@@humility-righteous-giving I have and no thanks. Souless. Grossly overpriced and if damaged good luck. I have been riding for over 65 years and the joy is still in it with a proper steel, lugged bike such as my 1982 SOMEC, 1961 Miyata AERO PRO, Rivendell Hunqapillar, Rivendell Cheviot as well as a 1992 Specialized 940 Mountian Bike. I have a few others. I applaud those who wish to ride on plastic, and wear synthetic fabric pseudo racer clothes, that's style; I prefer class. Ditto on the excellent video.
They are the epitome of elegant engineering. Done properly, there is nothing on them that doesn't serve a purpose, and those parts have been made as light as possible for the strength required.
I'm considering a new cyclotourism bike, but they only come with cable + hydro brakes. Which rim brakes would you recommend? It would be equipped with Shimano 105...
@@Silidons91 Thanks but too late, I just got a CX, and as you can guess, it's mounted with... disk brakes! I'm a bit worried about servicing this stuff, but considering that I'm only replacing the rim pads on my older bike every few years, I suppose I've some time left to learn about that!
@@DR_1_1 well if it makes you feel any better, cyclingabout has basically toured the world on hydro disc brakes and has never had an issue. It’s not very hard to change the fluid. It’s just annoying when the pads rub, and it will happen.
@@Silidons91 I like some tinker, but I find these little cups to replace the oil so ridiculous... not that I'll need them anytime soon, I have yet to finish running-in my brakes! I just hope these disks won't ask for more maintenance than rim brakes (less than 10.- online for the 4 of them, fitted and aligned in a few minutes only)...
Agree with all of this. The single greatest innovation in cycling over the last 30 years is effective LED lighting. Good modern lamps on a steel road bike makes for the perfect machine.
Probably tire quality is next - the compromises between grip, durability, puncture resistance, and ride quality is in a much better place, that makes a real difference. I'm more of a transportation cyclist, and the early 90s rigid steel mountain bike on good tires is close to a pinnacle of the fast, practical, capable urban transportation. A rugged, comfortable, fast commuter, sub 30lb fully equipped, mid 20s stripped down!. There's not even much to be gained by "upgrading" the 3x7 drivetrains.
@@coolboy5428 there's nothing wrong with LED light. It's pretty good quality light. The problem is with cheap bike lights with bad optics that shine the light indiscriminately. Lights that use the German StVZO standard, which are quite easy to find, have a horizontal cut off like car lights so they light up the road but not other people's retinas.
You hit every nail directly on the head. Too many casuals trying to emulate the pros and the big companies benefiting from their indulgences. Enjoy your ride and understand that you don't need to go 75km/hr to do so. Ride on your budget. I still have mechanical, cable actuated components and i love them
It's actually to the disadvantage of consumers that the pros are not allowed to ride prototypes but must use what's commercially available. So almost everything is designed with the pro rider in mind such as all the silly aero gadgets. Now everything on your new road bike is totally integrated so the extent of being unserviceable with regular tools. That integration, if it does fulfil all its aero promises, might save you a few minutes on your weekend ride with your friends. But what the hell do you do with these minutes if they don't win you any price money? They're too few to have a second post-ride beer which you could not afford anymore anyway since all your money went into your new fancy aero equipment.
I had a bad cycle accident way back in 1990 which has left me with some movement problems so on-bar indexed gear changes are a blessing for me - I now ride with flat bars for the same reason. Also, as a one time very enthusiastic tandemist the gear ranges now available, coupled with indexing is a pleasure. Gear change mechs are much better now. On our Cannondale tandem I can change front and rear gears simultaneously and reliably. Rim brakes are OK on a touring bike - provided it's dry! Disc brakes work so much better and mechanically operated ones are much cheaper than high quality rim brakes; The one on the back of our tandem will lock the back wheel whilst still being controllable - I've never been able to achieve that with any type of rim brake (including cantilevers) Steel is certainly comfortable. I have a 1949 Mercian 531 frame with a bottom curve fork on which I managed 400km in under 20 hours with no aches and pains pre-accident. The greatest improvement to cycle safety after dark was the LED rear light - supremely reliable. Unlike the Never-Ready battery lights they replaced! Wheels? Couldn't agree more. I build my own and I know I can fix any problems when far from home. Very rarely get a problem because I always use top quality components. The big improvement I've made to my wife's and my bike is fitting electrical assistance - well we are in our 80s :)
@@johnnunn8688 It's possible. There have been Tandem Club events in that area but I don't remember. I have a beard (my wife is clean-shaven :) ) and we could have been wearing Derby Mercury jerseys.
Completely agree on the standards. When I built my road bike in 2008, I chose a titanium frame from Moots with standard tube diameters and so on so I could pick and choose my components at will. Love it like the day I brought it home.
One thing I miss about old bikes is cone & ball bearings. Serviceable, adjustable, and when properly maintained they are ultra smooth and last a lifetime.
True, but tearing apart the drivetrain was a pain in the derriere. The sealed units seem to last close to forever if you purchase units of reasonable quality. I will admit that a perfectly-adjusted cup and cone bearing is impossible to beat.
I'd add to the list "Old Brakes" they really seem to have jumped up in quality since the 90s. When I pick up a vintage bike, usually the first things to get replaced are the brakes.
1990 RX100 brakes were perfect. Ultegra and Dura Ace were as good but lighter. By the time I tried Campy (1997) Record brakes were amazing too. Disk brakes work better than rim but rim brakes have not improved at all. (I’m on 2020 Dura Ace). In fact, 2016 SRAM Force rim brakes are the worst I’ve ever seen and much worse than my “bottom of the line” from 1990. I’m wondering if you rode single pivot rim brakes after dual pivot brakes were released. It’s true those were awful but dual pivots were out by 1990.
The Avid Shorty cantilevers on my Kona are just as powerful as discs in the dry. I haven’t had to adjust them literally for 4 years. Whereas the hydraulic disks on one of my commuter bikes constantly require attention, and after about the same four years due to corrosion of the pistons, perform very poorly, and sound like a city bus coming to a stop. Like anything the applicability of the tool depends on what you’re doing with it, but if you’re talking about riding a road bike in the country in dry conditions, you don’t need discs.
I've ridden single and dual pivots. While not every new brake is good, and not every old brake is bad, I'd say on average, rim brakes have gotten better since the 90s and onward, wither or not it's simply a case of better rubber compounds for pads, or better dual pivot designs. I'd assume it's a bit of both. I'm also not saying rim brakes are old. I'm saying old rim brakes are old. But more modern rim brakes are modern.
@@davidburgess741 yes that’s true, had them on my 80’s Bianchi Veloce…. rode and raced for years and never had to replace the brake pads… they didn’t stop you very fast, but they were good enough for racing and fast group rides…. If I had ever taken the time to look at better pads maybe they would have worked better, but I just left it as is…
Miss the shiny parts of old bikes! Now they are almost all black wheels, stems, cranks, etc... look at that chromed fork on the Colnago in this video 🤩
That's one big reason why I don't use disc brakes. With rim brakes you can get replacement parts anywhere (even a small town hardware store). Comes in handy for touring when the closest bike shop is over 100 km away.
I've acquired four bikes over the last 10 years or so, all very different - and having learne to live with them, I find that my favourite is the the one I bought as a cheap commute ride (because it had full muguards and a pannier rack) - a '79 Claude Butler tourer. Now fitted with (1) vintage-look pedals, useable with flat or MTB cleated shoes, and (2) vintage-look polished alloy wheels to replace the rusty old ones. It's gorgeous, comfortable, practical, and of little interest to thieves. It gets more use than the others combined.
My favorite is my old Guerciotti--my first racing bike that was properly fitted. It now sports mudguards and a "triple", set up for randonees. Not "fast" any more (nor is its owner), but rock-solid stable with good vibration damping. Cannot beat Columbus SL tubing!
i have the first SIS in the 105 series, which worked fine, but going back to friction shifting was actually mindblowing, and the transition was very smooth. i got my cassette up to a 12-32 sprocket and where indexed shifiting does not handle it well, I can climb all the hills using friction downtube levers
Yes, but for me, stem shifters and bar-end shifters offer so much more comfort while riding. Being able to shift without taking hands off the bars is a luxury worth having (friction is A-OK).
I don't mind them, except if I ever have to shift while out of the saddle. For that reason, I've installed bar-end shifters to both if the vintage bikes I've restored for my own use.
I have a 1989 Fuji Ace with the original friction shifters and even front shifter cable. Never changed it, I give it a smear of lube every couple of years. When a system works flawlessly for over three decades, 20k miles, and too many crashes it's hard to criticize it. Rear cable outlasted the rear derailleur, too.
I was riding casually in the late 1970s and riding regularly with a club in the 80s. I never got on with toe cages and never bothered with old-style cleats. For many years I preferred pinned flats, but was eventually converted to SPDs which I now love. I liked down tube friction levers for their simplicity. Indexed gears are great but a pain to set up and keep adjusted. I never struggled to find the down tube levers. I was perfectly happy with 5 or 6 sprockets at the back, but I always felt that the 1980s chainrings were too big for real world riding. One of my 3 current bikes has discs: far better than rim brakes in the mud, but otherwise, nothing but needless complexity. I very much prefer the look of a classic lugged steel frame - I had a Mercian which I bitterly regret getting rid of. The silly prices for top spec bikes these days are just pandering to the egos of affluent middle aged riders. £1,000 or so gets you a decent brand new bike. Most expensive bikes are far better than their riders can justify in terms of need and performance (unless of course you're competing). One thing I certainly don't miss is 1970s cottered cranks that always worked loose. Can't go wrong with square taper for most real world riding.
Indexed gears are really easy to set up and require very little maintenance, just a ten-second tweak a couple times a year. You just set the cable tension and limiting screws, which you do with non-indexed, and you're good as long as the indexing matches the cassette, which it should.
@@kurt1391 I maintain the 4 bikes in my garage which have indexed gears. 3 are almost trouble free, but for some reason, 1 of them seems to require constant minor adjustment, which gives me a jaded view of the whole thing. On a friction shifter, you don't even need to readjust the cable (within common sense limits) because you can just move the lever a bit further. Maybe that's a nostalgic view.
Good point about regular SPDs for real world, non competitive cycling. My commute used to include a very tall and long bridge over a major river. My regular SPDs with recessed cleats allowed me to shoulder my bike and take the stairs halfway to the top of the bridge instead of looping all the way around and ride up the entire slope. I'd have struggled to walk up the concrete stairs in SPD SLs, and would probably have worn out a pair of cleats a month doing so. I'm sure that being able to take that shortcut was more than enough to offset any marginal speed increase from improved power transfer that SPD SLs may offer!
Great video. After 30+ years I still have my Schwinn 10 speed and love it. Besides the basic maintenance, it's been absolutely flawless in my opinion. I've rode some big races in it over the years. I'm the second owner and paid $40 USD for it. It may be gaudy and heavy, but it can hold it's own against the new stuff without a problem.
I agree. I have 2, 1971 Schwinns. Both Sierra brown. Super Sport and Sports Tourer. Round Badge. Pretty Killer rides and get a lot of attention with all the Bling!!
Here are a few more: proper drop bars. There were more hand positions and the tops was upright and drops racy. This meant less need to slam the stem. Bar end shifters are a good compromise. Some are indexed and others can be modified to work with 9, 10 and 11 speed. Not so good, loose bearing BBs. Which fits English, French or Italian threads? But they did allow adjusting the axle width to fit different cranksets. Short top tubes. Traditional frames were usually much shorter, requiring a longer stem. I used to ride a 62 or 63 cm frame with a 58 or 59 TT. A more modern 58x58 makes more sense. Finally, brake levers. New ones may not be pretty but work well and are comfortable. I recently had a Gitane TdF with original Mafac brakes including the levers. Too small, no padding just torture to use. And speaking of odd standards, French stem and seatpost just enough different to not work. My "new" road bike with fenders is a 1970's Raleigh International with modern 105 11 speed components. A set of Shimano aero levers and bar end shifters work well. And it fits 32c tires with fenders. The feel of a vintage frame with some modern tech. Gotta love the chromed lugs.
@@MHH3180 Finally some nice weather this week. I went for a 30km ride on it Wed afternoon. Works well, but just getting to know the bike. There likely will be a few tweaks. It makes a good all road bike. Suitable for some exploring but I have a gravel bike for the bumpier stuff.
I just got a set of rat traps for a 1983 Guerciotti Campy race bike I'm restoring. They are certainly not inherently unsafe, and you can wear normal-ish tennis shoes, not clompers. I used to train European dressage horses, your safety with horses, and yes, bicycles, is a mix of your training, skill, and talent.
I miss the standard tools. I used to have a small set of tools that worked on every bike. Now every bike has proprietary pullers, spanners, chain tools, etc.
I’m still riding late 80’s steel bikes with rim breaks and down tube shifters. Work great, and are easy to maintain, easy to use. I should switch to step in bindings instead of toe clips and straps, but never wanted to break up my record group sets.
