How much is too much?

[Ming the Merciless]

Shoot bikes or soot bikes?

They do overlap in the Venn diagram

 

[Juan Kog]

Or is it more a case of "life's too short to put up with others poking fun at me for not riding a mega expensive bike like theirs"? I just don't care how much pisstaking I receive, for being, shall we say, somewhat eccentric and non-conformist.
One slight problem with the shoot bikes argument is that once you exclude the outright junk quality BSOs from the equation, what remains simply isn't shoot, except in the minds of those afflicted with incurable cycling snobbery. I ride all sorts that range from the new equivalent of around £200 to just over £1,000 in todays money and if all are equally well sorted the differences really aren't that huge with a price multiple of five and a very low base. If you then increase that by a further factor of 10, so a total multiple of 50, the incremental differences will be even smaller.

Skippy you come on with your eccentric and non-conformist approach to cycling because you enjoy getting a reaction. I have suspected for some time that SkipdiverJohn is an alter ego , you are in fact an out and out MAMIL with a designer velo studio packed with at least 6 £10000 bikes ,and none are more than 2 years old.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I have suspected for some time that SkipdiverJohn is an alter ego , you are in fact an out and out MAMIL with a designer velo studio packed with at least 6 £10000 bikes ,and none are more than 2 years old.

You would be extremely wrong there because the most money I have ever paid for a bike in my lifetime is the modern day equivalent of £315, and the newest one I own is one of the very final Nottingham-built Raleigh frames from 1999. No carbon fibre, no aluminium, no aero, no lycra, no clipless, no Strava, no Zwift, no power meters, no turbo trainers.

 

[classic33]

Personally I’m glad at the variety of bikes people ride. It opens up the conversation if you see something unusual or rare. For a start we need more penny farthings out there.

Having ridden one in traffic, I'd say they're not suited to town/city use with all the traffic lights*. Open roads a different thing altogether.

*They are handy for leaning on whilst waiting for the lights to change.

 

[Zipp2001]

I say spend what your comfortable spending on a bike. If it's a few hundred or a few thousands that's all up to you. The main thing is getting out and riding your bike. Who cares what other people think or say, just ride and have fun. I always enjoy seeing some old classic steel bikes still out there rolling around. That being said I'm a carbon, aero, spandex wearing rider who enjoys riding my bike. I still nod and wave, say hi and stop and help anyone stranded on the side of the road. Weather it's a bmx, cruiser, recumbent, fat bike, single speed, time trial, road, or ebike were out there riding and that's all that counts. Not the money spent.

 

[simongt]

It opens up the conversation if you see something unusual or rare.

To me that's the pleasure of doing the occasional Norwich 100. You come across a huge cross section of bikes & riders, from the 'I'm determined to break my last years record' nuts to the folk who've borrowed a bike that probably hasn't been ridden in years, but they're there to likewise to enjoy the day, the scenery and the varied company on the journey.

 

[proletaratOne]

No 50 year old can get max performance out of a hyper sports motor bike unless its on a track and his name is John Mcguiness (not yet 50) or Ron Haslam. Average person of riding ability would struggle to get 50% and never come close to a modern bikes limits
I have a bike that does 150mph, has lean angle ABS, multi traction control modes, track modes, anti wheelie blab blah blah. Do I need it, is it necessary, can I find the limits of the bike and ride to them ? No on all counts but thats what a modern bike is now. So because I dont need it I shouldnt buy it

This is extremely true. A modern race(motor cycle) bike has gotten soooo good. And it’s been that way for years . In the 2000s I raced 600. Even among very very skilled track riders it is rare that the bike is a limiting factor. Although some extra horses can really help make up for poorer corners

 

[DRM]

Oh dear. I fear now that I'm not worthy of my Spa Steel Audax bike because I wouldn't be able to ride PBP or LEL.

I'd better go and trade it in for a crap bike to match my crapness. To guard against the off chance that someone I don't know whose opinion I don't care about might think I have all the gear and no idea.

Fear not, I will accept the above bicycle, and safely dispose of it for you,

 

[Lovacott]

Just been browsing the usual websites to see what I can’t afford (or need, but that’s irrelevant) and can see that it’s easy to blow a grand on a bike.
Carbon fibre, higher spec components etc all go towards paying more, but is anyone seriously spending nearly £10k on a bike? What’s the difference between this and say a £2k or even £5k bike?

Back in the seventies, I was a Hi Fi freak. I had grown up listening to a clunky old radiogram and it seemed like every five minutes, someone came up with something which would improve sound quality.

