I am going to be the voice of dissent here; I think the best decade is the one we are in right now. In my opinion there are some dang great steel bikes being produced now. It seems like builders have started to actually embrace wider tires, fenders, comfort instead of race-like style, a lug resurgence seems to be upon us and 650b seems to be taking off. These are things I really appreciate in a bike. Quite a few builders are making bikes in the constructeur style with an emphasis on distance and comfort. Touring bikes seem to be a hit as well as off road or all terrain touring bikes seem to be prevalent. I am very glad that so many companies are making bikes and components that I would actually buy. (carbon is still the devil though...boo...hiss)

Don't get me wrong, I really like older, classic bikes. I would love an old British path racer, something I have lusted after for years. My favorite decade though would probably be the 70's, a time where touring bikes seemed to be fairly numerous and bike touring was all the rage. What can I say, I like to carry stuff on my bikes.