You dont need to fiddle once you know how to use them. However if you want to be more safe in certain situations you might spend a little extra energy riding it out instead of shifting if you come unprepared into a busy intersection etc
@@daszieher What kind of “dangerous fiddling” are you doing? Indexed down tube shifters are lightning fast…”click” and you’re in a different gear. Friction shifters take a bit more “feel”; but I’d hardly call it “fiddly” and certainly wouldn’t call it dangerous…you don’t even need to look down!
Same. I am riding my 1986 steel frame, but didn't go the vintage route. I had it powder coated because my sweat was what devoured the paint and braze-ons in the first place. Then I put Simano 105 11-speed on it. Stretching the stays was weird, but "steel is real."
When my 2005 trek broke a chain, and ripped the drop out at the derailleur, I put most of the 105 9 speed parts on my 1983 Fuji, now I have indexed gears and newer rims that don't flex and hit the chain stays. Win win! Only thing I haven't changed is the handlebars and i really don't like the 38cm width, time to buy a quill stem adapter!
I love the New Age plastic stuff. So much better. I love riding on some Made in China plastic fantastic prefab'd "aero" bike with Made in China Shimano. It's so now. So wow! All the pretty black. Black everywhere. All these gears. Wow! Can't say enough about "aero". "Aero" is so the bomb. I go much faster because of "aero", even "aero" chain lube. Look at me, Mr. Hipster bikie on my Made in China plastic "bike".
With almost these same thoughts in mind I decided to build up my own retro bike last year :). I tried to get the best of both worlds: it's an old steel frame, aluminium rims and some nice looking details like an aluminium Stronglight crankset and a Rolls saddle. However, shifters are SRAM Rival and I've got SPD pedals. The toughest job was to buy all the new components in a matte or polished aluminium, since all you can buy these days is black, black and black. I got the parts from all over Europe - it costed me 3 months to find everything in the exact look I wanted it!
Very very proper evaluation of what non pro and not "racer"- road cyclist of certain age really need to care about in order to enjoy and appreciate never ending road, beautiful location, nice (or bad)) wether and pure peace of mind. Thanks for that.
Funnily enough, I was riding my admittedly Titanium bike the other week and thought I could get away with a pair of narrow tyres which might make the ride more exciting. The frame is very compliant. The bike shop has a decent pair of 23mm Vittorias on sale in scruffy looking boxes for ages, so picked them up for a song. Glad I did, feels nice a lively and quick, I was previously using 26mm and prior to that 29mm and swapping from those to the 26mm made a big difference. Rim brakes have been brilliant for me, although I could see an advantage to discs in mountainous regions. #23mmfor23
I agree wholeheartedly with all your likes/dislikes except downtube shifters. Perhaps it’s because my 1970’s Campagnolo Record components on my Colnago Super would just not be proper without the downtube shifters. As you mentioned, I also like the tactile “trimming”of the front and rear with friction shifters as opposed to click detents. I should say, I also have a C64 Colnago with Campy Super Record 12- although here I maintain my cable controls and rim brakes. Nice video!
Silk tubulars have an ethereal ride. I miss the readily available sew-up. Gluing them sucked but worth it for the ride and weight savings. Flat changes are faster too. Frame mounted pumps are also awesome. Good dog weapon too. Steel Campy pump heads were bulletproof and you can inflate an unlimited number of tires.
Good modern cotton sew-ups like Veloflex 23s (and I assume 25s) aren't at all shabby. I never got to ride Clement silks back in the day, so I can't comment here.
I had one silk tire put it on the front . It was definitely a nice ride . But then I discovered the Clement Griffo 61s. Never road anything smaller than 26mm again. It was those and other paves. I can easily get a 30mm tire to fit with my 853 Lemond Zurich. Just love those paves . The irony the fat tires are more common. Now the original irony is I've been riding a recumbent since smashing my acetabulem through my pelvis. Gotta find a better saddle maybe I can ride the Zurich again.
Still fit a Zefal HP to every bike I ride. It has saved many mates whose CO2 or mini-pumps have failed them (and I can still get 90-100 lbs in with it). Pumping up a tire with the Zefal is also my only upper-body workout (other than hefting my older, heavier vintage bikes). Remember when 22 lbs was a "lightweight" bike??
@@joebolan4082 Yes, I remember when 22lbs was a good weight for a racing bike - back in the 1960s. A top class machine with Campagnolo components could be bought here in the UK for around £75 to £95 Sterling. Happy days!
Well, then the featured Colnago frame, or more precisely the straight fork, is a bad example. Colnago just skipped the process of bending the fork to save cost. The "added quality" of the straight fork only existed in their marketing gibberish to justify their enormous prices.
@@thenazz724 not always. Chrome plating, etc. Blame the Consumer Product Safety Commission (U.S.). In the '70s they decided bicycles were toys (which was their mandate to regulate), and since a kid could climb on any bike, that *all* bikes were toys and subject to their regulations.
@@ashleyblack327 the lips were added at some point between 94 and 97, before disc brakes. Also these days disc brake bikes come with thru axles. What happened was someone didn’t tighten his qr correctly and it came loose. Instead of that being a teachable moment for an irresponsible rider, now everyone has to deal with the inconvenience.
I used to race bikes in the 1980's and they were all either reynolds or columbus steel frames, or the Allan frames made from aluminium. There was also a japanese tube called Ishiwata, some of which was so thin, you could squeeze it between fingers. I had quite a few from local builders but always longed for a Colnago made from Columbus sl. Could never afford one though. The best bike I ever had was after my racing days, in the 90's, a Dave Lloyd reynolds 753 with Campag super record throughout.
I've owned a Colnago steel frame bike, but didn't like it. The steering was too twitchy and sensitive; something about the geometry of the Colnago design has to be the cause. My Raleigh SBDU (built in 1976 from Reynolds 531 butted tubing) suits me much better. It soaks up road bumps a treat, feels lively, and steers beautifully. A masterpiece of frame design - and better than the carbon bike I owned for a while. Steel is real, as the saying goes!
Great video..... I confess though that I'm one of those people that love the tube shifters with their smoothness and feeling out the gears as opposed to just clicking a button. I personally have a 1995 Japanese/Taiwanese Bianchi that I bought for $50 at a thrift shop that's in immaculate shape. Love love love this bike.
i love the friction downtube shifters on my '88 Univega Vivo Touring. love the cockpit as is & find myself using less gears & being all the happier for it with less wires
Nice to read I'm not alone clinging to two steel bikes, a DeRosa Professional, the last bike Eddy rode in his racing career built by the guy who helped him with his own brand, fully Campy Super Record, bulletproof for about 75,000 and counting. So stricken with love, built up a custom steel "beater" for commuting. Every time a new tech came about, I worked through lust, then balked. Look pedals were too small for many racers. Keirin racers stuck to clips and straps for the longest time. Greg Lemond was known to use toe straps in addition to Look cleats, as they kept the shoes from stretching or unclipping on the upstrokes. I can ride on errands in street shoes in clips and straps, walk without ruining cleats, and the feet won't come off the pedals. I ride the same pedals on laced cycling shoes with slotted cleats that hold the feet on the pedals as well, if not better, than any clipless system. I can reach down and loosen or tighten the toe strap with a buckle designed for that purposes. The rat trap pedals are as light as clipless, but they have the largest surface to push down on, no "hot spots." Pulling out the feet backwards always works just fine. I've never fallen over after stopping. Steel tubing is still a preferred diameter for resilience, shock absorption, strength, and comfort: 1" top tube, 1 1/8" down tube. Modern carbon frames are trending skinnier to approximate this feel. Steel forks absorb shocks as efficiently as carbon, but don't give up the feel of the road. Steel holds up very well in a crash, and if the fork bends, a frame builder can straighten it without giving up "modulus of elasticity," the magic that seems to return energy on every pedal stroke. And forget about "lawyer lips," those stupid flanges that pervert the whole idea of quick release. I've known guys who've filed them off. Now with disc brakes on beefy forks, riders have to carry a wrench to undo the thru axle when repairing a front wheel flat or throwing the bike in the car. How cool is that? 42-21 [or 22] on a 6 speed freewheel is a bit stiff on the climbs, but back in the day, we all trained up and could handle them just fine. Third chainrings were "granny gears." 42-28 gearing was for touring and recreational wimps afraid of pain. The trick, so intuitive on a steel frame, even out the strain turning the crank around, spread out the energy around the stroke, thereby using the slow twitch aerobic muscle fibers. Just below anaerobic threshold, the intensity becomes tolerable, and the legs can recover from those inevitable excursions into anaerobic. Sure, lower gearing evens out the pain, but rider slows down, loses momentum, and has to work his ass off, while the other guys attacked in a higher gear and are already recovering at the top! Nothing quite like a 32 spoked aluminum rim laced onto a cup and cone bearing hub. Adjust the bearings to roll silky smooth, true the rim, tension the spokes evenly, and don't look back for miles and miles. 68mm threaded BBs are making a comeback because they don't creak. How about that? Yes, these old '80s bikes were simple, effective, reliable, easy to fix with a few tools and a bike stand. They lasted forever, didn't cost as much as a used car, affordable without sponsors, and survived the inevitable crashes. Wannabes like me could ape our heroes. You couldn't say that about motorsports back then and now can't say that about bicycles. That DeRosa , top end frame in '84, Campy components far above the competition, tubular tires to boot, cost me $1300 set up in the bike shop. I cringe to think what it would cost today. I also collected Campy parts from Nashbar sales, upgrading a mid-priced Puch, and then transferred the components to a nice custom steel commuter from a local builder. I put on rack and fenders, a 13-28 freewheel, 28 mm tires, and it is now my principle ride. The car stays undercover in the driveway on trickle charge. I try to drive it once a month. It's now a conceit, a status symbol. I can go anywhere within a 30 mile radius of DC Metro on bike paths free of auto traffic, on two exquisite examples of the craft. What other sport offers that pleasure?
Agree with pretty much with most of your statements, except gears. I have always been a spinner, not a masher. Even my 39-28 was not low enough for me in my 20's. Yes, I trained and managed 3000 foot ascents up grades in excess of 10%. But why? I have never liked triples, Q factor is too large, and some how shifting seems to suffer...
@@robertwyland7770 Yep. Compact 46/34 and 12-28 freewheel makes perfect sense. With the slowest gear being 42-22, I have to ride hard all the time! That's pretty much what racing is all about, though. And heck, everyone is now obsessed with watts, directly related to speed, no? The game hasn't changed!
I also recall I had a 12-21 six speed rear with 42/52 on the front and I wonder how the hell I ever managed on the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains... And then I remember:18-24 year old legs and knees. Now I have a 12-32 10sp with 50/34 in the front. Coming up on 50 and I barley feel it.
@@dpwellman I recall installing a 13-26 six-speed on my bike back in the '70s, because I thought the 42 x 24 just wasn't quite low enough. The next time I showed up for a group ride, I was ridiculed to the point where I remember the sting to this day. Today I did a short, 30k ride that had a couple of good long climbs, though nothing over 12%, and my 42 x 27 was just the ticket.
Excellent points and I agree with nearly all of them. I don't miss looking for 1/4" ball bearings under the fridge, but sealed square taper was better than the current external bearing systems. I also don't miss chowdering up the threads on the top of my steerer; threadless headset systems a bit uglier but a much more robust design. Lower gears ✔️ yes please but we don't really need more than 7 or 8 sprockets at the back with the compromises that having more entail.
I ride my 1975 Mercian with a triple chainset, (28, 42, 50) and a six speed 28 to 14 freewheel. Gives me much the same ratios as my Cannondale with 32/50 chainset and 32 to 12 ten speed cassette. I've got the same 27 inch lowest gear on both machines, and I almost never use the smallest sprocket on the Mercian, never mind the even smaller sprocket on the Cannondale.
Longevity, simplicity, price and standards are all relevant points. However carbon allows modern bikes to ride better as stiffness doesn't mean lack of comfort any more. My modern carbon bike blows my old steel racing bike out of the water in this regard. Also, modern shifting is much better, carbon wheels are much stronger and basically never go out of true, disc brakes mat not be completely necessary but they do work better in all conditions. Lastly, fat, low pressure tubeless tires are far less likely to pinch flat, far more comfortable and offer more grip than old skinnies at high pressures.
That is absolutely true. His comments on super stiff frames requiring larger tyres is dead wrong. I ride steel and carbon both, and I love both, but I am not taking my steel frame bike on a 70-mile ride like I used to. The carbon bike is vastly more comfortable. Anyone who disagrees has a bad or very old carbon frame. I'm not crazy about disc brakes. I love them when they work, but about every few weeks, I am fiddling with them. Just think of oil and you've fouled a pad, which requires polishing with a Dremel or a metal sanding pad.
I'm still loving my 1986 Tommasini Racing! It is a work of Italian Art and is fast as hell. As for the gearing...never could figure out how those expensive new bikes could never keep up when i decided to put the hammer down (even in my 50s)
The only thing I miss from rim brakes is the direct feedback of vibrations. You can feel the exact spot when the wheel is on the verge of blocking up. With disc brakes there is a slight flexing due to the spokes which covers up almost all the feedback, and causing some delay in action.
