I think one's use of components should reflect the purpose of the bike. I
have a few semi wall hangers...these are bikes I ride only occasionally, and
am likely to bring to shows, etc. I love these bikes and spend a lot of
time working on them and detailing them. They all get ridden. I don't grab
them them for a 60 mile ride, however. For a bike that I put lots of miles
on over the nice riding season I grab a bike with indexing and perhaps Ergo
shifting. I get back less tired, I ride faster and I enjoy the longer rides
a lot more with them. Head winds are terrible on the older friction
shifting bikes for these old legs. Modern components often keep me in the
right gear, miss less shifts, require a lot less trimming, and the more
modern dual pivot brakes are a gift from God, in my scheme of things. A
heavily ridden bike requires the components that make my longer distance
riding more enjoyable. For me this usually means C Record or newer. This
is not the dark side...this is what makes cycling more enjoyable for me.
I have no interest in owning a bike that I can't ride, but the ones that get
a whole lot of mileage need to be set up to reflect my needs and
preferences. I have nothing but admiration for folks like Chuck or Mike
Wilkinson (this guy does it in the Rocky Mountains!) that can take off on a
60 or 100 mile fixed gear ride...but it ain't me babe, as Dylan once
crooned.
I think hot rodding on a vintage bike you want to put heavy mileage on is
very cool, and for a modern KOF bike it seems to make little sense to me to
put parts on it that don't get the utmost out of the potential that folks
like E-Ritchie work so hard to build into them.
Like I say, it all seems to me to be a matter of what you want the bike to
do.
Tom Sanders
Lansing, Mi