rekmeyata

Gee, another thing to unnecessarily raise the prices of bikes, as if we're not paying enough already.

Before we know it, we'll have AI brakes, and then AI self-steering bikes.

Marketing forces know that cyclists are stupid, and we'll pay whatever price all the while we'll all be bragging how we got AI this and AI that. I can hear you all screaming at what I just said, fine, prove you're not stupid and boycott buying the AI crap when it comes out, I bet very few will boycott it, and excuses for buying it will be all over the internet how it will change our lives, blah blah blah, then my point will have been made.

indyfabz

I actually got that reference.

PeteHski

Until then you are just yelling at some distant clouds that you don’t like the look of.

wheelreason

Has nothing to do with cyclists or bikes, it's true of nearly every product offered to the American (and increasingly global) consumer. Stupidity doesn't factor in either, "I want what I want, cause I want it" (no matter where that want originates) is as legitamate reason as any, and how that falls into financial responability and individual size of one's bank account is a different conversation. I find it entertaining how some folks think it's their job to opine on how and on what others spend their money. I miss InterBike, and it has nothing to do with bikes, "What happens in a suite at the Venetian, stays in a suite at the Venetian (and a couple of adjoining ones)"... : )

indyfabz

I’m afraid the time for you to rise to your own challenge has come and gone.

Maelochs

When you get tired of fighting with your imagination, the rest of us will still be here in reality waiting for you to join us.

Chuck M 

While I'm not the most intelligent person I know, I don't consider myself particularly stupid even though I may make a boneheaded mistake from time to time. Of course I'm biased. My wife though has a master's degree and is preparing to start her dissertation to add some more letters of the alphabet to her name and she says I'm not stupid. She is also a mental health practitioner and she says I'm not mentally ill either. I don't know if that is proof, as she may be biased too.

But if you wish to consider yourself stupid, who am I to dissuade you? You know yourself better than I do.

Steel Charlie

What if AI doesn't like you? Will it adjust the fit to mess with you?

ScottCommutes

I used to be a car guy. I lost interest when they conquered cars that "get you there" and started adding random stuff instead of making the cars cheaper, more reliable, and easier to repair.

Bikes were a nice reset for me - cheap, no-frills, get you there transportation. Unfortunately, all signs indicate that bikes are going the same way as cars.

Koyote

Compared to the era in which I began driving (1970s), cars now are indeed more reliable and also cost less (in inflation-adjusted dollars) -- the data is clear on that. They also perform better, are more fuel efficient, safer, are much more comfortable and luxurious than older cars, have longer warranties, etc. In short, the cars are much better and are cheaper to purchase.

Repairs may be more difficult for the home mechanic -- but in my experience, modern cars need repairs far less often than did my old 1970s and 1980s vehicles.

ScottCommutes

I completely agree. However, bikes from the 70's and 80's were also heavier, more prone to water damage, etc. I think cars turned the corner in 1995-2005 largely due to government meddling with OBDII. Hard to say when the most functional bikes were made - too many kinds of riders and too many opinions!

indyfabz

You'll have to wait a couple of weeks for a response to that one.

Chuck M 

My 1980 Takaras are no more or no less functional than my 2018 Trek. They all bike and that's what bikes do.

rekmeyata

That's right!

PeteHski

Cars and bikes just keep improving and most importantly there is more choice in the market than at any time in the past. There are still simple bikes and bikes with all the latest tech. When I first started buying bikes in the 80s there was much less choice and the engineering standards were nowhere near as good as today. That especially applies to cars. There were some absolute engineering lemons!

wheelreason

Doesn't sound like it, most "car guys" sink a second mortgage into a "vintage" POS 60s or 70s GM...

Steel Charlie

Wouldn't have the long term fun like Bag O' Glass

rekmeyata

More than just GM cars, I only had one GM car in my collection and that was a 79 chev camaro Z28 383 Stroker 520 hp running low 11’s without the 125hp NOS PowerShot that I installed, never ran the quarter with the NOS, only used the NOS once on a street race with a Hellcat, beat the cat, and I didn't even have launch control other than my brain to my feet.My others I had which I sold all of these at the same auction 5 years ago, was a 58 plymouth fury 2dr 350 golden commando that up until the time I sold it I had for 36 or 37 yrs; 63 studebaker avante supercharged R2 I had for 31 yrs; a 67 ford galaxy 500 2dr conv I had for 28 years; and lastly a 72 chrysler newport custom with a 440 I owned for 18 years. One car in particular sold for substantially more than I paid for it, in fact it sold for a lot more than the auction people thought it go, and that number they had was higher than I thought, so my friend and I were very pleasantly surprised by the final bid. All my cars were in showroom condition, which they had to be since I took them to shows, only a single minor mod done to all the cars except the 58 plymouth and the Z28 was just the addition of the pertronix electronic point system which took nothing in the way of modification which meant extremely easy conversion back to mechanical points. The pertronix unit would have worked with the 58 but I just left that car alone since I rarely drove it, it didn't even see many car shows.

