Originally Posted by mander
I am sympathetic to Rivendell's practical bike fit philosophy and retro-crabbiness, as opposed to the "let's put normal people on race bikes with all the latest tech" M.O. of most of the road bike industry. You just cannot **** with lugs (with non-ornate paint please), full fenders, a brooks and nitto noodles up high on a pearl stem. To repeat what landgolier said, like lots of people in the cycling world, they just seem to get a touch too far into a mentality of us vs them instead of "live and let live".
Theres plenty of old stuff that is more practical then it's replacement. Almost everything you mention(lugs, brooks, pearl stems and nitto noodles) doesn't fit into that category however. The newer is also more practical in every one of those cases. Fenders are great but 99% or cyclists don't ride in the rain and so fenders are pointless for them.