RobbieTunes

Yes.

Stem broke and was within a couple square mm of causing a serious face plant.
Replaced same. Will be deciding on a group swap later next month...
I keep intending to move it on, but it’s pretty darn fun to ride.

noglider 

I don't like the look of Shimano Santé components. White is a horrible color for metal bike components.

I feel "meh" about Shimano Arabesque, too. The ornateness looks cheap, and the derailleurs and brakes aren't so great.

I love English 3-speed bikes for what they are, but I don't like riding them much. The gears are too far apart, so they are two-speeds for me.

I don't hate down tube shifters, but I don't like them, either. It's not that I don't have the skill. Put me on a bike with them, and I'll do fine. I can find the shifters without looking, and I can use them quickly and effectively. I just prefer something else, anything else. But this is a minor quip, since there aren't many people touting them.

Except for twist grip shifters. I do hate twist grip shifters. Lots of people like them. And some hubs only offer twist grips.

shoota 

wha---

ryansu

Shimano STI shifters because I went through 3 pairs in under a decade. Actually I should probably thank their lack of robustness, it got me thinking there must be a better way, something simple that won't break and be unfixable, which led me to Friction shifting which led me to C&V and I have never looked back. Its recently that I went from pure friction to adding some SIS indexed shifting steeds to the stable.

embankmentlb

I can’t stand Colnago bikes.
The 70’s models are fine but after that there is nothing for me. I am sure they are build well but the paint is so ugly.
These airbrushed graphics? Geo paint?
I feel the same about Eddy Merckx bikes. The 70’s were fine but the 80’s rainbow look is not for me.
That is all!

Trakhak

STI brifters, especially after a couple of years of use without lubrication, require the delicate touch of a professional lock picker. Downtube STI levers are at the extreme other end of the spectrum: they clank from gear to gear like a 1940 International Harvester. (That's a good thing.)

noglider 

Oh yeah, some Italian bikes are far too gaudy. I don't know exactly where the line is between ornate and gaudy, but a lot of Italians cross that line. I tend not to like bikes where the secondary color covers more than 30 or 40% of the bike. I usually don't care for fade jobs, either. But I have exceptions to most of my rules. Colnagos often cross that line into gaudy, but not always. Cinelli (the original company) managed to keep their stuff tasteful.

Wileyone 

+1 on the colnago's. Can't understand the prices they go for.

sheddle

Colnago bikes do frequently have weird paint jobs that remind me of black velvet paintings, which I'm certain is not a comparison they would have wanted.


Love Merckx bikes though. Frequently just see color combos I don't see anywhere else with them. Post-Columbus Cinelli bikes are frequently wild too.

ltokuno

Bar end shifters.
I really tried to like these. I even did several rides with them. Each time when I decided to shift I would invariably have to slow down or crash. This was on a closed flat smooth bike path with the levers shifting flawlessly in the work stand. I realize I just need more practice with them, but don't want to pay the price of experience in scars.

On the campy two bolt seat post, park tool made a wrench for this that has a different angle than the campy wrench. It works much better, but not as good as the rachets.

ShannonM

Really, I think it's the crankset that's the problem. Light, strong, beautifully finished... and had one of the least interesting shapes of any crank ever made. The crankset is one of the visual centers of the bicycle, and the Dura-Ace was just boring. (Granted, being in direct competition with one of the most beautiful cranksets ever made didn't help, but I always get the feeling that Shimano designers didn't bother to try.) The rest of the group looked great, especially the rear derailleur and the brakes. Single-pivot D/A calipers are sexy.

--Shannon

Chombi1 

Agree!....
After the early 80's Colnagos just turned into gaudy, Italian, rolling peacocks.....

Reynolds 

Mavic starfish.

embankmentlb

I am a huge fan of C-record Campagnolo and before. Probably my favorite era for groups. Not a fan of anything Campy after that.

Salamandrine 

I just thought of a component I hate that everyone else seems to think it great!