Absolutely right. Thank you for reminding us that bikes have been pretty perfect for decades. I totally love my 1980 Schwinn Paramount. I have other bikes, but this one gets all the compliments. The shift levers are indexed, and they never miss. As a bonus, i can just look down at their positions to see what gear I’m in. This is not as important if you have a 1x 11 or 12 setup on a modern bike, but just a glance down takes just a split second to check. Although i always keep a spare set of brake pads, I can’t remember when i had to change them. The frame is steel, (red!) and the bike weighs 19 lbs. Also, through-axels take the fun out of swapping and changing your wheels.
Toe clips and straps allowed you to wear real footwear and still cycle effectively and not be hobbled when off the bike. There is a whole load of people interested in efficient cycling for a whole load of reasons that are not interested in the newest fad or pretending that nth grams of weight are all important to performance.
Yep, totally agree. If anything on a bike should be in a museum or hung, to be gazed at nostalgically, on a living room wall, it's down tube shifters. The things we had to endure to get where we're at now. Btw, I ride a genesis with external cabling and cable brakes. If it works why change it.
Bar end shifters were a bit easier to deal with than the more fragile brifters that came later. Hydraulics are a bridge too far. If you're going to use electronic, why not just have the shifter blips and do away with brifters? KISS!
I prefer aluminium over steel in the frame because I don't want corrosion. I don't miss try to paint over corrision and things like that on my old bike. I miss the 42-52 crankset, because it was a smaller gap between the front gears back then. My racebike now have a 50-34 and that is a too big gap. My first racebike have 14 gears and a nice 13-23 cassette with 42-52 crankset. I wish my modern 18-gear bike would have the same crankset and the same gap between the gears. Something like a 12-28 cassette. Not a 11-32 like my bike has from the start. I am so not agreeing with you about the rimbrakes! Especially if you came from a hybrid or MTB with V-brakes traditional rimbrakes designed like on a roadbike make you really slow down in crossroads (because you don't trust the capacity of make an emergency brake at all, so you pootling). It is almost no breaking power at all! I am not agreeing with you about the tires, it is good you can put wider tiers on roadbikes today. Well, a little wider. But I am agreeing on you about the wheels. A traditional 32 or 36 spoke wheel are wounderfully durable. I am also not agreeing with you about the design. The old bikes look all the same. Nowadays the design is differed more. One thing I really don't miss either is the expander bolt steams. Really hard to work with compared to modern a-head! I should also mention, I am Swedish, not British.
I love the aesthetics of the old bikes, especially when running campagnolo. The older shimano levers with the cables coming out the sides was a bit unsightly.
I have an old steel frame Trek from the mid eighties that is older than me, that I've been riding on a semi-regular basis for years. These old bikes are quite long lasting.
Many years ago I bought a traditional steel framed Carleton Road bike, and though it wasn't a true lightweight, it was a real beauty. Ornate frame lugs, a light blue-green metallic paint job that looked perfect, alloy rims and 10-speed. It was a real eye-catcher, and it felt good to ride. I just don't see bikes looking that good in the showrooms now.
I am kind of old too and well remember steel bikes and downtube shifters along with clips and straps. I honestly don't miss steel frames at all. They can still be had if that is your thing, but they don't have the beauty of the old ones. I do miss the beautiful lugs and the paintwork of those old bikes. I also don't miss the old 18 or 20c tires pumped up to 120 psi. But, we can have a steel frame and still take advantage of new tire tech. Another thing I don't miss is downtube shifters but they do teach you to shift when you should and to predict when to shift. It was much harder to recover from a wrong gear with downtube shifters. Especially if your were going into a steep climb.
I restored my 1998 Gary Fisher mountain bike to use as a commuter. External cable routing, and V-brakes. The only upgrade was converting it into 1x9 so I only have one shifter. Simple, easy and cheap!
I think you got most of it correct. I still ride a steel MTB from the 80's with thumb shifters. I have upgraded the brakes to linear pull brakes and the BB to a hollow tech/ external bearings. and I do like a 1X with a wide range cassette. Those are all upgrades. I still think all things carbon are better left for racing pros and the same with disc brakes for specific types of riding. It is a point of sadness that I can't go down to my local bike shop and get parts or service. The mechanics are literally not trained in how to fix them nor do they even have the tools.
I support innovation but it seems that like me, lots of people are slowly coming around to the realisation that the whole experience of buying/owning and riding a road bike is getting worse.
I have both vintage and modern bikes, and if it's ride quality, the modern bike wins hands down. However, bottom brackets, seat posts, integrated handlebars, and disc brakes are a wretched mess.
@@kurt1391I think a lot depends on the manufacturer, I own a classic Colnago which has the best ride quality of any bike I’ve ever ridden, including lots of modern bikes. I’ve also ridden a Holdsworth of the same era and it felt completely ‘dead’ in comparison, the ride qualities are worlds apart
@@kurt1391 Love this comment Kurt K: so many of these "upgrades" have turned out to be "a wretched mess" that makes the whole experience worse, not better.
You have said exactly what i tell everyone for the last years and everybody thinks i’m crazy. Just the simple feel of riding a bike like it used to be. I have a Koga Miyata Prologue and i wouldn’t trade it for the top of the market in today racing bikes.
Right on brother. 1973 Raleigh International rider here, since new. I’ve avoided sampling a modern bike, so can’t say if the riding experience would please me or not, but I remain delighted with my purchase of the Raleigh!
I have 8 steel bikes, all italian and a Colnago like yours. All of them have been upgraded to 7800 Dura Ace groups and C24 wheels. Restomod style. Best of both worlds
This videos is awesome! Great points! When it comes to wheels a set of dual pivot brakes and machined sidewall aluminum wheels stop very well when set up properly. I'm also under the impression that a ton of mid to high quality bikes where pumped out in the 80s and 90s from Taiwan and Japan and make great resto-mod projects!
absolutely! I put a new set of Shimano R7000 dual pivot rim brakes on my old steel Allez bike and now I wonder why the industry went for heavy disc brakes (marketing scheme to buy new bikes!). Dual pivot rules!
I adopted toe clips again after using clipless for about 30 years. I found a set of double strand, double strap I guess track toe clips. Using logic from the great 'power grips' straps which I also used, I threaded a single strap at a diagonal on my double clips, for angled entry, easy twist release, using uncleated cycling shoes that have sturdy traction and tread that naturally grips the pedal. So, now I'm walking in shoes that are not hazardous slippery tap dancing shoes and my pedals are secure and comfortable. I'm on a pair of campagnolo record steel and alloy quill pedals. All good. The diagonal strap eliminates the discomfort of the strap binding the wide part of your foot. And the double tongue clips don't bother the centre of your foot which is more sensitive at the top. I wish I had a diagram to illustrate it but words will have to do. Over the years, clipless pedals started getting painful, giving hotspots, numbness, no freedom to fine tune my foot position. Less is more. People have made such an obscene delicacy of the sport. Pretty much only used frames appeal to me nowadays. I own a Raleigh, a Peugeot, a deKerf, a Cannondale, a Kona, a Lovell, a Hase kettweissel, a Rans, a Miele, and a Ritchey. All at least ten years old, and the Peugeot is a 1971. Proprietary, absurdly over designed, flimsy minimal little castings and plastic moulded pieces that snap and break, batteries (!?) weird shaped things that don't fit any other parts... I've said this on many rants, but what has happened to cycling this century is very much like what has happened to democracy in United States. It's priced beyond prayers, doesn't hold up under pressure, thinks so highly of itself that any humility is out of the question, and in the final end, millions are duped and swindled .
I actually like the old toe clips and straps. No changes of shoes. No clomping around with cleats. No extra shoes in my closet. Just step in and go regardless of what one is wearing. Otherwise, I pretty much agree with everything said.
i just use mountain bike waffle pedals, if your leave a few studs in the center it is enough to keep you from slipping and reduced damage to your shoes as well.
Loved the video and I love my old Austro-Daimler Super Leicht. I also like shifting gears with the down tube (friction) shifters. I think it somehow makes me feel more connected to the bike. (I also prefer manual transmission in an automobile). I did opt for aero brake levers, since I always found exposed brake cables to be a nuisance, and and I can't imagine ever using toe clips and straps again.
I enjoyed hearing your take on old steel road bikes. I am an original owner of a 1986 Nishiki Tri-A with Dura Ace components. Everything is original except tires and the pedals, which were upgraded many years ago to Look clips. The biggest complaint for me is the gearing which, as you pointed out, makes climbing difficult. Last year, I purchased an entry-level Trek Domane SL 5. It's pretty heavy for a carbon bike and only a couple pounds lighter than the Nishiki. The biggest difference between the two bikes for me is Domane's superior stability and maneuverability - probably due to the wider tires and frame geometry. I love riding the Domane, but have come to really appreciate how well built the Nishiki is.
For winter riding i still think disc brakes are essential in the UK. They're more consistent in the wet. But for summer, rim brakes are enough. Have a 2001 bike which is a blend of old and new, it's a lively bike - but not as fast as my 2016 (aluminium) bike. The 2001 bike never fails to put a smile on my face- that and classic Campag is lovely to use.
Back in the early 90s when I club raced, our team bikes were steel Columbus SLX Scapins. They were beautiful riding bicycles. I didn't like gluing on the tubular tires to the rims though but clincher eventually made things better. I even had the first generation LOOK clipless pedals after using toe strap pedals for some time.
I just did an initial gluing, and I didn't glue much after that. I cornered pretty hard on them and never had a roll-off. I'm not recommending this, but it was my experience.
I sniffed glue and promptly crashed into a parked van. I was rolling with my boy Huffhead Herman who has sadly inhaled his last breath. The memories......
I ride steel bikes daily. A Ritchey road Logic, Follis , 1975. Mid 80s Centurion Tange Prestige Tubes. Steel Salsa Vaya Gravel. DIVERGE ALUM. 2 carbon , 1 on a wahoo , other hangs in garage. Too many broken carbon frames. I don't trust them . Have had somereal lon g walks home carrying broken carbon bikes.. no more, not free , not I nterested.. Steel has Soul
I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm getting to the point where I think even in elite racing, we're not in any better a place than we were when Miguel Indurain was kicking everyone's butt on a Campy equipped Steel bike in the Tour de France. I think the sad thing is the change from personal frame builders to factory frames, and from good drop forged parts to glued together things that break way too easily for their price.
While I have a nice selection of vintage steel bikes, my favourite is much more modern, sort of-- a custom Tommasini Tecno built for me in 2014. It has all the glorious aesthetics of a lugged steel frame, with beautiful paint and polished stainless lugs, engraved quill stem, and bombproof Mavic Open Pro wheels. I was fortunate to find a new set of alloy Campagnolo Athena 11-speed parts, including brakes far better than on my 1980s bikes, and it has Speedplay pedals and a handsome Selle San Marco Regal saddle with copper rivets. Modern steel is much lighter than it was in the old days and in a sea of endless black carbon frames you will really stand out with classic steel. There are lots of craft framebuilders who can build something beautiful for a lot less than high-end carbon and you can take the savings and go ride in Italy! Ordering a custom steel frame and meeting the people who will make it is one of the best experiences you can have in our world of mass production. By the way, Mercian can do some really gorgeous stuff in the UK.
I never had the honor of meeting my builder in the flesh, but I got to talk with him a lot on the phone over the course of four bikes. I think the relationship with your builder (and painter) is one of the great parts of going bespoke. Of course having a beautiful fitting, riding, and looking bike that is unique in the world is the main benefit. Sadly, my guy has hung up the torch, and the last I spoke with him, he said "if you're looking for a new bike, I'm not your guy." I was happy to be only looking for the right size for a Zefal HPX pump.
@@Fred_the_1996 Absolutely agree - i recently mounted friction downtube shifters on my 80ties bike and they work flawlessly. And part compatibilty is a non-issue. Just slap on a random derailleur and you are good to go. No need to worry about proper cable pull. Set and forget 👍
Agree. The 9 speed indexed downtube shifters are SO CRISP... I have a set that I'll never let go of; they've been on several bikes now. Big plus for downtubes is that should your brifters fail, or you're just playing with a new setup, you've still got a shifter without shelling out many hundreds of $.
@@mcdonnell-douglasdc-1056 Carbon fiber is five-times stronger than steel and twice as stiff. Though carbon fiber is stronger and stiffer than steel, it is lighter than steel. How the fuck are ya’ll saying carbon is like mcdonalds?💀
@@roald577 Carbon isn't as durable as steel if it suffered impact in a way that it wasn't designed to withstand. Carbon fiber is usually engineered to be compliant in the way it was designed, optimizing for power transfer. That is why you can push down and sprint as hard as you can, and the bike can take it while also yielding better results. That being said, if the carbon fiber takes impact in any other way than designed (e.g. crashing or collisions) the frame either develops micro cracks that accumulate over time, or just disintegrate catastrophically. This is why carbon fiber bikes are a rarity outside of the racing aspects of cycling; even Red Hook Crit fixies are built with aluminum, since the frame can take crashes. And repairing carbon fiber is expensive and unfeasible, when you can just buy another carbon fiber bike instead of repairing it. Steel can take punishment without failing catastrophically. Frame will usually bend before breaking. And unlike carbon fiber, steel frames can be repaired, bending the frame back in place or welding the frame. And this is why I said that steel is better durability wise. You are correct about the analogy being somewhat nonsensical, though.
