I just noticed something about cyclists and those who sell cycles and gear to them.
It seems everyone wants something a bit in between a road bike and a mountain bike, something in between a gravel bike and a road bike and so on...…..
And the manufacturers are more than willing to sell you the stuff you need or build your custom bike, for a price.
But it's the same with everything.

Motorcycles, someone's always trying to make an adventure bike out of a street bike or a dirt bike out of an adventure bike.
Cross trainers looking for the perfect gym/running shoe. Lol!
It's unending!
Just an observation.
The problem for me is, I gotta make sure I don't get roped into that kind of thinking. I can't afford it!

Yep

What could be between a gravel and a road bike LOL

Thing I notice about every hobby is you just keep plunking more $$4 into it to get the next, newer best thing

It's a mind set thing. A materialistic mind is looking for the "thing" to make them happy. A person freed from materialism will find joy in any "thing".

I'm a gun guy too but I'm trading a S&W 18-2 tomorrow for a Surly LHT. Oh yea!

An endurance road bike, obvs. The people who race ride further and longer but still have regular race bikes, go fig

Man, I'm disappointed. I thought the world was about One-Size-Fits-All!!!

I thought everyone wore size-9 shoes. And those that don't, one just takes a pair of d-yikes and starts lopping off toes.

My guess is the majority of bikes remain more or less as they came from the factory. But, there always those aficionados that want it just so. And always someone willing to sell the parts to get it there.

And, if off-the-shelf doesn't work, there is always full custom, in any material from bamboo to carbon fiber.

I'm not sure about that trade unless that's what you really want

Definitely true in motorcycles.

In R/C racing it was more about fads for each kind of car. If the shop owner can get enough of the regulars at the track to try it he can make the rent for one more month. Some things were just too fast to drive well (gas touring cars) or too expensive for all but the single grownups (t-Maxx) but people would try it for a while.

But the difference between gravel and road snd mountain is, well, the surface you ride them on. The difference between endurance and road is mostly geometry so you can travel further on the road more comfortably (upright). Different dimensions I reckon.

No, musicians have rabid groupies.

Not quite the same as road racing fans.

As a former R/C racer who ran every class at my not so local hobby shop I constantly draw parallels between R/C and cycling. Both are flooded with shiny stuff that won’t make you any faster, better, or more consistent. It just makes you look pro.

Yes, that is because if you have the time and $$ to have hobbies, you move above Maslow's Safety Needs level (see below) and starting spending money/time on much fluffier stuff!

As a 12 year old paperboy delivering newspapers on the bike I built out of bikes that grownups put out on the curb for trash day, I never considered paying for special socks to bicycle in! Let alone upload my mileage each day to some site that would show me that the paperboys for competing newspapers were faster than me ...

(Two clues in the above that I am an old goomer: (1) The term "paperboys" and (2) the idea that there might actual be "competing newspapers" in one town.



It isn't a hobby until you get above the Safety needs level...

Part of the issue with bikes is that the differences between bikes are really marginal in importance for most riders. The biggest variable in performance, by far, is the motor. Unless it's completely unreliable, most people will not be pushing even the cheapest bike anywhere near its maximum capability. If you're a marketer trying to get people to buy more bike equipment and higher quality than they need, you sell it by presenting people with the image of how they'd like to ride, not what they're actually going to do.

I have done this with many things, Tools, Guns(was a moderator on TheHighroad.org), Cameras, and now Bikes

100% in agreement with ya! I play electric guitar and am on a guitar forum occasionally. One of the things that always gets me is that many players will mention they have a new guitar coming, and are already asking what mods they should make to it. This before they even receive it and have had a chance to play or listen to it! Some of my guitars have been modified, but I played and made adjustments first, to see if I could get out of them what I wanted. In many cases, after some adjustments, they were fine without mods. If you think things need to be changed before you've "given them a chance", don't ever get married!!

So true, if it wasn't nitro TC's it was 1/8 buggy, big bash trucks like theT-Maxx or Savage, then truggy, then stadium truck, and drift cars and on and on and on...... it never ends until the wife says stop

If hobbies aren't about having what you want/need, then retirement isn't worth working hard for. One man's POV.

Some would say a cross bike.

I try to buy the proper "tool" for the job. Right now, my car (Fiesta ST), motorcycle (Ducati Monster S4), handgun (Glock 43X), and bikes (4 of them actually) all do what I need them to do. So, I don't have the urge to modify any of them or buy something else. Except for bikes of course. You can never have too many.

Tryin' to get the thread locked?

They're locking threads for (good natured, I hope) satirical hyperbole?

So agreeing with this thread. I've gone through too many hobbies. Spent WAY too much money in each. From photography (both film and digital), to guns (all sorts), to bikes.

With photography, GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) is real. Best primes, widest, clearest lenses, more pixels, tripods, etc. Although not anywhere near as much as before, I still get the gear on my vacations.

Gun? Jeez. You might as well be burning that money. Unless you're plinking with 22LRs, you're just going through money. Friends ask "Why don't you take me to the range?". Because it costs an arm and a leg each time! Not to mention scopes, mounts, aftermarket triggers/barrels/stocks, and that cost of ammo!

At least with a nice bike and initial purchase of accessories, it's just a matter of tubes, tires, chains, and batteries. Cost me hardly anything to ride. (then again, food and beer costs after the ride)

Sadly, yes, because some people take certain issues WAAAAY too seriously, and all they need is an opening from someone else and they're off and running. Sorry.

Sometime beat me to it but an endurance bike with larger tire clearance like the new 2020 Trek Domane.