ofajen

At least for the moment, it’s surprisingly easy to populate an old frame with compatible parts of new manufacture, though of course, other than tires, those generally aren’t anywhere near the bleeding edge of bike tech.

But things like QR wheels compatible with rim brakes and classic era hub widths, square taper bottom brackets and crank sets, caliper brakes, quill stems and quill stem adapters, all manner of indexed and friction shifters, freewheels and even non-aero brake levers are still being made and sold.

I’ve switched both my bikes to quill stem adapters, so I can use all modern stems but still make height adjustments in a few seconds.

Curiously, I’ve recently developed a preference for using a classic era drop bar set up on both bikes (traditional round bend bars, plenty of reach and drop, non-aero levers and drops nearly parallel to the ground), but as noted using modern stems and quill adapters.

Perhaps an argument for the current age being great for cycling is that even older tech remains an option for anyone interested, along with the more prevalent choices for new tech?

Otto