Good reminder to keep my steel bikes since 1982. I still enjoy riding them until up to now. Thanks I am so motivated to ride my Cinelli Supercorsa tomorrow!
Just bought a Schwinn Le Tour from 1987, really a great bike, at $100 it was $14,900 cheaper than Canondales top of the line. I own many much more expensive bikes, but a real rider knows riding is about riding, not the bike.
I've gone all in on the pre-assembled Made in China plastic fantastic. They are so now. I'm so now, now. I no longer miss the excruciatingly heavy steel bikes from Italy with the Italian componentry. Metal is for losers. Plastic (carbon) is so cool. I've become used to my new bike that creaks and squeeks, is prone to reliability issues because, well, you know, it's so now. I really am so now.
If I rode competitively, I would agree on the down tube levers, but I don't, so I really appreciate the direct connection and simplicity of them. That being said, my first choice is bar end shifters, like the classic old SunTour Power Ratchets, or for indexed, Shimano 7 or 8 speed.
l still many old skool rim brake bikes with alloy parts that still work fine even one with 35x700c wheels on an old 84 steel ROAD BIKE it has LONG REACH RIM BRAKES FOR BIGGER TIRES !! SO the argument of lack opt tire clearance is BUBKISS and they re duel pivot side pull NOT cantalever sidepull stuff !! l will say l prefer STI type shifters
I found a neglected 1971 Schwinn La Tour that was being tossed out on garbage day... I decided to clean it up and fine tune it as a present for a friend ... The local bike shop laughed at me and said it wasn't worth fixing up and that I should just buy a new one... I took it all apart and cleaned - polished and replaces all of the cables - brake pads - handle bar tape - tubes and tires and lubed it up - it was looking and riding great ! I was told that this bike was actually made in Japan for the USA bike racing team because Schwinn wanted them made to WIN ! It is still one SWEET RIDE and my friend Loves riding it
You know what I miss are the old riders. The ones that just got on a rode, while looking out for the traffic around them. Not having to spend thousands on the right clothes, blaming everyone else on the road for their own arogance, riding while staring at their phones, pushing pedestrians out of the way on shared paths and a sense of entitlement because they've spent a fortune on their bike and gear. You know the ones who actually enjoyed riding for ridings sake not trying to make it a protest against everone else that uses the road and took their safety as their own responsibility.
I love my old bikes Campag Record on a Colnago M10 is great. I also like my Dolan with campag Record 9 speed. my brakes are ust as good as a riding mate who has discs, but mine don't squeal I have a Major Nichols 2. Roy Thame and 4 Jensens.
Great look back. I've still got my late 80s Raleigh 531 which I cleaned up last year and found it still fun to ride. Like you say, 30 odd years I'd like more gears, and the downtube shifters are hard work, even though my bike had first gen SIS indexed shifting. My main upgrade back then was just to add Dura ace clipless pedals, which then used the Look system. I very different rise to my fancy carbon bike. And always gets comments, when I'm out on it.
The more sprockets you have, the more you need quick convenient shifting. In days of old gears were often widely spaced making the decision to shift more of a commitment.
That bike is ‘retro’?? I miss my downtube shifters! As far as greatest innovations, IMO it’s the combo brake/shift mechanism combined with indexed shifting. Never missing a shift - what a game changer. And being able to do it without reaching for the downtube? Was absolutely amazing when it came out.
I still prefer clipped pedals I find clippless pedals dangerous pedals with toe straps are so easy to get your shoe in and out of quickly I've seen to many people fall over when they couldn't get there foot out in time. And I love my big gears I'm lucky I live in a pretty much flat area so when ever I get a new bike first things I change is to put clipped pedals in and I get bigger gears I find with a 50 front and 11 rear I'm always spinning out those gears are way to small always have to upgrade to a 52 or 53 front and stick with an 11 rear good enough for me
It's not dangerous, it's just people are incompetent. You don't see it in experienced riders. And spinning out 50-11?! You shouldn't be pedalling at that speed. Save your energy and tuck in
My 1982 SOMEC is painted pearl white over a chromed frame, stays and fork. It is also pantographed. It is pinstriped in blue. Spectacular. My 1981 MIYATA AERO PRO is painted in gradient shades of silver blue to blue metallic front to rear.. nothing else like it. I had it custom painted in 1988.
I was in a bike shop the other day talking to the owner about a lugged steel framed Peugeot I love from 1972. A young guy who works there asked, in all seriousness "where do you find replacement bottom brackets?!". "I just rebuild the original" and I got a knowing smile and nod from the owner.
many great valid points in the pros and cons, especially the downtube shifters, for the rear derailleur especially. I modified my early 1980's Koga Miyata Radonneur to be my touring bike and I changed the handlebar from drops to flat with bull horns. I change from a 6 speed Shimano "Golden Arrow" (early 105) to a 11 speed Deore with a 11-36 cassette and MTB handlebar shifters and 50/34 front (using the original front derailleur and I maintained the use of thedown tube shifter for the front deraileur.). The benefit of using the downtube shifter for the front is that when I do the occasional cross chaining for a short stretch of hill climb or short high speed spring which doesnt warant a change to the other chain wheel, I can easily and in a fraction of a second micro adjust the front derailleur to avoid chain rub. However, the advantages of the indexed shifting for the rear are so great especially coupled with the higher number of gears and the split second shifting without taking hands off the handle bar are so great that there is no question in my mind that this is one of the biggest advantages in modern cycling technology. When I started the conversion I used for short time the downtube shifter also for the rear to save some money which kind of worked but the differences between the gears were so fine that it was sometimes a bit difficult to hit the right position of the gear lever for a smooth running gear. When I then changed to the Deore MTB handlebar shifter my eyes ere opened and I could not go back. By the way, would you dare to widen the rear stays of a carbon or an Al alloy frame to take a modern and wider rear hub to accommodate the 11 sped cassettes, I would not dare to do this, and this is one of the beauties of steel frames, the level of "abuse" they take without blinking an eye.
You are wrong about downtube shifters. The Shimano Dura Ace SL7900 were the absolute best 10 speed shifters for road bikes. 10 speed index for the rear, and friction for the front. A friction shifter for the front chainrings is the best way to go. You can adjust the position of the derailleur cage not to rub the chain no matter what the chain angle is. Once setup a front friction shifter will not get out of tune. All this can't be said about index front shifting. The integrated shifters of today feel vague, sloppy, imprecise in comparison. Once tuned with good stainless cables the SL7900 shifters will remain precise until the cables wear out which is a very long time. I do like 25mm tires for all around road use with rim brakes.
I would add cloth handlebar tape, although I'm undecided on whether I miss it or not. I guess it would depend on the ride quality of the bike, which is directly related to the steel frame & fork argument. Also, although not part of the bike, I miss the old stringback light brown leather gloves you could get in the 80's!
Spot on. I even empathize with the preference for rim brakes. That said, that's a very "sport"-centric viewpoint. Anyone using their bike for actual transportation, including those who prefer a road bike (indeed, probably _especially_ those), will appreciate the better stopping power and reliability of disc brakes in wet or snowy conditions. I commute in a region that is rainy 9-10 months out of the year and have had too many close calls waiting those couple of seconds for the rim brakes to clear the water from the rim and actually start braking. After switching to disc brakes, I am a lot safer riding in inclement weather. (There's also the fact that not all rim brake designs are actually that easy to get adjusted. I still have awful memories of wrestling with my old road bike's brakes, trying to get the caliper to operate evenly, stay centered so that they have a short pull with good stopping power but still neither pad is rubbing on the rim. Some newer designs, canteliever/center-pull/etc. are admittedly easier to maintain, but I don't miss the old days one bit in that respect.)
While rims, even with good Kool-Stops, can have an alarming rotation without much braking, I've been surprised that I've found disks far from immune. They're distinctly down on power in active rain for the first rotation. And then the squealing! Disks are definitely better, but compared to really *good* rim pads, nowhere near as much better as I was led to expect.
Downtube friction shift levers were great. They worked well once you learned how to use them. Electric shifting is too much- lazy. Why not put an engine on so you don't have to pedal? Actually - why not just buy a nice recliner?
Very good video. To prove I agree with you, after owning several carbon bikes the one I have now and plan to keep riding is a custom made Ti frame from a builder here in the US. Let the young and dumb have their modern day koolade because you're just wasting your breath trying to convince them they are just throwing money away. I like how you mentioned "Polished components" because I really feel that look and quality needs to come back. I actually installed a 37 year old Campagnolo crankset from 1985 NOS on my bike and milled it to work with Di2. Looks beautiful and works pretty damn good. I can't believe how much of that vintage era stuff is still available even new but it can be had.
To the guys on fixed gear bikes … try 9 or 10 speed down tube levers … they are just as trouble free. I have a steel road bike from the early 2000s with carbon fork. The original owner saved a pound but lost the ride quality of a steel frame and fork. What does steel ride like? It’s an exhilarating feel that can only be compared the sex without a condom.
I don’t miss these things because I’m still riding one. I’ll never give up my exposed cables, rim brakes, and threaded bottom bracket! Great video.👍🏽
have you ridden a modern bike?
@@humility-righteous-giving I have and no thanks. Souless. Grossly overpriced and if damaged good luck.
I have been riding for over 65 years and the joy is still in it with a proper steel, lugged bike such as my 1982 SOMEC, 1961 Miyata AERO PRO, Rivendell Hunqapillar, Rivendell Cheviot as well as a 1992 Specialized 940 Mountian Bike. I have a few others.
I applaud those who wish to ride on plastic, and wear synthetic fabric pseudo racer clothes, that's style; I prefer class.
Ditto on the excellent video.
@@jeffhildreth9244 Us e-bikers pity you.
@@humility-righteous-giving I have. didn't care for it.
@@humility-righteous-giving I've ridden old and new. I didn't notice any significant difference.
I'm a youngster, but I love vintage bikes and tech. The beauty of these bikes is their simplicity.
Same boat as you mate... I love my fixed gear is fun
Like Walter used to say 😁
You hit the nail on the head bro.
They are the epitome of elegant engineering. Done properly, there is nothing on them that doesn't serve a purpose, and those parts have been made as light as possible for the strength required.
It confirmed that it is not a generation thing. Simpler bikes are more entertaining.
I love the simplicity and ease of servicing rim brakes.
I'm considering a new cyclotourism bike, but they only come with cable + hydro brakes. Which rim brakes would you recommend?
It would be equipped with Shimano 105...
@@DR_1_1 Look at brands like Soma, Crust, Rivendell...they make rim-brake versions of bikes that can accept larger tires.
@@Silidons91 Thanks but too late, I just got a CX, and as you can guess, it's mounted with... disk brakes! I'm a bit worried about servicing this stuff, but considering that I'm only replacing the rim pads on my older bike every few years, I suppose I've some time left to learn about that!
@@DR_1_1 well if it makes you feel any better, cyclingabout has basically toured the world on hydro disc brakes and has never had an issue. It’s not very hard to change the fluid. It’s just annoying when the pads rub, and it will happen.
@@Silidons91 I like some tinker, but I find these little cups to replace the oil so ridiculous... not that I'll need them anytime soon, I have yet to finish running-in my brakes!
I just hope these disks won't ask for more maintenance than rim brakes (less than 10.- online for the 4 of them, fitted and aligned in a few minutes only)...
Agree with all of this. The single greatest innovation in cycling over the last 30 years is effective LED lighting. Good modern lamps on a steel road bike makes for the perfect machine.
Spot on!
So true! Remember those Never Ready front lights with rubbish connections and a rating of 3 glow worms
Probably tire quality is next - the compromises between grip, durability, puncture resistance, and ride quality is in a much better place, that makes a real difference.
I'm more of a transportation cyclist, and the early 90s rigid steel mountain bike on good tires is close to a pinnacle of the fast, practical, capable urban transportation. A rugged, comfortable, fast commuter, sub 30lb fully equipped, mid 20s stripped down!. There's not even much to be gained by "upgrading" the 3x7 drivetrains.
LED is trah, they are bad for eyes. You are the problem.
@@coolboy5428 there's nothing wrong with LED light. It's pretty good quality light. The problem is with cheap bike lights with bad optics that shine the light indiscriminately. Lights that use the German StVZO standard, which are quite easy to find, have a horizontal cut off like car lights so they light up the road but not other people's retinas.
You hit every nail directly on the head. Too many casuals trying to emulate the pros and the big companies benefiting from their indulgences. Enjoy your ride and understand that you don't need to go 75km/hr to do so. Ride on your budget. I still have mechanical, cable actuated components and i love them
It's actually to the disadvantage of consumers that the pros are not allowed to ride prototypes but must use what's commercially available. So almost everything is designed with the pro rider in mind such as all the silly aero gadgets. Now everything on your new road bike is totally integrated so the extent of being unserviceable with regular tools. That integration, if it does fulfil all its aero promises, might save you a few minutes on your weekend ride with your friends. But what the hell do you do with these minutes if they don't win you any price money? They're too few to have a second post-ride beer which you could not afford anymore anyway since all your money went into your new fancy aero equipment.
