I'm grateful that my 2019 Norco Section uses a round seatpost, threaded Shimano BB, and standard cockpit; I deplore the "self-adjusting" D-shaped Giant seatpost on my girlfriend's bike (which is subtly off-centre and takes all kinds of witchery to approximate the ease with which I can adjust a standard seatpost), as well as the mess of BBs and integrated cockpits that are becoming common even on mid-range road & gravel bikes. When I buy my next bike, I will go out of my way to select something using standardized parts. I very much hope something akin to the Framework laptop comes to market in cycling, where the entire machine is built to be user-serviceable with off-the-shelf, readily available parts. I put something like 20,000 km commuting to school on my early 1970s Raleigh Record, which I rebuilt almost completely with my brother, and it was a gloriously simple machine that I miss dearly today.
You can still buy bikes like that. There are plenty of people still making frame sets that will work with standard drive train components, standard sized stems, and plain ol handlebars in a variety of shapes. And they will build a bike for you.
I bought a Rivendell about 10 years ago and it's probably my last bike. Is a steel frame heavier than carbon? Yes, a bit, but I don't have to throw it away after a crash, it rides like a dream, and the weight difference is less than the extra "water bottles" I carry around my midsection. Most of the weight of the bike+rider (which is what you have to haul around) is the rider, not the bike, and the frame is just a fraction of the weight of the bike!
Even though new bikes are getting more and more proprietary, I don't foresee a time when I can't buy a new Shimano cassette or other replaceable parts.
It does seem like a complete bike that is under $1100 or so today will be less repairable than the bike I got in 2008 for $600 (less than $900 in 2024 dollars).
In some ways yes in other ways no. Shimano has been on their forced obsolescence train for 30 years. They don’t make hoods for my old 8spd levers. If I want to not deal with ratty old tape over sticky ancient hoods I need to drop $130 on new claris levers and $25 on a new fd because the pull ratio changed then another $20 on new bar tape.
You should check AliExpress for those. You might be able to find some knock-offs. AE is actually really good for things like this. The other place to check is Ebay, in case someone is selling NOS (new old stock).
I’ve tried both. They don’t make 8spd era hoods they do have some 9spd clones. NOS has n’t existed for years and when it comes up people ask $100 for a set of hoods.
I wonder if any of the companies making 9spd clones would be interested in making 8spd clones. It might not be worth it for them, but probably wouldn't hurt to ask, especially if people are actually getting $100 for a set when they dig up some NOS.
I tried that too. Talc only works for the first time you grip the hoods. If you then take your hands off and regrip you are back to where you started getting black crap everywhere. Tape has been the best solution if a bit ugly.
