Fifty Plus (50+) - Un-improvements rant (AKA good 'ol days)

Contribute your rant about how something used to be better. (AKA good 'ol days)

Thanks to Solveg and Retro Grouch for their inspiration in another thread.


Stems: In the old days, highly adjustable. Now, "improved" threadless to need a hack saw and not be adjustable

Cameras: 4x5 film, to 2 1/4 film to 35mm film, each holding less detail. Then to digital, still less, and now cell phone cameras with bad lenses and no resolution.

Recordings: Records replaced by 8 tracks and cassettes, eventually by MP3s with even less fidelity

Drive trains: My 5 speed cluster and chain lasted forever. My pricey 10 speed chain lasts 3000 miles. I hear my cassette can be expected to go 2 or 3 chains at most....


Grumble with me! What's the fun of getting older if we can complain about this stuff?
Bonus points for bike related rants. Extra bonus if it's so amuing or true I'm compelled to read it aloud to my wife.

Grumble with me! What's the fun of getting older if we can complain about this stuff?
Bonus points for bike related rants. Extra bonus if it's so amuing or true I'm compelled to read it aloud to my wife.

Part of the penalty of growing older is that you remember how much things used to cost. For example, I can remember once filling my gas tank for 18 cents per gallon.

You were talking about how long chains and freewheels used to last you. How about hub overhauls? I used to do mine every 2 or 3 months or after every ride in a major rain. Today, it's seldom to never.

Part of the penalty of growing older is that you remember how much things used to cost. For example, I can remember once filling my gas tank for 18 cents per gallon.

You were talking about how long chains and freewheels used to last you. How about hub overhauls? I used to do mine every 2 or 3 months or after every ride in a major rain. Today, it's seldom to never.

Plus points for price story (most of the time take you childhood price and add a zero, you'll be close)
Minus points for pointing out an improvement. This is a cranky pants thread.

Back in the good ol' days I had a 31-inch waist--and that's just for starters.

Back in the old days, the TV screen showed the program, and just the program. There was no channel logo in one corner, and there was no little people popping up from some other show to advertise the other show. And when the news came on, there was no crawl across the bottom of the screen. And the theme music for the news wasn't like something from a horror movie.

Car Windows.

It used to be there was a nice little triangular vent window in the front. It was great for keeping you awake on long drives without letting rain in. A perfect, functional little window.

It cost the manufacturers $7 to put this window in, and everyone decided it wasn't worth the money. I know it was $7, because this irritated me so much, I investigated it!

And bench seats. I loved bench seats. Good for snuggling at drive-ins, good for family trips when you could keep the irritating kid away from the others and under the watchful eyes of his parents.

I remember when you could go to the store, buy something, and open the package with your bare hands!

I've got an '88 Caprice with a V-8 that gets 23 mpg highway.....
downsizing to a 4 cyl Camry only gains me about 7mpg ?!?!

Used to be able to get my boots re-soled (sp?)....
try to find boot repair now!!!!

How come we have allowed them to charge us for air for our tires?....
What's next, coin operated drinking fountains?
Oooooo Oooooo I've got a great idea how to make money...coin
operated drinking fountains.

Try to find a phone booth anymore....

I used to be able to drink all night....
now...oops, that's another thread.

O.K., I was in a good mood! :eek:

Speaking of TV, I don't like the way shows start any more. 1 minute after the hour, what's with that???? And the show just *starts*. There's no lengthy themesong (think Gilligan's Island or All in the Family) folowed by commercials where you could quick get your munchies.

It was best for putting kids to bed, because they got to finish the show they were watching, you could scoot them off to bed AND have time to tuck them in nice and leisurely before the show actually started!

People used to make phone calls during that time, too. You could count on everyone being up and available for 5 minutes between show breaks.

I remember when you could go to the store, buy something, and open the package with your bare hands!

