" S o r n i" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:bill2345 said:I'm new to biking, and I'm never going to be doing 4-5 days a week.
I'll be lucky to get in 2. I'm never going to be doing all these
upgrades weekly, learning the detailed terminology, or joining a club
where people sit around talking about biking all day.
That's what we all said.
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAH!!!
Bill "fresh blood" S.
Exactly, Bill. First thing I thought was, "Yeah, right!"
If anyone continues to ride any length of time at all (sometimes it does
take years,) eventually he or she will find the need to upgrade something,
maybe the bike itself, maybe just a part here or there, but be warned,
newbies, once it begins, you WILL find reasons to upgrade. You WILL learn
that there's a good reason to buy some of those more expensive parts. You
WILL experience a sea-change in attitudes.
I, for one, was as stubbornly set on _not_ getting hooked into the
money-sucking schemes of all the "lighter, stronger, stiffer, smoother"
components and bikes. I definitely was (and still am in most regards) a
cheap scrooge. I started out on a discount store "ATB" about 15 years ago.
But guess what? Mountain biking ain't cheap, even if you only ride 2
days a week. And the more you enjoy it, the more you will pay for function
and performance, [or should I say Performance.com? :-) ] I'm still not
swayed much at all by cool factor, whether it be aesthetics or even minor
function, unless it means something in MY particular riding experience. But
if something offers me truly superior performance or durability, it'll
definitlely open my pocketbook wider than I once thought anything could.
Case in point: I have a friend who has been into flying for a long time.
He's a physician and can afford it. He has also been biking with a
mountainbike for several years, but mainly just tooling around his farm and
woods and on a few country roads near his home. He managed to run smack over
his Cannondale last year, totally ruining the frame and fork, so he called
me for advice on a new bike. (He should have done that before buying the
C-dale.)
I know of another buddy who buys nice bikes, tinkers with them and
builds them up, then eventually parts with them at very reasonable prices
(_far below retail.) I suggested we go see what he had on hand, though I
warned the doc that we would have to bump up a few hundred over what he had
paid for his Cannondale, which was quite low-end but still ran him near $700
two years earlier, I think. (He did overpay at that rather sorry LBS.)
So we found him a Diamondback, full suspension (helpful at 50 years
old), Hayes hydraulic disc, Marzocchi air front end, good setup of mostly XT
components. Yes, a bit heavier than his old bike, but still reasonable. And
all for about a grand, I think. So now he has had it for not-quite a year.
About a week ago, for his birthday, his wife gets him to an LBS and he got
his first biking specific jersey and, oh yes, the lycra shorts and tights
too. (I'll be getting him into biking socks next.) He observed recently
that, "this mountainbiking isn't cheap, is it? I've always known I had an
expensive hobby in flying my plane, but I never thought biking could be so
expensive." I nodded in knowing agreement, and thought of how much stock I
own in PerformanceBike, or at least should after the last 6 years of
frequent purchases.
Doc had some vacation last week, so I finally got him off the farm and
out to Douthat State Park for some real trail-riding. We took a long (for
him) ride, with a big climb and then off into some National Forest that is a
bit wilder and less-buff than in the park. We were coming back through a
hollow alongside a beautiful creek, and doc noted, "You know, this is pretty
fun. I'm going to have to take some more vacation and do this again."
Another one hooked on the greatest sport known to mankind!!!
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D N
I E T S
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