I quite like how the whole thing unfolds when you ride with new people, from the “slight out the corner of your eye” checking out their ride as it comes out of/off their car, to what gear they have on, how “fat” they look 😉 how they sit on it, what sort of riding position do they adopt etc. In fact, you can generally spot the better riders before they have even swung a leg over their £6k SC….. 😉
I’ve ridden with superb riders on average bikes, and average riders on superb bikes, but funnily enough, generally, really crap bikes are not ridden by decent riders (because they are good enough to realise the bike is holding them back) and it’s rare to find really terrible riders on superbikes (because they realise it’s not worth them spending the money on a superbike)
Get a bike, any bike, get out and ride it!
You’ll quite often find me riding my 6″ bike on the towpath, mainly because i enjoy riding it. If i wanted to go super fast, i’d ride my sub 10kg race hardtail instead 😉 (and probably finish my ride feeling like i’ve been beaten up………..)