I remember that too, but my friend after watching my daughters and my
bride tear into said packaging with their bare hands I believe it's you and
I who are becoming defective. :o

Used to be able to get my boots re-soled (sp?)....
try to find boot repair now!!!!

How come we have allowed them to charge us for air for our tires?....
What's next, coin operated drinking fountains?
Oooooo Oooooo I've got a great idea how to make money...coin
operated drinking fountains.

Try to find a phone booth anymore....


My friends think I'm crazy for going to rural Kansas for my seasonal home. BUT the little town I live in has a cobbler, free air at the gas station, AND a real phone booth. I was so impressed, I took a photo of it.

http://homepage.mac.com/sbacig/.Pictures/Me/SSPX0015.jpg

Going back to those stems- All you could do was adjust the height. And once you got it set- You never altered it. If you wanted a longer or shorter reach- you bought a new stem.

On the modern system- You adjust the height of the bars and the reach- by buying a new stem. No difference really. But there are generraly a couple of spacers there to be able to get the final adjustment.

Now as to overhauling the modern aheadset, nothing could be easier. We all have 5mm allen keys to take the stem off- and as DG found out many moons ago- It literraly comes apart. Under the old system- it was two special sized spanners and if you had 2 bikes- you could guaranty that it was two sets of different spanners.

Give me modern improved bikes any day

Except- I still wish that hubs had the hole to be able to inject Oil or thin grease to lubricate the bearings. Taking the hubs apart every year or so does take a bit of time.

I remember, as a kid, going out to play and my parents would just say, "Be home for dinner." And they'd let me know when dinner was, if I wasn't home, by ringing a large bell in the backyard. Everyone had one. We didn't have a lot of adult supervision except that every adult kept an eye on everyone's kids. We knew if we did something stupid, our parents would hear about it. Otherwise, we just came and went as we pleased. Everybody had a bike, which was how you got to your friend's house.

I believe it's you and I who are becoming defective. :o

Oh hush now. That's just crazy talk!

How come we have allowed them to charge us for air for our tires?....
What's next, coin operated drinking fountains?
Oooooo Oooooo I've got a great idea how to make money...coin
operated drinking fountains.

Wait, wait, I've got it - bottled tap water!

When I was a kid we used to project that sometime in the future you'd fill your car with water insted of gasoline and add a couple of "energy" pills. Today gasoline is $3.00 per gallon and bottled water, at the same convenience store, sells for around $8.00 per gallon.

I'm crazy for going to rural Kansas for my seasonal home

Conway Springs isn't Kansas. Anything south of Derby is Oklahoma.


Rock Chalk Jayhawk,

BB

When my Grandparents set up housekeeping and purchased their Refridgerator
and Stove....the refridgerator lasted till retirement and the stove was in their
estate sale.....
What is todays life expectancy...15 yrs?

One good thing....my kids didn't have to walk 6 miles to school thru
three feet of snow, uphill ,without mittens. ;)

Remember when we could repair and tune our own cars?

Remember the non-roar of bias ply tires?

Remember when teachers were allowed to discipline and control the classroom
and provide a quality learning environment.

OH THANKS! 13 DAYS. ONLY 13 DAYS AND I'M BECOMING ALL NEGATIVE.
THE ONLY NEW YEARS RESOLUTION IN DOZENS OF YEARS AND I'VE BLOWN IT!!!:eek::eek::eek:

http://homepage.mac.com/sbacig/.Pictures/Me/SSPX0015.jpg

I had to stop flying because I can never find a place to change clothes. I still enjoy X-ray vision though.

Back in the 70's and 80's I used to go to a gourmet shop and buy the world's best coffee for 7-9 bucks a pound.

Now, if you can find it (the Japanese buy much of the really good stuff) it's 40-80 bucks and more for a 6 or 8 ounce bag.

Sigh.

One good thing....my kids didn't have to walk 6 miles to school thru
three feet of snow, uphill ,without mittens. ;)Remember the non-roar of bias ply tires?

