I agree whole heartedly. Fact is a lot of people like to scream that everything is marketing driven in cycling. In reality cycling is made up of a bunch thrifty people that scrutinize every purchase. "How much better is porduct X? Is it worth the extra $4 over product Y?"

As a result I feel the cycling products has a true market system. If it doesn't serve a need, or if there is no perceived value (even a value that exists in a product that it was not originally marketed for) then this picky bunch tears it to shreads, makes it "un-fashionable" to buy one, or calls everyone who owns one a Fred.

You gotta start doing the math and realize that if thereis a product that has been around for more than a few years, that has been copied by just about every manufacturer is some way shape or form, etc. that it probably has some merit. Examples:
1. Bib shorts
2. External Bearing BBs
3. Indexed shifting
4. Brifters
5. HRMs
6. Computers

All the retro-heads holding on to the old ways, while quaint, have somewhere along the way missed the fact that things innovate....to get better - to increase perceived/realized value. Remember...people vote everyday with their money.

"It's all ball bearings these days...."