Originally Posted by rekmeyata

I haven't dismissed anything, I've seen the changes and I don't think all of it is bad. In fact if you read one my earlier posts I even gave pros and cons to both square and splined, and I even said that I don't think one is so much superior over the other, their may be slight advantages of spline over square, but those advantages don't seem to be enough to make track racing pros change their support of square tapered BB's. So there must be something decent about the design otherwise track racers would have ran in mass in support of splined technology.

Nor have I ever dismissed modern bikes as all being junk as you sort of implied. I do think that some of the modern components like the electric shifting has made things more complicated which means failure rates will go up, and repair cost will go up, and the inability to repair on the road is eliminated. But for some people they don't care, it's why more and more cyclists as the years have gone by can't even repair their own flats. But on the other hand lighter weight bikes is great for those who need such a thing, but one also has to keep in mind that the lighter they make stuff the higher the failure rate becomes, it just comes with the territory. I use to race cars too, and to make an engine rev up faster you replace internal parts with lighter weight parts, eventually you get to the point that while the engine is very quick it becomes what's called a grenade engine, meaning it won't last very long before it blows, but that is an acceptable lost factor in a lot of race engines; and bikes can get that way too, problem with bikes is that the everyday person wants the lightest bike but doesn't race then can't figure out why things break or wear out fast.

I have a modern bike and I'm getting another one, so I'm not lost on the fact that a modern bike has certain advantages over older ones. I have a modern touring bike, an 07 Mercian Vincitore; and I've ordered a Lynskey Silver series Peleton (a poor mans Lynskey!) so don't think I'm some sort of Neanderthal out riding 1918 gas pipe bikes...wait, Sheldon Brown rode one of those to work, I guess he was a Neanderthal.