Remember when teachers were allowed to discipline and control the classroom
and provide a quality learning environment.

Never had to walk uphill to school because, when I was a boy, the earth was still flat.

Tires are one thing that hasn't changed in price very much. I used to pay $20.00 per tire and they'd last about 20,000 miles. Now I pay $60 per tire and they last 60,000 miles.

When I was in high school one of the priests threw a piece of chalk at me that narrowly missed my eye and cut the bridge of my nose. I never told my parents because that would have resulted in my getting punished twice for the same thing.

Conway Springs isn't Kansas. Anything south of Derby is Oklahoma.


Rock Chalk Jayhawk,

BB
:D:D:D

Grumble with me! What's the fun of getting older if we can complain about this stuff?
Bonus points for bike related rants. Extra bonus if it's so amuing or true I'm compelled to read it aloud to my wife.

That built-in obsolescense gets me every time- me "that little plastic spacer fell off!" Bike shop- "you need a whole new derailleur." Me "Can't you just glue it back on?" Bike shop "heeheeheehee...."

Specialty tools are out to get me too; tried to replace a 5 bolt chain ring with another size ring. 4 bolts were easy- then the 5th bolt just turned. I have to stop one side from turning to loosen it with a *gulp* specialty tool!

countersTrike

Used to be able to get my boots re-soled (sp?)....
try to find boot repair now!!!!


There aren't as many shoe repair places, but they're still around. I had a pair of $200 steel toed boots repaired a couple of years ago, after a large piece of sheet metal fell and hit my left boot, puncturing it (of course, the sheet metal hit 1/2 inch behind the steel, breaking my little toe).

Biggest complaint? I can remember when casual sex was enjoyable and safe - well, at least you didn't have to worry about dying from it.

Political Correctness practiced by the corrupt and stupid is dooming society. Give me the days where a score was settled in the back alley and a lesson was taught with a rubber hose in the same alley.

knotty

I'm going to go take a nap now.

I miss receiving personal letters in the mail. Of course the whole drama and excitement of love letters was the best!! But other letters were wonderful too and, in a sense, a "kind" of friendship, a species. I skipped the loss of letters that resulted from cheap phone calls because I've always disliked having personal conversations on the phone. But when e-mail came on strong, that was it. I know there must be millions of people out there who still keep in touch by writing letters but I don't know any of them. There are a few people I write lengthy Christmas cards to but I get back very few words. (Sigh)

I remember when a TV set cost $600 and a personal computer cost $4000 and a.......................wait just a minute.............what did a carbon fibre bicycle frame cost back then?? :p

Political Correctness practiced by the corrupt and stupid is dooming society. Give me the days where a score was settled in the back alley and a lesson was taught with a rubber hose in the same alley.

knotty

Welcome to why I'm a biker - there are some places where Political Correctness dare not venture.

I remember paying 5 cents a gallon for gas in South Texas and getting a free glass beer mug for filling up. There was a price war going on and this was in the late 60's.

I also remember working my a** off at a cattle sale yard at the tender age of 14 (lied and said I was 16), chasing cows all day, getting covered from head to foot in cow poop, then lining up for pay. The owner would take your time card, look at you and "decide" what you earned that day. Who needs stinking labor laws.

The local theater only charged 25 cents for a saturday matinee.

We could walk from our house in the neighborhood, down the street to a large open space with loaded shotguns to hunt quail and dove. No one worried we were going to commit mass murder.

Automotive automatic transmissions with dipsticks. Fluid and filter change used to be an easy, albeit messy, do-it-yourself task, and adding a little fluid periodically to a transmission with a slow leak was child's play. On any ZF transmission built during the last 12 years or so, one has to have the car elevated and dead-horizontal, with the engine running, to check the fluid level or condition, let alone add or change the fluid. Of course today's fluids last much longer than those of yesteryear, but they are definitely not lifetime, irrespective of what the owner's manual claims.

