Bro. A couple years ago I went mountain biking with a friend and took my old Schwinn Sierra. It is 21 years old, but handles well and I'm good on it. I couldn't believe it when people on the trail actually RIDICULED me for riding it. I would have thought they'd congratulate me on going old skool or keeping my bike so tight after so many years (decades) of abuse. But they actually ridiculed me. I really can't even believe it happened, even today. Fortunately, my mountain biking self esteem is rooted in fitness, a lifetime of riding, and the ability to wheelie that thing all the way up the mountain, not in what some newcomer poser jerks think. Anyway, it was an exceptionally illuminating moment in mountain biking.
Come to think of it, same thing happens to me in rock climbing. People ridicule my harness, or my "neon" gear (some from the 80s) and I'm just tripping.
I remember seeing rare, cool bikes like a real XR750 flattracker or an ATK supermoto up at Alice's. I wonder how many people went up to those bikes and ridiculed them for being old, or American, or whatever.