I'm a week or so late in reading my Classic Rendezvous digests ... (try it sometime . you might find it's like going away on vacation and coming back to have two or three of your favorite magazines waiting for you in the mail box). I happened upon the thread which pertains to bike boom bikes then and now. (Then they were the U0-8, Raleigh's mid level and others and now they are the Trek - Giant whatevers). First let me say that as much as I don't care for the modern bikes, they are still better and more functional than the U0-8's of my youth. And for the people that are still trying to defend the Chinese bicycle factories as humane and sane, let me offer this:
http://www.nlcnet.org/
I don't enjoy reading about this anymore than you will, but the Raleigh factories of the classic era were still miles better.
Garth Libre in Miami Florida, USA