I was talking to a worker in a bikestore and he pretty much said that so much progress has been made in components in the last 20 years that old ones are almost obsolete at least in comparison to new ones of today.I was specifically asking about rims as I saw what I thought might be a good deal on old, circa 1985, Mavic rims.Do, people agree?For example how would a 1985 Shimano 600 groupset compare to say a Sora or tiagra modern groupset?Hey, my 1989 Trek Shimano Exage groupset is pretty dandy in my eyes!

does it work?

I still use and prefer Deore thumb shifters (~1990) for all my bikes, and I prefer friction mode too! My old mountain bike components are holding up fine, shift crisply, and work well. I would not hesitate to use gear from 20 years ago on a new build as long as I know I can still obtain replacement parts (i.e., chain rings, square taper bottom brackets, etc.).

P.S. I will add that I think threadless headsets are much better than treaded -- I believe that is certainly an improvement. New outboard bottom brackets may be better too.

My everyday bike is 16 years old, yet I keep up to date on components and wheels, changing them out periodically with the latest and best.

On the other hand, for a vintage or classic old collectable bike, I would think you should keep it period-correct by keeping the components in good repair but the same as what came on it originally.

20yr old parts obsolete? Shoot. I wonder how my '85 Trek even makes it down the road.

I think the new stuff works quite well...just like the old stuff did.

I'm using 600 hubs on my roadie, they run nicely. According to one rider, much better than his new Ultegra. Some dude asked me to race him (friend in friendly comp). I did and smoked him by 10 minutes on a 10 mile stretch. When he arrived, he said it was that his newly built wheels were slow rollers due to the Ultegra hubs.

We both use Velcocity Deep V rims (28) but my hubs are 15 years old. What I gather from his comments, the new Ultgra hubs are heavy slow rollers compared to my 600's.

Let's see this is the over 50 list, now how far back do you want to call old stuff ,
the gear used by which decade of TdF winners ?

I just built a pair of 28H wheels using DA hubs from almost 30 years ago, NOS Open Pros, and they're going on a 27 YO bike w/ a 39 YO Record drivetrain on it. It's been my experience that the motor is the limiting factor on all my bikes...

Given a choice between mid-level 25+ YO stuff vs. current low(er) end stuff, I'd opt for the older stuff, mainly because I think the manufacturers put more thought into the finish and craftmanship of the product.

20 years ago and I got into handbuilt wheels on the MTB. XT hubs on Mavic rims and they were pretty darn good. Still wore the rims out after about 2 years and by that time the hubs were going so it was new wheels every couple of years. I have stayed with the XT hubs and the same lightweight rims over the years but those items have changed. The lightweight rim evolved into the 117 rim-then the 217 and is now a 717. The original rim that I have forgotten the number of would last 2 years. The 117 was lighter but did not last and was changed to the 217 very quickly. The XT hubs have not changed much over that time.

But those original wheels--In their day fine except the join on the rim was butt jointed and often were not exactly smooth at the join. Later versions were welded and then skimmed to give a true joint. The Early XT hubs and the Bearings used to get a bit of wear so were changed every 6 months. Better design and better seals and I only regrease every 6 months.

So a type and build of wheel I have used for 20 years and I don't think the later versions are better than the early ones. May be better built- take a bit less maintenance and be lighter but ride better?- Don't think so.

What has happened is that the quality and build of basically the same part has improved over the years. Look at the XT hubs---I still buy XT hubs and they don't ride any better than 20 year old versions- but the seals andbearings have improved- and possibly the life.

My own 2 cents.I bought a pair of record hubs for a future build on e-bay at a good price and they are certainly in a class of there own.I can't imagine improving on that in the next 50 years!Spins smooth as butter and who knows how old they are with their 120mm spacing.

I have a full Shimano Exage LX Sport groupset on my 1989 Fuji Club and everything works superbly in my opinion. 7-speed indexed downtube shifters with little white rubber tips. The light action RD shifts promptly (despite the Uniglide cassette), the brake levers are classic aero looking, the sidepull brakes are plenty firm (with KoolStop salmon pads/cartridges as an upgrade). I even like the BioPace (Biohazard) chainrings! Nothing wrong with these parts.

The new stuff works well, too. Your bike shop friend lacks a bit of perspective, which he will gain over future years. PG

The motor on my bike is almost 57 years old, and in many ways it's working better now than it ever has.



Seriously, in the case of bike components, "obsolete" doesn't have to mean unusable, or even of sub-par performance, unless there's something you just don't like about them, like down-tube shifters or something. Yes, the new crop of components seems, in my limited experience, to be equal-or-better quality at a given price point when compared to the old stuff, but that doesn't mean the old stuff doesn't still work well (assuming it worked well when it was new).

Funny you should ask....

I just glued up a Vittoria Pave on an old [front] Mavic GP 4 built on a Campy record hub circa early 80's.

