Fixed riding has ruined love of gears

pretty much what wibble said, plus I really don't want to spend thousand of quid on plastic, especially for less than half that I could get this;

Ed,

I have owned two 70s racers and even used to do club rides on them. I have had a 90s Racer (full 105 kit) and two modern 105 equipped road bikes.

Even though the 70s racers were the shitniz back in the day, they are simply poor compared to modern racing bike £500-800 racing bike. Even the 90s racing bike which has older but functionally the same kit (flight deck shifters etc) was poor.