Are modern bikes rubbish?

[tyred]

It's been all downhill since the penny-farting.

 

[Teamfixed]

You lot need to get off your hobby horse.

 

[DRM]

It's been all downhill since the penny-farting.

That’s because they stank

 

[fossyant]

It's been all downhill since the penny-farting.

My mate still has one and rides it in Lycra.

 

[tyred]

My mate still has one and rides it in Lycra.

Oopsie. Spelling mistake

 

[Peugeotrider]

I've an 86 Peugeot tourmalet and an 06 Raleigh airlite and of the both,the Peugeot I find is a very comfy and great handling bike even if it is 35 years old.
The Raleigh is an aluminium frames bike but,to be fair there's not much in weight between the pair.
In 86,my Peugeot was around 200 new so bring that into today's prices it probably equates to 400

 

[kayakerles]

To save a huge debate - it depends.

To add another cliche, to each his own.

Mine:

1966 Chrome Moly Schwinn Super Sport, a 10-speed, now a single speed
1997 Steel Bianchi Ocelot old school hardtail mountain bike
2009 Alum. Trek FX 7.6 hybrid w carbon forks

I'm not into speed or distance records. If I could only keep ONE, it would be my 1997 Bianchi hardtail mtn bike. With 1.5” semi-road tires, there's nowhere I can't ride enjoyably.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Bikes that were a load of J. Arthur Rank 50 years ago are still rubbish today, but now labelled L'Eroica and sell for good money.

https://steel-vintage.com/colnago-super-originale-blue-210601-01-02

I was intending to buy something like this when i 'retired',but i think my road cycling days are over after a few serious offs and my loss of confidence as a roadie.

 

[FrankCrank]

I build my own, then I've only myself to blame.

My brother back there said it looked like a butchers bike

 

[Arrowfoot]

Lets be honest here. With advancement in geometry, saddles, wheels, tyres, clipless, design on downtube to improve compression (fix), gears etc especially in the last 10 to 15 years, there is no way in hell that a bike older than that is going to be a better ride.

Sure a 20 year old bike can be functional but certainly not the ride quality. The steel and Ti frame will hold because they can take the knocks, don't suffer from metal fatigue but the components will need changing to newer stuff from time to time.

What is clear is that newer bikes eventually will become harder to fix DIY, proprietary components like seat posts will be costly to replace, and more components will be more fragile to keep a lean weight.

What is good is that new technology, designs and range of colours in both frame and componentry attracts more people into cycling and that does a lot. So we should applaud this.

 

[cookiemonster]

The Cannondale that I bought in October last year is brilliant and a big improvement on my Giant OCR.

 

[DCBassman]

My answer to this question is:
"Dunno, never ridden one".

 

[mustang1]

I'm not a fan of sloping top tubes but I can just about tolerate it.

What I really dislike is slanting top tube coupled with dropped seat stays. Dropped seat stays with horizontal top tubes are bad enough but look downright ugly with a sloping top tube.

Other stuff I dislike:
internal cable routing
bottom brackets standards (just pick one or two, why need a hundred of them?

It also irks me when people talk of bike "tech" like there's a whole bunch of R&D that goes into a bike. Meh.

 

[matticus]

It feels like we've had 1 (or more) threads like this running constantly all year!

Still, any plug for Jack Thurston (and his once-a-year, it seems, podcast) is OK by me.

 

[T4tomo]

Lets be honest here. With advancement in geometry, saddles, wheels, tyres, clipless, design on downtube to improve compression (fix), gears etc especially in the last 10 to 15 years, there is no way in hell that a bike older than that is going to be a better ride.

Sure a 20 year old bike can be functional but certainly not the ride quality. The steel and Ti frame will hold because they can take the knocks, don't suffer from metal fatigue but the components will need changing to newer stuff from time to time.

What is clear is that newer bikes eventually will become harder to fix DIY, proprietary components like seat posts will be costly to replace, and more components will be more fragile to keep a lean weight.

What is good is that new technology, designs and range of colours in both frame and componentry attracts more people into cycling and that does a lot. So we should applaud this.

Absolute codswallop / I politely disagree sir.

A better ride than what? - any modern bike? or are you saying a bike 35 years old won't ride as well as a 12 year old one?

Yes you'll find a better riding modern bikes than say 30 year old ones, but you'll also find some modern low end crap that is hell of a lot worse.

2006-2011 was hardly a heyday for bikes - lots of welded alu framed stuff. A 531 frame from 15+ years before that will ride far far better.