Originally Posted by
yankeefan
Experience can be a very good teacher, but it can also be a very expensive teacher. While I'm always the first to advocate learning by doing, one has to realize that this method often leads to costly mistakes that could have been easily avoided had the person sought advice from "self-appointed experts".
Experience is the best teacher and a cheapest teacher... Costly mistakes only happen to newbies who take advice from "self appointed cycling experts" and start purchasing all kinds of costly cycling specific paraphernalia which a beginner cyclist may not even need for their particular commute.