Originally Posted by
Koyote
There are plenty of modern bikes, some that are even pretty aerodynamic, that are smooth-riding and easy to maintain. Plenty with cables that are not routed through headtubes and the like. btw, in seven years of riding Di2, I don't think I've ever updated the software, and it has proven more reliable (and with less maintenance) than my mechanical drivetrains. Sure, I've done a few things on it, which is to be expected given the mileage and that I ride it in challenging conditions...But it's never left me struggling to ride home in one gear after a cable snapped mid-ride.
Your comparison is inapt since it includes two modern cars. A better comparison would be the BMW M3 and a 2002; which would you rather drive daily or on a long road trip? Most people would choose the M3 every day of the week.
I just love these posts in which many of us are told that we're foolish rubes for buying nice new bikes. I often sense, right beneath the surface, a poster's desire (perhaps unconscious) to justify his own parsimony or lack of means.
I was with you until your last paragraph. Going on impressions based on posts from people here over the years, it seems likely that a sizable proportion of those you have in mind are millionaires, more or less. If some poster happens to fit the "parsimony" description (and the mere assertion by that poster that modern bikes are overpriced is pretty feeble evidence), it's by inclination, not need.
And sensing desires, beneath the surface or otherwise, hews a little too close to the commonplace "I know a Lance wannabe when I see one" mind-reading act for comfort.
As usual when this tired topic resurfaces, I blame Grant Petersen for the us-versus-them turn the discussions inevitably take.
In fairness to him, when he told C&V guys that, by buying friction shifters (and other obsolete tat that he'd snatched up from distributors who were glad to get rid of dead inventory, albeit for pennies on the dollar), they'd automatically hold the moral high ground versus the godless Lycra-sporting elites, he couldn't have foreseen that it would drive quite so big a wedge between the two factions.
All that said, it seems clear that anyone who fell for a classic bike at a vulnerable age will never feel quite the same kind of blind adulation again, and certainly not for a modern bike.
Nothing to do with cost. The proof being that many or most of the people complaining about expensive modern bikes have garages and basements and attics stuffed with classic/vintage bikes that they spent, and in some highly visible cases continue to spend, thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to accumulate.