Originally Posted by RobbieTunes
(Post 17537690)
Generally, when we meet to ride, we look at bikes and make few comments, as everyone's mind is on the next bunch of miles. Yesterday's ride brought a newbie named Zach on his aluminum aero Cervelo, and a regular named Mike on his new Look full carbon. I've somehow convinced him (probably by not buying it) to use the 10-sp carbon Record that came on it, and now, of course, he's hooked. Boy, that was easy. Another new guy started riding about a year ago, 58 years old, and is hooked. Other than noting my friend's redone Kestrel and my modern steel, we didn't say much, and we were off. Nothing much would have been said if I'd been on my steel '80's bikes; we've all ridden before, for the most part, and I've never had a new guy comment on something like that; it would seem fairly forward of a thing to do.
During the ride, you do what you do, whether it's on friction, DT indexed, bar end or brifter/Ergo. I've ridden all during group rides and never gave it a second thought. Yesterday, the new old guy never shifted and his saddle was too low. He mashed into, across, and with the wind. He loved it. The new young guy out-rode us all until the breakaway with 10 to go. My friend's Kestrel stopped going to the big ring, so I swapped with him just before the breakaway, taking the 39/12 to places it may have never been before. My friend thinks the modern steel is sliced bread. The Look had to turn around at 1/3 of the way, since he has 5 kids and about an hour is all he ever gets. One of our riders is healed from a lacerated kidney that he got when he went down on his tri-bike (while in the tuck). I've ridden with these guys for years, and all we ever do is ride. I've ridden DT shifters, friction and indexed, and bar end and brifter/ergos. It's never seemed to matter, and I can tell you that, in my experience, DT shifting is pretty nice in rolling hill country.
After the ride, we talk of speed, the dogs, and the breakaway. Then we start talking bikes, and the appreciation for the older stuff tends to come forth at that time. The newer bikes are just newer bikes, and they get a once-over, but the older stuff gets the curiousity, the longer looks. That craft and art form doesn't sway them from what they roll on, but they do appreciate it. When the ride is over, and we actually have some time, the bicycle as a modern art form takes over, and we look everything over, and share unsupported beliefs.
As for old and new, I still prefer a classic bike. I grew up looking down at slender steel tubes, and the imprint is still with me. Like iab, I appreciate the time and thought process behind the way bikes and components were made, not to advertise, but to say "I did this and I'm proud of it." I like how lugs dress up a tube, and still serve a function. I like how older bikes have places that shine and need maintenance, and how you may not want to ride them in the rain, and how you actually have to use grease in chunks, and how they're mechanical.
Doesn't mean I won't ride the most modern and advanced I can afford, given my priorities.
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