Stapfam brought out the salient point. Machining quality on the same grade of part has improved. You did not ask if the old stuff no longer works, yes it does and so does a horse. The high end new stuff is made to tighter tolerances and better materials. In some places it is made cheaper but usually the top two tiers of components (record/chorus, Dura Ace/Ultegra) keeps getting better. Sometimes the manufactures will make a mistake (wireless shifters) but for the most part the stuff is just getting better.

Some things are, most are not.

As others have observed, rims have gotten a lot better over the years, especially if you are comparing what we have now
with what we had in the 60s.

I had a 7 spd Shimano set up on my XO2 that shifted beautifully.

Which brings me to what I would have told the guy. In some respects, things
are worse. My 7 spd gears and chains lasted a lot longer than the 9 and especially 10 sp stuff.

I would like to see modern tricks applied to a 7 or 8 speed tourist/commuter oriented grouppo.

Something with ramps and such, and a 36 t bailout gear, and a Mtn style crank with the option
to use STI shifters that were designed for it.

I don't need more speeds, I need better ones.

I bought every saddle my family uses, and they're all Brooks.

Tires have gotten better, a lot better, if you are willing to shell
out the dough for the good stuff.

It's a mixed bag, things are better, except where they're not.

My 1936 and 2009 Sturmey-Archer AW hubs are indistinguishable from the cockpit.

Guess I need to throw this away then.

Nice bike. Hey, we have the same tires. Now do you like the Bontrager "B"s? Dig the clips, too.

Ouch! My back just started aching remembering the 1991 Cannondale road bike with crit geometry I rode for a year before trading for the Bridgestone RB-1 that I rode for the next 18 years.

But if it works for you, then it works. Newer bikes do have some improvements, but that doesn't mean older ones aren't still good.

I'm behind the pack on the lingo.....what is "crit geometry"?

It's true that high quality parts, designed to last a lifetime are obsolete. If everybody bought these things, there would be millions of bike shop workers who would be out of a job. In some areas - such as weight/strength ratios and ease of assembly the newer components have made great strides, and if you are talking about a bike which you want to race at a competitive level, then it is true that 20 year old components are probably obsolete. However, if you are looking for reliable transportation to get you to the coffee shop and back, then a 20 year old Mavic rim is probably more likely to still be serviceable in another 20 years than the latest, high tech CF rim that the bike shop guy would probably rather sell you.

Crit=Criterium

It's comfortable for about 30 miles and that is about all I ride. It is what it is. Yes it is tough on the back.

I like the Bontrager tires. They seem to roll well and have good "stickum". But then again I do not have a lot of experience with a lot of tires.

I have since put "clipless" (misnomer) pedals on it.

I found out after I bought my bike that C'dale offered the bikes with either "road race" or "criterium" geometry with the crit geometry having tighter angles for quicker handling. I am sure I would have been happier with the road race version. That bike definitely lived up to Cannondale's reputation for overly stiff and harsh rides. On the other hand, it was amazing how strongly the bike responded to increased pedal pressure. It accelerated like no bike I have ridden since.

Clipless is no misnomer. The picture above shows pedals with toe clips. Clipless pedals don't have them.

I've just increased the pressure on my bontragers. Not having a guage I cant really tell what is in there now, just that it sure rolls nice and is showing a nice contact pattern on the tires. Previously I was using my little compact pump and most likely topping out at 70psi. Then I found the floor pump and have approached that nice 95-100psi feel. Sure hope I've not exceeded that

What is the frame made of? I see the oval tubes...is that aluminum?

I know what the clip refers to in clips.but if you think about it you clip(click) into clipless pedals. that is what I was referring to. chicken/egg.
all aluminum, yes

Those aluminum tubes were round - and seemed huge back then. Cannondale was among the first to use large diameter thinwall tubing for stiffness and by most accounts they went too far. This was before the concept of "lateral stiffness and vertical compliance" was popular.

Yup, they are round. The bike does accelerate like crazy.....from what I hear.

