Why are most modern bikes ugly?

[Tin Pot]

Am I just a dinosaur or...

Well, yes, obviously but more importantly....Cinelli:

 

[MikeG]

......The vast majority of what is on sale now, regardless of price level, I would not have in the house on the grounds they are mingingly ugly. .....

In exactly the same way as the last decent music was produced in about 1984.....

Am I just a dinosaur......

Yes.

And so will the next generation be when they get to your age. They'll think that stuff from their youth was the best ever. 'twas ever thus.

 

[biggs682]

A hand made frame be it from the 50's or 2018 is always going to be built and made with some feeling and love where as a frame produced by a machine is never going to be built with any feeling or pride .

What gets added or bolted to the frame can also make a big difference

And as for getting a good looking member of the opposite sex to sit on a bike does not make it look any more appealing

 

[MikeG]

A hand made frame be it from the 50's or 2018 is always going to be built and made with some feeling and love where as a frame produced by a machine is never going to be built with any feeling or pride .......

I doubt that you'd be able to tell the emotion of the factory worker who stood on a production line working on frames from the look of a frame. Even hand-built frames from the 50s looked the way they look because someone designed them to look like that.......in exactly the same way as carbon fibre frames these days don't look like they do because of someone's mood, but because someone designed them to look that way. Assigning nostalgic thoughts to the factory hands who put identical frames together day after day is an illogical red-herring. Blame (or laud) the designers, not those who build the designs.

 

[biggs682]

I doubt that you'd be able to tell the emotion of the factory worker who stood on a production line working on frames from the look of a frame. Even hand-built frames from the 50s looked the way they look because someone designed them to look like that.......in exactly the same way as carbon fibre frames these days don't look like they do because of someone's mood, but because someone designed them to look that way. Assigning nostalgic thoughts to the factory hands who put identical frames together day after day is an illogical red-herring. Blame (or laud) the designers, not those who build the designs.

The ones i am thinking about are more likely built by a skilled frame builder who works behind the shop or in his own premises and takes pride in his work , where as something going down a production line is handled by a team of different people and it only needs one bad egg to ruin a batch .

Look at the quality of frames produced by the likes of Dawes and Carlton in the early 70's one could be nicely presented whilst the next one down the line would look awful

 

[MikeG]

The ones i am thinking about are more likely built by a skilled frame builder who works behind the shop or in his own premises and takes pride in his work , where as something going down a production line is handled by a team of different people and it only needs one bad egg to ruin a batch .

Well, you may be comparing apples with pears. A bit like comparing individually handcrafted high-end joinery with something from Ikea (or Oak Furnitureland).

 

[the snail]

The Colnago Master is a thing of beauty for sure, but in reality the majority of traditional lugged frame bikes bore little resemblance to it. They were rather agricultural heavy things, pretty uninspiring to look at or ride, and often not that well made. Anyway, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so if you don't like modern bikes then there must be something wrong with your eyes. Perhaps you don't read enough cycling magazines or something.

 

[Ian H]

Two pics I took just before Xmas in Sigma Hampton Wick , two brand new bikes , same manufacturer , as you can see , one high tech modern , one classic , both beauties ,
no doubt which th OP would walk out with !

View attachment 392685 View attachment 392684
As materials develop, so along with it innovative design will naturally follow , I am all for it ,

Yebbut: those are two bikes for two different purposes.

 

[biggs682]

I had the pleasure of meeting Lee Cooper a few years ago and to see a man making frames in his converted garage by hand is one of the things that made me realise how much care and attention a craftsman puts into his work and that is the difference between a man made product and a machine made one

 

[ozboz]

Yebbut: those are two bikes for two different purposes.

Both those bikes were in the road bike display of the shop , so to me they are road bikes , one following the classic look and lines , and a stunner , the other as near as state of the art in design and material , also , to me a stunner, neither are ugly to me ,

 

[MikeG]

I had the pleasure of meeting Lee Cooper a few years ago and to see a man making frames in his converted garage by hand is one of the things that made me realise how much care and attention a craftsman puts into his work and that is the difference between a man made product and a machine made one

I'm a craftsman. I hand-make furniture, and have done it professionally in the past. So I am a big believer in hand-crafted products.....but I don't accept your premise that the hand-made bike is better looking than a production model. It would be perfectly possible to set up a production line of machinery to mass produce any and every frame ever made by an artisan, and the finished product would be indistinguishable from the hand-made version.

I say again, it isn't the hand-made nature of those old frames that made them attractive........it is the design. Someone decided what they were going to look like, and whether the final product was machine made or hand-made was and is irrelevant to the aesthetics.

 

[biggs682]

I say again, it isn't the hand-made nature of those old frames that made them attractive........it is the design. Someone decided what they were going to look like, and whether the final product was machine made or hand-made was and is irrelevant to the aesthetics.

i agree that they were designed to look a certain way , but a true craftsman will go around and finish the item they are making by hand where as a machine made item would more than likely just a final inspection

 

[MikeG]

But that has no bearing on the aesthetics, which is what this thread is about. From across the street you aren't going to be seeing any difference, and even if you could (you can't) it still wouldn't make one bike "mingingly ugly" (the claim in the OP) and another one beautiful.

 

[Ian H]

Both those bikes were in the road bike display of the shop , so to me they are road bikes , one following the classic look and lines , and a stunner , the other anear as state of the art in design and material , also , to me a stunner, neither are ugly to me ,

One is a time-trial frame, the other is a classic road-race bike.

 

[ozboz]

One is a time-trial frame, the other is a classic road-race bike.

One is as agreed a classic , the other is a Colnago Concept ,
Road bike , follow the link ,

https://www.sigmasports.com/item/Colnago/Concept-Art-Dcor-Road-Frameset/EUKO