CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
"I would rather spend $12,000 on a bike than $12,000 on a car," he said. "It's lighter, it corners better, shifts gears better - basically the overall performance is better."
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa/6703132/health-kick-drives-bike-budget-to-15-000
I was speaking to someone at work about this the other day. I'm sure there comes a point of diminishing returns for your outlay. My mountain bike I built up over the space of 2 years, and is definitely the most expensive in the garage. It cost about £1200 to build, and, at the time it was finished, was actually probably worth about £1500 (due to deals on some of the parts and so on).
I'm not sure I'd really want (or need) to spend any more on a bike (and indeed the other two currently in service were built for less than half that value...)
I wouldn't go higher than a grand... basically so I won't be heart broken when it gets hit by a car and/or stolen at some point
Also I have fond memories of my £70 bike from tesco (accompanied by another for my good lady to see if she could get used to cycle commute to work along the canal) which made it around town then out to the gyle on canal on a daily commute. It did really well and lasted over 2 years before I retired it for something 'better' (ie more expensive) and more efficient for the poor old legs
In the end, if it has two wheels and goes who cares what it cost? I see cycle couriers who spend all day on their bikes and they are not the shiniest pieces of kit by a long stretch of the imagination
I rode a $99 bike from Canadian Tire for at least 10 years before I moved here c. 15 years ago - it was my first big bike, and bought with my own money! It's still running, to the best of my knowledge never had any parts replaced (I certainly never did, and never took it to a shop, although possibly someone in family repaired flats). This was certainly the cheapest bike you could buy at the time!
The grand rule is fine if you can find what you are looking for. Once you enter the low volume, made to order market that isn't always possible.
Some people spend thousands on cars, health club membership etc. eg John Lewis have some exercise machines that cost £1700 and above.
My justification (for Laid Back Bikes) is that I reckon specialist bikes last longer than many things at that kind of price level. eg Family ski-ing holidays, Quad biking!
Like all areas of life, cycling should have aspirational items too.
So far my bike purchases are almost following an exponential curve... as a student I spent about £150 on a cheap Dawes racer in a sale, then I got a EBC courier race for ~£300 at my first job, then spent almost £600 on my Pearson Touche, and the lowracer I got last summer cost roughly double that.
David is right that recumbents are an expensive addiction. I have recently been drooling over a *frameset* that costs more than all of the above put together!
But he's also quite right that it will last considerably longer than the holiday we took over xmas...
My most expensive bike is my mountain bike at £350, this was many years ago before suspension became popular and I am very happy since it means I got a good mountain bike rather than a crap mountain bike with suspension. I would happily ride round Glentress on it today while I would NOT be happy on those full suspension for £100 jobbies!
My road bike would have cost way more than that in its heyday but it past its heyday when I got it but I am still happy because I just need to replace a few parts now and again and continue to whizz around on it.
Of course it is possible that I would become unhappy on riding a really expensive bike and finding out it is much better, I just have to make sure I don't...
1950s Claud Butler - free, my uncle got it when he left school
1990 Dave Yates road bike £900
1991 Dave Yates MTB £940
1995 Longstaff TWD trike £1989 (which allowed me to tell my mum it wasn't as expensive as my friend's £2K Longstaff)
2001 Brompton M6R about £650
2006 Brompton S6L £720
2009 Brompton S2L-X £1015
And is the S2L-X almost twice as good as the M6R?
Well... the M6R is better in the dark because it has built in lights. It's better for getting messages because it has a luggage block on the front and a rack on the back. It's better on winter roads because it has Schwalbe Marathons on it.
The S2L-X is not twice as fast, has no lights at all, no where to carry even a pump, it has Schwalbe Stelvio Lights which can be fragile and I don't take it out in the rain far less dirty winter roads but it's lovely to ride, gets me places as fast as the racing bike and I don't need to lock it up.
So it has its advantages but it not necessarily "better" since the cheaper one has advantages too? Mind you, that is still a good bike which probably makes a difference.
Someone was in Dales a few months ago trying to decide what Brompton to get. I could help her out with the differences between types but when she asked what I would have if I was only allowed one I really couldn't say. The M6R is more flexible but the S2L-X is more pure fun. She was mostly trying to decide what gearing to get and whether to get the X option.
Luckily I was only there to buy a hat and picked the least garish.
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