Modern bikes...

My road bike isn't integrated cockpit or disc brake, but has internally routed cables for it's mechanical groupset... but fwiw I'd add a pro of disc brakes of no issues with rim wear/ carbon braking surface in the wet. Tubeless isn't that new either, and the hassle is more in the fitting (and a mess if you have to fit a tube.

In my experience, people showing for spins without spares isn't confined to new bikes, and isn't new!

I retired 18 years ago. Finally got my Ti road bike at the beginning of this year. Should have done it years ago, most comfortable bike, I've ever owned.

I thought wireless groupset batteries lasted a long time? I was under the impression it was something you'd only do every few months.

OP - you remind me of those drivers around 20/25 years ago or so when power assisted steering, electric windows etc. were becoming standard in normal cars.

"What do people want with electric windows? How hard is it to wind up/down a window?" which usually translated as "I can't afford it so no one else should show me up by having it either".

I don't know if you drive, but if you do, I'm pretty sure your vehicle has electric windows, power assisted steering, automatic choke, ABS, AC etc. You probably have an automatic washing machine at home, maybe even a dishwasher. Sure the cost of servicing those must be shocking compared to the old basin of water or the old washboard.

....and as for those new fangled cellular telephones, what was wrong with the old pay phone with the A and B buttons?

Life moves on - get over it.

(But I do agree with you regarding tubeless - pain in the arse on a group spin spending 45 freezing minutes on the side of the road in winter while the tubeless one tries to remove the tyre and fit a tube. A solution for a problem which doesn't exist.

I work in the motor trade. i The last "Decent" cars built were in 2000/2010 or older. The latest cars equipped with Advance braking, adaptive cruise control, electronic handbrakes (what's wrong with a good'ol rachet lever?) self drive capability etc. are going too far with "Driver aids". they've taken all the fun out of driving a car.

I gradually upgraded bikes, went from Sora to 105 to Di2 over 8 years or so, I wouldn't be without Di2 to be honest, doesn't make me faster at all but takes the faff out of indexing them, although battery charging is another task to replace it. As poster above says I think the integrated cockpit is pig ugly and wouldn't go near one. My good bike does have disc brakes which I think are brill, I haven't had to bleed them yet but being slightly nerdy I look forward to the task at some point. As WA alludes to, Life goes on, progress and all that.

I find myself in a similar scenario to OP- almost every other guy in my club who I would ride with has disc/integrated headset/internal etc and some have Di2. I agree however that we need to move with tech progress rather than resist for the sake of nostalgia. My race bike is a 2016 Argon18 frame, the Nitrogen 'sprinters' bike with tubeless, but the external flapping cables are the only draw back. Aesthetically this was a very fine bike [still is] 6 years ago but it seems like it is from another era altogether given the speed of change. I'm not yet entirely sold on tubeless nor do I have a team car to throw me another bike if the disc fails; therefore I've decided to just stick with the current steed and with a cost-of-living crisis, n+1 is a long way off.

Disc will stay; tubeless maybe not; 12 speed is really pushing the edge of necessity; 1x is naff and AquaBlue proved that; if internal cables become near enough standard, that would be a welcome development.

Change is the only constant

I don't know what an integrated headset(or a tracker mortgage) is!!

Which is a shame because you nearly need a mortgage to get a new bike these days!

I wonder has the shortage if bikes pushed buyers into the next level a bit sooner than they had planned for?

I had an alu defy with claris and changed to a TCR Advanced pro with ultegra carbon etc.

I was looking to go carbon and was thinking 105 but could get nothing, washoung to just leave it so but came across a good deal in the above. I'm actually hardly off it these days so the money was well spent.

The deep section rims weren't a clincher, pardon the pun, for me. I'm not sure if people land in off the road a d insist on an integrated cockpit or whatever, it's just what's there and available.

I think we all know what its like to get clearance from the other half to get a new bike, you don't hang around, you buy before the mind changes!! 🤣🤣

Earlier this year I decided to upgrade to a new 7k bike if only because I was spending a fortune on old tech keeping the old one (with over 40 thousand kms on it) in the game. I wanted to upgrade the ultegra groupset (which I'd taken off an even older frame) with Di2 and there was no neat way to facilitate it on the frame and I think the sram equivalent was either too expensive, too hard to find or was obselete. Wheels were old zipp rims on rim breaks which inevitably wouldn't last a more than a couple more years etc. I had been saving for a new bike but after an expensive crash that had me spending 100s on a rear mech, wheel truing, new lever etc and then a headset I but the bullet. Both bikes are great I love having both of them, both really decent in their own right. What I wasn't expecting was how much id love the disc brakes, gears I don't really see the big deal tbh, and even prefer the ultegra 6700 mech hoods. I do miss how light my old bike is in comparison and the stock carbon wheels that came with the new bike just don't rate against my old zipps but at least I know when I eventually upgrade them they'll last a lot longer. I probably won't be spending any more money on the older one except for general keeping it on the road type stuff. I'm mostly just dreading the price of keeping the new one on the road when things like 12 speed cassetes, bbs, bearings etc start to need replacing as they seem quite expensive, at the moment anyway.