Modern wide top water bottles! Hate them. I don't like the over engineered bite valves that get full of mildew. Frankly, I don't like bite valves period. I don't like the wide tops that make it impossible to sip the last ounce or two of water without taking the lid off. I hate the ugly graphics. I hate the shape. I hate the high price that I have to pay for features I don't want, like the stupid silicone bite valves with 25 parts.

bikerosity57

Two and three hundred dollar (and more) handlebars. I rode with Cinelli bars for 20-30 years, and never paid more than $25-30 dollars for them. I didn’t even know I NEEDED $300 handlebars. I still have most of my old Cinellis and occasionally use one on a bike. Just saying.

ShannonM

I thought of another one:

Silca Impero Frame Pumps. With or without Campy heads, doesn't matter. Yes, they're pretty. They're also flimsy. Worst of all, they just aren't very good at doing the job that they're designed to do. They're better than most mini pumps I've used. That's not a compliment.

The Zefal HpX utterly trounces the Silca in any but cosmetic competition, up to and including sword-fighting. As a Contraption of Canine Correction, there is no contest.

--Shannon

Salamandrine 

I can respect that opinion and Zefal HP/HPx pumps are great. I still have the one I got when I was 12 or 13.

In fairness to Silca, I feel like I should explain why they were most popular with racer types. First, they were light. That really was the main thing. I don't have the grams in front of me but it was something like half as much as a zefal. Secondly, they pumped up your tires really fast. Third of course was that they came in colors that blended in with your frame and looked cooler the an HP.

Silca frame pumps did have a learning curve for sure, and you needed to be taught how to use them correctly. By contrast Zefal were more user friendly and didn't require 'training'. Silcas also took more arm strength.

If used properly, silcas work reliably and last a long time. I used the same one for 25 years until it got stolen. For much of that time it was my main pump.

Oh, FWIW the same pump I used to defend myself from more than a few dogs. Granted I never gave one a full whack. If a water bottle squirt doesn't deter, I always found I light touch or tap on the nose with the pump will. I've never needed to actually whack a dog.

mprince

CO2 inflators. Have had several, not a fan. For years I had a Blackburn frame pump which finally expired this year, and Blackburn does not support it anymore. Replaced with a Silca Impero Ultimate, should be in good shape for many years...

JaccoW

Derailleurs in general. Sure they are slightly more efficient and offer an affordable larger range but unless kept absolutely clean they don't differ that much much compared to IGHs.
They are often finicky, crunch or are prone to dropping when shifting in less than ideal conditions. There's a reason why the MTB crowd has switched to 1x and many custom bikes choose Pinion gears.

I much prefer the low-maintenance and shifting while stopped of a good hub.

P!N20

dddd

Modern KEO pedals, really hard to clip in, won't let the shoe slide forward smoothly or hitch-free, so totally hit-or-miss.

Compared to modern Shimano, no contest, none.

But I don't like vintage pedals either, mainly since I have wide feet and find good-fitting vintage shoes to be quite rare.

MA2 rims have been nothing but good to me, however I find that they look too much like a "modern" touring rim and nearly with weight to match. I will tolerate the older E2 which is just as heavy and is yet-narrower, because they have more the look of a vintage racing (i.e. tubular) rim.

I think the modern Pacenti Brevit rims are the bomb, wide, authentically classic-looking and not too heavy for such a wide rim. TB14's less so (though are perhaps stronger, and feel more rigid during build-up).

A quibble about otherwise-great classic bottle cages is that those with plastic bottle retainers may see this part crack if stored in a hot garage. No problem with all-metal cages then and the REG cages with the very wide plastic bridge also seems immune to such degradation.

The wide-top water bottles from Specialized and from Bontrager/Trek seem like the perfect bottle from any functional point of view, since they kept the design basic with just one properly-designed moving part. I dislike some of the newer bottles having complicated design embellishments, for the reasons Salamandrine cited.