I blew a lot of money trying to perfect my setup as soon as things were released. I then watched those improvements drop in price within a few months as they were superseded by something better.

When home PC's became the rage in the early nineties, I stayed just a touch behind the technology curve and saved a small fortune.

I've just bought a Carbon Fibre bike for a grand and it's a decent improvement on my steel framed bike when it comes to features, weight and speed. Well worth the grand I'd say.

I'm sure that a £10k bike would be better than what I'm on today, but I'm not so sure it would be ten times better? But whatever, in ten years, I will be able to buy that ten grand bike for 500 quid.

If I was a multibillionaire, I'd probably pay for first dibs on any new bike tech, but as I'm just a pleb with a job, I'll stick to paying pennies for the trickle down technology.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

There's people with more money than sense, and there's people with more sense than money....

 

[GuyBoden]

I'm sure that the Shimano Alivio groupset for mtb or Sora for road will do the job just fine for the vast majority of riders on this forum. In my opinion, if you're a heavy weight like me, you would be better getting strong components rather than lightweight components.

If I was young and racing regularly, I'd buy the most advanced racing cycle gear I could afford and upgrade all the time.

 

[Arrowfoot]

Setting aside high performance, the frame is the least important part for an average person. You can do well with steel, alloy, carbon and ti. It's the moving parts that delivers the difference and the comfort.

You can buy a decent frame that you are geometrically comfortable with, even second hand and get a real good groupset and great wheels. A fully aligned bottom bracket with the best bearings affordable is must and a proper seat (pay well for it) and you have a great ride.

Carbon frames have the widest range in terms of pricing even though they are manufactured by the same set of factories in the Fast East. The difference is due to marketing.

I did note that Ti guys seems to have done their sums right if they are not racing. If you are in hilly terrain or into race performance or weight challenged a carbon is a must. But not the expensive stuff. If you are in the wider Thames catchment all other bikes frames are perfectly fine.

If you are not racing , you can get a fantastic well branded bike for under £2.5k. You can up the wheels for that little bit extra.

The power meter and timings do not lie, it will tell if the frame is placebo or not with the same set of moving parts.

Ps. there is reason why UCI rules require teams to use commercially available bikes. This is unlike F1. You can guess why.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I'm sure that the Shimano Alivio groupset for mtb or Sora for road will do the job just fine for the vast majority of riders on this forum.

All any transmission parts need is to be sufficiently well made that they change gear smoothly and reliably. On my old Raleigh MTB from 1991 with 200GS, the changes are so smooth I sometimes have to glance down at the freewheel to double check that it did shift. So long as you ease off the power, you never get a clunky change. The bike has been well used, too, both by me and whoever owned it before.
My "best" Raleigh hybrids from memory are Altus/Alivio mechanicals and they are also super smooth if operated with some mechanical sympathy. A ham-fisted muppet can make any bike appear to be crude, and a sympathetic rider can get a smooth ride out of a cheap bike.

 

[Salty seadog]

I would say there's a bigger difference between a 3k and a 1k bike than say a 5k and 8k bike, this is pure opinion though and I don't have any scientific evidence or links to anything to prove it.

The "law of diminishing returns" supports your opinion.

 

[Lovacott]

All any transmission parts need is to be sufficiently well made that they change gear smoothly and reliably. On my old Raleigh MTB from 1991 with 200GS, the changes are so smooth I sometimes have to glance down at the freewheel to double check that it did shift. So long as you ease off the power, you never get a clunky change. The bike has been well used, too, both by me and whoever owned it before.
My "best" Raleigh hybrids from memory are Altus/Alivio mechanicals and they are also super smooth if operated with some mechanical sympathy. A ham-fisted muppet can make any bike appear to be crude, and a sympathetic rider can get a smooth ride out of a cheap bike.

The biggest learning experience I've had over the last year has been with my bike gears.

A year ago, I was destroying my drivetrain by crashing into the totally wrong gear under load and making the worst gear selections I could possibly make in every situation.

Now, I am selecting the next gear sequence in my head 100 yards before I need to do it. I've mastered the art of maintaining momentum whilst shifting by easing off just a tad on the pedal power.

I could detail every gear change I make on a map of my route including adjustments for wind direction and speed.

All that said, I now seem to be able to change gear at the right time without giving it any thought. Like putting one foot in front of the other when walking.

For anyone taking up biking this year, take a bit of time to get to know how your drivetrain works. It will make your commutes so much easier and more enjoyable.