Ah, the torch has to be passed some time. The '80s were a fulcrum point--the height of lugged construction (in production bikes) while also its swan song (pre-TIG), the focusing of bicycle types (road, sport, tour, all around, etc) while the birth of new ones, the beginnings of indexed shifting and the creation of full-range groupsets and frame feature standards still used today. If any era has the ability to reach as far forward as it does or can, it's the 1980s. Every decade stands on the shoulders of the past decade, but much in modern bikes can trace certain origins to that decade. The start of the dominance of Dura-Ace with 7400? The origins of the 'workhorse' 105 group in 1050? The beginnings of the Goldilocks price/performance/pretty Ultegra groupset with 6400-era 600? It's where they all started, and that's how we get more C&V'ers!