Originally Posted by mtnbke

In the year 2020, people will have moved on from sending a box o' crap around the country to one another. The wheat will be separated from the chaff. Instead of sending crap, it will evolve into a box of goodies. It will have a philanthropic bent and be guided more by doing good, than by a bunch of desperate destitute vulchers trying to live on others castoff. Probably a minimum $100 donation to a cycling related charity to participate, each receipt of the "Box" will allow one to take out a single item. The Box o' goodies will be fun in that each successive entrant will take joy in putting in priceless treasures to torture successive recipients, "If I put in a Morgul Bismark frame, a MAVIC 845 long cage derailleur AND a Superbe Pro long cage derailleur, Dia-Compe NGC982 black cantis AND a VAR cotter press, what the heck will they actually choose not to choose in the box?" The joy will be putting in such rare and valuable items so as to actually torture future recipients. At the end of the season (presumably in late November) everything remaining in loot will go up on eBay and the proceeds will be sent entirely to the cycling charity. The notion of a box o' crap will be recognized as a monumental waste of time and postage.

Basic Japanese Sports Touring bikes will still sell for next to nothing if they carry a head badge from Miyata, Panasonic, Kuwahara, Azuki, etc. However, Centurions with stupid beautiful paint will have become cult items and worthy of grail bike builds. Many will be converted to modern triple/long cage Campagnolo 10-speed builds. The Campy components will be considered not quite worthy of the bike, but absent Mavic 8-speed triple/long cage touring components (which are unavailable after Tears for Gears won Powerball and attempted to buy EVERY single component ever manufactured), are roundly considered an acceptable, if unworthy, dress. Ironically, thirty-something cyclists migrate away from their fixies and begin to drive up the prices on vintage Cannondale and Klein frames, rediscovering the performance changing paradigm. As vintage aluminum fatigues and as all the software developers drive up prices of vintage USA aluminum it becomes cheaper to own a Porsche Boxtster than a Made in the USA hand built Morgul-Bismak, Klein or Cannondale.

