I have never seen people do this. All I’ve ever seen is that those who spend extravagantly on bikes and gear do so because they are literally professional athletes. For everyone else, the closest to what you’re talking about is just basic advise to spend only a little bit more on an entry-level bike because the so-called “department store” bikes tend to be notorious for being cheaply made and poorly assembled, requiring repairs in a very short amount of time. But even those bikes are perfectly fine if you’re okay with having to spend additional money in the near future to replace problematic components, and either hire someone to fix it or learn how to do your own repairs.
wow cool. i was on a bike ride last night with 5 middle ages dudes who are average chubby bozos and they all had 10-20K bikes, and kept asking me if I was ‘doing ok’ because my bike is only worth 1K. because how could anyone possible ride a bike that isn’t uci level?
i have met way more people with very expensive pro level stuff than I do people without, but I live in a very rich city where people buy Rivians R1s and never drive them as a leftist eco crunchy flex. maybe you live in a poor place, where I live folks are buying 10K bikes every other year because they don’t want to be caught on an ‘old bike’ w/o all the latest and greatest upgrades and my bikes are ‘retro’ because they are more than 5 years old and people are ‘concerned’ for me because they are so old and I must be financially struggling.
Yeah that probably does explain it, I don’t hang out with rich assholes. People like that may as well be living on another planet as far as I’m concerned.
It’s almost like gentrification makes everything more insufferable for everyone.
Sounds like you’ve encountered MAMILs in the wild.
Middle Aged Men In Lycra.
I like to point out that a 10k bike is really just a cheaper mid-life crisis than a sports car, tends to shut down the conversation one way or another pretty quick.
I have never seen people do this. All I’ve ever seen is that those who spend extravagantly on bikes and gear do so because they are literally professional athletes. For everyone else, the closest to what you’re talking about is just basic advise to spend only a little bit more on an entry-level bike because the so-called “department store” bikes tend to be notorious for being cheaply made and poorly assembled, requiring repairs in a very short amount of time. But even those bikes are perfectly fine if you’re okay with having to spend additional money in the near future to replace problematic components, and either hire someone to fix it or learn how to do your own repairs.
wow cool. i was on a bike ride last night with 5 middle ages dudes who are average chubby bozos and they all had 10-20K bikes, and kept asking me if I was ‘doing ok’ because my bike is only worth 1K. because how could anyone possible ride a bike that isn’t uci level?
i have met way more people with very expensive pro level stuff than I do people without, but I live in a very rich city where people buy Rivians R1s and never drive them as a leftist eco crunchy flex. maybe you live in a poor place, where I live folks are buying 10K bikes every other year because they don’t want to be caught on an ‘old bike’ w/o all the latest and greatest upgrades and my bikes are ‘retro’ because they are more than 5 years old and people are ‘concerned’ for me because they are so old and I must be financially struggling.
Yeah that probably does explain it, I don’t hang out with rich assholes. People like that may as well be living on another planet as far as I’m concerned.
It’s almost like gentrification makes everything more insufferable for everyone.
you have that backwards. I am the asshole in that situation because I’m not as rich as them.
Sounds like you’ve encountered MAMILs in the wild.
Middle Aged Men In Lycra.
I like to point out that a 10k bike is really just a cheaper mid-life crisis than a sports car, tends to shut down the conversation one way or another pretty quick.
No. These are folks who have been riding since they were teenagers and got 10K bikes back then too and their first car was a Lexus, etc.
They are just rich people. Lots and lots of people, are rich. Mid-life crisis for these folks is buying a house in Hawaii for 5 million.
Wealth doesn’t necessarily exclude them from being MAMILs, but from what you’ve described, it seems there are plenty of other reasons to ride solo.