Originally Posted by
njkayaker
Spending money on things is easy. The other stuff is hard. I think one of the social "values" of light bikes and "weight weenyism" is that it is a convenient shared conversational topic (kind of like sports).
That, and talking shop is fun.
The first bike I bought as an adult, was from a shop run by a cranky old man near Golden Gate Park. I think he chased ten customers away for every bike he sold, but if you put up with the curmudgeonness, the guy knew his stuff. One thing he told me was that a front shock is great for occasional trails and city riding, if you don't have much skill on the bike, but that you can hop a curb pretty smoothly by pushing your weight over the rear wheel when you drop the front one, and then as far onto the front wheel as possible when you drop the rear. Now, I like having it both ways, so the idea of having a stiff bike but still being able to do dumb stuff occasionally, instead of getting a shock fork and always feeling it squish, was right up my alley. And that's pretty much been my philosophy ever since: see if there's a way to improve your skills to solve a problem, and only buy stuff as a last resort.