Not every person in Portland, but 2/3 of the population in Boulder will work for either the marijuana industry, a frame builder, a bike recyclery, a brewpub or just studying at Naropa ("metaphysics doesn't come with a timetable…").
[MENTION=108582]RobbieTunes[/MENTION] reveals that his communicated love of Centurion's was a cover. He was trying to give pub to the unheralded WSI invented label to keep people disinterested from his true focus. In the decade from '10 to 2020 RobbieTunes scores tens of frames and bikes that were over $10k new. The world of high zoot
Pinarello, Colnago carbon become passé. He begins to actually become offended by actually how cheaply he's buying these epic epoxy frame/forks. He starts roundly blasting sellers via social media, many of whom are selling off their high end performance carbon to fund the purchase of vintage Centurions as prices sky rocket. Many Centurion buyers are speculators, the market becomes that hot. Robbie starts trading multiple carbon Tour, Giro, and Vuelta gran tour ridden frames for such things as Wraith frame/forks. One day Robbie realizes that he gets just as good of a ride out of his forgotten Centurions, a bit heavier, but realizes the hyper lightweight of his Wraith collection doesn't actually build as good of a bike. They became so light they were just inefficient and prone to cracking. Ironically, vintage Cannondales still don't seem to be failing due to the proscribed inevitable aluminum fatigue. One day [MENTION=108582]RobbieTunes[/MENTION] is riding a too light Wraith on a spirited century ride. He's having trouble keeping up with some Master's riders on vintage Kleins and Cannondales. They call themselves the Geezers. As they start to pull away on the climbs Robbie pushes himself perhaps way too hard. He beings to descend faster than he's comfortable after reaching the Col. On a harrowing and twisty descent the downtube/headtube weld on his frame fails and he can't stop at a STOP sign at the canyon road's end. He careens out into traffic and the scene is grisly. With part of the downtube impaling his person, he looks at the tube and recognizes the tell tale sign of rust on the thin wall steel tubing that corrupted the integrity of the joint. His last words were something akin to "curse you Mountain Bike." Bystanders articulate that it seems strange that he was such a hater of mountain bikes.
[MENTION=137853]CHAS[/MENTION] will have tried to browbeat those who don't adhere to cultish dogmatic cycling beliefs enough times that it becomes a "thing." Which in and of itself sparks a renaissance in vintage and classic cycling allowing younger cyclists to reconsider notions that the old timers accept as rote, but with a fresh perspective. Many of the "given" assumptions in classic and vintage cycling give way to a new breed of younger cyclists that haven't been inculcated into believing marketing hype and distribution driven drivel. As [MENTION=137853]CHAS[/MENTION] ages in his retirement home he becomes the poster boy of grouchy old cyclists, trying to browbeat younger cyclists with his "knowledge" and handed down on stone tablet experience. Most younger participants in what becomes C&V on the holonet find him quaint, and novel. Some build up ironic CHAS builds just to prove to themselves that vintage lightweight steel bikes don't make for good bikes. It becomes a "thing" to try and build the bestest lightweight steel bike with the bestest vintage components. Actual pro-ridden gran tour race bikes are collected ironically, and actually raced in what becomes known as a CHASterium. In these city block races one group races on the CHAS builds forsaking racing identifier numbers with actual dollar representation of the cost of their build. The second group races on Craigslist finds that are epoxy bikes or taiwanese aluminum from the holonet that had to be purchased for less than 100 Super Yuan. Nothing more than airing up the tires is allowed of this group. Not even fresh grease or new cables. Holovid websites become prevalent and holovid arguments trend as competing groups accuse others of dogging race results to stir the pot. Over time cheapo Taiwanse aluminum bikes and left over epoxy bonded bikes so significantly dominate the race results, all other things being equal, that any winning attempt on lightweight steel comes with doping and electro motor assisted accusations. It becomes "known" that steel does not build a better bike.
[MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION]'s Raleigh International is stolen and sold for scrap by a meth head. He swears off Raleigh altogether, and strangely then, antagnoistic of any label in the Accell group holdings, even though the modern nameplates have nothing to do with the vintage Raleigh. At some point he becomes so bitter and antagonistic that a Box O' Goodies campaign is started to actually fund sourcing him a proper Reynolds 853 Mercian Vincitore Special. At some point someone actually includes a vintage Raleigh International into the "box truck" with the goods for the campaign, it goes for sale on the auction site. Pics on the holovid make [MENTION=152773]noglider[/MENTION] suspect that HIS actual bike wasn't sent to salvage. He wins the auction and recognizes that it actually, randomly, is HIS old bike. He finishes the Raleigh International in January of 2021. He likes his mercy 853 Mercian better.

The term Troll Master in the Classic and Vintage community becomes an emotional loaded slang term for anyone that attempts to browbeat others with cult mentality groupthink completely divorced from real world experiential data points. That is the opinion of a person based solely on the shared opinions of other persons, none of which actually had any frame of reference or context based experience. The new generation of cyclists and those gravitating toward C&V seem to find the term ironic, and the community begins to develop a snarky almost hostile attitude towards those that don't think critically and articulate defying conventional wisdom to discover the Truth (capital T) for themselves. At some point it becomes difficult to tell, in a culture of anti-conformity to groupthink, what actually is actual experiential knowledge and what actually is just the brandishing of alternative perspectives. The Troll Master becomes the person that doesn't actually Troll, that just conforms to groupthink in a culture where groupthink is abhorred. Many cyclists are so turned off by the confusing euphemisms and connotative language of the C&V cult that they deliberately only ride modern hover bikes, "I didn't want people thinking I was on some transcendental journey of self-discovery and examination of what is necessarily true. I just wanted to ride my damn bike."

No one much remembers the Exxon Graftek, let alone wallow in despair over its lack of market success.

Steel bikes, and specifically the art bike niche, become status symbols of wealth, status, and wastefulness and disposable income. People riding steel bikes are considered tools by many cyclists, "why would he spend that many credits on a steel bike that has such a limited lifecycle in this salty sea air environment? To build such a beautiful bike only to see it gradually rust through and out is just an exercise in madness. He could have a Magnesium bike that was gleaned from seawater. Why even desire a bike that required gutting open the earth and raping the planet?"

Or not.