Car guys that sink a mortgage into a car are not thinking, I got all my cars originally at very good prices, in fact they were below the going market rates, which is why I bought them and why they're scattered out as well as to the type of cars they are. The 58 and the 63 were in near new condition when I bought them, the rest needed some work, but not a lot, and I did most of the work myself, and my friend helped as well, but we helped each other, he had 21 cars when he died, so I was quite busy helping him, but he also let me store my cars in his climate controlled pole barn, so I helped him with his cars as a favor for letting my cars stay in his barn. That's the reason I had to sell my cars because he died and I had no place to put them. Most people who buy collector cars will either buy them already restored, which is really nowadays the only way to do it because the price of paint and upholstery has gone nuts, even if you do all the work yourself you won't see a profit, but if you buy a car someone else did, 99 times out of 100 they'll take a loss when they sell the car, so it's cheaper usually to buy it restored. Generally collecting a classic to make money is a bad thing to do, so much can go wrong if you don't have a safe place to store it, or someone hits it, or it breaks down, etc, and you have throw money into it to keep it up, so by the time you pay for the car, and then pay for all the upkeep you could lose money, the only way you gain besides finding a good deal, is to keep the car for 30 some odd years, and hope prices go up.

Honestly, when I sold my cars I thought the market for classic cars had reach a bubble point and would begin to drop, we were seeing some of that happening during the auction, cars that sold 3 or so years prior to my auction for say $450,000 were taking $100,000 plus hits the year of my auction. But lately the prices have started to rebound which I wasn't expecting quite frankly. The generation after the baby boomers were not raised with those cars so supposedly they have no interest in them...that was the prevailing thought back when I sold my cars, but for some reason that generation got interested in them. I think some of it has to do with taste, a car that went for 450,000 then 3 years later sells for $100,000 less, but then another car that didn't generate huge interest 3 years prior suddenly explodes in the auction, which is what happened to my 58.

The world of collecting cars is a very goofy world, full of twists and turns, you had better know what you're doing.

I know a lady that had a 68 Corvette 427 she got as a high school graduation present, she decided to sell the car and buy a modern Corvette, this was about 8 years ago, but when she saw the cost to buy one she wondered how much it would cost to restore hers, so she took it to a shop in town, and for the same amount of money the new Corvette was going to cost she instead had a rotisserie restore done on hers. She figured that if she was going to spend that kind of money on a new car she might as well keep the car she loved. Some may think that's goofy, but sometimes it's not about the money, and that could be reason for getting a classic, not to collect but for personal reasons that go beyond money.

wheelreason

Dead guy sounds like a car guy...

rekmeyata

He was a HUGE car guy, he could do anything to a car, sort of like Jay Leno, but Jays expertise is in the really old, rare vintage cars, my friend and I were more into the 50s, 60s, and 70s. My friend knew more about cars than I do by a country mile! It was a sad day when I got the call he passed suddenly and unexpectedly of natural causes at just 68 years old. I don't talk money about what our cars brought in, but suffice to say she got a nice boost financially, better than she dreamed. She stayed out of his car thing so she didn't have clue what they were worth! You would think that someone married to a person like that would be into cars, but my wife wasn't into them either, she was glad when I sold them, I wasn't. But now that I'm retired, but I own a business but it doesn't require much time, so it's sort of good the cars are gone, one less expense. She's not into my cycling hobby either!

I'm looking for some sort of sports car from the 80's, but haven't decided which one. Most foreign cars from the 80s and prior I can do most of the work myself, older the better but to drive a foreign make more often than I did with my other cars (I had a collection of 4 foreign sports cars that I sold about 35 years ago so I could switch to American cars and stop with the constant repairs) but foreign cars means more fooling with the mechanicals the older they are, and I'm too old to be doing that as much, don't mind a little bit, just not a weekly thing!!

rsbob 

How fitting that hate and ignorance are such a fitting pair.

My wife rides an e-bike, but used to do centuries on a standard racing bike but could no longer due to RA. She also has a PhD and owned her own private practice. You are just lucky she is not responding.

rsbob 

In my local Strava community, there are a number of 40 YOs that put out mileage and climbing challenges regularly. They always stipulate, trainers do not count. They are definitely still into the macho suffering aspect of riding in winter’s bad weather in all conditions. BTDT in my 30s.

I took them up on a November climbing challenge two years ago, one of our more miserable months, and they were doing 3 to 4K a day. Remember my best day was 3200’ but the rest were around 2K. The field was about 20, and I took a distant 6th.

So add macho middle-aged kids to techno-grouches.

Reynolds 

Ignorance probably, hate definitely not.