20 year old Dales did give a "Harsh" ride- and that is from someone that until 5 years ago only rode offroad and went for the stiffest frame possible. I even stayed on rigid forks till a chest op meant I had to go hardtail eventually. 4 years ago I was in the market for my 2nd road bike and I tried quite a few. The choice was limited to CF and aluminium but the difference in ride between manufacturers was tremendous. I found CF that rattled the fillings at every pebble on the road aswell as soft floppy rides. It was nearly the same with aluminium but I will never forget the test ride I had on an ally Dale. That was not harsh- that bike hurt. Could have been the wheels or the tyre pressure but that one ride put me right off Dale aluminium frames. I know it was not a fair test of the Cannondale range but the reputaion and one test ride meant I was going for another bike.

And what did I get?--A lightweight aluminium frame that is rock solid-in the right places. Acceleration and it seems to transmit every bit of power from the pedals into the back wheel. But hit a rough patch of tarmac and it stays on the road without any of the skittishness that a stiff frame seems to have. And it is still my favourite bike- even though another couple have been added to the flock.

Am 78 years old; does that make me obsolete??

I bought my Raliegh Technium 460 about 1985 and I noticed that the still original rear tire has split. I guess that makes it obsolete??

No, it means you didn't ride it enough.

Obsolete doesn't mean it doesn't work anymore. It means you can't get new parts to work with it anymore.

Pack up all of that old obsolete stuff and curb it. I'll come by to recycle it.

Bike shps tend to have quite a few bike snobs, had the local guy tell me anything over five years old is obsolete. Needless to say, I did not go back.

Most of my bikes are mid 1980s, just picked up a 1999 titanium road bike. Thats the newest bike i have. Note my 1987 Schwinn Prologue has the same drivetrains as the 1999 bike: nine speed DA. Ilike relatively modern components... Newest components am running are 2003, still "obsolete".

Man, I gotta go through the basement, there is money to be made sell my relics from the stone age here......I mean my fine previously owned components.

Round?! Oh man, that is huge.

It isn't that we're snobs, it's just that it takes too long to find other parts that will still work with it. I love old stuff, but I would never trouble a bike mechanic, who is on somebody's timeclock and has a docket full of repair tickets, to fix it or find some more parts that would work with it. Time is money, and most bike shops don't have enough of it.

To be valid, to comparisons have to be groupset to groupset, like the 600 with Ultegra. And to be really, really valid, the price comparison is a must. I have a feeling that by comparing price of groupsets back then with the same or similar groupsets now, the new ones are way out in front, and are better built, dollar-for-dollar, because of improved machining (CNC) and other production techniques.

I know Sheldon Brown was very firm in his assertion that old derailleurs are not as good as modern ones. I think the development of ramps and pins and chainlink shaping has improved shifting -- it has to have, for STI to be forgiving enough in the hands of novices and racers.

Remember, Shimano also make fishing reels that must work in fairly hostile environments. It's the quality of the smallest parts that really counts. The fact that STIs can last for many tens of thousands of miles is testament to this.

If the old stuff was really that good, why aren't the pros, whose livelihoods depend on fractions of seconds, still use it? (Granted, bar-end shifters are still in use on time-trial bikes).

Sometimes the new fangled stuff does work better or in my case, solves a problem with derailleur alignment and adjustment.

Installed a wider rage block on my Phillip's 20 and was going to swap the VXs for a VxGT but the angle of the dropout messes with derailleur alignment and I used a SRAM X5 which was pretty much plug and play although still had to file the hangar stop a little.

The capacity on the Vx Gt is the same and it is a much lighter derailleur and if I was dealing with conventional dropouts and no custom hangar would have used this as few derailleurs work better on a friction system.

It is only the advent of indexed systems that rendered many vintage parts as being obsolete as most friction era derailleurs do not index well... on the flip side the SRAM X5 works beautifully with Bar Cons and a Suntour Ultra 7 freewheel and can handle a 53/30 combo with hardly a whimper.