I'm a bicycle commuter, I don't race or even go on group rides, but if I have somewhere to go, I'd generally rather ride a bike than drive. I have found that I really like 80s 10-speeds. They have been a good compromise for me between ride quality, toughness, price, and maintainability. My current bike is a Japanese made Raleigh Super Record, and I haven't been terribly kind to it. For example, at times I've stuck heavy baskets on it and filled them with 20lbs or more of groceries.

Bumbling around on here, I came across this page: FREE SITE 1. This fellow talks about how fragile quality old road bikes are a lot, and numerous examples of small damage ruining a bike. I guess that doesn't really scream "quality" to me.

So, here's my question, have I been wrong about how tough old 10 speeds are? I can think of 3 possibilities:

1. No, my bike is a low-end bike. He's talking about super light bikes with very thin tubing. My Raleigh, is indeed, a tough old steed.
2. Yeah, I'm probably just lucky I didn't cause damage with all my mucking about with baskets and what-not.
3. I have damaged it, and I just haven't noticed because I'm a Philistine that doesn't know what a good ride IS.


Jim