Quote:
Originally Posted by
sykerocker View Post
The comment may be sharpish and not fair, but it's not untrue. Let's be honest, for a bicycle company to survive, if not thrive, they constantly have to come up with something new to get the customer back in their store. And, quite frankly, probably every 'improvement' made in bicycle technology since the double-barreled introduction in index shifting and brifters has been overkill for the average (non-racing) cyclist. OK, I'm one of the old curmudgeons. ...
...Electric shifting - now that's the one that does not make sense to me in the slightest. Yes, I fully understand the concept, operation, and reason for it. I also realize that the only people who need that kind of stuff are riders under a team contract who don't have to buy their bikes, they're team issue. But boy, are they marketed to the Sunday riding dentists and accountants. (Me? I built myself an aluminum framed Mavic neutral support bike replica.). And if there's anything that goes against the inherent simplicity of the bicycle, that's it.
Enough soapbox. I'm an old man who walked to school uphill both ways in the snow. And still looks with wry humor at most of the 'improvements' that show up every year.
Originally Posted by
PeteHski
Just because you enjoy riding old bikes, doesn't make newer ones all marketing bs.
Just picking one example. Moving from my 2004 26" mtb to a 2014 29" (both full suspension trail bikes intended for the same use) the improvement was so dramatic (not just because of the wheel size - geometry, weight, gearing, shifting, braking all much improved) that I've never fallen off it ever since and I was regularly crashing on my old bike. I've since moved to a 2019 mtb and the difference there was far more subtle, but still better nonetheless. The newer bike is a good few pounds lighter and I beat all my previous PRs on it within a couple of weeks, clearing a few climbs that I would often fail on the older 29.
Road bikes I've owned quite a few right back to the early 80s. I now ride modern carbon endurance bikes and they are the best I've ever ridden over the years. Fast, smooth, quiet, comfortable. Really nothing to complain about. A couple of years ago I went on holiday to a friend's villa and he had an early 2000s Trek carbon bike there which I borrowed to explore the local hills. Top spec DuraAce drivetrain, no expense spared Project One build. This was the best of the best from that era. It rode like s*** compared to my 2019 Giant Defy. Quite shocking in fact. Yet I don't remember road bikes of that era being so relatively crap to ride. It's just that the newer ones didn't exist back in the day, so there was no direct comparison.
Just sayin.... it's not a simple case of marketing over substance.
The 'Universe' is expanding, not just our overall space, but in line, all of our spaces, including cycling.
As another 'old guy', I'm good with the expansion. Since my intro into the cycling universe, it has become far broader, more interesting, and certainly far more attainable for everyone.
True for everything which I have interest in.
The modern cycling universe has been, literally, a fountain of youth for me. I can ride places and ways I did over 10 years ago. True for all the activities I do.
Yes, marketing plays heavily into the 'product' game - but that's an area for each of us to decide what is applicable to ourselves.
You make your decisions, I can make mine.
"Gravel' is the inevitable 'bridge' between other areas - a rainbow of possibilities, available to each/all of us. From 'Danny Mac' to Filippo Ganna, from BMX to my grandson on his 'pushbike' when he was 2.
One isn't required to 'buy' into any color of cycling, often we can blend into a color, by adapting something we already have.
I suggest taking one of your 'old' bikes and adapting it to some other purpose - lets pick 'Gravel' - the modern universe (of parts) is broad enough to make that easily accessible.
'Gravel'/trail availability is varied and more or less accessible, depending on your area and comfort. But very importantly, it is still a major separation for us cyclists from the increasingly more dangerous world of motorized cages piloted by unaware and unconcerned 'motorists'. A major consideration for many of us.
I've always liked/enjoyed lots of light, big windows - I say choose the biggest window on the world which you're comfortable with...
Ride On
Yuri