Oregon Southpaw

The wife has a good eye for stuff I like. She brought this back from when she lived in Lakeview.

The first thing I said after (hopefully) saying thanks was "Whoa, are those Campy Deltas?"

I've noticed I have a small amount of bike talk allowance, wherein I'm given a certain allotment of time for bicycle-related talk before the eyes start rolling and the glazed looks begin. I guess that's why I post here.

4Rings6Stars

I'm sure that's why most of us are here. Although I've gotten a few of my friends more interested in cycling recently (mostly mountain) so I've been spending less time here as I get to talk bikes with them, it's much more fun doing so in person but it's hard to tell them their conversation is worthless without pics....

My girlfriend is great...but I can tell when I've lost her. I scored some nice parts and a Independent Fabrication cross bike this weekend and would not shut up about it, she eventually had to ask me to calm down

Puget Pounder

Time to spam the hell out of this thread.

My girlfriend thinks I'm crazy. I just purged 4 bikes in the past 4 weeks, which have made things much better. Less eye-rolling.

She doesn't understand why bike things are so expensive and why I like all the expensive stuff.

Amesja

My wife puts up with it although I have reached my limit of bikes in the house for now. She even put up with me buying a wheelset while we were at a big neighborhood garage sale for $6 and since I had to lug them around I couldn't help her carry all her loot until we got back to the car.

She's into knitting so she puts up with my bike obsession.

mkeller234

Same here... just blank stares and total disinterest. Sometimes getting opinions on anything bike related is like pulling teeth... even simple things like "which color do you like". I don't get that... it doesn't take a bike expert to pick colors!!

BattleRabbit

99% of my friends don't understand why I have multiple bikes!
Friend: "Why don't you just use that mountain bike on the road, it has suspension, so it's comfy?"
Me: "Yes, the ride is cushy, but it's loud and slow on the road, so I got the blue Schwinn roadbike."
Friend: "So why do you also have the orange road bike?"
Me: "Because it is light, fast and stiff for racing, training and club rides."
Friend: "Why don't you just use the blue one?"
Me: "Why do you own more shoes than there are days in a week?"

^That last one usually shuts my female friends up.

iab

I'm lucky to talk even road bikes to people around here. Vintage? Come on, its just a bike they say, why wouldn't you buy a new one.

Can't talk about the Giro - is that one of them lamb sandwiches? TdF is - Lance won 7. It never existed before the 7 and stopped immediately after.

My wife will listen for about 2 minutes before I get the "uhuh". Unless I spend a lot, then I get the look. For a long time.

frantik

i bought new tires and mentioned they were colored.. my friend was all "don't tell me they match your new sunglasses" .. to which i replied "..... hey f you" she totally called that hahaha the other day i was in the gas station and saw sunglasses that were in the same color scheme as the ironman i'm building up.

she's used to me getting deep into a hobby though so not a lot of eye rolling in general

auchencrow

+1.

My better half is extremely tolerant - she doesn't care how many bikes I have around, but she immediately tunes-out any bike-related conversation.
- In fact, the ONLY bike-related opinion she has ever registered was a simple "That's nice" when I told her that I made money on a flip.

rootboy 

"you only have one butt ...why do you need three bikes?"

But honey, three bikes is nothing! You should see some of the guys on that Bike Forum.

"are you going to sell that thing?" etc ....etc...

Kobe 

In the category of trying to make my self look better compared to others. I mentioned to my wife that one of the guys bikes we were riding with cost over $3000.

Her response, "His wife must be insane to allow him to buy a bike that cost that much."

Amesja

Most of the shoes my female friends have cost more than the average bike I buy. I haven't spent more than $60 on a bike in decades -at least with the initial purchase.

KonAaron Snake 

Does it count when you eye roll yourself? I eyerolled when I went home with another flip after promising myself I was out.

KonAaron Snake 

I think there's an honest and valid...non-insane argument for three bikes if you're a commuter.

1. Day to day rider
2. Fun bike/back up
3. Bad weather/winter bike - possibly also all terrain MTB

nlerner

I mostly get "You have HOW many bikes?!!"

Neal

auchencrow

It's not a problem until you need a spreadsheet to answer that question.

(eye roll)

rhm

My wife and I appear to have made a silent deal a while back. I wouldn't complain about the number of dogs, she wouldn't complain about the number of bikes. It isn't exactly a fair deal; I have more bikes (and she has three or four herself), but I spend more time dealing with dogs than she spends dealing with bikes. Canine maintenance costs more than bicycle maintenance; and the bikes don't pee on the good rugs. I guess I'm on fairly safe ground....

OldsCOOL

When I go into the Trek dealer around the corner and tell them I have an '85 460 they dont roll their eyes....they just stare at me and blink like a michigan bullfrog in a hailstorm. They just dont get it.

KonAaron Snake 

One of the things I don't get, in general, about the cycling industry/community is that when we buy a bike, one of the things most of us consider is durability. Most brands advertise durability and market things like "forever bike" and long warranties (which have sufficient looopholes such that they never have to honor them). Why would they be surprised, and why would most cyclists be surprised, about 30 year old bikes still rolling nicely? Weren't they supposed to do that? Isn't that why we bought them? If companies are trying to sell us on a new bike every three years, why are they marketing durability?

eddubal

"What are you? A kid that never grew up?"

I got that one last night from a parent of my daughter's friend. It's pretty easy for me to tell who to talk to and when I should shut up about cycling. Most of the time I don't bother. Eyes start glazing as soon as I mention multiple bikes.

My wife is great. She actually encourages me to talk about cycling and my rides. She let's me know when she doesn't understand something so I can explain it, but does actually show interest. It is a two way street though. She does traditional middle-eastern dance and comes home most of the time with a good story from her classes. I guess it works out well since neither of us have many people in the community to talk with about our hobbies.

seypat

My wife has the dreaded Disney obsession! Anytime I get the eye rolling I just mention it. She already has our Disney vacations planned through 2014. Last year she tried to sway the kids and I to change our week at the beach in August into a second trip back to Disney instead. Luckily for me, the kids KOed that!

Amesja

They made durable bikes that would last forever back in the 60's and 70's. But people thought they were "too heavy" and everyone went to fragile lightweights that wouldn't hold a tune and constantly needed adjustment of their silly derailleurs and lightweight parts.

You can either have fast and light, or you can have reliable, tough, and heavy. The laws of physics are a b*tch.

KonAaron Snake 

Disagree...there are plenty of well ridden light weight steel, aluminum, and titanium bikes rolling around. I still see older CF bikes rolling around too for that matter. They're still marketing durability and it'll last, at least my Kona JTS did. Whenever I poke around a new bike shop, the sales person tries to convince me CF will last.

bradtx

"...blink like a michigan bullfrog in a hailstorm." --OldsCOOL

Down here it's altered to "Like a chicken watching a card trick."

Once a friend of mine was totally astonished that I spent W,XYZ money building a bike and "It doesn't even have a kick stand!"

Brad

eddubal

+1

I was at our local REI recently when someone brought in a 80's vintage Sakai for service. I was talking with a cycling buddy when they passed and we heard the service tech say "It's really old. It's probably not worth anything." Our ears pricked up and we took a closer look. 6-speed with Suntour Cyclone RD, chromed stays and dirty, but very little rust. It was a gorgeous dark metallic red color and would look amazing cleaned up. The owner probably wanted an overhaul, but the tech didn't seem to think it was worth it. We told the owner to do the overhaul and keep it. If it was anywhere close to my size I probably would have made an offer.

I think the REI guy wanted to make a sale rather than work on an "old" bike.