I have probably ranted about every topic mentioned here in the past 10 years. Here are some that have been more recent rants:


Remember the non-roar of bias ply tires?


I actually had an arguement with a guy over this. He swore tires always made that "squishing" roar. They didn't! Since the invention of wide deep-tread radials neighborhoods have sounded like industrial zones. Even at 30 MPH cars sound like they are tearing down the road at 90. This is pollution, the sound helps wreck our environment, and I have even gone so far as to describe this annoyance as selfish. It really plugs me in.

Back in the 70's and 80's I used to go to a gourmet shop and buy the world's best coffee for 7-9 bucks a pound.

Now the 7-9 bucks a pound isn't even really a pound. In the past few years, those fancy little packages it comes in have gone from 12 oz. to 10 oz. - and I even saw one that was 8 oz. - guilfully made narrower and taller to look the same size as the "regular" 10 oz. "pounds." Jeeze~ OK. This hooks into the rant about not being able to get into packages without tin snips, or box cutters. I have tried everything to pry apart the tops of those plastic/foil coffee packages. I finally resort to scissors, and then have to use a paper clip to keep the @&$%# thing closed.

Specialty tools are out to get me too;

I have every Allen size there is - and still it doesn't quite fit sometimes. Once I lost the little speciality wrench that came with a knock-down, semi-disposible cabinet from IKEA. One of the corners was loose (I probably didn't follow the heirogliphic directions right), and I had thrown away the tool by accident. It is still loose! There's no way to tighten it without that tool. Now, I tape the little keys and tools to the bottoms of those things (our bed was the last culprit), out of plain old paranoid that the thing will come loose and I will have lost the tool.

Oh, I could go on....

Oh, I could go on....

You, sir, are on a roll. Carry on! We are with you!

We could add all non-bike parts that used to be user repairable, or repairable at all.

Remember when telephones had handy cables anchoring them to the wall so they wouldn't get lost? Now whenever I need a phone I have to fish through the covers in my daughters bed.

Remember when football commentators talked about the game at hand and the players on the field instead of pointless statistics, coaches with headphones far above the field, and their own long ago exploits in games that now reside in the dust of history?

Remember when football commentators talked about the game at hand and the players on the field instead of pointless statistics, coaches with headphones far above the field, and their own long ago exploits in games that now reside in the dust of history?

Well, I don't watch football, but sounds like every baseball game I can remember back to the 60's...

Remember when telephones had handy cables anchoring them to the wall so they wouldn't get lost?

Well...someone already beat me to the "do you remember telephone booths", so I'll up the ante. Do you remember when telephone booths actually contained complete phone directories so you could look up a telephone number instead of being forced to call directory assistance?

Do you remember calling a company's help line and immediately speaking to a real live human being?

or

Do you remember going to the doctor and having a pleasant conversation, without feeling like he had one eye on his watch and one foot out the door?

The Young Grump

I can remember when I didn't have to "choose a language". I already have one, thank you!

I can remember when my knees weren't compelled to make love to my chin when on a scheduled, commercial airline flight.

I can remember when people weren't afraid to use the words, him, her, he, she.

I'd better shut up now.

Contribute your rant about how something used to be better. (AKA good 'ol days)

Thanks to Solveg and Retro Grouch for their inspiration in another thread.

Stems: In the old days, highly adjustable. Now, "improved" threadless to need a hack saw and not be adjustable
Cameras: 4x5 film, to 2 1/4 film to 35mm film, each holding less detail. Then to digital, still less, and now cell phone cameras with bad lenses and no resolution.
Recordings: Records replaced by 8 tracks and cassettes, eventually by MP3s with even less fidelity
Drive trains: My 5 speed cluster and chain lasted forever. My pricey 10 speed chain lasts 3000 miles. I hear my cassette can be expected to go 2 or 3 chains at most....
Grumble with me! What's the fun of getting older if we can complain about this stuff?
Bonus points for bike related rants. Extra bonus if it's so amuing or true I'm compelled to read it aloud to my wife.


