Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Before you go tarring all shops and all cyclists with the "snobbery" label, try to see some of the logic behind those recommendations. First, you were new to the sport and probably a lot of what you were told went over you head. Could you be misremembering what people said or misinterpreting them?
Nah, the actual disconnect was I was asking people who rode at a much higher/different level than I was aspiring to, and they were applying their situation to the advice they were giving me. It wasn't bad advice, it was just bad advice for my situation. It just so happened that I got a couple in a row that gave me similar advice that I just accepted it and moved on.
Originally Posted by
mcours2006
People who make statements (about anything) like that are not to be taken seriously. It's obvious that they are snobs and elitists. There are plenty of people here who think that equipment below 105 is just fine most people, but perhaps there is a bit of confirmation bias here when we're doing researching. You've read over and over again that 105 is the 'sweet spot' between performance and value so you seek to confirm this.
You are effectively arguing that beginners should do their own research to disprove bad advice given to them, without realizing much of the research material isn't all that objective. I'm all for being an informed consumer, the reality is there isn't a whole lot of factual data on how a Tourney differs from a Sora differs from an Ultegra, just price points and people insisting the level that works for them is what you need. In reality, me trying to be an informed consumer is what wound up giving me pretty bad advice to begin with. Probably should have just bought the dang Bikes Direct bike I was looking at before asking the opinion of a bike shop or friends who compete regularly.