@@einundsiebenziger5488 take your bike to the bike store to have it worked on?
I had a bad cycle accident way back in 1990 which has left me with some movement problems so on-bar indexed gear changes are a blessing for me - I now ride with flat bars for the same reason. Also, as a one time very enthusiastic tandemist the gear ranges now available, coupled with indexing is a pleasure. Gear change mechs are much better now. On our Cannondale tandem I can change front and rear gears simultaneously and reliably.
Rim brakes are OK on a touring bike - provided it's dry! Disc brakes work so much better and mechanically operated ones are much cheaper than high quality rim brakes; The one on the back of our tandem will lock the back wheel whilst still being controllable - I've never been able to achieve that with any type of rim brake (including cantilevers)
Steel is certainly comfortable. I have a 1949 Mercian 531 frame with a bottom curve fork on which I managed 400km in under 20 hours with no aches and pains pre-accident.
The greatest improvement to cycle safety after dark was the LED rear light - supremely reliable. Unlike the Never-Ready battery lights they replaced!
Wheels? Couldn't agree more. I build my own and I know I can fix any problems when far from home. Very rarely get a problem because I always use top quality components.
The big improvement I've made to my wife's and my bike is fitting electrical assistance - well we are in our 80s :)
About a dozen years ago, did I meet you and your wife, outside the Co-op supermarket in Bourton On The Water, Glos?
@@johnnunn8688 It's possible. There have been Tandem Club events in that area but I don't remember. I have a beard (my wife is clean-shaven :) ) and we could have been wearing Derby Mercury jerseys.
Completely agree on the standards. When I built my road bike in 2008, I chose a titanium frame from Moots with standard tube diameters and so on so I could pick and choose my components at will. Love it like the day I brought it home.
One thing I miss about old bikes is cone & ball bearings. Serviceable, adjustable, and when properly maintained they are ultra smooth and last a lifetime.
True, but tearing apart the drivetrain was a pain in the derriere. The sealed units seem to last close to forever if you purchase units of reasonable quality. I will admit that a perfectly-adjusted cup and cone bearing is impossible to beat.
What do they use now? I'm ignorant re bearings unfortunately!
@@dasreicht Nowadays it's mostly press-fit cartridge bearings.
Shimano, Campag and higher end Fulcrum wheels still use cup and cone bearings and are great.
I just hate those skinny locknuts.
I'd add to the list "Old Brakes" they really seem to have jumped up in quality since the 90s. When I pick up a vintage bike, usually the first things to get replaced are the brakes.
1990 RX100 brakes were perfect. Ultegra and Dura Ace were as good but lighter. By the time I tried Campy (1997) Record brakes were amazing too. Disk brakes work better than rim but rim brakes have not improved at all. (I’m on 2020 Dura Ace). In fact, 2016 SRAM Force rim brakes are the worst I’ve ever seen and much worse than my “bottom of the line” from 1990.
I’m wondering if you rode single pivot rim brakes after dual pivot brakes were released. It’s true those were awful but dual pivots were out by 1990.
The Avid Shorty cantilevers on my Kona are just as powerful as discs in the dry. I haven’t had to adjust them literally for 4 years.
Whereas the hydraulic disks on one of my commuter bikes constantly require attention, and after about the same four years due to corrosion of the pistons, perform very poorly, and sound like a city bus coming to a stop.
Like anything the applicability of the tool depends on what you’re doing with it, but if you’re talking about riding a road bike in the country in dry conditions, you don’t need discs.
I've ridden single and dual pivots. While not every new brake is good, and not every old brake is bad, I'd say on average, rim brakes have gotten better since the 90s and onward, wither or not it's simply a case of better rubber compounds for pads, or better dual pivot designs. I'd assume it's a bit of both.
I'm also not saying rim brakes are old. I'm saying old rim brakes are old. But more modern rim brakes are modern.
The Campy side pulls from '78 really are weak compared to more modern offerings. They sure are durable though.
@@davidburgess741 yes that’s true, had them on my 80’s Bianchi Veloce…. rode and raced for years and never had to replace the brake pads… they didn’t stop you very fast, but they were good enough for racing and fast group rides…. If I had ever taken the time to look at better pads maybe they would have worked better, but I just left it as is…
Miss the shiny parts of old bikes! Now they are almost all black wheels, stems, cranks, etc... look at that chromed fork on the Colnago in this video 🤩
I do miss being able to walk into a small cycle shop and get any spare parts I needed with no built in obsolescence
That's one big reason why I don't use disc brakes. With rim brakes you can get replacement parts anywhere (even a small town hardware store). Comes in handy for touring when the closest bike shop is over 100 km away.
Interesting to see how a number of things like steel frames, rim brakes and unified standards still applies to a lot of cheap city bikes today.
I've acquired four bikes over the last 10 years or so, all very different - and having learne to live with them, I find that my favourite is the the one I bought as a cheap commute ride (because it had full muguards and a pannier rack) - a '79 Claude Butler tourer. Now fitted with (1) vintage-look pedals, useable with flat or MTB cleated shoes, and (2) vintage-look polished alloy wheels to replace the rusty old ones. It's gorgeous, comfortable, practical, and of little interest to thieves. It gets more use than the others combined.
My favorite is my old Guerciotti--my first racing bike that was properly fitted. It now sports mudguards and a "triple", set up for randonees. Not "fast" any more (nor is its owner), but rock-solid stable with good vibration damping. Cannot beat Columbus SL tubing!
I love old bikes especially. I'm still happily pedaling along on my Sturmey Archer three speed equipped Raleighs and Schwinns.
Downtube levers are simple, reliable, and much more crash resistant. They very rarely have problems and if they ever do they are simple to fix.
i have the first SIS in the 105 series, which worked fine, but going back to friction shifting was actually mindblowing, and the transition was very smooth. i got my cassette up to a 12-32 sprocket and where indexed shifiting does not handle it well, I can climb all the hills using friction downtube levers
Yes, but for me, stem shifters and bar-end shifters offer so much more comfort while riding. Being able to shift without taking hands off the bars is a luxury worth having (friction is A-OK).
I don't mind them, except if I ever have to shift while out of the saddle. For that reason, I've installed bar-end shifters to both if the vintage bikes I've restored for my own use.
Really depends on what you do though.
I have a 1989 Fuji Ace with the original friction shifters and even front shifter cable. Never changed it, I give it a smear of lube every couple of years. When a system works flawlessly for over three decades, 20k miles, and too many crashes it's hard to criticize it. Rear cable outlasted the rear derailleur, too.
I was riding casually in the late 1970s and riding regularly with a club in the 80s. I never got on with toe cages and never bothered with old-style cleats. For many years I preferred pinned flats, but was eventually converted to SPDs which I now love. I liked down tube friction levers for their simplicity. Indexed gears are great but a pain to set up and keep adjusted. I never struggled to find the down tube levers. I was perfectly happy with 5 or 6 sprockets at the back, but I always felt that the 1980s chainrings were too big for real world riding. One of my 3 current bikes has discs: far better than rim brakes in the mud, but otherwise, nothing but needless complexity. I very much prefer the look of a classic lugged steel frame - I had a Mercian which I bitterly regret getting rid of. The silly prices for top spec bikes these days are just pandering to the egos of affluent middle aged riders. £1,000 or so gets you a decent brand new bike. Most expensive bikes are far better than their riders can justify in terms of need and performance (unless of course you're competing). One thing I certainly don't miss is 1970s cottered cranks that always worked loose. Can't go wrong with square taper for most real world riding.
Nothing worse than cottered! Square tapered if you want no problems. Marginal gains be dammed!
Indexed gears are really easy to set up and require very little maintenance, just a ten-second tweak a couple times a year. You just set the cable tension and limiting screws, which you do with non-indexed, and you're good as long as the indexing matches the cassette, which it should.
@@kurt1391 I maintain the 4 bikes in my garage which have indexed gears. 3 are almost trouble free, but for some reason, 1 of them seems to require constant minor adjustment, which gives me a jaded view of the whole thing. On a friction shifter, you don't even need to readjust the cable (within common sense limits) because you can just move the lever a bit further. Maybe that's a nostalgic view.
Good point about regular SPDs for real world, non competitive cycling. My commute used to include a very tall and long bridge over a major river. My regular SPDs with recessed cleats allowed me to shoulder my bike and take the stairs halfway to the top of the bridge instead of looping all the way around and ride up the entire slope. I'd have struggled to walk up the concrete stairs in SPD SLs, and would probably have worn out a pair of cleats a month doing so. I'm sure that being able to take that shortcut was more than enough to offset any marginal speed increase from improved power transfer that SPD SLs may offer!
Square taper is very good.
Great video. After 30+ years I still have my Schwinn 10 speed and love it. Besides the basic maintenance, it's been absolutely flawless in my opinion. I've rode some big races in it over the years. I'm the second owner and paid $40 USD for it. It may be gaudy and heavy, but it can hold it's own against the new stuff without a problem.
Chicago made Schwinns are fantastic. I'm still angry my Dad threw away mine thinking it was "yard sale junk".
I agree. I have 2, 1971 Schwinns. Both Sierra brown. Super Sport and Sports Tourer. Round Badge. Pretty Killer rides and get a lot of attention with all the Bling!!
Here are a few more: proper drop bars. There were more hand positions and the tops was upright and drops racy. This meant less need to slam the stem. Bar end shifters are a good compromise. Some are indexed and others can be modified to work with 9, 10 and 11 speed. Not so good, loose bearing BBs. Which fits English, French or Italian threads? But they did allow adjusting the axle width to fit different cranksets. Short top tubes. Traditional frames were usually much shorter, requiring a longer stem. I used to ride a 62 or 63 cm frame with a 58 or 59 TT. A more modern 58x58 makes more sense. Finally, brake levers. New ones may not be pretty but work well and are comfortable. I recently had a Gitane TdF with original Mafac brakes including the levers. Too small, no padding just torture to use. And speaking of odd standards, French stem and seatpost just enough different to not work.
My "new" road bike with fenders is a 1970's Raleigh International with modern 105 11 speed components. A set of Shimano aero levers and bar end shifters work well. And it fits 32c tires with fenders. The feel of a vintage frame with some modern tech. Gotta love the chromed lugs.
There were also no tire clearance issues back then. Put bigger tires on and do cyclocross in winter.
Basically, you are riding my dream bike
@@MHH3180 Finally some nice weather this week. I went for a 30km ride on it Wed afternoon. Works well, but just getting to know the bike. There likely will be a few tweaks. It makes a good all road bike. Suitable for some exploring but I have a gravel bike for the bumpier stuff.
Gitane's TdF were heavy, unforgiving frames, Astro-Daimler made some supple, well made roadbikes.
No doubt. Love steel frames. The ride and beauty and the craftsmenship
I just got a set of rat traps for a 1983 Guerciotti Campy race bike I'm restoring. They are certainly not inherently unsafe, and you can wear normal-ish tennis shoes, not clompers. I used to train European dressage horses, your safety with horses, and yes, bicycles, is a mix of your training, skill, and talent.
Agreed on tennis shoes and like w/ traps, but the pedals tend to chew the soles unless it's a very hard rubber composite.
im always tennis shoes + rat traps!!❤❤❤
I miss the standard tools. I used to have a small set of tools that worked on every bike. Now every bike has proprietary pullers, spanners, chain tools, etc.
In total agreement.
100 per cent agree
Don't forget the tubeless stuff, and an oven for waxing the chain...
I’m still riding late 80’s steel bikes with rim breaks and down tube shifters. Work great, and are easy to maintain, easy to use. I should switch to step in bindings instead of toe clips and straps, but never wanted to break up my record group sets.
I understand the sentiment, however, fiddling with downtube shifters can be distracting and thus dangerous.
Personally, I dont think it is worth it.
You dont need to fiddle once you know how to use them. However if you want to be more safe in certain situations you might spend a little extra energy riding it out instead of shifting if you come unprepared into a busy intersection etc
@@veglord4481 nah. I've ridden them for many years. They're useless. Nice on a retro bike, but it's good that they're gone from regular use.
@@daszieher What kind of “dangerous fiddling” are you doing? Indexed down tube shifters are lightning fast…”click” and you’re in a different gear. Friction shifters take a bit more “feel”; but I’d hardly call it “fiddly” and certainly wouldn’t call it dangerous…you don’t even need to look down!
@@johns3106 you don't understand, because you missed an important point: I wasn't talking about indexed shifters.
I love old steel frames. Just need newer components on them.
...and with the standards mentioned, it's easy to do!
Same. I am riding my 1986 steel frame, but didn't go the vintage route. I had it powder coated because my sweat was what devoured the paint and braze-ons in the first place. Then I put Simano 105 11-speed on it. Stretching the stays was weird, but "steel is real."