I grumble about some stuff, but have to disagree with you on a few of these.

- Installing a handle bar and/or swapping to a different stem is a WHOLE lot easier with Aheadset systems then 1" threaded. The 2 bolt open face design might never come about if not for Aheadset and makes swapping any stem easier as you are not removing bar tape and all the shifter/brake mechanics.

- Aheadsets are a ton easier to install and adjust. If you're smart (and the bike/fork manufacturer is smart as well), you don't cut the steerer (much), simply using spacers. There are a lot more options in stem angles and length then with 1" and I find it easier to get an h-bar where you want it with Aheadeset then with 1", especially as the ONLY manufacturer of tall stems was/is Technomic.

- I had a Rollei 35mm compact camera way back when. It was light and super small, took great photo's. Because it was small and light, I took it everywhere on trips. Prints weren't cheap so I used slides, which in truth, were a pain in the butt. If I got prints made (not as cheap as today), I had to send the film out to get developed and sometimes the shot's weren't that great. Then it got a bit better with 1hr. photo - and as a side comment, there's a whole lot of younger folks out there who have no idea what those small little booths in shopping center parking lots are for !. Now my compact 5 mega pixel Cannon shows me on the screen if the shot was any good. I load the shots onto my computer, save the good ones to thumb drive, go to CVS and print out the good stuff. In 4x5 the image is every bit as good as the old Rollei.

- Having spent 35 years in the entertainment business (Theatrical Lighting Designer), I can state that everything digital in audio is vastly superior to analog. With the right gear, digital audio has far greater dynamic range and fidelity. Now that's a highly opinionated and subjective topic and I'm certain that folks will come up with assorted facts about how older analog stuff "sounded" better, but as any audio professional will tell you, everyone has an opinon as to how something sounds. Bottom line though is that every audio pro. I work with
prefers (for the most part) digital to analog. I for one, fell in love with the X-Mas present I got my wife - an XM car receiver. She ended up getting me the same thing for X-Mas and I am in love with it. And all things considered, the quality of the audio coming out of my iPod on stock ear-buds is every bit of good as anything I can remember listening to 30 years ago, compession and all.

- I am pissed off, however at the price of chains and cassettes.

Steve B.

I'll get off my rant to agree with Steve B. about the incredible advances in digital everything. Even though I thought that 35mm and 120mm film (analog) photography couldn't ever be made better, a digital SLR (and all my old lenses), a 2mb chip, and RAW format convinced me. I agree about the IPod too. I think that what most people think is a decay in sound quality through digital format is actually the result of microchip/low power amps and new "high sound" (or whatever they are) speakers. The old tube stuff and funky magnetic drive, large surface speakers in huge heavy boxes did sound more mellow. But I think if you hooked up an IPod to this same equipment you couldn't tell the difference. I know - I know - my ears are just getting old.

Well, we've added over 100,000,000 people to this country since 1960. Places seem a might more crowded than they used to.

OK, this was supposed to be about UNimprovements. Here goes:

Kitchen faucets that used to last until they tore down the house. Now, what? Maybe 5 years?
Those sleezy plastic grocery bags.
The little plastic ends on shoe laces - they used to be like steel. Now, they CRACK off.
1.5 gal. toilets. (Sorry folks, but the old ones worked better even though they were an eco-disaster.)
Anything that used to come from a stationery store that now comes from a big-box "office supply."
Beef.
Chicken.
Pork.
Farmed fish/shrimp.
[Previous four are why I am an almost-vegitarian now. They all taste horrible and are filled with chemicals/hormones/antibiotics/steriods. No more for me.]
Cars. All of them (even the enviro-cool hybrids) are squeeky plastic boxes. They remind me of what riding in an upholstered raspberry container might be like. They are also boring to drive - especially the hybrids! Oh - I'm gonna get it for this...
Water. We used to just get a glass, go to the sink, get some, and drink it. Now - well, you know.
Yes, doctors. But I don't think its the doctors. Its the clinics they practice in, the schedules they keep in order to pay their bills, the drug companies that micromanage them, and the HMOs that ultimately run everything. Why anyone would ever choose medicine as a career now is beyond me.

