritic left thumb might have a tough time.

John

tkamd73 

Also when I got back into biking 5 or six years ago, and realized how stupid the new road bikes look. Functional I’m sure, but definitely not very elegant, lines are terrible, designed by committee, just like all the new cars.
Tim

old's'cool

Seems like an opportune moment for another refrain of "get off of my lawn!"

ofajen

Indexed shifting seemed unnecessary and more complicated to maintain. I have a certain regard for the simplicity, elegance and durability of the older tech.

In recent years, it’s probably just that I don’t see any particular need for most of the new technologies.

Don’t need disc brakes, indexed shifting, more gears, suspension, carbon fiber, etc. The move to wider tire options is one I have embraced.

But then I just ride... I don’t race. I don’t have to be state of the art. My limitations are still mostly a matter of strength and cardio conditioning, not technology.

Otto

Feldman

When working at a major Trek dealer after taking care of my fortieth or fiftieth failed carbon frame customer and replacing my twentieth or thirtieth failed STI shifter a phrase for the equipment I like for my own use came to.mind. Not "classic" or "retro," but "pre-fraudulent."

Bogester 

...when I showed up at a 1/2 Ironman on a 74 Hetchins!

Bogester 

...when I showed up at a 1/2 Ironman on a 74 Hetchins!

sheddle

Di2. Unless it's an e-bike, I'm just a purist in that everything in a bike (excepting things like computers and lights) should be human-powered. If I get a new bike ever, it'll be a mechanical groupset, always.

gugie 

Why, Grant Petersen, of course.


Proud member of RONA

Feldman

Sweet!!

Digger Goreman

When I could only solve my bike problem with a friction shifter

martl

I protest being called a "retro grouch". Most of my bikes have brakes, some even have a gear shifting system!! 1!

dmark 

My thoughts exactly! (I know, dead thread etc)

Cougrrcj

I have no desire to have the latest, greatest whiz-bang technology. Hence my avatar. Luddite.

Lugged steel conventional diamond frame with a level toptube.

Not chasing the proprietary index-shift compatibility rat-hole.

That means no STI/brifters or whatever you want to call them today. I don't ride the hoods. And I happen to like my SunTour barcons that I've used since the '70s.

About as far as I'll go with modernizing are aero brake levers, dual pivot rim brakes and teflon-lined cables.

cyccommute 

Sorry but that guy takes too much credit for everything. Retrogrouchery was a thing long before Grant Petersen got his hooks in Bridgestone and killed their bicycle division. Many of us have gone through phases of retrogrouchery to modernism to retrogrouchery. I, myself, have been progressive on front suspension, clipless pedals, threadless headsets, aluminum and STI shifters which I got as soon as I could.. I’ve been rather retrogrouchy on dual suspension, index shifting, aluminum (yes, you can be both), triple cranks, 29er abominations, carbon fiber,and tubeless. That stretches from when I was a kid standing on the lawn ignoring the old guy yelling to the old guy yelling at the kids to get off the lawn

Mad Honk 

I think it might have been when I was told I needed a stem that put my bars ahead of my fork trail to be correctly fit. But I grew up in the 60's and found that some things are best when well designed and worked the way it should. In my mind steel frames with Super Record kits are some of the simplest and easiest to work with. But then again I would rather repair something than just replace it. I have been a bike mechanic, a machinist, an electrician and so on, because I grew up being taught to repair it not replace it. First car was a junk yard revived 1959 Plymouth wagon. And so It has gone on.
I am a grouch when folks tell me they can't do something. One thing that incensed me last year when volunteering at the local co-op a person told me I was dealing with a homeless person. And the thought that shot through my mind was "you may be homeless but you aren't helpless!" So yes I'm a grouch! And Retro? Simplest is best! Smiles, MH

iab

Incorrect.

Henri Desgrange

79pmooney

I answered the thread earlier, but I just realized the real breaking point for me - bibs. A solution to a problem that already had a working solution and this new one added another. So I never jumped on board. (Clip on suspenders. They allow for bodily functions that affect some of us without requiring contortions. Learned about them from the racing guru of Boston in 1976. John Allis.)

So I am officially a retro. Got most of the rest of the gear, but just one pair of old bibs

79pmooney

Yup. My favorite bike - what the pros might have raced 30 years ago had gears and freewheels never been invented - a custom ti road fix gear. Sewups and my form of 43 years ago and it would be good to go. Now I do change gears, but the old way. Stop and use a wrench. Coasting? 17,000 miles and that bike hasn't coasted a foot. (I keep thinking that I should pull my feet out of the toeclips and coast down a hill into camp to finish the week of Cycle Oregon just to say :yes I did coast: but I keep forgetting.)

Ben

gugie 

Disagree. Please show a link to the term retrogrouch (as it pertains to cycling) prior to the attribution to Grant (who did not invent the term). I'm not giving credit to Grant, the credit for calling him a retrogrouch goes to whoever wrote about him in an article (name and posting escape me). He just picked up on it, and turned a snide remark into something positive (IMO).

I bought the shirt I posted above in Walnut Creek around 1996. Grant printed them up as a joke, more than anything else.

Most people misunderstand the guy. He doesn't take credit for much. He just went off and started what could be claimed was a hobby job, just something he believed in, and was lucky to have some family help out to purchase a house in the upper-middle class town of Lafayette, California, so he didn't have to make a choice between taking a corporate job and raising a family in the Bay Area and what he truly wanted to do. He knows he's lucky. If you knew him (I've know him since the early 80's, pre-Bridgestone), you wouldn't make such claims that he "takes too much credit for everything."

He just did what he thought was right, and didn't sell out to anyone. You can disagree with what he's selling, but I can pretty much guarantee you that he truly believes in what he's selling.

How many of us can say that?

gugie 

The question: Originally Posted by SpeedofLite View Post
"I wonder when the term "retro-grouch" first gained popularity among cyclists."

Is your answer still Henri Desgrange?

If so, please post where this claim was made. My french is merde, maybe I missed it?

wowzow

.....when I look at carbon bikes, and think those are one crash bikes.

love the pre- fraudulent term, Feldman!
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