Originally Posted by
sarals
I've always been one who has sought out "bang for the buck", no matter the current object of my desire. That extra 2 or 3 percent of difference/performance gain I'm not going to either notice, or be able to take advantage of, so my take has always been "why spend 30 to 50 percent more for 2 to 3 percent gain"? That's me. Others differ.
Ditto. I spend money on wheels and on (my bike) position. The rest of it is less important, but I'll splurge if someone is selling a light saddle for cheap or I can pick up another spare Thomson post.
What's sort of ironic is that aero wheels help me most in tailwinds - that's where I notice it the most anyway. It's not like I'm always benefiting from them, and some of my good places were on non-aero wheels.
Position - virtually all my non-wheel and non-wear purchases in the last 4 years have been position related - frames (and small parts for said frames), bars, stems, crank things (for length). I've been trying to fix my "loose pedal" thing too - I seem to unclip out of the Keos on a disturbingly regular basis but I haven't committed to changing anything yet.
I don't lust after any particular frame or component group. I like certain wheel lines (HED, for example, or ENVE), I like certain position related things (FSA Compact bars), but I'm definitely more the "working man's bike" kind of person. Paint and such don't do much for me.