Hi everyone! Im very new to this hobby and already I am running into a glaring flaw in my mentality.
The fixation on gear. I felt it very much with photography as well. The idea that "well these guys all have way better stuff than me, i bet they get so much more enjoyment, if only i had that" its a terrible mindset that holds me back from just enjoying what I have. This way of thinking also stunts any progression I could be making.

How do you guys deal with this? me and a close friend were talking about this and realized just how much it is ruining our enjoyment and how its not just our hobbies that this toxic mentality affects.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Be faster on your $300 bike than a rider on a $15,000 bike. Drop him. There is no better feeling.

How about on a 180 dollar bike tho? haha

The key for me was to spend the money to buy the top of the line stuff and then find out through experience that it did not make me any faster. That and I started racing. That's when you understand fundamentally that It's Not About The Bike.

Yea with photography I hammered it in my head enough that what camera I had meant nothing without understanding composition and stuff that I actually think it worked haha.

Cycling seems very similar. I get fixated on the wrong aspects of my hobbies, i think its because its easier to think throwing money at something will fix your inadequacies rather than putting in the actual hard work. Like I could learn eveything about how the camera works and all the lingo, and yet still feel like I dont have that creative eye or truly understand composition.

Easy to have bad results and shoddy work and then blame it on the gear. Its madness, but I recognize it at the very least...want to overcome it

Buy all the most expensive stuff right away. Then there is nothing more to buy.

cameras are like bike sin that you really can commercially obtain exactly the same stuff the pros use right off the internet or at any store. So buy the 1Dx, the 70-200, 24-70, and 100-400 L lenses .... and get the $15,000 Emonda with all the best accessories.

The if you are slow and take lame pics you can't blame the gear.

Whatever. With cameras I eventually got a hold of myself and decided i wouldn't buy another whatever until the one i had was really holding me back. i have a long lost of stuff i want ... and can kind of afford ... but I have to admit, my pictures won't be appreciably better just because I have the better gear.

Pretty much the same with bikes. I have bikes the capacity of which exceeds my ability. I could buy an "X" type of bike, but I wouldn't be faster/ride farther/ ride better/ have more fun because of it.

I talked my wife into expanding my stable (it's my money but it's also my headache if she objected) so I could go out today and buy another bike. Thing is, I already can't ride all the bikes I have as much as I'd like? A new bike would just be another bike on the rack.

And no matter how many bikes I have hanging there, I still have the same fat belly, weak heart, weak legs, and asthmatic lungs.

Equally I could get the 7DII I have been wanting ... and a better super-zoom. Thing is, my shaky hands will still be shaky, and my artistic sense will still be atrophied.

I have come to the grim realization that I have bought all the quality money can buy. No point is buying more stuff ... I won't be getting any better unless i make better use of the stuff I already have.

I guess the question I had to ask, was ... Will it make me better? Is it holding me back?

Like @memebag ; says ... when you can beat the rest on your rebuilt $300 yard-sale rescue bike, you will deserve a new bike ... but you might not even want one by then.

The only thing that matters is how much you enjoy your gear. Going faster, "dropping" people, looking better, etc. are meaningless unless that's what you actually enjoy.

I enjoy riding my fairly expensive gear because it's very light (which I enjoy) and it's been selected and tweaked based on my own physical and aesthetic enjoyment. Being better or faster than someone else is not a factor in my enjoyment, which is good because I am rarely either.

Sometimes more expensive gear is just more fun. And sometimes having a variety of gear that you can pick and choose from depending on the mood and situation is fun.

Right. You posted while I was typing.

You get it. Nothing more to say.

Yea I do get it, but still find myself thinking the same nonsense. Wonder if i can fully get rid of the nonsensical grass is greener mentality.

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-T...13BJF56CVMRCPD

I broke out of my gear centered mindset when I was about 30. In my late teens and early 20s I never had enough money for the really high end bikes.

When I turned 30 I bought my self a really nice titanium frame, custom spec components. Full Dura-Ace, chris king etc...When I went on my first ride I realized, I still had to pedal the thing and I was just as tired up a really long climb as I was before.

Now, my main priority is longevity and functionality at a good price. I like looking a people bikes that have clearly been ridden thousands of miles and have had to have things replaced because of use.

Good steel frames with worn down mid level components usually tell a better story than some brand new plastic bike you can get off the shelf. But that's just me.

Still running on the same bike 10 years after I bought it new. Most of the farkles I bought for it, I got within a year of the bike purchase. I don't own a single article of cycling-specific clothing or footwear. I spend less than $25 a year on maintenance/replacement parts, averaged out. Still very happy with that bike!

A couple years after getting that bike, I spent $75 plus another $25 in parts to fix up a used CL bike so I have a spare in the event my main bike breaks for whatever reason (and to lend out for group rides).

So I'd say over the past decade, all-in, I've spent maybe $1500 on cycling. I don't imagine that figure will jump significantly in the near future. More than many folks have spent on the hobby, but a lot less than others.

You'll spend a lot of time and energy doing what makes others happy, you will only be happy when you finally realize that your joy is not predicated on what others have. That is not to say you should dismiss what others do without considering whether it applies to you, but don't get drawn in to the trap that it is better.

I'll give you some help, though. Think of poor old me with my $27 thrift shop bike, and realize how much better you already are off with that $180 bike

To steal a phrase from a favorite hockey broadcaster: "Bingo, bango, bongo!"

Also, this is not limited to bicycling. Just about any hobby can become a quest to see who can spend the most. Very common in western society where people have more money than time to invest in their hobbies.

Hehe, its funny...i have way more time than money thats for sure.

Nothing teaches like experience. Some of us have to learn the hard/expensive way.

I do think it's a lot easier to sort out if you know what you like about a thing--and don't forget that.

That would make an excellent commuter! Google says its a 15lb CroMolly steel frame with a 3x7 gearing. I'd get the hubs and bottom bracket cleaned, and repacked, clean and lube the drive train and put on some 700x35 or 36 slicks for the street, and toe clips and see if that doesn't speed things up a bit. Then I'd see about rotating the handle bars forward and lowering them to get a little more aero position (rotating the brake levers and shifters the opposite way to maintain a comfortable grip.

I live in the Olympic training city of Colorado Springs and we have some serious cyclists running the streets. I'm never going to catch up with them, but that's okay, I'm too busy enjoying myself.

I was lucky enough to find the bike at a shop ran by a man that seems to be extremely competent and experienced at working on bikes. The bike feels brand new!

It looks brand new! Good purchase!

I sublimate the drive to acquire equipment into physical effort. The more use I get out of the equipment the better I feel about it, so I can also get a kind of psychological projection of greater value from less elaborate equipment. Though the urge to improve it is always there.

And then, sometimes, I just buy a new bike and that settles me for awhile.

Dont be put off by the "real cyclist" that think you need a $10,000 bike and a $500 kit to ride. Many have more money than they have common sense.

You do realize that that Schwinn is a dream bike for a lot of folks here?

I would immediately convert it into either a full-on road/gravel bike (drop bars, brifters, fat wheels) or an urban commuter (same deal, slightly less fat wheels, with a flat bar) and ride the snot out of it.

@ BobbyG ; has it right. I'd put a flatter stem--or just lower that one if it dropped enough---and reposition the bars first. I might not need to spend a penny.

I periodically scan CraigsList for bikes just like that ... but usually they aren't in that good shape or for that reasonable a cost.

Get a bike with an extremely loud color scheme that you like, put some nice tires on it.

Nope. Can't have fun on that. Sorry.

How heavy is that bike?