Modern is better for keeping up with peers who are using modern. Over a "long" ride, optimal cadence provided by a wide range of closely spaced gears saves energy required to avoid getting dropped. Modern dual pivot brakes also save energy and allow me to hang tight in a peloton and not get squeezed out the back. Some cyclists using vintage components could hang in a modern component using peloton but they would have to posess superior skills and/or be stronger to be there at the end.

I have an 86 Spectrum and an 03 Tallerico. Both amazing.

There's no comparison though.

Ergo bars, ergo shifters, shift ramps, titanium and carbon fiber bits. There is a little more than 4 pounds difference. One rides like I'm cruising country roads and the other like I've got the full weight of the pro peloton chasing me.

By every objective standard, the newer bike is better. I don't know how to measure fun, for me that changes depending on the ride.

I think there is a point of diminished returns though, I can't imagine a brand new Tallerico with brand new Chorus would be much different, just a little lighter with a larger steerer tube.

Certainly a lot of modern improvements, but whether or not those things are worthwhile I think depend on your goals for riding. For me, I like relaxed rides and being in no particular hurry. These modern bikes with their 11 and 12 speed cassettes in the rear have zero appeal for me. But I'm not trying to keep up with a group ride or scare Karens with strollers on the local greenways.

I turned 60 this year and have been riding a bike for most of those years and fixing up old bikes since I was in junior high. Until very recently, my only complete bike purchase was in Dec. 1982, when I used my first post-college paycheck to buy a Trek 412 from Palo Alto bikes (it cost $350, a heck of a lot of money for me at the time). Not long after that bike got stolen, I bought a '79 Raleigh Super Course from the owner of the bike shop where I worked, and that set me on the C&V path. My road bikes were usually set up with bar-end friction shifting (as the Super Course came from the dealer), toe clips, skinny tires, high gearing. I rode a lot. The technology I was using seemed just fine.

My most recent bike is a Chinese-made custom Ti frame set up for 700 x 38mm tires (which I'm running tubeless), thru-axles, hydraulic disc brakes, 1 1/8" threadless stem, carbon fiber fork, Campy Potenza 11-speed drivetrain and hydro brakes, an Ergon plastic saddle. Oh, and SPD pedals, which I realized about 15 years ago were the solution to the constant hot spots I had been experiencing all of those years with toe clips. Tomorrow, I plan on taking it on an 85-mile solo ride. The only C&V component will be me.

Ymmv.

Better? Perfectly adjusted, modern shift systems are the cat's meow, but at the expense of complexity, cost, and the fact that in a few years there's a good chance that you won't be able to find a replacement. I'm not sure that there are any rim brakes that are signifiantly better than some vintage models equipped with new, modern pads. Hydraulic disc brakes have the ultimate stopping power with little hand effort, but at high cost, and you don't need that much braking power for most applications. Long downhill gravel riding in the PNW makes them worth the cost and complexity.

I'll take a cassette over freewheels any day of the week and twice on Sundays, but I did stop at 8 cogs. More cogs=higher priced chains, and I never wish I'd had a gear "in between". I'd much rather run a sealed bottom bracket than adjustable cup, they're just so easy to install, maintenance free, and I've never worn one out.

My feet used to go numb in even cool weather with toe clips and straps, once clipless came around I never looked back. I've tried to get used to platform pedals, and I use the modern big platform ones for commuting, but still prefer clipless for "performance" riding.

100 year old saddle technology is still as good as it gets for my posterior (YPMV).

Tires (clinchers) are hands down better, and I spend a lot more on tires than I'd ever think I would. Rim manufacturing tolerances seems a lot better than BITD.

+1 :thumb:


BUT, MMV (my mileage varies)
I'm 70 next bday.
Been riding since very early '80s.
Upgraded from friction, thru indexed, and stopped at 10speed. And rode a lot.
Evaluated my cycling pleasures and found 'pushing the limits of the bike' to be not much fun.
I still had a few older bikes, so that was where i decided to derive my pleasure.

Even tho I missed six weeks in late Spring, i still hope for a 3000mile year. Maybe more if Oct/Nov weather cooperates.

I say most new components make riding easier, but not 'better' and not necessarily safer (for me).

Is it any coincidence that music genres with "modern" in their title are just awful.

"Sir, I'm going to need you to put the can opener down on the ground and slide it over to me." :roflmao:

In my opinion hyperglide 7/8/9/10 or 11 is the reason shifting improved not sti. Ramped chainrings. Another huge improvement.
Carbon handlebars are a better upgrade than carbon forks.
Tyres are better and with sealant way better.
These are the only things I would not like to do without.

Tires (Continental Grand Prix 4000s) and brakes got a lot better (not even talking disc brakes) STI shifting & clipless pedals also game changers...

My sweet spot is old lugged steel frames with Campy 10sp triple drive trains. I prefer steel frames because I love the ride and the look. (My frames are ones I lusted after BITD and could not afford.) I prefer modern stuff (if 15 year old Campy 10sp still qualifies as "modern") because it is easier for me to use while still looking good to my jaundiced eye. But there is a limit - I still have not gotten used to the idea of a four-arm crank spider (unless it is from the late 1940s or early 1950s and Gino Bartali is riding it). And RDs got ugly somewhere in the 11sp era and just keep getting uglier and uglier. No doubt those things work great, but my aesthetic sense will not let me find out.

