I was a little surprised at the level of gear at the Gorrick on Sunday.... In the kids races
well my MTB is a fairly obcene amount of cash but I absolutly love it, im rapid downhill (comparativly) , ive been riding ten years and its developed over time, so no embarasment there
However: just starting in road biking and just got a £1800 cannondale race bike, i want to join a club but im going to make sure I do a good few months riding before joining so i dont make a complete fool of myself, so maybe yes i would be embarssed rocking up in front of others on a carbon race bike the first time ive ever ridden on road
I couldn't give a stuff what people thought. tbh it says more about them than it does me if they feel bothered/need to comment about it. Some sort of inverse snobbery that is oft found on stw
Backhander I'm not talking about critising others, I'd rather see the roads awash with Colnagos than baracudas.
I take a quick look at Orcas, Colnagos and De Rosas but I'm not sure they're any better than what I have for domestic UK racing. Fancy having one, but couldn't bear to put one through the rigors of racing though.
LOL at stone monkey! I'm at a stage in life where I can afford nice kit and I have treated myself, cant ride as much as my kids are young but I do have two nice bikes one with xtr carbon frame etc. TBH all the bills are paid and I dont like some of my mate pi$$ £50 week up against the wall I buy bike bits maths are easy then!!!
I dont mind being passed by a ridgid SS guy at glentress (massive respect to pixel mix mega GNARL 8) ) got cained by a dude at afan on a hard tail when I was on my five I just though wow he's a wicked rider. dont care what you ride if your chilled basically!
Will be speaking to Mr Jedi soon though, need to be faster!!
Blimey wish I hadn't started this. Once again I'm not talking about anyone saying anything or commenting on another persons kit. I'm asking if anyone feels uncomfortable in themself turning out on top end road kit.
I.e I remember turning up for a race in the 80s, there were some top guys there as the Milk race was about to kick off and Anglia were there to film them. Anyway I had a brand new Gios bike, new team kit and I was tanned after training in Spain. The crew assumed I was a pro 😳 No I'm err just a erm rider. That's how I'd feel turning up at a race on better kit than the contenders.
I have no shame. Overbiked compared to ability.
As several on here who know me will verify, the value of my kits VASTLY exceeds my ability to ride them.
I am "Team AGNI/Ginsters"!
I'm more embarrassed by my lack of skill, fitness and balls than my bike. I'm sure people think I'm a tart, but if I was that fussed about it I'd ride something else.
I know my MLC bike gets 'looks' from men then a 'look' of shock when they see I'm a girlie. And I can see they are thinking "what's she doing with that?"
Am a rubbish rider but absolutely love the MLC. Not embarrassed at all. Will not justify it to anyone.
if you aren't sure about getting something really expensive because it might not be better than what you allready have, fair enough. you might be right about that. your planet-x ultegra is a good bike, same as mine:-0
i have overspent on two niners, and i'm glad i did.
I know that oldgit, but you always get the "I ride a rigid Ht and can cane anyone" and "they're all the gear no idea" idiots, who are simply jealous. It is not written anywhere that ability must equals quality of kit; salary equals quality of kit.
its much nicer the other way round oldgit
i turned up to one of my first races at caird park on an old 98 heckler with some borrowed manitou blacks (the most basic ones ) and i went in and signed on , as i came out 2 young folk were pointing at my bike critising my XTR drive train but only putting on manitou black forks ...
I made sure to shout extra loud when i lapped them for 2nd place
or top 5 in a real open field 25TT on a sora equipped giant OCR with a sub hour for my first try.
It just doesnt feel the same when you have the posh gear its almost as if your expected to do well and its a failure to the bike if you dont !
i commented on here once about a guy i'd just met on a Trek FS-thing who couldn't do pish. endos and track stands were beyond him.
i then asked why people buy such bling bikes without having the skills to properly ride them. then i got shot down.
Alpin - I remember that thread - it was awesome! We all bowed in deference to your god-like riding skills did we not? 🙂
No shame here! I love my bike (and the new one that's on order), love the bling spec which makes me ride like a god (in my head anyway!! :?)
...at least it gets ridden in anger a couple of times a week
i then asked why people buy such bling bikes without having the skills to properly ride them. then i got shot down.
And rightly so. What the **** has it got to do with you?
As most people have said, if you can afford it and want it then buy it. The difference in road racing is that you're much more likely to destroy £4k worth of bike on a Tues night 3/4 cat crit than you are racing fun or vet or masters in a mtb race.
Oldgit - Member.......... new team kit .........
thats the only bit to be embarrassed about - why on earth would you wear team kit unless you are a member of the team? sponsors logos and all?
Thats just weird. As for being overbiked? Who cares.
No need.
Hell if you can't drive a formula 1 car you could still drive a Ferrari to the shops and why not?
Enjoy what you can afford and ride whatever you want except a pig.
Pigs squeal.
I have a £1600 fs and I can't track stand wheelie endo manual etc. But Im ok at riding it and I'm ace at having fun. And if I enter a race with the idea of winning then I'll give it up!
To those of you riding crap bikes very fast I salute you.
Won a club TT tonight on a 12 year old Rondelli.
