Originally Posted by Dave Moulton
When I was in the bike business in the 1980s through the early 1990s any self respecting roadie would not be seen dead on a Trek or Cannondale, and Giant! Who were they? Most serious road bike riders had Italian imports; names like Colnago, Pogliagi, Guerechotti, and Gios. The rest rode bikes built by people like myself, and American custom builders.
.[/SIZE]
there was a time that Japanese cars were laughed at for being low quality, now people point at cadillacs and giggle. whatever..that was the 80s, this is the 00s.
I owned Campy bikes (Coppi), and they were very well made and very reliable, but they didn't do any R&D in 40 years. I don't miss missed shifts, downtube shifters and clicking deraileurs, piss poor brakes at all.
I'm not sure what you mean by standards, some litespeeds, Deans, Treks cost more than a car and are amazing to ride. If anything, the standards have increased.