I don't want you to interpret this as confrontational, or an attack -- it is neither -- but I do think you have some issues to deal with when it comes to cyclists, bikes and cycling culture.

Yes, you can get a perfectly adequate bicycle for $300 or less at your local X-Mart; but it's worth specifying what it's adequate for. It would be adequate for relatively undemanding short-distance travel. It will be heavy and poorly assembled, and probably built with inferior components; it probably won't be very durable. But it will be a bicycle. You might even enjoy riding it.

However, it is not snobbish or demening to the person who spends $300 in an XMart to point out that (a) in bicycles, you get what you pay for and (b) you'll probably get more for the same price at a specialist bike shop. Personally, I think cycling is a much more enjoyable sport when you have a good quality bike. I am serious enough about the sport that I am willing to pay a fair bit for a good bike. Someone who is not so serious about the sport may not want to spend as much. That's cool, too.

There's a popular belief that the machine [or in music, the instrument] doesn't matter. "It's not the bike," after all. That's true, to a point. However, Lance Armstrong would not have won the Tour de France, or even made it up le Col de Tourmalet, on a 50 lb Huffy [though he could still kick my butt, but that's another story].

Frankly, I think there's a certain anti-snobbishness in that way of thinking. It's like a combination of "I don't need no stinkin' $2000 bike..." and "Bikes are toys; who'd spend $2000 on a toy?"

I found your comments on musical instruments quite interesting, in that respect. Sure, a great musician can play great msic on any instrument... But isn't it interesting how great musicians [Hound Dog Taylor excepted] who spend so much time babying and tweaking their instruments to get them "just right?" Isn't it amazing how SRV would hunt for weeks in Austin guitar shops looking for that "perfect" strat? It's worth noting that Carlos Santana -- surely one of the greats of the instrument -- choses to play a Paul Reed Smith and not a Samick.

These guys can/could get music out of a toaster over; they can/could play any giutar -- but they'd rather not fight the instrument to make the music. They'd rather have the istrument be a perfect Zen transmitter of their ideas.

To a great extent, that's what bikes are like. You can get one at the hardware store, but you'll have to fight it to ride it. That's okay for some people. Personally, I'd rather pay more and have a more cooperative ride.