OK, OK. I'll stop.

I really have very few complaints about bikes. Even my own city and county is getting very bike-friendly, making it more safe and much easier to ride here. If I really want, I can find quality bike parts for fair prices. And I actually think bike tires, tubes, and liners are much better than when I was younger. The brakes, gears, and shifters are WAY better, too. I love my bikes, and I admire them.

Hardware stores that morphed into big box super centers, where "service" means someone who will show you where something is on display, but no one will take the time to really talk you through something. And even if they did, the aroma of the old fashioned hardware store has been lost to the ages. Sigh.

Hardware stores that morphed into big box super centers, where "service" means someone who will show you where something is on display, but no one will take the time to really talk you through something. And even if they did, the aroma of the old fashioned hardware store has been lost to the ages. Sigh.

...but now and then you find a blast from the past. Just happened to me. The handle on our 20+ year old shower faucet had cracked and was apparently irreplaceable, at least via the usual big box suspects. It looked like we'd need to replace the whole otherwise functional unit meaning the services of a plumber and breaking out some drywall.

I went to a big specialty plumbing supply place nearby and they couldn't help either, till one of the counter guys and a plumber said, "I think I know where you can get this". They sent me to a little place on the edge of the Detroit city limits in a dicey neighborhood. Parking off the alley in back. Walk thru the dark, dingy stockroom to the counter up front. Rows and rows of dusty boxes on shelves and a couple of older guys behind the counter. Showed them the part. "Yeah, that's an old Eljer. I think it ri-i-i-i-ght...(scans the boxes)...here!"

$17-and change made me a happy man, and thrilled my wife. If you're a Motowner and need an obscure plumbing part, try Tenny's Plumbing Supply on 8 Mile between John R and Dequindre.

Hardware stores that morphed into big box super centers, where "service" means someone who will show you where something is on display, but no one will take the time to really talk you through something. And even if they did, the aroma of the old fashioned hardware store has been lost to the ages. Sigh.


And speaking of Big Box hardware stores...what's with this
Self Checkout crap? I refuse to go thru all the hassle of finding
my prepackaged doo dads, ending up with more in the package
than I want and then cashing myself out. One of my new fun
things to do is to go to the self checkout thingy and just stand
there with a stupid look on my face until an employee comes
over and checks the stuff out for me. It's fun to be an old coot!

And speaking of Big Box hardware stores...what's with this
Self Checkout crap? I refuse to go thru all the hassle of finding
my prepackaged doo dads, ending up with more in the package
than I want and then cashing myself out. One of my new fun
things to do is to go to the self checkout thingy and just stand
there with a stupid look on my face until an employee comes
over and checks the stuff out for me. It's fun to be an old coot!

Do they ask if you want a Senior Drink at Burger King?

Do they ask if you want a Senior Drink at Burger King?

I know I'll regret revealing this but....
My grey hair (what little I still have) and my grey beard have been
getting me Senior discounts since I was 49 yrs. old. I don't ask, they
offer, and I accept.

I really miss the Velux barend plugs that stayed put. I may be clumsy at securing them , but I really hate the modern plastic thingies that pop out ever so often.

I think that a link to this thread should be put in the dictionary under the words, "Luddite", "curmudgeon", etal. :D

Remember the non-roar of bias ply tires?

I like loud radial tires. When out riding, you can hear approaching cars and trucks from a greater distance.

I like loud radial tires. When out riding, you can hear approaching cars and trucks from a greater distance.

Yes, that is a great safety feature. Cars should not be silent.

I would vote for cars having noisy exhausts and adding a smell or particles to the exhaust so that drivers have a clue about what they are putting out.