New stuff - why?
 

Just a thought, while I'm delaying posts of my new bike
I love it. It's pretty. It's the best engineered thing I've owned - and that includes a couple of Ducati motorcycles.
I can't ride it to within 20% of its capabilities. I still get dropped by all the quick guys, and a good number of the slow guys!
But - I like it. I get up in the night to look at it.
I used to run consultancy projects for a very fancy French watch and jewellery company, whilst wearing a Timex. And for a German car company, whilst running a 10 year old pickup truck. This computer was mid-range in 1995.
In most areas, I'm immune to the call of the new and fashionable - but bikes seem to have hit me different just now, after 17 years with a perfectly good one!
Anyone else?

You ought to realise by now that at our Mature years- there are not many things that will get the Adrenalyn running. I stopped trying to impress the ladies at the gym when in the sauna by holding my stomach in. I stopped trying to beat the Turks on the 5 mile sprints that they used to call a warm up period, and I stopped worrying about trying to impress people I met with my work attitude. The only thing that matters to me is the bike. In particular one bike- Boreas. Other than rides- I don't think that bike left the lounge for a week. Then I had to clean it so I took it to the bike shed. The wife locked the doors and will only open up a small window to let me get back into the house by. Still Boreas has plenty of mates down in the shed- and I bet they are telling him of the Trips that he will be taking next year. And the new Equipment he will be trying out.

Rats...I do not have to hold mine in but we are NOT allowed to sauna with the ladies at the gym.

Just make sure you don't end up like this guy:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...26/nsex126.xml

I never thought I would see the day when getting a new part for my bike would be exciting. I was like a kid waiting for Christmas morning waiting for the LBS to call and say the new cassette was in:rolleyes: The minute they called I took off work and rushed over there to get it installed.

Do they allow you in the sauna with the ladies? At our gym they have separate facilities.

Depends on the Gym but out in the sticks where I live- Small gym and one Sauna.

Now as to that Cassette- 12/27 came on the bike but I ordered another one so I could fit the training wheels to Boreas. It took 8 weeks. UK Concessionaire was out of stock. Fitted it to the training wheels and that was when I found out how good those Cheap Hand Built wheels were. Up to the standard of the Reworked Ultegras that came with Boreas and the Michelin PR2's are fantastic.

I think that is reason enough to worship a bicycle.

Perhaps this is like enjoying fine wine: it takes a level of maturity and cultivation before one truly appreciates it's value.

Most youngins' I know would just as soon stare at You tube than to behold a well-built machine, unless it's an Iphone.

Actually, my feelings toward classic lugged steel-framed bicycles are similar to yours toward your new acquisition. I splurged uncharacteristically on a professional paint job on one of them, the 1959 Capo, and four years later I still enjoy looking at it almost as much as riding it.

"Tell them, dear, that if eyes are ment for seeing,
then beauty is it's own excuse for being."

Sure wouldn't want to be in a paceline with that fellow!!!!

Some of the UK'rs who have recently jabbed at us yanks and even the occasional Aussie have nothing to say now - only in the UK would someone think of using a bicycle for THAT purpose. :D

I am with you. But I hate carbon stuff. I despise it. I think cf bikes are ugly, in prostitued way. (If that makes sense.) I think cf parts, especially campy, are pathetic attempts to be something they could never be.

Check out the quality and finish between a 10sp campy chorus from 2002 and 2007. No comparision.

So I go around looking for NOS Alloy campy parts for my Italian steelie. Unfortunately, so is everyone else and that is driving up the price like crazy.

Sorry, but I love 'em all.

I prefer the look of lugged steel, polished aluminum components, quill stems, and horizontal top tubes. I can stare at any of mine for hours, especially the Bianchi.

However, I know that the newer bikes, while not as visually appealing to me, are great performers. A winning lottery ticket would put me in the LBS in short order, just to see what everyone is raving about.

Talking about new stuff and old stuff, I was thinking of building an "urban cruiser" out of old mtn.bike parts I have in a few boxes. Went web shopping for an inexpensive frame, and found that some of my old parts won't work on many of the frames offered-why?-because I was going to use some old cantilever brakes and many frames are only suited for disk brakes. I'm sure there are some made, I'll keep looking, or maybe build up a better mtn bike(with disk brakes) and use my old one as the cruiser.

Wow, my experience is entirely different. In years past, working as a drug and alcohol counselor in federal prisions along the east coast of the US, I've met people who would attempt to perform that act on almost anything. I met one guy once who got serious burns on his "private parts" trying to create and intimate encounter with the exhaust pipe of an automobile. Human being are very diverse creatures in more ways than we might think.

In terms of the desire and appreciation of the bicycle, there are folks who feel the same way about their golfclubs, guitars, sail boats, fishing rods, garden tractor, motorcycle, car, wrist watch, etc. I got bit my the bicycle bug in my early 20s and haven't been able to shake it in over 35 years. The difference between now and then is that I no longer try to hide my passion or be embarassed by it.

Surly has frames that might suit your needs. I'm in the finishing stages of building up an around town / errand bike, built up on the Surly Long Haul Trucker frame...it's a touring frame that requires cantilever or V brakes.

With its steel frame, Mavic touring rims, Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, full fenders, and rear rack with panniers, it definitely won't be a lightweight - I'm guessing it will weigh around 28 lbs. But, as a "car replacement" bike, it should be a winner.

A lot of new stuff (computers, sterios, cameras) have become so high tech that they are magic. The bicycle, no matter how much it's modernized is still pretty much the same invention that the Wright Bros worked on.

I assume that the geezer group that we are just loves the perfection of a machine that we can relate to.

This is timely. Just read a WSJ article from April about how buying new stuff does not make us happy for very long. Just not in our DNA according to the experts. You know there has been a govt. funded study on everthing. We soon get used to the new house, car, bike, etc. that we thought would make us happy.

Buying or building a new bike has only temporarly satisified my desire to build another one.

Interesting, oilman. I guess I'm lucky that I like my old house, my old wife, my old friends and my old bikes. I do, however, still buy a lottery ticket from time to time.

BTW, maddmaxx, you are so right about new high-tech stuff. I recently bought a cheap piano keyboard (under $150). It can sound like anything from a full church choir to (I'm not kidding) a submarine, a standup bass, a set of stee drums or a car crash.

I assume you fasten it to your aerobars with bungee hooks, and power it with a tyre driven dynamo?

No matter the age, bike riding brings out the child in us.

OK.
Enough.

Let's see it!

I guess I did not present the jist of the article correctly. The theme was that we(humans) think new stuff as in a house, car, bike will make us happy when in reality it is not in our DNA that new stuff will make us happy. And the happiness is short lived because we quickly get used to a bigger house or whatever. It did not cover if we like our present stuff. I like my old stuff like my wife and house and bikes.

I just like the process of building and working with bikes. It does not mean I am unhappy with any of my bikes or I would have sold them.

If one lives in a consumer society as strong as many in the Western world, this is no surprise. We are constantly being cajoled, encouraged, and/or pressured into buying. For many people their very image of who they are is tied up in what they own or the specific brand of something. Just recently my youngest son wanted to buy an Apple computer. It turns out that he really had no other reason than the current popularity of Apple corporation's IPod and IPhone. This consumer mentality is taught very early and consistently to most of us, however, I find no research that would suggest that it is a "natural" part of being human. I agree this is not part of our DNA and is most likely learned behavior.