Oddly, I think disc brake bikes look better, partly with how newer bikes can hide all cables and I think rim brakes distract from the frame.
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Coming from mountain biking, rim brakes to me look cheap and ancient. Because only super, super cheap “mountain bikes” still have them. Or ancient bikes.
But tastes vary, and I know people who spent a fortune just to get one more fully decked out rim brake bike. 
Yup. I have XTR M9000 on my mountain bike. 1x chain rings are no longer plentiful. Amazon.de has them as imports for 194 € (34T) or 280 € (30/32T).
When I bought a 30T in Japan, I paid about 100 €. Fortunately, I snapped an 34T Rotor chain ring for 30 € plus shipping. A steal.
Probably…the hardest part will not be finding parts for rim brake Shimano group sets, it will be finding good wheelsets with desirable brake tracks that are still made or still available somewhere.
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That’s a good point. I agree with that.
I upgraded from 11 to 12 speed (on a rim brake) and disagree. It may seem pedantic, but the DA 11 speed only went to 28 for a big cog. The 12 speed DA goes to 30 and has a 16t in the middle of the cassette (so it goes 14-15-16-17-19 instead of 14-15-17-19), which is nice to have for jamming out in the middle on the flats. Additionally, the RD on the 12 speed can accommodate 34t as the biggest cog and they make a DA level 11-34t cassette. The 11 speed cassette could take 30t, but the biggest DA cassette they made was 11-28t. In short, you can get a 1:1 DA ratio and the only thing you sacrifice is a 16t.
I ended up equipping with 52-36t and 11-30t. I own 50/34 chain rings and 11-34 cassette for extreme circumstances (notably, Mauna Kea). I’ll probably buy a 54/40 set of chain rings for fun.
Regarding wheels, I was able to snag a pair of like-new DT Swiss Dicut Arc 1400 in 60/80 for $1000. You just gotta know where to look.
I still have my rim brake 11 speed DA set from my old crashed out bike. At some point I’ll buy a rim brake TT frame on the cheap and throw that back on.
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There is an 11-30 speed Dura Ace cassette. But I took it off to run 11-34 (albeit not Dura Ace) for my big, climby events.
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Or you could get an Ultegra cassette, either 11-30 or 11-32. For the life of me, I don’t get Shimano’s insistence that “real athletes don’t need gear ratios.” You are right that you are losing gear ratio, but I have spent several years with an 11-speed 11-32 cassette, and it was just fine. (In fact, I preferred SRAM’s ratios, so I put my Ultegra cassette on my trainer.) If you want to stick to rim brakes and you prefer Shimano, I think going for an 11-speed groupset is IMHO a sensible choice.
With SRAM going 12 speeds gives you 10-36 cassette, which gives you sub 1:1 gearing with their “compact” crank (46/33). Or you could go 1x. I think SRAM has made more of the 12th cog.
Anyway, lest I digress.
Sure about that, especially if you fast forward 4–6 years?
In my experience, Shimano is not great when it comes to parts. It will cut production of DuraAce/XTR first, then XT/Ultegra. SLX/105 dies last. So e. g. I had to make do with SLX cassettes on my previous mountain bike. And the scarcity of its 1x XTR M9000 crank means that parts are getting pricey. Unlike cassettes or chains, thanks to Shimano’s habit to key chain rings to particular cranks (XTR-XTR, XT-XT, etc.), I cannot use a “lesser” chainring either.
I’m sure of nothing, it’s the future for goodness sake 
I do think that disc brake bikes are getting better to ride. The newest Tarmac (I’m a big Tarmac fan in general) seems to have been designed around the idea “make it more comfortable and better to ride not just stiffer and more aero,” which if extrapolated out would bring the qualities I love about the older rim brake bikes into the disc brake market. It’s not that I inherently dislike disc brakes, it’s just the overall package isn’t as good IMHO. But the nostalgic part of me will always like the look and feel of a good rim brake bike
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Going from (my admittedly spotty) memory here, but wasn’t the SL6 sold alongside the Venge? And basically, the two bikes were the same weight?
One of my favorite road bikes ever seems to fit your description as well, BMC’s Teammachine. That was really a 8–9 out of 10 in all areas. It was the Porsche 911 of road bikes. Most of the aero bikes were much more, hmmm, polarized, more like a Lamborghini. They were 10/10 in a few bits, but much lower in others (most notably comfort). 3T’s Strada introduced the idea of aero + wide tires, which definitely does help. (I own one.)
Some of the road bikes of that era were also compromised, because the basic frame design was identical for disc and rim brakes. So you had extra material and designs that were inherently compromises. Not sure if that applies to the SL6, I have never ridden one.
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Yes the SL6 and Venge were sold together. IDK about weight, I’m not huge into counting grams, and I never rode the Venge, but the SL6 Tarmac was dreamy to ride. Stiff in the right places but compliant in others and aero enough that you weren’t paying big penalties to ride it. It was a “ride all day” bike. I put some ENVE aero handlebars and SES 5.6 wheels on it and it was a rocket. Rode it to a 5:35 Ironman time.
I’ve never ridden a BMC but I think they make one of the prettiest bikes in the peloton under AG2R
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No, it goes to 30
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SL6 - Venge
I seem to recall that an SL6 is just about as fast as a Venge or SL7 once you put an integrated bar on the front and hide the cables (etap).
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I did a double take and realized you didn’t mean Venge Vias.
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This is what i did. I know manufacturers claim watt savings, but the last few models have been mostly gains in the cockpit. Frames have stayed very similar
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And where there have been changes, they are due to updated UCI rules. Compared to its predecessor new 2022 Strada has a “deeper “ head tube section for that reason. Ditto for a lot of other bikes.
I’d also like to see farings for disc brakes (the BMC Timemachine had some detachable ones), but they are not UCI legal. That could not only improve aerodynamics but also cooling.
But the UCI takes forever and IMHO is an obstacle to progress. I’m glad they have no dominant say in gravel cycling, for otherwise we’d get restrictions on the type of bikes we can ride. And those will stifle innovation.
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If you think about it, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that the UCI should have any say at all in what bike (maybe) you and (definitely) I ride. Getting a UCI license is literally a never event for me. So why not get a bike with the sole focus of “Be A Joy To Ride And Own”? I think the Aethos is a step in this direction, and I’d love to try one if anyone wants to throw a 58 cm SWorks frameset my way 
The UCI is just a bogus organization in so many ways. This is another fun dimension of their incompetence. It makes me somewhat proud to be an American - hate all you want, but our sports leagues more dynamic in terms of policy and safety, and they definitely give players more bargaining power in terms of revenue-sharing and income. The NFL makes pretty substantial changes every year in the interest of “Hey let’s not have everyone hurt all the time, it’s bad for lots of things like people, PR, business, etc” and no one is suggesting they are a saintly organization. Formula1 is another good example. The UCI takes a decade to adopt new frame tube shapes FFS nevermind the mind-boggling danger of sprint finishes they refuse to address.
we have hit a plateau in frame design. they can’t get much quicker, they can get more comfortable however.
Bars are the focus for now, im sure most brands will be on 36 hoods 40 drop style bar soon.
Wheels and tyres are getting close to plateau too. the rovals are ridiculously fast. could be lighter tho.
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Agreed. Another thought experiment - ever wonder why pro cycling has all of this money thrown at uber-expensive bike parts, frames, etc? It makes no actual sense. Put them all on identical steel tube frames with options for fit and then turn them loose to race. It would actually be super interesting I think and it would let the riders take home more money, which is a better outcome IMO. Other sports already figured this out a looooong time ago. All of the R&D ends up being pushed by Industry with a capital “I”