When my 2005 trek broke a chain, and ripped the drop out at the derailleur, I put most of the 105 9 speed parts on my 1983 Fuji, now I have indexed gears and newer rims that don't flex and hit the chain stays. Win win! Only thing I haven't changed is the handlebars and i really don't like the 38cm width, time to buy a quill stem adapter!
I love the New Age plastic stuff. So much better. I love riding on some Made in China plastic fantastic prefab'd "aero" bike with Made in China Shimano. It's so now. So wow! All the pretty black. Black everywhere. All these gears. Wow! Can't say enough about "aero". "Aero" is so the bomb. I go much faster because of "aero", even "aero" chain lube. Look at me, Mr. Hipster bikie on my Made in China plastic "bike".
@@death2pc 😅
With almost these same thoughts in mind I decided to build up my own retro bike last year :). I tried to get the best of both worlds: it's an old steel frame, aluminium rims and some nice looking details like an aluminium Stronglight crankset and a Rolls saddle. However, shifters are SRAM Rival and I've got SPD pedals.
The toughest job was to buy all the new components in a matte or polished aluminium, since all you can buy these days is black, black and black. I got the parts from all over Europe - it costed me 3 months to find everything in the exact look I wanted it!
Very very proper evaluation of what non pro and not "racer"- road cyclist of certain age really need to care about in order to enjoy and appreciate never ending road, beautiful location, nice (or bad)) wether and pure peace of mind. Thanks for that.
Funnily enough, I was riding my admittedly Titanium bike the other week and thought I could get away with a pair of narrow tyres which might make the ride more exciting. The frame is very compliant. The bike shop has a decent pair of 23mm Vittorias on sale in scruffy looking boxes for ages, so picked them up for a song. Glad I did, feels nice a lively and quick, I was previously using 26mm and prior to that 29mm and swapping from those to the 26mm made a big difference.
Rim brakes have been brilliant for me, although I could see an advantage to discs in mountainous regions.
#23mmfor23
I agree wholeheartedly with all your likes/dislikes except downtube shifters. Perhaps it’s because my 1970’s Campagnolo Record components on my Colnago Super would just not be proper without the downtube shifters. As you mentioned, I also like the tactile “trimming”of the front and rear with friction shifters as opposed to click detents. I should say, I also have a C64 Colnago with Campy Super Record 12- although here I maintain my cable controls and rim brakes. Nice video!
Bar-ends are also lovely, and so much easier to replace cables than the all-in-one units.
Silk tubulars have an ethereal ride. I miss the readily available sew-up. Gluing them sucked but worth it for the ride and weight savings. Flat changes are faster too. Frame mounted pumps are also awesome. Good dog weapon too. Steel Campy pump heads were bulletproof and you can inflate an unlimited number of tires.
Good modern cotton sew-ups like Veloflex 23s (and I assume 25s) aren't at all shabby. I never got to ride Clement silks back in the day, so I can't comment here.
I had one silk tire put it on the front . It was definitely a nice ride . But then I discovered the Clement Griffo 61s. Never road anything smaller than 26mm again. It was those and other paves. I can easily get a 30mm tire to fit with my 853 Lemond Zurich. Just love those paves . The irony the fat tires are more common. Now the original irony is I've been riding a recumbent since smashing my acetabulem through my pelvis. Gotta find a better saddle maybe I can ride the Zurich again.
Still fit a Zefal HP to every bike I ride. It has saved many mates whose CO2 or mini-pumps have failed them (and I can still get 90-100 lbs in with it). Pumping up a tire with the Zefal is also my only upper-body workout (other than hefting my older, heavier vintage bikes). Remember when 22 lbs was a "lightweight" bike??
@@joebolan4082 Yes, I remember when 22lbs was a good weight for a racing bike - back in the 1960s. A top class machine with Campagnolo components could be bought here in the UK for around £75 to £95 Sterling. Happy days!
The names of the traditional frame builders were a mark of quality in themselves. That's something you could rely on.
And you never had to ask that stupid but seemingly all-important question... Was the bike made in Italy or in Taiwan??? (if that really matters)
Well, then the featured Colnago frame, or more precisely the straight fork, is a bad example. Colnago just skipped the process of bending the fork to save cost. The "added quality" of the straight fork only existed in their marketing gibberish to justify their enormous prices.
@@marcushyacinthe9331His list didn't include Falcon cycles, made in Lincolnshire!
I miss the forks without safety lips. They’re unnecessary and it absolutely sucks to have to unscrew your qr levers to remove a wheel.
Easy to file off.
@@thenazz724 not always. Chrome plating, etc. Blame the Consumer Product Safety Commission (U.S.). In the '70s they decided bicycles were toys (which was their mandate to regulate), and since a kid could climb on any bike, that *all* bikes were toys and subject to their regulations.
@@robertmyers5269 I've never had a problem filing off the lawyer tabs.
I quite like them, I've had a qr lever come loose from vibration while going fast and they saved me
@@ashleyblack327 the lips were added at some point between 94 and 97, before disc brakes. Also these days disc brake bikes come with thru axles. What happened was someone didn’t tighten his qr correctly and it came loose. Instead of that being a teachable moment for an irresponsible rider, now everyone has to deal with the inconvenience.
I used to race bikes in the 1980's and they were all either reynolds or columbus steel frames, or the Allan frames made from aluminium. There was also a japanese tube called Ishiwata, some of which was so thin, you could squeeze it between fingers. I had quite a few from local builders but always longed for a Colnago made from Columbus sl. Could never afford one though. The best bike I ever had was after my racing days, in the 90's, a Dave Lloyd reynolds 753 with Campag super record throughout.
I've owned a Colnago steel frame bike, but didn't like it. The steering was too twitchy and sensitive; something about the geometry of the Colnago design has to be the cause. My Raleigh SBDU (built in 1976 from Reynolds 531 butted tubing) suits me much better. It soaks up road bumps a treat, feels lively, and steers beautifully. A masterpiece of frame design - and better than the carbon bike I owned for a while. Steel is real, as the saying goes!
I have an Ishiwata framed Bianchi Professional from the mid 80s. Love the ride.
@@granthaller9544 Whatever you buy in the future, keep this one!
Great video..... I confess though that I'm one of those people that love the tube shifters with their smoothness and feeling out the gears as opposed to just clicking a button.
I personally have a 1995 Japanese/Taiwanese Bianchi that I bought for $50 at a thrift shop that's in immaculate shape. Love love love this bike.
Amazing buy.
i love the friction downtube shifters on my '88 Univega Vivo Touring. love the cockpit as is & find myself using less gears & being all the happier for it with less wires
Nice to read I'm not alone clinging to two steel bikes, a DeRosa Professional, the last bike Eddy rode in his racing career built by the guy who helped him with his own brand, fully Campy Super Record, bulletproof for about 75,000 and counting. So stricken with love, built up a custom steel "beater" for commuting.
Every time a new tech came about, I worked through lust, then balked. Look pedals were too small for many racers. Keirin racers stuck to clips and straps for the longest time. Greg Lemond was known to use toe straps in addition to Look cleats, as they kept the shoes from stretching or unclipping on the upstrokes. I can ride on errands in street shoes in clips and straps, walk without ruining cleats, and the feet won't come off the pedals. I ride the same pedals on laced cycling shoes with slotted cleats that hold the feet on the pedals as well, if not better, than any clipless system. I can reach down and loosen or tighten the toe strap with a buckle designed for that purposes. The rat trap pedals are as light as clipless, but they have the largest surface to push down on, no "hot spots." Pulling out the feet backwards always works just fine. I've never fallen over after stopping.
Steel tubing is still a preferred diameter for resilience, shock absorption, strength, and comfort: 1" top tube, 1 1/8" down tube. Modern carbon frames are trending skinnier to approximate this feel. Steel forks absorb shocks as efficiently as carbon, but don't give up the feel of the road. Steel holds up very well in a crash, and if the fork bends, a frame builder can straighten it without giving up "modulus of elasticity," the magic that seems to return energy on every pedal stroke. And forget about "lawyer lips," those stupid flanges that pervert the whole idea of quick release. I've known guys who've filed them off. Now with disc brakes on beefy forks, riders have to carry a wrench to undo the thru axle when repairing a front wheel flat or throwing the bike in the car. How cool is that?
42-21 [or 22] on a 6 speed freewheel is a bit stiff on the climbs, but back in the day, we all trained up and could handle them just fine. Third chainrings were "granny gears." 42-28 gearing was for touring and recreational wimps afraid of pain. The trick, so intuitive on a steel frame, even out the strain turning the crank around, spread out the energy around the stroke, thereby using the slow twitch aerobic muscle fibers. Just below anaerobic threshold, the intensity becomes tolerable, and the legs can recover from those inevitable excursions into anaerobic. Sure, lower gearing evens out the pain, but rider slows down, loses momentum, and has to work his ass off, while the other guys attacked in a higher gear and are already recovering at the top!
Nothing quite like a 32 spoked aluminum rim laced onto a cup and cone bearing hub. Adjust the bearings to roll silky smooth, true the rim, tension the spokes evenly, and don't look back for miles and miles. 68mm threaded BBs are making a comeback because they don't creak. How about that?
Yes, these old '80s bikes were simple, effective, reliable, easy to fix with a few tools and a bike stand. They lasted forever, didn't cost as much as a used car, affordable without sponsors, and survived the inevitable crashes. Wannabes like me could ape our heroes. You couldn't say that about motorsports back then and now can't say that about bicycles.
That DeRosa , top end frame in '84, Campy components far above the competition, tubular tires to boot, cost me $1300 set up in the bike shop. I cringe to think what it would cost today.
I also collected Campy parts from Nashbar sales, upgrading a mid-priced Puch, and then transferred the components to a nice custom steel commuter from a local builder. I put on rack and fenders, a 13-28 freewheel, 28 mm tires, and it is now my principle ride. The car stays undercover in the driveway on trickle charge. I try to drive it once a month. It's now a conceit, a status symbol. I can go anywhere within a 30 mile radius of DC Metro on bike paths free of auto traffic, on two exquisite examples of the craft. What other sport offers that pleasure?
Agree with pretty much with most of your statements, except gears. I have always been a spinner, not a masher. Even my 39-28 was not low enough for me in my 20's. Yes, I trained and managed 3000 foot ascents up grades in excess of 10%. But why? I have never liked triples, Q factor is too large, and some how shifting seems to suffer...
@@robertwyland7770 Yep. Compact 46/34 and 12-28 freewheel makes perfect sense. With the slowest gear being 42-22, I have to ride hard all the time! That's pretty much what racing is all about, though. And heck, everyone is now obsessed with watts, directly related to speed, no? The game hasn't changed!
I also recall I had a 12-21 six speed rear with 42/52 on the front and I wonder how the hell I ever managed on the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains... And then I remember:18-24 year old legs and knees.
Now I have a 12-32 10sp with 50/34 in the front. Coming up on 50 and I barley feel it.
True that! All of it.
@@dpwellman I recall installing a 13-26 six-speed on my bike back in the '70s, because I thought the 42 x 24 just wasn't quite low enough. The next time I showed up for a group ride, I was ridiculed to the point where I remember the sting to this day. Today I did a short, 30k ride that had a couple of good long climbs, though nothing over 12%, and my 42 x 27 was just the ticket.
Excellent points and I agree with nearly all of them. I don't miss looking for 1/4" ball bearings under the fridge, but sealed square taper was better than the current external bearing systems. I also don't miss chowdering up the threads on the top of my steerer; threadless headset systems a bit uglier but a much more robust design. Lower gears ✔️ yes please but we don't really need more than 7 or 8 sprockets at the back with the compromises that having more entail.
I ride my 1975 Mercian with a triple chainset, (28, 42, 50) and a six speed 28 to 14 freewheel. Gives me much the same ratios as my Cannondale with 32/50 chainset and 32 to 12 ten speed cassette. I've got the same 27 inch lowest gear on both machines, and I almost never use the smallest sprocket on the Mercian, never mind the even smaller sprocket on the Cannondale.
Sealed bottom bracket a God send😅.
Longevity, simplicity, price and standards are all relevant points. However carbon allows modern bikes to ride better as stiffness doesn't mean lack of comfort any more. My modern carbon bike blows my old steel racing bike out of the water in this regard. Also, modern shifting is much better, carbon wheels are much stronger and basically never go out of true, disc brakes mat not be completely necessary but they do work better in all conditions. Lastly, fat, low pressure tubeless tires are far less likely to pinch flat, far more comfortable and offer more grip than old skinnies at high pressures.
That is absolutely true. His comments on super stiff frames requiring larger tyres is dead wrong. I ride steel and carbon both, and I love both, but I am not taking my steel frame bike on a 70-mile ride like I used to. The carbon bike is vastly more comfortable. Anyone who disagrees has a bad or very old carbon frame. I'm not crazy about disc brakes. I love them when they work, but about every few weeks, I am fiddling with them. Just think of oil and you've fouled a pad, which requires polishing with a Dremel or a metal sanding pad.
