How important is a full groupset, to you?

Browsing through the 'show your bikes' posts, and I see a lot of people suggesting that some builds are nice, but would be better with a full groupset of one kind or another.

I grew up club riding and racing in the late 80s through 90s, and rarely saw anyone with a full groupset. Most everyone bought upgrade parts, or got hand-me-downs from other riders in the club, mixing and matching, in a way that would not be possible now (due to designed-in incompatibility).

My own bike at the time, had Shimano chainset, brakeset and front mech; Suntour shifters and rear mech; Look pedals and Mavic hubs.

So, do you prefer to see showroom-style full, matching groups, or interesting, eclectic mixes of components?

you're right. people mainly rode the individual parts they preferred or to a price point they could afford. There was the odd full-super-record Italian stallion, but these were few and far between.

The first time I became aware of groupsets was in the 90's when I sold the Mrs's bike and the guy interested on the phone wanted a run-down of components and rejected the bike on the basis that it didn't have a full groupset.

My first handbuilt frame, a Roberts which I still have, had a first gen DA groupset which took many weeks of pocket money saving to buy: I couldn't see a performance advantage over Campagnolo and the DA finish was also very good.

I bought a new SBDU frame, fitted a full C-Record groupset. The only factory bike I have, bought new, is my 1984 LU Raleigh Corsa which came equipped with a Shimano 105 group - in 1987 it was upgraded to a 600EXSIS (still one of my favourite group sets).

Also have bicycles equipped with NR & SR, touring bicycles naturally have a component mix as do older machines like the Allin Belgique and Hobbs of Barbican.

Rk.

It’s nice to have isn’t it? You’re right though, it’s a fairly new obsession

Not one bit.

When it comes to the sorts of bikes I like its the most suitable components for the job they are doing.

On the more modern bikes I build a complete groupset is nice and I do now naturally tend to try and group things by manufacturer on the bikes I build but its not a definite necessity as far as I'm concerned.

And yes the early to mid 90's would be when I noticed it becoming a thing and this coincided with me stopping my cycling because of working overseas, so I still have the first and probably the only brand new full group I ever bought which was a 1997 Campag Veloce that I picked up in bits from various shops in their end of line sales.

The first and second bikes that I raced on had frequent changes of components due to affordability. Then I got a Raleigh Systeme U Replica and splashed out on DA 7400 full groupset minus the pedals.
Nowadays if looking for a bike, it’s more the frame that I want so components are an issue, for example I was lucky enough to spot a diamond in the rough that was an SBDU Frameset dressed in a real mix of Campag from different generations.
It’s now got the SR brakes it came with but I’ve added DA 10 speed down tube shifters and a 105 front and rear mech.

It is interesting to note that people who do time trialling still go for mix and match, primarily because no groupset has ever been introduced that is ideal for this discipline. The gearing options are next to useless and you end up going for lighter/more aero parts from other component makers.
What is interesting to note as a general observation is that groupsets are all basically a variant of the top of the range groupset, with cheaper components with less exotic materials as you go down the range, to Ultegra, 105 etc. The top groupsets (Dura-Ace/Record etc.) are designed primarily for road racing, so what all groupsets are, are essentially components for a road racing bike. If you don't do road races or indeed if you compete in TTs then you usually end up going for custom parts such as carbon chainrings and custom cassette ratios. If you are into touring, then you are still better going for a triple, so again you end up going for a custom option.

I'm mainly interested in pre-gruppo era racing bikes, so not at all, as I generally prefer to use period-correct parts.

For my touring machines I like to play around with whatever might contribute to something I want to ride all day. For this year's vacation trips I just finished a build that features Campagnolo Chorus brifters shifting a Shimano RD, SunTour FD over a 6-speed Maillard freewheel and a Stronglight 106 triple and pulling MAFAC brakes:

Personally, don't really care about a complete gruppo, but will go for full Shimano or Campag.

Shimano mixes better throughout the years. Campag stuff is either old grumpy or aero and they don't look good mixed.

Mixing and spreading parts between various gruppos was economically sound BITD, and still is.