Another point that's often overlooked: at least WRT road race bikes, real race bikes were typically frankenbikes. So it's kind of funny to me to hear when people complain that a bike doesn't have the original rims or something. It was pretty common to buy a stack of rims at the start of the year to last you through. Parts got crashed out and replaced also. At least in juniors, most people didn't have a rich/generous parent buying them a new DeRosa, so you scrounged bikes together from whatever you could.