Beat top of the range Scott Plasma, Spec Tansition, Trek Equinox, 2 Cervelos, a Dolan of some sort and a couple of Planet X Stealths amongst others.
Came second-to-last Elite at NPS last weekend on several thousand pounds worth of carbon-fibre.
has anyone mentioned "it's not about the bike" yet?
Team Kit = club kit sorry.
try a day at GT the is a lot of more money spent equals more speed going on including some people dressed like Colt Seavers
What is a Colt Seaver?
Out of interest could one of the people who think you have to qualify for kit please clarify exactly how that works.
For example, if I can do tricks but am crap on the trails what value of bike can I ride?
Or if I'm really fit and fast but crap technically what should I be on?
Please state clearly maximum prices or models, thanks.
Druidh
he was a famous stuntman in the 80`s
jordie - Member
Druidh
he was a [s]famous[/s] stuntman in the 80`s
I fixed that for you 🙂
ok he was also known as the fallguy 😆
it still amazes me at the level of protection some people wear to head down spooky wood and are not really going that fast.It really can`t be worth all that walking up to the top
No one is clubber the concensus is it's youre's so ride it no matter.
I started this because I have a problem with myself and top kit and was refering to road bikes only.
However just wittering on here has helped me to find out some of the reasons why.
Lots of tasty kit, but I don't actually want it.
Function over form.
Economics of racing i.e not wanting to kill something nice in a clash with a racing newbie, seen that too often.
What I have is more than good enough?
Ahem
alpin - Member
i commented on here once about a guy i'd just met on a Trek FS-thing who couldn't do pish. endos and track stands were beyond him.
i then asked why people buy such bling bikes without having the skills to properly ride them. then i got shot down.
😉
Last time at Gt some young lad came flying past me on a stunningly beautiful Lapierre Zesty . Now im not the jealous type over anything , I can appreciate things of great beauty but dont covet them. Anyway turns out as I got talking to him it was a hub hire bike and he had a basic bike at home although I was in admiration of his skills.
It seems there are a few on this forum who like to diss newbie with there weekend warrior posts. Every one has to start somewhere and the point should be that as long as people are out biking and enjoying the fresh air who cares what they ride or wear.
I'll ask another question.
Say for example you had a nice road bike but decided to buy something right at the top end of the scale. Would you expect it to give you something back other than pride of ownership? And if then you honestly thought it was no better than the bike it replaced would your feelings toward the bike go sour? I think mine would.
This is why I'd get something like a Master if I wasn't racing. I wouldn't expect great things from it but I'd enjoy the ownership.
Clubber, my apple-o-gees.
[i]Would you expect it to give you something back other than pride of ownership? [/i]
I'd cheerfully (If I had it ) drop a large amount of cash on a top end road bike (would be a custom build though). I would expect it to be everything that I wanted but I wouldn't expect it to make me better, faster or stronger.
In fact my reason for training this year came form a similar sort of feeling to you oldgit.
This year I'm going to train properly and enter races (may even get a BC licence!) just to see if I can actually get to a point where I can justify what I have (which is a couple of nice frames and some mid range kit hanging on them).
Hah! That's exactly the reason I [b]haven't[/b] splurged the cash on a Yeti ARC X build. I feel the only way I could justify owning it would be to actually compete with it.
Duc
If this season goes well I'll re invest. Now with a local cross league to keep me racing right up to winter I'm hoping it will. Though the only thing I really want is some high end shoes.
For me a large part of my interest in bikes is a real love of the engineering, there really isnt anything made by humans as elegant as a top end road bike. For the last 15 years or so I've scrimped and saved and had a series of pro level and team issue bikes, and despite me being a bit s**t, have been fast enough, at least on training runs, to kind of get away with it..
The last year or so though work has made me as unfit as I've ever been, and I kind of feel really embarrassed to take my current 812 gram framed bike out in public, lest I bump into some of the folk i used to train with.
MTBs? I'm not too bothered, as my bikes a bit retro, and MTBers are all fat and lazy (like me, now) 😳
oldgit - Member
Duc
If this season goes well I'll re invest. Now with a local cross league to keep me racing right up to winter I'm hoping it will. Though the only thing I really want is some high end shoes
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??
"Cross" is also on the cards for later this year !
Having owned a cross bike for a year and not got it muddy yet. It is however the least shiny of all with an odd mix of Sora, Deore and other 8 speed bits on it so I feel less guilty about not using it (now that is the eact opposite isn't it!)
I feel guilty about the shiny ones because I'm not good enough for them and not guilty about the one with the shagged groupset.
Sod it I'll just have to ride a single speed !
😆
I was waiting for that. Thursday night Tranny night then?
Top end road bikes are indeed far prettier than top end mountain bikes - thats partly why I can:
a) never considere buying and off the peg high end mountain bike - I just can't find one I like
b) can mentally reconcile a road bike costing something starting with a 5 (storck, calfee etc etc)
Cross racing isn't that precious, I only noticed the guy that lapped me had 7 speed sora when we chatted afterwards.
Shoes wise - Rocket 7 without a shadow of a doubt - the disco slipper equivalent of a Colnago Master
