Originally Posted by
rekmeyata
Most 5 year old used bikes are going to be low quality bikes in the price range he's looking at when they were new and thus, believe it or not, will not be as reliable nor as easy to fix as a vintage bike. New advancements do no automatically mean better reliability, in fact low end bikes with those new advancements can be quite a headache.
And a 1 1/8th fork and stem means nothing, pros raced for many more years on 1" then so far ever on on 1 1/8th, and 1" stems and forks are still being built to this day including very expensive custom bikes, so there is no difference other that the right of some to say: "look at me, I got something modern".
More gears advantage is also argumentative, the only thing more gears do is enable a person to shift more to stay within a defined RPM range which wears out the cables, chain, and gears faster due to all the shifting, and added wear due to thinner gears and chains from the vintage days. Staying within one's RPM is great for the rider who wants to be performance orientated, but for the everyday rider it's not necessary, and again pros rode on 5, 6, and 7 speed gears for a very long time climbing mountains and never thought about it. Also no matter how many gears you have your first gear and last gear is the same ratio as lessor geared bikes, you just have more gears to chose from in between.
Also the comment about 3 speeds are great for cruising around for a couple of miles, is not true, Europeans and English countries use to do loaded tour on nothing but 3 speed bikes! Including climbing mountains with this stuff, don't ask me how, those old timers were stout, today we're a bunch of weenies by comparison. Now a Walmart type of bike is good for only a couple of miles a few times a week and those have more gears than a 3 speed. I use to have a 3 speed when I was a kid and a friend and I rode 20 miles and more one way to other towns and then rode back, we use to take those 3 speed bikes all over the place, they're extremely reliable.
Your comments would be comprehensive if the world had stopped. But thank goodness it didn't. Fortunately the world moved on and new processes were developed and computers made tool control more precise. The world continues to move on, thank goodness.
These dark comments you write. The first lines offering promises but in the form of damning "progress" in general; a 30 or 40 year old bike will be more reliable and easier to fix than a modern bike. I thought this very strange, knowing as I do that bikes made in the last 10-15 years have included many that a new rider would really benefit from. So I just checked the listings for "road bike" in my local CL and used the price range of $250-$350 for a range. I show below one picked from among the first 10 bikes that would potentially fit the OP. (Listed yesterday.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/bik/5100960673.html)
Giant OCR3 Compact Medium Road Bike - $250 (Seattle)
Lightly used Giant OCR3 Road Bike purchased in 2003. 6061 Extralight Aluminum Alloy frame, Gel Seat, clip-ins, rear rack.
Your first point of "fact" is that the new headset is no better than smaller one previously used. (There's some additional BS thrown in for good measure.) This comment makes no reference to the durability of the old headset. This is typical of the "old days" comment which offers nothing more than a clue as to the poster's age. The fact that the larger headsets are made stronger, seal better, and last longer is completely missing from the "fact" comment which has tried to mislead the reader to think the opposite. Nice try, shifty poster. Haha
The second point isn't a fact but a speculation than lacks even simple reason. It is somehow argued than if you have more gears and therefore have the opportunity to
spread use of the drivetrain over more, not fewer cogs, you have increased the wear on the drivetrain. Huh? Wow, those 22-speed drivetrains on today's racing bikes must wear out after a single race compared to the 10-speed drives of yesteryear.
The comment then goes on to tell you that you're not going to want to ride like this and that and that even if you did you would only be denied something of little significance. Another "old days" comment offered as a vague reassurance. Poster, you may still be living in 1975 but the rest of us have moved on to 2015. You can't buy youth in a vintage bike and you can't make a vintage bike competitive with today's even basic offerings.
The last paragraph offers more BS about the olden days and so forth. Poster, aren't you ashamed that you didn't make any sense? Really? There's nothing you've offered that suggests that a 30-40 year old fixer is more "reliable" than any number of modern bikes. Nothing!
I'll tell you one thing. They could BS in the old days just as well as they BS today!