I'm still loving my 1986 Tommasini Racing! It is a work of Italian Art and is fast as hell. As for the gearing...never could figure out how those expensive new bikes could never keep up when i decided to put the hammer down (even in my 50s)
Same with my 1982 SOMEC... Yes I still ride in my 70s.. love to blow off the new age Spandex Mafia bikers in the hills and curves.
The only thing I miss from rim brakes is the direct feedback of vibrations. You can feel the exact spot when the wheel is on the verge of blocking up. With disc brakes there is a slight flexing due to the spokes which covers up almost all the feedback, and causing some delay in action.
Absolutely right. Thank you for reminding us that bikes have been pretty perfect for decades. I totally love my 1980 Schwinn Paramount. I have other bikes, but this one gets all the compliments. The shift levers are indexed, and they never miss. As a bonus, i can just look down at their positions to see what gear I’m in. This is not as important if you have a 1x 11 or 12 setup on a modern bike, but just a glance down takes just a split second to check. Although i always keep a spare set of brake pads, I can’t remember when i had to change them. The frame is steel, (red!) and the bike weighs 19 lbs. Also, through-axels take the fun out of swapping and changing your wheels.
I love my non-indexed friction shifters. I never have to adjust cables, and it just works.
Toe clips and straps allowed you to wear real footwear and still cycle effectively and not be hobbled when off the bike. There is a whole load of people interested in efficient cycling for a whole load of reasons that are not interested in the newest fad or pretending that nth grams of weight are all important to performance.
Yep, totally agree. If anything on a bike should be in a museum or hung, to be gazed at nostalgically, on a living room wall, it's down tube shifters. The things we had to endure to get where we're at now.
Btw, I ride a genesis with external cabling and cable brakes. If it works why change it.
Bar end shifters were a bit easier to deal with than the more fragile brifters that came later. Hydraulics are a bridge too far. If you're going to use electronic, why not just have the shifter blips and do away with brifters? KISS!
I prefer aluminium over steel in the frame because I don't want corrosion. I don't miss try to paint over corrision and things like that on my old bike. I miss the 42-52 crankset, because it was a smaller gap between the front gears back then. My racebike now have a 50-34 and that is a too big gap. My first racebike have 14 gears and a nice 13-23 cassette with 42-52 crankset. I wish my modern 18-gear bike would have the same crankset and the same gap between the gears. Something like a 12-28 cassette. Not a 11-32 like my bike has from the start.
I am so not agreeing with you about the rimbrakes! Especially if you came from a hybrid or MTB with V-brakes traditional rimbrakes designed like on a roadbike make you really slow down in crossroads (because you don't trust the capacity of make an emergency brake at all, so you pootling). It is almost no breaking power at all!
I am not agreeing with you about the tires, it is good you can put wider tiers on roadbikes today. Well, a little wider. But I am agreeing on you about the wheels. A traditional 32 or 36 spoke wheel are wounderfully durable.
I am also not agreeing with you about the design. The old bikes look all the same. Nowadays the design is differed more.
One thing I really don't miss either is the expander bolt steams. Really hard to work with compared to modern a-head!
I should also mention, I am Swedish, not British.
I love the aesthetics of the old bikes, especially when running campagnolo. The older shimano levers with the cables coming out the sides was a bit unsightly.
I have an old steel frame Trek from the mid eighties that is older than me, that I've been riding on a semi-regular basis for years. These old bikes are quite long lasting.
Many years ago I bought a traditional steel framed Carleton Road bike, and though it wasn't a true lightweight, it was a real beauty. Ornate frame lugs, a light blue-green metallic paint job that looked perfect, alloy rims and 10-speed. It was a real eye-catcher, and it felt good to ride. I just don't see bikes looking that good in the showrooms now.
Totally agree
Very good points about steel frames and the effect on tyre sizes
I am kind of old too and well remember steel bikes and downtube shifters along with clips and straps. I honestly don't miss steel frames at all. They can still be had if that is your thing, but they don't have the beauty of the old ones. I do miss the beautiful lugs and the paintwork of those old bikes. I also don't miss the old 18 or 20c tires pumped up to 120 psi. But, we can have a steel frame and still take advantage of new tire tech. Another thing I don't miss is downtube shifters but they do teach you to shift when you should and to predict when to shift. It was much harder to recover from a wrong gear with downtube shifters. Especially if your were going into a steep climb.
I restored my 1998 Gary Fisher mountain bike to use as a commuter. External cable routing, and V-brakes. The only upgrade was converting it into 1x9 so I only have one shifter. Simple, easy and cheap!
I think you got most of it correct. I still ride a steel MTB from the 80's with thumb shifters. I have upgraded the brakes to linear pull brakes and the BB to a hollow tech/ external bearings. and I do like a 1X with a wide range cassette. Those are all upgrades. I still think all things carbon are better left for racing pros and the same with disc brakes for specific types of riding.
It is a point of sadness that I can't go down to my local bike shop and get parts or service. The mechanics are literally not trained in how to fix them nor do they even have the tools.
I support innovation but it seems that like me, lots of people are slowly coming around to the realisation that the whole experience of buying/owning and riding a road bike is getting worse.
I like a bike to last a while and standards to be more stable than late.
I have both vintage and modern bikes, and if it's ride quality, the modern bike wins hands down. However, bottom brackets, seat posts, integrated handlebars, and disc brakes are a wretched mess.
@@kurt1391I think a lot depends on the manufacturer, I own a classic Colnago which has the best ride quality of any bike I’ve ever ridden, including lots of modern bikes. I’ve also ridden a Holdsworth of the same era and it felt completely ‘dead’ in comparison, the ride qualities are worlds apart
@@kurt1391 Love this comment Kurt K: so many of these "upgrades" have turned out to be "a wretched mess" that makes the whole experience worse, not better.
You have said exactly what i tell everyone for the last years and everybody thinks i’m crazy. Just the simple feel of riding a bike like it used to be. I have a Koga Miyata Prologue and i wouldn’t trade it for the top of the market in today racing bikes.
Right on brother. 1973 Raleigh International rider here, since new. I’ve avoided sampling a modern bike, so can’t say if the riding experience would please me or not, but I remain delighted with my purchase of the Raleigh!
I have 8 steel bikes, all italian and a Colnago like yours. All of them have been upgraded to 7800 Dura Ace groups and C24 wheels. Restomod style. Best of both worlds
I realy appreciate the wonders of modern material science and mechines made from them but lets not forget how beautiful steel is
This videos is awesome! Great points! When it comes to wheels a set of dual pivot brakes and machined sidewall aluminum wheels stop very well when set up properly. I'm also under the impression that a ton of mid to high quality bikes where pumped out in the 80s and 90s from Taiwan and Japan and make great resto-mod projects!
absolutely! I put a new set of Shimano R7000 dual pivot rim brakes on my old steel Allez bike and now I wonder why the industry went for heavy disc brakes (marketing scheme to buy new bikes!). Dual pivot rules!
I adopted toe clips again after using clipless for about 30 years.
I found a set of double strand, double strap I guess track toe clips. Using logic from the great 'power grips' straps which I also used, I threaded a single strap at a diagonal on my double clips, for angled entry, easy twist release, using uncleated cycling shoes that have sturdy traction and tread that naturally grips the pedal. So, now I'm walking in shoes that are not hazardous slippery tap dancing shoes and my pedals are secure and comfortable. I'm on a pair of campagnolo record steel and alloy quill pedals.
All good. The diagonal strap eliminates the discomfort of the strap binding the wide part of your foot. And the double tongue clips don't bother the centre of your foot which is more sensitive at the top.
I wish I had a diagram to illustrate it but words will have to do.
Over the years, clipless pedals started getting painful, giving hotspots, numbness, no freedom to fine tune my foot position.
Less is more. People have made such an obscene delicacy of the sport.
Pretty much only used frames appeal to me nowadays. I own a Raleigh, a Peugeot, a deKerf, a Cannondale, a Kona, a Lovell, a Hase kettweissel, a Rans, a Miele, and a Ritchey. All at least ten years old, and the Peugeot is a 1971. Proprietary, absurdly over designed, flimsy minimal little castings and plastic moulded pieces that snap and break, batteries (!?) weird shaped things that don't fit any other parts...
I've said this on many rants, but what has happened to cycling this century is very much like what has happened to democracy in United States. It's priced beyond prayers, doesn't hold up under pressure, thinks so highly of itself that any humility is out of the question, and in the final end, millions are duped and swindled .
Toeclips and straps plus uncleated shoes have worked well for me for many years - with Campagnolo pedals. Agreed entirely!
I actually like the old toe clips and straps. No changes of shoes. No clomping around with cleats. No extra shoes in my closet. Just step in and go regardless of what one is wearing. Otherwise, I pretty much agree with everything said.
Same here. Although I admit envying the efficiency of clipless riders, the clomping around is maximally uncool - as are the ugly shoe styles.
i just use mountain bike waffle pedals, if your leave a few studs in the center it is enough to keep you from slipping and reduced damage to your shoes as well.
I use clip and straps with cleats. Buttery soft Detto shoes and cleats. It’s old school but it works.
I worked briefly in 1985 for a premier NJ bicycle shop that kept a few Colnago frames on hand for custom builds
Question: When did the Master frames begin to be spec'ed with the straight Precisa forks? I still ride an 80s Master with a curved one btw. Thanks!
Loved the video and I love my old Austro-Daimler Super Leicht. I also like shifting gears with the down tube (friction) shifters. I think it somehow makes me feel more connected to the bike. (I also prefer manual transmission in an automobile). I did opt for aero brake levers, since I always found exposed brake cables to be a nuisance, and and I can't imagine ever using toe clips and straps again.
I agree with all ! Old vintages bikes are really the best.
I enjoyed hearing your take on old steel road bikes. I am an original owner of a 1986 Nishiki Tri-A with Dura Ace components. Everything is original except tires and the pedals, which were upgraded many years ago to Look clips. The biggest complaint for me is the gearing which, as you pointed out, makes climbing difficult. Last year, I purchased an entry-level Trek Domane SL 5. It's pretty heavy for a carbon bike and only a couple pounds lighter than the Nishiki. The biggest difference between the two bikes for me is Domane's superior stability and maneuverability - probably due to the wider tires and frame geometry. I love riding the Domane, but have come to really appreciate how well built the Nishiki is.
I have a Japanese made 1983 Nishiki Prestige. Rides like a dream and fits 32c tires.
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the beauty of the traditional (SR) handbar stem
For winter riding i still think disc brakes are essential in the UK. They're more consistent in the wet.
But for summer, rim brakes are enough. Have a 2001 bike which is a blend of old and new, it's a lively bike - but not as fast as my 2016 (aluminium) bike.
The 2001 bike never fails to put a smile on my face- that and classic Campag is lovely to use.
I love down tube levers! And cage pedals!
Back in the early 90s when I club raced, our team bikes were steel Columbus SLX Scapins. They were beautiful riding bicycles. I didn't like gluing on the tubular tires to the rims though but clincher eventually made things better. I even had the first generation LOOK clipless pedals after using toe strap pedals for some time.
I just did an initial gluing, and I didn't glue much after that. I cornered pretty hard on them and never had a roll-off. I'm not recommending this, but it was my experience.
I sniffed glue and promptly crashed into a parked van. I was rolling with my boy Huffhead Herman who has sadly inhaled his last breath. The memories......
I ride steel bikes daily. A Ritchey road Logic, Follis , 1975. Mid 80s Centurion Tange Prestige Tubes. Steel Salsa Vaya Gravel. DIVERGE ALUM. 2 carbon , 1 on a wahoo , other hangs in garage. Too many broken carbon frames. I don't trust them . Have had somereal lon g walks home carrying broken carbon bikes.. no more, not free , not I nterested.. Steel has Soul
My sentiments too, I still have a number of classic steel road bikes which I love.
This new generation has really screwed up the sport with their Fashion bikes. That's exactly what they are, Fashion bikes.
I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm getting to the point where I think even in elite racing, we're not in any better a place than we were when Miguel Indurain was kicking everyone's butt on a Campy equipped Steel bike in the Tour de France. I think the sad thing is the change from personal frame builders to factory frames, and from good drop forged parts to glued together things that break way too easily for their price.
While I have a nice selection of vintage steel bikes, my favourite is much more modern, sort of-- a custom Tommasini Tecno built for me in 2014. It has all the glorious aesthetics of a lugged steel frame, with beautiful paint and polished stainless lugs, engraved quill stem, and bombproof Mavic Open Pro wheels. I was fortunate to find a new set of alloy Campagnolo Athena 11-speed parts, including brakes far better than on my 1980s bikes, and it has Speedplay pedals and a handsome Selle San Marco Regal saddle with copper rivets. Modern steel is much lighter than it was in the old days and in a sea of endless black carbon frames you will really stand out with classic steel. There are lots of craft framebuilders who can build something beautiful for a lot less than high-end carbon and you can take the savings and go ride in Italy! Ordering a custom steel frame and meeting the people who will make it is one of the best experiences you can have in our world of mass production. By the way, Mercian can do some really gorgeous stuff in the UK.
wow! I have a 1986 Tommasini...I really want to travel to Grosseto to have a new one built for me!
