Modern bike features that've spoiled old bikes for you..

[Punkawallah]

My road rims would last less than two years, riding in all conditions. I had folding bike rims fail on my commute as they had got too thin. My disc braked wheel rims just keep going and going.

To be fair, I suspect the ‘folding bike rims’ were a failure waiting to happen ;-)

 

[Punkawallah]

On the other hand, I rode a '90s Dawes Audax on its original rims all year round for four years of commuting in muddy lanes and A roads without appreciably wearing out the rims.

“It’s a Dawes” :-)

 

[Rhythm Thief]

“It’s a Dawes” :-)

It was a great bike. Funnily enough, I'm currently on a train up to Manchester to collect another one.

 

[wafter]

I was going to paraphrase Jobst Brandt's comments in response to this, but it actually makes more sense to link to his better-written article instead:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/threadless-headset.html

As usual with most bike related queries, Jobst answered it cogently and accurately, decades ago (In short- it's primarily about preventing stuck stems)

Although I'm also with you- I'd use a quill on an old bike for appearance's sake, and just refit and grease it regularly.

Thanks - some good points raised that I'd not considered; but ultimately I don't see any of the shortcomings of the threaded setup significant enough to over-ride the nausea resulting from seeing a threadless headset on an otherwise vintage-looking bike

 

[a.twiddler]

I was going to paraphrase Jobst Brandt's comments in response to this, but it actually makes more sense to link to his better-written article instead:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/threadless-headset.html

As usual with most bike related queries, Jobst answered it cogently and accurately, decades ago (In short- it's primarily about preventing stuck stems)

Although I'm also with you- I'd use a quill on an old bike for appearance's sake, and just refit and grease it regularly.

Yes. I wish I'd known when starting out that a quill stem (which was all there was then) was meant to have some give if you applied unreasonable force to it. I remember tightening one until the veins stood out on my forehead and wondering why it would still move if I really heaved sideways on the bars. In retrospect it probably did unspeakable things to the steerer tube, rather than tightening beyond a certain point. Still, bikes are tough, and I rode it for years without any issues.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Thanks - some good points raised that I'd not considered; but ultimately I don't see any of the shortcomings of the threaded setup significant enough to over-ride the nausea resulting from seeing a threadless headset on an otherwise vintage-looking bike

Yeah. I've had a couple of old steel bikes fitted with those horrible quill-to-aheadset-stem adapters. They're the worst aspects of both designs and they go straight in the scrap bin.

 

[lostinthought]

Thanks - some good points raised that I'd not considered; but ultimately I don't see any of the shortcomings of the threaded setup significant enough to over-ride the nausea resulting from seeing a threadless headset on an otherwise vintage-looking bike

I'm kinda with you there..! I am considering one of these neater compromises for my most traditional bike (which was built with a threadless setup)

It's still a clunky dollop compared to a Cinelli XA, but everything is, and I think it looks nicer than the alternatives. Annoyingly I would need shims for my 26mm bars though

 

[MichaelW2]

STI (and SRAM equivalent) shifting/braking system with hidden cables.
Cotterless cranks and external bottom brackets
Aheadsets

Modern bikes have external bottom bracket and internal headset.
Old bike have internal BB and external HS.
Is one better than the other? For longevity, few systems rival a Shimano UN cartridge BB.

 

[Punkawallah]

It was a great bike. Funnily enough, I'm currently on a train up to Manchester to collect another one.

Tease. Would it be a Ranger by any chance?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Tease. Would it be a Ranger by any chance?

Nope, another Dawes Audax.

 

[Profpointy]

Ahead set headsets are also pretty nice.

Except it makes the handlebars essentially non-adjustable; only adjustable downwards at any rate. A pain on a lent or hired bike

 

[SpokeyDokey]

A pain on a lent or hired bike

Does that affect many people, I wonder?

 

[Dogtrousers]

Does that [non adjustability of bar height] affect many people, I wonder?

Maybe, maybe not. It's hard to know.

Once the steerer is cut, it's cut. There's no going back. There may be people who would like to raise the bars a bit if they could, but they can't.

Spa deliberately left a few cm of uncut steerer for me "for when your back goes" as the mechanic charmingly put it. That was over 10 years ago and I've used up all the slack they gave me and my stem is now right at the top. If they hadn't have done that I would have been stuck with bars that I couldn't raise or been forced into using a hideous riser stem.

It also cuts down the flexibility of a second hand bike.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Just in case this seems to be turning into a meeting of the "quill is better flat earth society" here are a couple of posts from @Yellow Saddle on the engineering benefits of threadless headsets.

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/why-did-headsets-change-from-1-to-1-1-8.220129/#post-4851226
https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/chain-snapped.247687/page-3#post-5592270

A truly brilliant design. Inventions like this are invisible to the quill-is-better flat-earth society but have changed the reliability of bicycles enormously.

Of course you could argue that it's not the threadless design that prevents up-down adjustability, it's human vanity. People don't want that sticky-up periscope of steerer tube so have the steerer cut off prematurely, removing space for adjustment.

 

[Smokin Joe]

All this talk about the adjustment available on quill stems, there is often surprisingly little. Leave a spacer plus another 1/8" above the stem on an A-headset and unless you've cocked up to begin with you've got plenty of room to tweak.

If age eventually means you need to go higher a new fork can cost less than replacing the wheels or the chainset.