Originally Posted by
stuart1865
I sometimes wonder if there how much marketing (a.k.a "snob" or "status") factors into lots of things we buy. Such as clothing, components, helmets. The law of diminishing returns has been brought up elsewhere in the Forum. Slap a "pro popular" name-brand on an item, design a slight upgrade into the design, or create the perceived need for the superiority of "our" product and..... voila. The price is now double or triple that of the "generic" 98% equivalent. Indeed, there are divisions between "cheap/risky", "modest/good" and "pricey/good+". But my objective is to delineate the difference between the first two and avoid the first. As for the third, I think that's where the diminishing returns enters in. We can do a lot of this to ourselves, I think, in the various social circles/hobbies we circulate in. Just a thought.
Really- if you need/want a bike- all you "need" is a bike shaped object that sort of works. Beyond that it's all snob appeal.
I get a kick out of the people that remove or cover logos because they think they're somehow being more "pure" or something about it. It's as snobby as advertising a bespoke or boutique or name brand item.
Figure out what you need, decide what you want, earn enough to get **** you want- regardless of what it is.
The longer I've been into things, I start to realize why the fancy, expensive stuff is desirable and expensive. Sometimes that stuff is what I want or aspire to- sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's "worth it" in my estimation, and sometimes it's not. And for other things that I find desirable- they may not be considered fancy or desirable for anyone else- it's still desirable and nifty to me. There's a point that there's a lot of stuff that's better than me- stuff I'm not going to be able to test the limits of. But that's OK. This is about me and what I want.
If I'm putting the thought and time and money and effort into building up something special, I want it to be what I want it to be. Yeah, I'm going to make errors, in judgement and in practice- but for something that I'm putting effort into, short of being urban camouflaged- I want the good **** on there.