I love cycling, 44 years a 'proper' cyclist. I'll stay with my rim brakes, my threaded headset, my quill stem, my (skinny) tubs, my visible cables, my chrome forks and stays and my white socks thank you.
I don't remotely care about disc brakes, carbon fibre, wireless thingummies, fat tyres or whatever ugly shite is the newest thing. Beauty matters. It's like taking an art lover from the Louvre and showing them a scrawl on a toilet wall and telling them that actually this is more valid than a Van Gogh.
What day was it decided that cycling, bikes and cycling clothing had to be as ugly and overpriced as possible? Jerseys without collars, shorts down to the kneecaps. Don't even start me on socks pulled up to almost the knees, and excuse me but anything other than white ankle socks while cycling is a crime against humanity.
Everything since c.2005 or so can go and f*ck itself. It's pig ugly, overpriced and achieves nothing that the above can't, and with more exquisite beauty. And you can throw pisspot hardshell helmets into the nearest skip too while you're at it. I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who has started cycling in the last 20 years and has to ride a contraption which looks like it was designed by a particularly dim 5 year old, and one with learning disabilities at that, and he's going to charge you more than the cost of a small car too.
Someone somewhere is pissing themselves laughing on the way to the bank, but not at my expense he isn't.
I wouldn't cross the road to piss on a 'modern' bike thanks.