not exactly laughed at. I cant put the words to it. It just seems that everyone who has a road bike older than 5 years does not do anything serious with it (ie. rides it to campus on the sunny days), where as I would want to use it for more serious riding (ie. 20+ mile rides with rolling hills). I just have a mental block when I try to picture someone riding on a group ride with a 12 year old bike that has outdated things like downtube shifters.