old man yelling at clouds content

[bicycletricycle]

i was at a shop yesterday holding the broken parts of one of these trek front ends in my hands, huge weird stem , proprietary bar, gigantic fork, etc, etc. The whole thing is just not appealing, PIA to assemble/maintain, soon to be impossible to get parts, 600 dollar handlebars, but also just kinda ugly (to me anyways). When all assembled and cleaned up these fully integrated modern front ends can look pretty nice I admit and this one isn't the best example perhaps but I was just kind of revolted. Later I was at home looking at some bikes with Nitto pearls and salsa quill stems and I just felt better about the world.

I guess I am an old grump.

I have a similar experience at the auto repair garage. I saw the whole frond end of a W12 powered Bentley at the euro shop the other day. hoses and crap all over the place. You have to take the whole bumper bar and lights off to get to basically anything on the engine. I liked the looks of the car but looking inside I just think-

It isn't just not enough juice for the squeeze, same with the weird integrated trek bar thing.

rant over.

visual aids found on web
trek-madone-slr-9-disc-project-one-stem-top-739953844 by bicycletricycle666, on Flickr
5185097982_8de60416c7_b by bicycletricycle666, on Flickr

[tomato coupe]

Don't buy a Trek. Don't buy a Bentley. Problem solved.

[Elefantino]

Friends don't let friends ride Trek. Or Continental.

[sparky33]

well said, the grump is appropriate.

I don't and never have considered myself a retrogrouch. Carbon and axs bits are common in my bikes. However, the home mechanic in me is happy working on a bike that has non-intergrated cockpit, hoses with enough slack for stem and spacer adjustment, and syringe-less (e.i. cable) brake maintenance. Modern tech is welcome when it brings real benefits. The rest of it is lost on me. I still love a good mechanical shift for it's simplicity, tactile experience, and wallet-friendly qualities....
Does the train of bike technology only go in one direction, away from these qualities, leaving these proven things to obscurity?
Or will there be some what's-old-is-new moment when suddenly these will be offered again in mainstream?

[flying]

+1 I know the feeling

I often think to myself well I guess I am a sort of a retro grouch now.

On the one hand it is sad because looking at what was new & coming out was exciting & now its not exciting or attractive to me...or worse yet as you describe downright ugly/stupid

But, on the other hand now I don't really buy anything except consumables ..tires, lube, cables clothes or take cycling vacations & ride what I already have

But I do wonder about the future. I usually keep a bike 6-10 years & only ever own 1 bike at a time....I am coming up on that time now.
I guess it will likely be custom because there is nothing new that attracts me

[El Chaba]

When the handlebar/stem/ lever combination became the “cockpit” you knew the apocalypse was near. Sometimes you just have to push back against the machine….(under construction)…

[ridethecliche]

I miss my track day miata.

Nothing beats being able to take a car almost completely apart and being able to put it back together in a tiny garage on a grad students budget.

Okay so my motor builds were a splurge and done by a machine shop...but still!

[mstateglfr]

Yeah, the integrated and internal cockpit setups can look really cool. But while I can appreciate how they look, I am just not interested in one for me. Too expensive to change in many situations, too limiting on fit in some situations, and too much work to set up/maintain when I tear a bike down to fully clean.



As for the old man yelling at clouds reference, I was actually sent an infraction warning for posting that Abe Simpson meme. Ha, I'd forgotten that until I saw this thread title. Funny stuff.

[eddief]

old farts unite.

[Mike V]

I agree completely but you lost me at Salsa.

Salsa stems has always looked like someone in the their backyard with old tubing bugger welding stems together slapping some sticker from their printer and selling for a profit.

Oh yeah ATMO!

[EB]

Headset cable routing is definitely the worst idea the industry has come up with since the pressfit bottom bracket bearing. And it seems to have swept through with alarming speed in the current model years. Are there any current carbon road bikes that do not have this “feature?” The Aethos does for now, but I assume that won’t last past the next model year.

Its also been a little disheartening to see the custom builders like Mosaic and Moots following the trend, presumably because their customers are asking for it after seeing it on the Treks of the world.

[Likes2ridefar]

I don’t like integrated bar stem and routing either, most I’ve seen, but may be trying one in the near future on a gravel bike so shall see. If it works better and looks good, a win in my books.

[AngryScientist]

Yea, I hate all that stuff.

Most of this new fangled aero tech is really just about worthless to most people who just want to ride a regular road bike. If you ride a bike a lot and in all conditions, it's really a good idea to take it apart once in a while and get everything cleaned up if you want it to last without creaks and groans. What a pain to disassemble a front end like that.

My buddy has a pretty new Jeep Grand Cherokee. They call it "Overland" edition.

About a month ago he was in a minor fender bender where he smashed the front air dam and into the front bumper. Looking at his SUV, the damage looked very minor to me, but the repair bill was eye watering. Apparently there were some pretty $$$ sensors and electronics in the front for the collision avoidance system etc etc etc.

This is in a truck that's supposed to go "Overlanding". Good grief.

[C40_guy]

There are so many beautiful stems out there...the essence of the bicycle cockpit.

Cinelli 101
Cinelli Frog
3T Mutant

...

[robt57]

I am not paying for the 'look', and the aero of it probably only mattered in my riding life in a few hours of my +1500 hours on the bike ea. year in 2000&01.

Being my #1 is a RaceShop Domame RSL/SLR, that replaced a RSL Domane Classics I can say the Trek comments are ignorant at best. Not to mention rude in the Thumper Doctrine to fellow PLer that may ride Treks.

I never got the disparaging, if you don't have/want/ride one, why the commentary. Reminds me of Crack&Fail and Die Quick quips among others I've all my life for successful product families.

As far a yelling at clouds, I yelled that out the patio door as I typed it.