The entire golf industry is built on this concept. It's bigger than the cycling industry. Parents buy their little league age kids $400 baseball bats, because of course it will make them better. Meanwhile there's a kid in the DR who can hit .450 with a broomstick, runs the bases barefoot, and doesn't' need a bag to carry his equipment cause all he has is a glove.

It's like anything else in developed countries - people want more, or fancier stuff. Even if they have no use for it.

Thinking you know something about the person, by what bike they ride is projecting your perception on someone else. It's often wrong. There are many reasons people buy high end bikes.

What about those of us who have and enjoy high end bikes, beater bikes that look terrible, and everything in between?

Which bike is the real "me"? Answer - none. It's just a bicycle.

+1

In these forums there are a lot of assumptions made about people who own and ride high end bicycles ... the main ones being that the people who own and ride high end bicycles think the bicycles will make them faster, or think that they are better than people who don't ride high end bicycles.

Chances are the people who ride high end bicycles do so because they like those bicycles and enjoy riding those bicycles.

I'm one who has and enjoys relatively high end bicycles, beater bicycles, and everything in between.

Do I think my high end bicycles will make me faster ... nope. In my dreams!
Do I think I'm better than other cyclists because of my bicycles ... nope. I'm just out there enjoying the ride.
Are my higher end bicycles more comfortable ... yes, I'd have to say that in general they are. But that's probably because I've purchased them with the right fit in mind, and a geometry I like.

Generally speaking, I don't even notice what other cyclists ride ... unless there is something about it that stands out as particularly eye-catching.

I don't assume anything purely from the bike a person rides.

The person on an $8000 bike might be a hedge fund manager who found a few grand behind the sofa, they might have taken out $7500 worth of debt because they desperately wanted it. The person on an $80 bike might be riding it because it's all they can afford, they might be a hedge fund manager who is just trying cycling before they drop their cash, they might be someone running errands on an old beat-up bike.

If I can overtake them they might be a professional racer having a rest day and taking in a gentle ride to enjoy the view, they might be someone who bought something far beyond their abilities.

When I overtook a Ferrari 458 on Putney High Street on my mountain bike it felt good. I know full well the Ferrari has a top speed way faster than anything I can do on my bike (and indeed way beyond anything I can do in my rather old car), but overtaking a Ferrari felt good even though it was constrained by heavy traffic. Likewise when a Porsche 911 turbo had to wait until the bottom of a big hill to overtake me because there was a 30 limit, I was doing 30, and the traffic calming measures meant he couldn't get past me, it felt good to be fast enough to stay ahead of the Porsche. Somehow staying ahead of a Daewoo Matiz, even though objectively it's the exact same achievement, subjectively doesn't feel as good.

I'm more familiar with the world of photography, where I've met people who clearly thought they were better than the people I was shooting with because they were using much more expensive gear (one guy in particular clearly felt a desperate need to impress us all with how much money he had, despite having only just met us and being unlikely to ever see us again), and other guys who shot breathtaking pictures using an entry-level camera with the cheap kit lens that came with it. Then I've seen a guy who bought a top-end digital SLR body only to then expect casual acquaintances to spoon-feed him everything he needed to know from how to compose a picture to what lenses to buy, all the time talking down to the lowly photographers who didn't have the £5000 camera he had.

Or that person might be an average everyday person, in an average everyday job, who is able to put away several hundred each month for things like bicycles, travel, and photography equipment.


BTW - I'm just getting into photography myself, with variable results. Decent camera acquired ... lots to learn.

Sure, the two extremes were intended to imply "or anything in between".

Welcome to another easy way to part with bucketloads of cash

Why buy a McLaren S-Works Venge when you could have one of these instead?

https://www.warehouseexpress.com/buy-...n-fit/p1030537

You see that a lot at the closest LBS to my house. Its a high end MTB outfit and while they are helpful if you are interested in their thing its the total opposite if an old guy rolls in on a 15 year old cargo bike. You can see the mechanics mood drop when the old guy says "I got this for $200 x years ago and it works great... now please help me adjust the gears". At which point the spiel on buying a flashy new bike comes out and you can see the look of incomprehension on the old mans face. He can't even fathom why anyone would want to spend $300 on a bike let alone $2000.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is this old guy who works out of one room in a ratty old buildings. He fixes old bikes and stocks a few average ones. He was totally floored when I wanted to get a whole new carrier and baby seat at the grand price of $50. He'd rather work around the problem with whatever parts he has in his (large and well stocked) bins. He looked at my old (semi retired) cheap MTB with its low spec shimano indexed 21 speeds and said "Hmm.. expensive bike." Whereas the guy at the first shop said "Why would you even ride that?"

Different people have different takes on the game. Personally I like the middle of the road, most of the benefits of the expensive bikes, but way more reliable than the cheap ones. Still, it is fun when I'm out on that old heavy beast with 25kg of kid on the back and I pass one of the guys on really expensive bikes looking most serious.

OK, one more time (and it probably won't be the last time, either: )

You don't have to be a 'racer' to appreciate high-end bikes and equipment. Buying a bike that's "too good" for you is only a problem if you're spending money you don't have. Is the OP proposing that prospective bike buyers have to fill out a questionnaire to determine 'how good' a bike they are allowed to buy?

All my life I have been interested in technical things and mechanical things. I like understanding how something works any why it does what it does. When I was building cars and motorcycles, no one seemed to assume anything about anyone's ability or level of knowledge.
Now, If I am interested in, or talk about something that will improve my $6,000 Titanium race bike, I am considered to be, and treated as, a bike snob. It's just as much fun for me to travel 10 mph with the dog in the 1973 trike and be the slowest thing on wheels, as It is to be the fastest. If I tell how a little old lady passed me riding the trike, it's funny and interesting. If I out sprint someone half my age on a good bike, I don't mention it. That makes me a jerk. Does anyone understand that racing is fun?

Shoot me if I start treating people like that.

It's called marketing......It's starts when your a kid watching Sat. morn cartoons with breakfast cereal ads and ends when you die.Must keep up with the Jones'.....

Speaking from personal experience I have noticed that as I get older I seem to be more satified with what I have as opposed to what I might want. I don't think it's vanity to want high end stuff, I like to call it motivation.

Top shelf equipment rides better than everything else. That's why some people get it. Simple.

I have on order a $3500 bike. It's more bike than I can ride, I'm sure. But hey, I can't take it with me and I never buy anything for myself. Unless you consider vet expenses for three aging cats spending money for me. Oh and I purchased a set of Boyd wheels and will trickle down wheelset to the boat anchors on the existing bike. I bought the hybrid to continue commuting in wet, winter weather. I test rode a bike that had Di2 and it was really exceptional, but I couldn't really justify the additional $1300 price. Call it vanity if you want, but I call it treating myself. People at work have $800 coffee grinders (yes eight hundred) and I think they are crazy. Now they can call me crazy :-) I consider myself extremely fortunate to have enough money to be able to treat myself.

New, cutting edge carbon fiber and other wonder-material stuff, with electronic gadgets and doo-hickies? Doesn't do anything for me. I get all wide-eyed and drooly looking at well-maintain older bikes. Gimme something thats got a steel (or aluminum) frame, downtube (or bar-end) shifters, flat pedals, and I'm in heaven. Some newer parts are definately an improvement, but I personally just prefer the older stuff.