It sucks.

The hub is fine but by modern standards the rim is a tank. Yeah, it rolls down the road but imo would make a good dirt road wheel

Good parts, properly installed and well maintained, remain good parts. Quality old parts and quality new parts make good bikes when used on good frames.

trek330, Obsolete? Yes. Unuseable? No, not always. Downside to an older drivetrain can be parts availability.

Brad

Something I bumped up against when my 20-year old Shimano 600 rear derailleur lost a jockey wheel bolt while on a ride last season. No one could find a replacement wheel, or even a bolt that was the right size and thread, so I ended up having to get a whole new derailleur. For a number of reasons I chose not to spend a lot of money on it, so instead of getting an Ultegra (the group that took the place of the 600 series), I got a Sora and as far as I can tell so far, it performs every bit as well as the old 600 unit.

I'd think the rims would have been better from 20 years ago, before they started milling part of the braking surface off. Hubs, well, bearings haven't changed much. Everything else is open to argument.

Never trust the opinion of someone who has a stake in selling you something. The diff is FAR less than the marketeers and sales folk would have you believe. As in inconsequential for most purposes.

SP
Bend, OR

I'm running mid-80s Mavic G 40 rims on mid-80s Ofmega sealed hubs and had the rear re-spoked last year after breaking two drive side spokes in a season.

The only newer components, other than tires, tubes, and cables, on my mid-80s Vitus 969 are both derailleurs which were replaced when the Ofmega Mistral thermoplastic derailleur models failed after 20 years.

If it works, and you like it, ride it.

Perhaps the " worker in a bikestore" was looking to make a sale?

My early 1980s Campy Super Record derailleurs shift just as precisely as they did back-in-the-day.
My Modolo Pro brakes still stop me just fine.
My Mavic GP-4s laced 3x with DT 15 gauge SS spokes to Campy SR LF hubs are as true as the day I built them in the early 1980s.
My durable Columbus SL steel frame is still stiff and responsive, yet comfortable.
Obsolete? Yeah, but who cares? Not me.

Hi,

Some great thoughts and some great parts discussed in this thread so far.

Someone asked about which decade and I can start in the 1970s. I think the answer to whether or not old parts are obsolete is:

It depends.

I got my first bike with Campy Nuovo Record components in 1976. I still have that bike but with hardly any of the original components. Before that bike I had a bike with the "classic" and plastic Simplex derailleurs. Those things were obsolete in their own time. As far as the Nuovo and Super Record parts from that era (and well before Shimano made a complete group), there were recurring issues, such as drive-side crank arms that would break at the spider (I have two with cracks in them) and lower pivots on the rear derailleur that would wear into an egg shape on the inner diameter of the body.

So maybe the good-old-days weren't quite so good.

I had mostly Japanese components on my bikes in the 1980s. Remember SunTour? A lot of that stuff worked really well but the finish on it was not nearly as durable (living and riding near the beach) as Campagnolo. Also, getting spare, small parts was always an issue. However, in the scheme of things, new components were relatively cheap. However, don't get me going on rims. I got to be pretty good building wheels because rims from that era (tubular and clincher) were so soft. (BTW, I weighed about 135 lbs back then.)

I didn't ride as much or as hard in the 1990s and I switched back to Campagnolo in 1995. That 8-speed stuff was pretty much bullet-proof and really heavy. I remember thinking that my 1975 steel Bianchi was lighter than my 1997 Ti Bianchi.

I'll stop here. If your vintage bike parts still work and work for you, that's great. For me, riding 7,000 miles per year and doing 60+ races per year, this new stuff works better, is more reliable, and weighs less. My 1975 Bianchi with circa 1984 Super Record components sits on display in my house as a museum piece and I happy to leave it that way.

Today I did a convoluted commute for the first time involving car, commuter train, and bike. (My last bike commuting was maybe 20 years ago.) Today's bike run was about 13 miles each way and meant climbing out of the Blackstone River valley. I'm 62. The bike is 39. A few parts (wheels, derailleurs) have been upgraded. The old bike got me back and forth in about one hour each way. Would have been faster except for some stoplights I felt obligated to wait for.

Is that bike obsolete? I didn't think so either. Do modern parts perform better? Perhaps but not so much that I have to rush out and replace mine. The old stuff didn't suddenly stop working when Shimano came out with <fill in the blank>.

By definition, something that is obsolete is either: No longer in use (obviously, if the parts are on a bike you are currently riding, they can not be obsolete by this definition) or Outmoded in design, style or construction (which could apply to last year's DA groupo). So, what was the point again?

My latest aquisition, a pair of vintage wheels - $40 on ebay.

- Super Champion Record du Monde rims(315gr) laced to Atom small flange hubs. They gotta be 35-40 years old. Love 'em. Wouldnt trade them for any modern carbon fiber super wheels.