Thread: "Dear Carleton"
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Old 09-12-16, 11:45 PM
  #3161  
carleton
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Further, what (very) little wisdom I've gained from years of cycling has taught me, the key to buying components is: Eliminating Problems

If a component fails, then it doesn't matter how light, special, rare, carbon, titanium, etc... it is. Period.

If you have a super-light, bad mamma-jamma saddle that cracks when you hit the first big bump on a track, then it's of no use to you.

Focus on getting a set of components that are rock-solid and work first before looking for the new fancy.

When an athlete is 100% confident in their equipment, they are free to work on getting 100% out of their body. If, for any reason, the athlete isn't 100% confident in their equipment, they will not be free to work on getting 100% out of their body. There will be some % of physical "holding back" or some mental energy devoted to wondering "is ______ gonna fail on me this time??" It's kinda like overcoming an injury and you subconsciously hold back because you don't want to load up the fully recovered knee 100% yet because you don't have confidence yet...and you are constantly thinking about it.

This is why you sometimes see athletes who can have any gear they want stick with old gear that they have faith in.
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