Whenever I see a battered bike I don’t think “wow, that person rides a lot”, I think “wow, that person shouldn’t have nice things”.
I see it and think to myself “they’ve got their priorities right”.
But what’s right or wrong ay?
I do find it ridiculous how grown men can have reason to be self-conscious whilst out riding, it’s pretty sad that people are consistently being judgemental about one another over something as meaningless as riding bikes. This thread is a good reflection of that.
I don’t get “treasuring” items either, it’s a bike, as long as it works as it’s supposed to, i’m happy. But then my definition of working as it should is faultlessly, but generally when you get a bike to a faultless state it takes naff all effort to keep it there. A bike can look tatty but be in perfect working condition, it’s one thing cleaning and polishing, a whole other thing it being mechanically perfect.
Off all the immaculate bikes i’ve worked on, they’ve hardly ever been mechanically perfect, just cleaned within an inch of their life.