Originally Posted by
Omiak
Why exactly do you consider my bicycle tour a cheap indulgent thrill? I'm assuming that you must approve of some kind of bicycle touring given you're on a bicycle touring forum.
I'm with Bekologist on this one...a rarity, I assure you. It's not the cheapness of your tour but the disparaging attitude of your post that grates. I don't really care what you use for touring. I'm not going judge you based on your equipment. Nor would most people posting here. We only ask that you extend the same courtesy to us. Those of us who spend more on equipment have our reasons. They are personal reasons and have little to do with wealth or consumerism.
Originally Posted by
Omiak
How am I snubbing anyone by demonstrating how you can tour on a cheap bike? If anything that seems more inclusive to me than the people on this forum who act like you need a LHT or similar $1500 touring bike to enjoy yourself on tour.
Again, it's not the post but the attitude. Those of us who have spent far more on a touring bike then $1500 do so for various reasons. My touring bike has 10,000 miles of touring on it which works out to around $0.30 per mile. I expect it to last another 10,000 miles at least. The more miles I put on it, the less it has cost me per mile. Your bike cost you a per mile value as well but since you've sold it, you can't expect any value from it in the future.
Additionally, most of us want our bikes to finish the trip. How much did you enjoy yourself when your chain broke and you had to find someone to haul you to your destination? I've had to hitch a ride because of equipment failures and it didn't leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling.
Finally, which consumerism is worse: to buy a bike and use it for years and years and tens of thousands of miles or to buy one, use it for a few days and a few hundred miles and then get rid of it?