For mountain bikes and race bikes, this might actually be true. I used to have an MTB with stainless steel sprockets. Never needed to change them. Nowadays, they are mostly aluminium, I think. Furthermore newer bikes have more gears typically. The rear cassette used to be 7 speed, now 10 or 11 is not uncommon. This means narrower chains.
Also chain may be lighter now, especially the high-end ones.
Lighter bikes are definitely more fun to ride, but probably at some cost....
http://www.weathermap.eu/
Weather forecast based on free data. Only rain forecast for now. I had (still have) plans to make it much better with wind, temperature etc., nicer graphics, better animation and an Android App.
I am working on too many other side project, but I hope to start working on this one soon again.