Obsession or Brag?
 

Why do some people decribe their wheels even when it is not necessary. For example I was doing my morning ride on my Trek 1000, when this van hit me. Would it have made any difference if it was a bianchi, litespeed or any other bike. Is this an obsession or one has to brag about their ride.

PS don't get me wrong, it'd just a thought.

It is a bike forum. Someone is always going to ask if you don't say. :)

I was looking at my 2003 Specialized Allez Elite 27 just this morning and was wondering the same thing, hmmmm, interesting thought indeed.

My favorite is the sig line that lists all their bikes and the exact component spec, sometimes even mentioning a seatpost (which they probably spent $$$ on, trying to justify the expense). Sometimes they even link to pics of their bike. uhh, ok.

I link to my bikes in my sig cause I restored or built them myself. I'm kind of proud of it. It's not about the money, cause they were all very cheap, but just mostly about the fact that I'm proud of the way I've set them up.

I want to say more in my post, but I just checked my Pulsar Quartz Alarm/Chronograph with Count Down Timer and I need to get back to work.

Maybe you're insecure about something?
I don't think anyone's bragging. If you say something like, "I crashed my $6500 colnago" then that's probably bragging. It's a sure sign you're bragging if you throw out cost on everything.
But otherwise, think of it as coming back from lunch. You can either say "I had food" or be more social and say, "I had a slice of pepperoni pizza".

Anyway, my $400 citizen titanium solar powered watch says that I have to get back to work on my $450 office chair in front of my $600 17" flatpanel so I can go home early and finish working on my bike by properly torquing the bolts with my $350 torque screwdriver.

I use my sig to display my bikes because I would get asked again and again what I have if I did not ,.... :loL: really I just like seeing what everyone is riding.

I am on a computer case modification forum and I list my 2 major projects on there... both are winners of various big case modding contests and I feel that it provides inspiration for others who see it... oh I just like to show off :D

I really use my signiture to show my affiliation with those that I ride with, and my personal blog... it is sort of like advertisements...

Well, I was going to put my 2 cents in, but that's not nearly enough to ante into this thread.

Actually, I think people are just proud of their steeds. Maybe just a little ego involved, but it's relatively harmless.

Another question...I'm sure most of you have been told by another cyclist that they recently crashed. What's your first question?

"Is your bike OK?"

It might be a case of seeking sponsorship. Therefore, take note Malvern Star, I'll be riding my trusty rusty to work again today. :D

Because this forum is about bicycles ... not the vans that run over bicycles. Over on the Vans-That-Run-Over-Bicycles forum someone is telling everyone what kind of van he used to run you over.

I was reading your thread and wanted to mention, in case you didn't read my sig, I ride a Bianchi Pista with world champion colors and chrome finish. and my other bike is a LeMond Poprad.

i don't believe this thread.

obsession or brag....
option #1

It's all ego and I'm the biggest poser here. So there. :)

55/Rad

I like sigs. I like being able to see what some people ride without having to ask and sometimes it's relevant to their post (Somebody posts:" I rode a mountain century in 4 hours", I think "What the hell was he on? Crack?" , then I can read that he was on a 1999 Mongoose.)

I bought a new bike today. I now feel ready to modify my sig.

I suppose I ought to start considering the more in vogue performance enhancing drugs next too :D :D :D

We may justify it when one has a prob, incase someone with a similar bike had a similar prob, but, being hit by a van on a Trek, bianchi or whatever bike is exactly the same. Unless if different bikes are run down differently.

It could be that they have more than one bike, so they're letting us know which one was damaged. If I were to crash during a ride, and just post that I'd crashed, you would have no way of knowing which of my 4 bikes was being ridden at the time.

Sometimes I feel like our bike is a part of us and part of our personality, so if we don't talk about our bike every once in a while it's like nobody knows who we are.

I like seeing folks' bikes, especially if they are not stock.

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllll

A carbon fibre bike reacts differently from an aluminium bike which reacts differently from a titanium bike which reacts differently from a steel bike in a crash with a van. One or all might be write-offs, in which case we can all commiserate with the owner and encourage him/her back on to the bike again. Or we can laugh at the CF owner coz plastic bikes are bling-bling and we're jealous. We can say "we told you so" to the aluminium bike owner coz that really is a write-off. We can cry and laugh at the same time with/at the Ti owner. And we can say "yeah, cold set it back into shape" to the steelie owner.

There are also lots of other contexts that can be read into it. Are we talking about a sedate but legal rider on a hybrid? Or a gung-ho roadie flagrantly running a red light? Or an MTB rider doing a 20' drop off a highway flyover? Or a BMXer practising a grind along the roof gutter of the van? Or a fixte rider that no-one really cares about anyway :p Stereotypes are wonderful things.

However, when it gets down to model numbers, groupsets and colour of jersey, there might be a case.

I conceed, this is like trying to talk a lawyer out of material things. If there are lawyers in the building please, forgive me, am just trying to compare the passion I see.

Actually, the older you get, and the more involved you get, the better it is to identify bikes my make and model. Because depending on the list to which you subscribe, there are a whole lot of conversations that can spin off about how good it was or wasn't, how long it lasted, how the quality of the maker has deteriorated since productions has moved to some other Asian country and marketing is through *mart, and how the catalogue for that year was wrong because it specced something different. There's nothing like living with history. :D