Since I'm cutting and pasting, anyway, I posted this to a friend about marketing v. rebuilding old steel.
The thesis on Steel is Real involves mechanics, dynamics, physiology and ecology.
Steel frames flex, and have an endurance limit - a stress below which they will never crack. They first built aluminum bikes the same way as steel bikes, and they cracked and failed catastrophically, because aluminum does not have an endurance limit. They had to change the design philosophy for aluminum bikes, making them more rigid so that if a crack develops, the load is transferred to a different part of the frame, and the crack will stop growing. Marketing tells you excess rigidity is a bonus.
For this reason (redundant structure), an aluminum bike frame is not significantly lighter than a good steel bike frame. But it's less expensive to manufacture - and also harsh to ride. The flex in the steel frame produces a comfortable ride, because the whole bike is a shock absorber. A good-climbing steel frame also has a natural frequency in the rear triangles that turns your excess pedal energy into pushing the frame forward. Because of this, a good steel bike feels lighter than it is when you're climbing.
While you can get the same dynamics from carbon and build a lighter bike - half the weight - if you've ever broken a fishing pole, you know carbon composite also has limited safe life, and no warning before it breaks.
100 years of steel bike frames are here to stay, as long as they're protected from corrosion.
10,000,000 aluminum bikes are imported from China and Malaysia into the US every year.
Worldwide, aluminum bikes are throw away.
Aluminum production is 90% electric power. In the US, we scrub our power plant flues, turning acid gasses into solid, which is used in high-grade cement. Acid gas emissions from China and Malaysia electric production has killed 25% of the Great Barrier Reef in our lifetime. In the PNW, oyster farmers must add caustic to their raw seawater, because the acid content from China and Malaysia pollution is too great to allow oysters to reproduce. They're allowed to do this by Kyoto Accords as an "emerging 3rd world economy". We should not buy China **** until they decide to buy our scrubber technology in return.
There are so many Great steel frames out there from the 70s to 90s, most in great condition, and most of those will fit new components.
There's also an N+1 marketing baseline in bicycles - they have to convince you what you own is obsolete, or you won't buy new.
Obviously, I'm unconvinced.
______________________________________________________
Not to totally derail the thread on Fuji, but here are example nice bikes built on old frames that were all purchased for $125 to $150.
SRAM 2-speed auto city bike..................................................................................................Afline 7 built on Miyata-Univega mixte.
Both bikes have Shimano dyno hub and Bush-Mueller lamps. The big ring on the mixte crank has been turned into a bash guard by grinding the teeth away - while a $15 bash guard is kind of a no-brainer, Steve built a rig that dialed a grinder stone into the ring while he turned the crank.
Some photos of my daughter's go-fast, which she built on '86 Team Fuji frame. 19 lbs
9sp Ultegra, and the Mighty Comp crank that spent 20 years on my Raleigh.
Here's that Fuji again. When my buddy's daughter needed a bike to pedal into UTSA campus, they went to the local Frankenbike meet and bought an '85 Shogun for $100. It built into the ultimate sleeper bike that no one would steal. New Deore brakes, and a new Deore RD worked perfectly with the old 6sp SIS. (The old Exage RD was cracked as lower-grade Shimano tends to do)
