One thing to factor is the gear shifters and gear mechanisms.

2015 ErgoPower and mechs are not compatible with pre 2015 mechs and shifters, (as in "they don't work together at all", not as in "you shouldn't but you can get away with it, and yes we have *actually tried it* ...), so if you go the 2014 route in these areas at least, you may be buying a longer-term problem - we'll have spares available for 3 - 4 years for the pre 2015 kit but after that availability will start to become more difficult, just as it has with the classic 10s kit.

If you run 2015 front shift with 2014 and prior 11s chainsets you will see some advantage but not as much as if you have a full 2015 set-up.

The aesthetics of the new chainsets are a personal thing - I suspect that they'll grow on users who don't like them, it's just the same sort of radical change in appearance that Campagnolo made when they moved from the 1970s-designed 5 arm chainset to C-Record in the late 80s / early 90s. I remember there was a lot of comment, negative as well as positive then in shops - of course we didn't have the internet to tell us what to think in those days :-)

The platform that you have is a perfectly reasonable steel frame - it would certainly not disgrace the upgrade and as you say, if it's a frame you like and are happy riding, why change? We (in our other, frame-building business) still design, build and sell steel frames, many of them quite traditionally styled and none of them featuring BB30, taper forks or any of the other current innovations as, from a technical point of view, we still consider integrated headsets and press fit BBs flawed technologies.

I am not sure that anyone still holds the parts to do as Drew suggests further down the thread to convert your existing 8s hubs to 9/10/11s spec - the current hubs all have alloy oversize axles and the 8s ones had a smaller diameter steel axle so there wasn't / isn't a direct upgrade route - a conversion kit was available up until around 2005/6, but I have not seen one in a long while - certainly there are none at the factory.

HTH, maybe it just muddies the waters further ...

KRs
Graeme
Velotech Cycling Ltd
Campagnolo Main UK Service Centre