mtnbke,
A beautifully written and carefully crafted statement.
Hmmmmm, would you agree that Ti bikes are somewhat boring?
I can't be sure about the people who ride them because I don't know any but my guess is they are not?

In fact, I know very little about bicycles but titanium and carbon fiber do strike me as more synthetic than elemental. I have drunk from cups of steel, aluminum and titanium. It wasn't the same but damned if I'm positive which was better.

I hope your point is that one experience is not better than the other, just different and that our personalities often color the experience rather than just enjoying it.

It's a temporal world of illusion isn't it?
Our sensory interpretation is only the beginning of the problem.
Within our world of misinterpretation the spirits of steel and the sprits of titanium co-exist.
And I love them both.
They are far older than you or I.
Or are they?
On a night like this, clear and cold you and I might ask where we were before we were born.

Or why we are awake at such an hour, my excuse is that I'm a night nurse.
Fa la la la la my Wisconsin brother.
Bill in Stevens Point, WI.