Originally Posted by
AlmostTrick
Isn't part of owning a fancy ($$$$) bike the status it brings the owner? On the board here and in real life? No shame in admitting it.
Not for me ... I really don't care what people think of the bicycles I ride, I choose the bicycles for their function and because I like them.
After Machak, my Marinoni Ciclo, was stolen, we bought titanium bicycles for long distance cycling ... why? 1) I needed a bicycle for long distance cycling; 2) I needed a certain size (a little smaller than average), and the titanium frame we chose was that size; 3) I've always wanted a titanium just because I like the look of titanium bicycles, and I had heard that they had a comfortable feel to them which is important for long distance cycling.
A few years later we were planning an 8-month Round-the-World tour. The titanium bicycles wouldn't do the trick for that and neither would my Giant ... so we were suddenly in the market for touring bicycles. And along came Thorn frames into the picture. Again ... function, material and size were the important features.
After we got back from the tour, or actually during the tour, we realised that folding bicycles would have been a better choice ... so we now have folding bicycles. Function, material and size.
My bicycles all look fairly ordinary ... I choose paint schemes without much "bling" to them. And I really couldn't tell you exactly how much most of my bicycles are because we buy the frames and the components from several different sources and Rowan builds them. But most importantly to me ... they meet the function they were purchased for ... they have an appropriate material for that function ... and they fit.
79pmooney mentioned bicycles disappearing under him ... and that's it ... or I've though of it as the bicycle and I just become one, the bicycle is a natural extension of me. Machak, my Marinoni Ciclo, was the first bicycle where I really experienced that. I could think a directional change (dodge pothole, turn left) and it felt like Machak could read my thoughts and carry them out with no effort from me. Almost uncanny. Hard to describe, but you know it when you've experienced it.
And it doesn't necessarily take a "high end" bicycle for that experience. I felt it with Machak ... I've come close with my titanium, but just not quite ... it took a little while with my Thorn to get there, but we're there now ... and I felt it immediately with my folder.
Meanwhile, one of Rowan's favourite bicycles ... one with which he has experienced this ... was a tip-shop Shogun.