Originally Posted by
easyupbug
I think I might be or at least like to think I might be in RiddleOfSteel's camp on this interesting subject. That said, I posted this over on the +50 forum, 65-85+ thread when we were asked why so many steel bike showed up on the "What do old people ride...?" and he asked seemingly incredulously are these everyday rides and why would you do that when carbon is so much better. I think it plays a part in this at least for me:
I religiously rotate through my collection; everyone of my bikes was hand-crafted by artisans with things like carefully brazed and tapered lugs, many thinned by craftsmen and craftswomen with files. This attention to detail and esthetics was paid to every stage of the build. I greatly value the components ease of repair and lack of planned obsolescence now present in the cycling industry. So when you say "better to ride" it is based on your set of well understood facts and personal beliefs, but for me "better" is influenced by my personal beliefs. Starting with a Trek 5500 in 1998 (still hanging up in the shop) I bought a new WIzzbang bike every few years only to let it go after a couple of years then stopped after four such bikes.
I totally get what you're saying, I guess I'm just such a comprehensive bike dork that I geek out about GXP bottom brackets, Cane Creek integrated headsets, bladed spokes and torque specs, too. And not insignificantly, getting the SST frameset for a (relative) song and building it up piecemeal was the only way I was getting on a carbon bike, financially.
I will say I just restored (no pics yet I can't believe it!) an 85 Nishiki Tri-A, which is a kinda wild bike in its own right (internal cabling for downtube shifters!), and that Tange 1 tubing (which I initially fell in love with on my Centurion Ironman) is just delightfully lively.