People like different things for different reasons. I like my modern carbon bikes for the type of riding I currently do,which are fast 65-70 mile exercise rides. I like my 20 year old aluminum Cannondale hardtail mountain bike because I paid almost $1400 for it new, but when I thought about selling it, I could not bring myself to sell it for the $400 offered for it. So, I decided to keep it and turned it into a slow beach cruiser.

I am like you, in that I'll never buy anything less than the latest technology in most things, but I still find myself admiring old steel bikes when I see them on my rides.Part of it is that aesthetically, they can be very pretty (Saw a beautiful Richard Sachs road bike the other day, and everything about it just screamed beautiful, including the baby blue and cream colors and the wool retro long-sleeved jersey of the rider), and also that the bikes I liked but could not afford when I was a poor college student were those steelies with italian names.