I never had the honor of meeting my builder in the flesh, but I got to talk with him a lot on the phone over the course of four bikes. I think the relationship with your builder (and painter) is one of the great parts of going bespoke. Of course having a beautiful fitting, riding, and looking bike that is unique in the world is the main benefit. Sadly, my guy has hung up the torch, and the last I spoke with him, he said "if you're looking for a new bike, I'm not your guy." I was happy to be only looking for the right size for a Zefal HPX pump.
I like down-tube shifters as long as they are indexed. I have Dura-Ace 9 speed down tubers on a '93 lugged steel Allez. They work slick.
Non indexed is where it's at, my Vilar Maze Modelo De Luxo has them and they never need to be adjusted lol
@@Fred_the_1996 Absolutely agree - i recently mounted friction downtube shifters on my 80ties bike and they work flawlessly. And part compatibilty is a non-issue. Just slap on a random derailleur and you are good to go. No need to worry about proper cable pull. Set and forget 👍
Agree. The 9 speed indexed downtube shifters are SO CRISP... I have a set that I'll never let go of; they've been on several bikes now. Big plus for downtubes is that should your brifters fail, or you're just playing with a new setup, you've still got a shifter without shelling out many hundreds of $.
Great cycles and logical arguments . It’s not just nostalgia; simplicity is beauty . I still miss my Dawes Echelon 😂
GREAT, GREAT VIDEO! Oh, how I miss my Cinellis, Colnagos, and yes, even my Schwinn Paramount. Those were the days...
could not agree more - perfect description of reality. Thank you!
Agree 100%. I love steel frames. Carbon frames are like McDonald's when good steel frame is like Michelin star restaurant
Aint no way you say steel is better than carbon💀💀 its the other way around dude
Performance wise, carbon is better.
Durability wise, steel still is the better choice.
@@mcdonnell-douglasdc-1056 Carbon fiber is five-times stronger than steel and twice as stiff. Though carbon fiber is stronger and stiffer than steel, it is lighter than steel. How the fuck are ya’ll saying carbon is like mcdonalds?💀
I love the look and feel of vintage bike but don’t ever say that the steel frame is better than the carbon frame. Carbon is a lot superior.
@@roald577 Carbon isn't as durable as steel if it suffered impact in a way that it wasn't designed to withstand. Carbon fiber is usually engineered to be compliant in the way it was designed, optimizing for power transfer. That is why you can push down and sprint as hard as you can, and the bike can take it while also yielding better results.
That being said, if the carbon fiber takes impact in any other way than designed (e.g. crashing or collisions) the frame either develops micro cracks that accumulate over time, or just disintegrate catastrophically. This is why carbon fiber bikes are a rarity outside of the racing aspects of cycling; even Red Hook Crit fixies are built with aluminum, since the frame can take crashes. And repairing carbon fiber is expensive and unfeasible, when you can just buy another carbon fiber bike instead of repairing it.
Steel can take punishment without failing catastrophically. Frame will usually bend before breaking. And unlike carbon fiber, steel frames can be repaired, bending the frame back in place or welding the frame. And this is why I said that steel is better durability wise.
You are correct about the analogy being somewhat nonsensical, though.
Good reminder to keep my steel bikes since 1982. I still enjoy riding them until up to now. Thanks I am so motivated to ride my Cinelli Supercorsa tomorrow!
Just bought a Schwinn Le Tour from 1987, really a great bike, at $100 it was $14,900 cheaper than Canondales top of the line. I own many much more expensive bikes, but a real rider knows riding is about riding, not the bike.
Mercian were the bikes of my youth back in the 60's and they are still going strong today.
Mercian bikes were very beautiful with fantastic paint jobs, I had a mercian made from reynolds 653, superb racing bike.
The barbershop pole seat tube decoration is drool-worthy. If I ever have one of my customs repainted, I just might have to ask for that touch.
I've gone all in on the pre-assembled Made in China plastic fantastic. They are so now. I'm so now, now. I no longer miss the excruciatingly heavy steel bikes from Italy with the Italian componentry. Metal is for losers. Plastic (carbon) is so cool. I've become used to my new bike that creaks and squeeks, is prone to reliability issues because, well, you know, it's so now. I really am so now.
100% in agreement. My TI frame will last a lifetime though !
If I rode competitively, I would agree on the down tube levers, but I don't, so I really appreciate the direct connection and simplicity of them. That being said, my first choice is bar end shifters, like the classic old SunTour Power Ratchets, or for indexed, Shimano 7 or 8 speed.
Well presented and extremely accurate. I’ve been riding bikes since the mid 80’s and have seen many changes, some good and some not so good ✊🏾👊🏾👏🏾
l still many old skool rim brake bikes with alloy parts that still work fine even one with 35x700c wheels on an old 84 steel ROAD BIKE it has LONG REACH RIM BRAKES FOR BIGGER TIRES !! SO the argument of lack opt tire clearance is BUBKISS and they re duel pivot side pull NOT cantalever sidepull stuff !! l will say l prefer STI type shifters
I miss a clean looking quill stem. Definitely polished parts though. Great vid.
I found a neglected 1971 Schwinn La Tour that was being tossed out on garbage day... I decided to clean it up and fine tune it as a present for a friend ... The local bike shop laughed at me and said it wasn't worth fixing up and that I should just buy a new one... I took it all apart and cleaned - polished and replaces all of the cables - brake pads - handle bar tape - tubes and tires and lubed it up - it was looking and riding great ! I was told that this bike was actually made in Japan for the USA bike racing team because Schwinn wanted them made to WIN ! It is still one SWEET RIDE and my friend Loves riding it
You know what I miss are the old riders. The ones that just got on a rode, while looking out for the traffic around them. Not having to spend thousands on the right clothes, blaming everyone else on the road for their own arogance, riding while staring at their phones, pushing pedestrians out of the way on shared paths and a sense of entitlement because they've spent a fortune on their bike and gear. You know the ones who actually enjoyed riding for ridings sake not trying to make it a protest against everone else that uses the road and took their safety as their own responsibility.
I love my old bikes Campag Record on a Colnago M10 is great. I also like my Dolan with campag Record 9 speed. my brakes are ust as good as a riding mate who has discs, but mine don't squeal I have a Major Nichols 2. Roy Thame and 4 Jensens.
Great look back. I've still got my late 80s Raleigh 531 which I cleaned up last year and found it still fun to ride. Like you say, 30 odd years I'd like more gears, and the downtube shifters are hard work, even though my bike had first gen SIS indexed shifting. My main upgrade back then was just to add Dura ace clipless pedals, which then used the Look system. I very different rise to my fancy carbon bike. And always gets comments, when I'm out on it.
The more sprockets you have, the more you need quick convenient shifting. In days of old gears were often widely spaced making the decision to shift more of a commitment.
That bike is ‘retro’?? I miss my downtube shifters!
As far as greatest innovations, IMO it’s the combo brake/shift mechanism combined with indexed shifting. Never missing a shift - what a game changer. And being able to do it without reaching for the downtube? Was absolutely amazing when it came out.
I still prefer clipped pedals I find clippless pedals dangerous pedals with toe straps are so easy to get your shoe in and out of quickly I've seen to many people fall over when they couldn't get there foot out in time. And I love my big gears I'm lucky I live in a pretty much flat area so when ever I get a new bike first things I change is to put clipped pedals in and I get bigger gears I find with a 50 front and 11 rear I'm always spinning out those gears are way to small always have to upgrade to a 52 or 53 front and stick with an 11 rear good enough for me
It's not dangerous, it's just people are incompetent. You don't see it in experienced riders. And spinning out 50-11?! You shouldn't be pedalling at that speed. Save your energy and tuck in
I miss beautiful paint. Yes, I know it weighs a bit, but it's worth it IMHO.
My 1982 SOMEC is painted pearl white over a chromed frame, stays and fork. It is also pantographed. It is pinstriped in blue. Spectacular. My 1981 MIYATA AERO PRO is painted in gradient shades of silver blue to blue metallic front to rear.. nothing else like it. I had it custom painted in 1988.
I like simplicity, especially when there are no shifters at all. I ride single speed, up hill and down hill.
Same here. I'm on a fixed wheel for my hilly 16 mile commute at the moment and I love it!
I was in a bike shop the other day talking to the owner about a lugged steel framed Peugeot I love from 1972. A young guy who works there asked, in all seriousness "where do you find replacement bottom brackets?!". "I just rebuild the original" and I got a knowing smile and nod from the owner.
many great valid points in the pros and cons, especially the downtube shifters, for the rear derailleur especially. I modified my early 1980's Koga Miyata Radonneur to be my touring bike and I changed the handlebar from drops to flat with bull horns. I change from a 6 speed Shimano "Golden Arrow" (early 105) to a 11 speed Deore with a 11-36 cassette and MTB handlebar shifters and 50/34 front (using the original front derailleur and I maintained the use of thedown tube shifter for the front deraileur.). The benefit of using the downtube shifter for the front is that when I do the occasional cross chaining for a short stretch of hill climb or short high speed spring which doesnt warant a change to the other chain wheel, I can easily and in a fraction of a second micro adjust the front derailleur to avoid chain rub.
However, the advantages of the indexed shifting for the rear are so great especially coupled with the higher number of gears and the split second shifting without taking hands off the handle bar are so great that there is no question in my mind that this is one of the biggest advantages in modern cycling technology.
When I started the conversion I used for short time the downtube shifter also for the rear to save some money which kind of worked but the differences between the gears were so fine that it was sometimes a bit difficult to hit the right position of the gear lever for a smooth running gear. When I then changed to the Deore MTB handlebar shifter my eyes ere opened and I could not go back.
By the way, would you dare to widen the rear stays of a carbon or an Al alloy frame to take a modern and wider rear hub to accommodate the 11 sped cassettes, I would not dare to do this, and this is one of the beauties of steel frames, the level of "abuse" they take without blinking an eye.
You are wrong about downtube shifters. The Shimano Dura Ace SL7900 were the absolute best 10 speed shifters for road bikes. 10 speed index for the rear, and friction for the front. A friction shifter for the front chainrings is the best way to go. You can adjust the position of the derailleur cage not to rub the chain no matter what the chain angle is. Once setup a front friction shifter will not get out of tune. All this can't be said about index front shifting. The integrated shifters of today feel vague, sloppy, imprecise in comparison. Once tuned with good stainless cables the SL7900 shifters will remain precise until the cables wear out which is a very long time.
I do like 25mm tires for all around road use with rim brakes.
I would add cloth handlebar tape, although I'm undecided on whether I miss it or not. I guess it would depend on the ride quality of the bike, which is directly related to the steel frame & fork argument. Also, although not part of the bike, I miss the old stringback light brown leather gloves you could get in the 80's!
I just bought a pair at my LBS. What's old is new, again.
Bike industry complaint in the 80's: Sell a bike; lose a customer.
These plastic-fantastic disposabikes were the perfect solution to that problem.
Spot on. I even empathize with the preference for rim brakes. That said, that's a very "sport"-centric viewpoint.
Anyone using their bike for actual transportation, including those who prefer a road bike (indeed, probably _especially_ those), will appreciate the better stopping power and reliability of disc brakes in wet or snowy conditions. I commute in a region that is rainy 9-10 months out of the year and have had too many close calls waiting those couple of seconds for the rim brakes to clear the water from the rim and actually start braking. After switching to disc brakes, I am a lot safer riding in inclement weather.
(There's also the fact that not all rim brake designs are actually that easy to get adjusted. I still have awful memories of wrestling with my old road bike's brakes, trying to get the caliper to operate evenly, stay centered so that they have a short pull with good stopping power but still neither pad is rubbing on the rim. Some newer designs, canteliever/center-pull/etc. are admittedly easier to maintain, but I don't miss the old days one bit in that respect.)
While rims, even with good Kool-Stops, can have an alarming rotation without much braking, I've been surprised that I've found disks far from immune. They're distinctly down on power in active rain for the first rotation. And then the squealing! Disks are definitely better, but compared to really *good* rim pads, nowhere near as much better as I was led to expect.
Downtube friction shift levers were great. They worked well once you learned how to use them. Electric shifting is too much- lazy. Why not put an engine on so you don't have to pedal? Actually - why not just buy a nice recliner?
Very good video. To prove I agree with you, after owning several carbon bikes the one I have now and plan to keep riding is a custom made Ti frame from a builder here in the US. Let the young and dumb have their modern day koolade because you're just wasting your breath trying to convince them they are just throwing money away. I like how you mentioned "Polished components" because I really feel that look and quality needs to come back. I actually installed a 37 year old Campagnolo crankset from 1985 NOS on my bike and milled it to work with Di2. Looks beautiful and works pretty damn good. I can't believe how much of that vintage era stuff is still available even new but it can be had.
Good skills with the milling the compagnelo to di2! It sounds great. Good engineering know how.
To the guys on fixed gear bikes … try 9 or 10 speed down tube levers … they are just as trouble free.
I have a steel road bike from the early 2000s with carbon fork. The original owner saved a pound but lost the ride quality of a steel frame and fork.
What does steel ride like? It’s an exhilarating feel that can only be compared the sex without a condom.