Could I ride and enjoy a period-correct 1970s Masi? Heck yes. Could I ride and enjoy a latest-thing electronic shifting CF uber-bike? I have no doubt. But I have found my sweet spot and I'm happy to live there. My stuff is "better" - for me. Not only may your mileage vary, but it almost inevitably will. Vive l'difference.

A cassette being lighter than a freewheel would be relevant if the freehub body weighed nothing. But since it, uh, weighs something, that's apples to oranges. A more meaningful weight comparison would be a freewheel+hub with a hub+freehub+cassette. The difference would be marginal. Performance and maintenance are another story, cassette technology wins hands down.

Compare a 40-year-old steel frameset with 5-6 digits of km with a 40-year-old carbon frameset used the same distance (30-40 years from now). Racers obviously don't need to care about longevity.

We can argue over where the point of diminishing returns is. I do like 8- and 9-speeds better than 7, because I like closely spaced gears without sacrificing range of gears. I don't enjoy my bike with 10-speed cassette any better than my 9. I have a bike with an 11-speed cassette, and I'm not sure why, but it shifts better than any bike I've ever had. It's probably because of improvements to the designs, not the greater number of cogs. This is my 3x11 tandem where the extra speeds are a real asset, and I would even enjoy more.

I don't like downtube shifters because they're not convenient. Bar-end shifters are convenient, reliable, though still not as accessible and fast as brifters. My favorites are trigger shifters, but they are for upright bars. I have them on my tandem. Hmm, maybe that's why I like that rear derailleur so much.

Agreed. It's the price we pay, and you could argue it's not worth it. Maybe 8-speed is a sweet spot between cost, reliability and a nice choice of gears. I'm building a 2x8 bike now and will soon see. My wife has a 3x8 bike, and it seems like a champ.

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Oof, that thing is going to go up in price now that they don't make 'em anymore!

I’m pretty much using tech that was the norm in the early 70s when I taught myself bike maintenance and repair back in fifth grade (we had bike repair books in the school library).

So I’m not much of a resource about whether the modern stuff is “better.” It’s just not that interesting to me, since I’m well served by the older bikes I have.

One thing I will say is that battery powered bike lights have gotten better!

I have USB-recharging bike lights with handy straps so I can quickly install and remove them and they run a good long time and are more than bright enough. Now if I could just keep the bugs out of my eyes when I ride late evenings in the river plain. 😕

Otto

I have a very limited exposure to a wide variety of bikes so I can only comment on my experience.
I was an active rider from grade school through college. Not a racer by any means but rode a lot. My main ride back then was a UO-8. I have posted a pic of me on it in the country, you may have seen it.
When I returned to riding in 2007, a 1972 Motobecane Le Champion was my ride. There were things I didn't care for, Learning to shift again was a bit of a challenge, braking was not great. It was fast and enjoyable. It had a corncob block and I lived on a hill whose road was short but about 42* incline. Even the newspaper boy approach was really hard.
I bought the year end closeout RockHopper. Much better. Got all confused with the twist shifter. I though you were suppose to pull back not twist forward! Still get confused.
The 83 Colnago was a significant step up overall. Still basically the same tech. Same with the Treks and Bottecchia.
The Piinarello was a step into index shifting with down tubes. Improvement in shifting. Bike fit better but not a tech improvement thing. I was really curios about Campagnolo Ertgos.
Today the favorite ride is the 88 De Rosa with 10speed Record everywhere. Wow. It is a great pleasure to ride. Shifts and stops NOW. shifting is intuitive with the direction the chain needs to go, out for upshifts in for down shifts, both sides. Riding the hoods is huge improvement too. The older non aero levers are tough on the hands for hood riding.

Oh and I don't need 10 speeds. 8-9 would work well. The one bike with 10 brackets the 8 speed. I don't need the higher gear but the lower is nice.

Modern lighting IMO is the most fantastic advancement in biking.

Otherwise, I'm plenty happy with 7 speeds and DT shifters. Modern tech might be a hair better, but I don't race and I'm not that fast so it really wouldn't make any difference to me. And DT shifters just feel better to me.

Although this may pale compared with his earlier genre offerings, I'll take it.

My Daniel Rebour book has a drawing from the 1945 Paris Cycle Show with shifters attached
to the front of brake levers so I really have to ask "What is new"! I saw clipless pedals in a
1880's catalog. prongs in the pedal engaged prongs on the shoe. you moved your ankle outboard
to disengage

Good point.

Didn't Sturmey-Archer have indexed shifting figured out in the early 20th?

I agree that lighting technology has improved tremendously, whether generator or battery powered. I’m also appreciative of GPS devices. While there’s plenty of appeal in getting lost and using paper maps (been there, done that repeatedly), I sure do like having my Wahoo device tell me when to turn.

How often are you adjusting the height of your stem and why? It comes off as aggressive, but its really just confusion. I can adjust the height of my threadless stems in 3min too. I have some spacers above and below the stem. Its quite simple, but I never adjust the stem height because it fits.
Quill stems come in extremely limited lengths and angles too. Frustrating.

And if stem height adjustability is a plus for quill stems, then the inability to easily change stem length and handlebars is an equal drawback.

Clincher tires are better. Caliper brakes and brake pads are better. Lights are definitely better.

Hmm... if I still had my PX10LE, which components would I want to use today... maybe the Mafac Competition brakes. Otherwise,
modern stuff allows me to dial in the bike and forget about it. I don't miss annual overhauls, steel guides and clips, mediocre shifting,
seized freewheels, loose bearings and their fiddly adjustment, steel seat posts with odd clamping schemes, etc.