Originally Posted by Rancid
Personally, for a bike to do alot of more extensive and aggressive riding, I would stay away from older vintage road bikes. They look great, but weight and parts availability can become quite bothersome.
I disagree. For aggressive riding (as in racing) it makes sense to go with a modern bike for the weight savings and shifting convenience, but for long distances or daily riding I would rather have a nice old bike. Thanks to the internet, finding parts is not the issue it used to be. Older parts are not as desireable by weight weenies, and therefore usually cheap unless they have some kind of collector/fetish value.