baj32161

Don't get me wrong, I love tech but, for the riding I do (exercise, fun and peace & quiet) I don't see any need get the latest tech

I like my clinchers with tubes and my rim brakes. They're easier to maintain and fix while on the road.

I have no real need get disc brakes, tubeless tires, internal cable routing, etc

I am currently riding a 2010 Specialized Tricross Comp with with I am extremely happy. About the highest tech it has on it are Shimano 105 STI and I'm okay with that.

tomato coupe

Am I a retrogriuch?

This is a trick question, isn't it?

jackb

Sounds like everything is just as it should be. Happy riding.

LesterOfPuppets

Not yet. bike must be a minimum of 20 years old to be a retrogrouch. I don't know if I'd ever think of brifters as retrogrouchy but maybe after a more thorough market penetration of shifting that requires batteries I will...

ussprinceton

my '03 Trek Fuel100

datlas 

I am a retrogrouch. Cable shifting and rim brakes, as well as tubed clincher tires.

Next stop, C&V.

jon c. 

You are riding a bike that's practically new, so you're not too far into retrogrouch territory. But you're well down the road.

ThermionicScott 

BikeSnobNYC posits that everyone has their own "retrogrouch breaking point", where changes in cycling tech are no longer desirable.

Trsnrtr

I thought about you today. Our tandem has 10 speed Ultegra and the shifter cable has never been changed in 5600 miles. Should I worry Doctor?

VegasJen

I have not heard of this term before, but I probably fit in the category. Or at least, I am a loud and proud technophobe. I do have a Cateye Velo on two of my bikes and they give me all the information I could care about. Beyond that, I do still use a dedicated MP3 player with wired earbuds. I never carry my phone with me because of the potential expense of replacing it. I live in a very dry climate, so I rarely have to worry about rain or mud, hence my rim brakes work just fine. Even for a great deal, I can not see "upgrading" to electronic shifting. The very idea of "bricking" a shifter is mind boggling to me. I'm happy being stuck in the 90s.

Eric F 

You are not a retrogrough until you start criticizing people who prefer to use modern technology.

LesterOfPuppets

You're gonna go broke if you start replacing tandem-length cables at datlas' frequency

datlas 

Is it 6700 or 6600?? If 6700 you are living on borrowed time, although TBH cable lifespan really depends on number of shifts.

Trsnrtr

I have spares.

mstateglfr 

That isn't at all what retrogrouch means.
Where is the 'grouch' in your post? Simy not wanting newer tech doesn't make one a retrogrouch.
Being angry about new tech, telling people they are doing it wrong by using new tech, etc- that is retrogrouching.

big chainring 

My newest bike...50 years old... Raleigh Competition. Is that a beautiful curve on that fork or what. Saddle is French and 70 years old. Weinmann brakes and Weinmann concave rims, remember those? Campy, Simplex, GB bar and stem. TA crank and steel water bottle cage. I refrain from using Japanese components. Silca pump.
I walk into a bike shop I have no idea what I am looking at. Bikes look totally foreign. Disc brakes? Big boxy tubes...are they tubes? And one giant price tag.

merlinextraligh

So I’m pretty much with you. However, in my experience, tubeless really does make a difference in much fewer flats. Just as an example we had a puncture in the last stage of the Ride Across Portugal, which self sealed and we weren’t even awareof it till after the fact seeing sealant on the frame.

and if you flat a tubeless, it’s no more difficult to pop in a tube, albeit slightly messier with the sealant.

Ogsarg

Your happy with your ride. I don't see anything grouchy about that. Now start telling people that they're wasting money on newer tech and that there is no advantage to anything new, then you've slipped into retrogrouch territory.

merlinextraligh

And get off my lawn

baj32161

More tongue in cheek than anything' else.

tomato coupe

A retrogrouch is always serious, so that rules you out.

Chuck M 

My breaking point is cost. While I would not mind a CF frame or wireless shifting, I'm a cheap bastard. However I do possess some grouchy tendencies.

79pmooney

like mstateglfr above, I try to stay away from the grouch but embrace the retro. Not to be "retro" but because there were a lot of old ideas and bikes that were simply excellent.


My bikes, in order of frame manufacture:

A 1973 Raleigh Competition - 531, skinny stays and forks. Comfortable fun and funky. I use it as a winter/'city/rain bike and farmers market light pickup truck.

The 1979 Peter Mooney - conceived of as an all-arounder to be able to ride any of the lower 48 states 12 months of the year as a link to sanity after my head injury. (Peter Mooney was a clubmate and at the annual awards diner of our club when it was announced I was in the hospital in a coma.) We (the bike and I) have been through so much that selling it would be like selling a brother. It is now set up as a Portland hills worthy classic English fix gear; a job for which it is sublime. (Old fashioned and totally passe horizontal dropouts that I insisted on 45 years ago made that transition to fix gear simple.)

A circa 1983 Trek 5 something - my fix gear winter/city/rain bike and workhorse. Best night ride. An entire roll of 3M reflective tape that matches the paint perfectly. (Happy accident.)

1983 Pro Miyata - fun pick up from a BFer. The 1983 version of the 1976 bike I raced and loved. Better bike in all respects. Puts the same grin on my face. Some parts are different, some are newer but little change in concept.

2008 TiCycles custom - inspired by the sport Japanese bikes of the '80s with ti tubing I'd ridden once for 1/2 a mile and loved.

2011 TiCycles custom fix gear - designed by me to be a high end 1980s ride but fix gear inspired by how they raced the Tour de France 110 years ago. Stopping at the foot of mountains and the top and flipping the wheel around. Favorite bike ever. 22,000 miles despite sharing the garage with a bunch of excellent and fun rides. (My avatar photo.)


So two of my bikes do have fairly high end frames but both were inspired by older bikes and eras. All my wheels are old fashioned, spoked, aluminum rims and braked at that rim. Now all but the winter/city/rain bikes wear tubular tires (sewups). Not to be "retro" but to have tires solidly glued onto the rim that will stay on even in a high speed complete blowout. (I did that crash with a clincher going low 20s MPH. Haven't been able to enjoy big descents since; until I went back to the ancient technology I used to race and have blown out at 45. Not a big deal. Just roll to a stop and change tires. Can even using both brakes.)

baj32161, I'm not trying to suggest that I am or my bikes are any better than anyone else's. Yes, my love for them is deep. I've been riding a long time. My injury was from a bike but riding and racing the next season was the piece of my spiritual journey I needed to get back on my feet. The ex-racer in me loves race bikes of all ages. My engineer brain loves to look a the latest tech. Recent years my life has become more comfortable and I've been acquiring bikes. For many years it was just two. My link to sanity; the Mooney and the workhorse I could ride anywhere (and lock anywhere). But if I see someone out there on a bike they love, whatever the tech or type, my heart sings!

Had to look up Burlington. 1973 I rode out to school end of summer. Only night I slept with a roof over my head was at a motel in your Niagra Falls. Next morning I rode probably through Brantford on my way to Windsor where my roommate met me at customs with his car. So I passed not far from your location now. I'm well rooted in Portland, OR so we are unlikely to cross paths but if you come out this way, PM me. (And Seattle or Vancouver are close enough,)

79pmooney

And fun! big chainring posted my Raleigh Competition. He snuck into my garage, nabbed it, stripped off every part but perhaps the rear brake caliper (is that a Weinmann?), put some decals back on, re-chromed the fork and posted it here! And I rode it to the farmers market this morning and didn't even notice. Am I losing it?

merlinextraligh

Raleigh Professional was my dream bike. I couldn’t afford it and bought a Zeus’s Competition