I've got retro bikes for a laugh re-living the past, and a modern bike for more regular (and harder) trail riding. Even if it were possible to do the things I do on my modern bike with a retro, it would wreck them.
As for my retro bikes, over a year or so I've thinned it down a lot. I'm now keeping just things that are fun to ride, complete or close to complete. I cleared out a lot of prospective projects and one 'unicorn' that turned out to be a fairly shite ride (tbh). I'm now of the philosophy that I will no longer acquire 'projects' unless they are readily realised, and that though prices do rise, most things can be acquired as needed rather than hoarded.
I find the opposite really. And as for tools, most of my stuff is 20 or so years old, all I've had to add this century is a crank puller with the ISIS/Octalink 'button' (now a retrobike tool itself!), and a Hollowtech II/GXP cup tool. To be fair, if I pressed my own headset cups I might need a new set of adaptors for 1.5 or taper headsets.
I never stopped updating bikes, so shouldn't I have boxes and boxes of redundant tools knocking about?
My modern bikes in the last 10+ years have all been pretty much fit and forget, apart from a run with some bad GXP bbs right when they first came out (which were efficiently and successfully warrantied, something I don't remember happening much if at all last century).
As for my retro bikes, over a year or so I've thinned it down a lot. I'm now keeping just things that are fun to ride, complete or close to complete. I cleared out a lot of prospective projects and one 'unicorn' that turned out to be a fairly shite ride (tbh). I'm now of the philosophy that I will no longer acquire 'projects' unless they are readily realised, and that though prices do rise, most things can be acquired as needed rather than hoarded.
groovyblueshed":1wdwl3qx said:I do realise there's some Zen-like joy in fettling and tinkering but I think simplicity of maintenance is crucial to getting out and enjoying riding bikes. Some modern bikes seem costly and overly complex, requiring yet more dedicated tools.
I find the opposite really. And as for tools, most of my stuff is 20 or so years old, all I've had to add this century is a crank puller with the ISIS/Octalink 'button' (now a retrobike tool itself!), and a Hollowtech II/GXP cup tool. To be fair, if I pressed my own headset cups I might need a new set of adaptors for 1.5 or taper headsets.
I never stopped updating bikes, so shouldn't I have boxes and boxes of redundant tools knocking about?
My modern bikes in the last 10+ years have all been pretty much fit and forget, apart from a run with some bad GXP bbs right when they first came out (which were efficiently and successfully warrantied, something I don't remember happening much if at all last century).