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Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 11:08 am
by rajMAN
Started in 1991 with a 531 frame built by local shop with 105 8speed spec, Fag bottom bracket, MA40's with Hutchinson blue line cheap as chips clinchers and a crap paint job - cost £450. Yes, 753 and Columbus were a lotto win away but hell I went everywhere on that bike up 25% climbs and down terrifying descents and never ever thought I needed better stuff. As value for money I will never beat it with the thousands of miles I put in on that bike. To think now, some jokers nearly want that money for a pair of shoes!
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:32 pm
by ticou
I climbed a 33% in 42/24, which was pretty daft, had a breather half way up mind.
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 3:32 pm
by Weenie
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Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:17 am
by kbbpll
I paid about $600 in 1980 for a Raleigh Competition GS, and my dad thought I was nuts. "You can buy a car with that kind of money". I didn't know much about cycling (still don't, see any of my other posts
) but I understood quality. I rode that thing for 30 years. A couple years ago I got a Master w/ Record/SR. I think the jaw-dropping $ factor is relatively the same now as then. On the other hand, I figure barring accident or theft two road bikes can get me through a lifetime.
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:52 am
by Calnago
I also paid around $600 ($650 to be exact) for a an early 80's Bianchi. It was when they started producing some bikes in Japan and it wasn't even celeste for gods sake. But it had a Shimano 600 rear derailleur which I thought was pretty cool. I had much cheaper bikes before that and had always lusted over an Italian Bottechia that I once saw in a bike shop. It wasn't until 1991 that I got my first "real" Italian road bike. A red and pearl white Basso Loto with Campy Chorus on it. Paid $1800 for that and was embarrassed to tell anyone how much it cost. I justified it to myself by saying it would be the last bike I ever buy. Ha... if only I had stuck to my word...
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Tue Oct 16, 2012 5:19 am
by stella-azzurra
53x12 wrote:In regards to salary, sure that has increased. However my discretionary fund/bike fund has remained fairly consistent. When I was younger I lived at home or was in the dorm at college. Didn't really have any major expenses. Rent was covered. Meals were covered. Now as an adult have mortgage, car paymens, health insurance, life insurance, children's college fund, retirement, investments...etc. So my bike fund is basically the same. Any other questions?
Your bike fund stayed the same as it did 20 years ago? Accounting for inflation and current bike prices I assume you can maybe buy a wheel with it.
Please you don't need to answer that. I'm just fooling around as usual. You'll know when I'm serious.
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2012 1:17 pm
by sawyer
wassertreter wrote:53x12 wrote:Yeah friends or family members are in shock when they ask me about my bikes.
That's why I never tell the whole truth, just something along the lines of "I got the frame for this-and-that-cheap on ebay¹ and put on a few parts."
¹which is usually fairly accurate
+1
Full disclosure is a no-no.
I tell people getting into it that £600 odd buys them a decent bike, but with some big compromises - usually wheels, and that you need to drop about £2k-£2.5k to get something near to pro standard above which the gains are minimal.
While most of us have adjusted to £2k wheelsets, I still find the prices of some top-end models - £10k or whatever for a Dogma - absurd, not least because we all know we could put together a better bike for much less.
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 3:32 am
by mellowJohnny
My first real ride was about 50 km from the suburbs to the city and back. I was about 13 on a Raleigh Challenger with a single black water bottle. I think by the time I got to the city and stopped for a drink the grape juice (!) I had put in it was about 33C...
But I was hooked.
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2012 9:15 am
by Monkeyboy3333
prendrefeu wrote:Yeah, for most of us that was in the past.
But for most people in the world that's still a reality.
And even for many people in 'modern' or '1st world' countries with a higher-than-avg GDP, the costs are incredulous.
Too often I'm asked by a friend to help them find a good, entry road bike so they can start riding along with me (or ride with their family) (or ride to work) (and so on) - but the budget they're looking at always hovers between $500-$800 TOTAL (helmet and tools included). I don't mention to them that there are wheels which cost $5kUSD per pair, nor brakes that per pair cost more than their total budget - but if it eventually comes through in conversation, its usually met with complete shock.
I have friends like this, more often than not they are the same people that spend £75 a month on a gym membership and never go! In an average year i probably spend the same but i have material assets in the form of bikes and bike kit and a slowly decreasing waistline....my £ is much better spent as a result. The 'shock' of me spending £2000 on a bike seems to disappear when i convey my thinking!
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:30 am
by mrfish
I remember issue 1 of Cycling Plus when they tested £1000+ super bikes, the most exotic of which was a Merlin. Those seemed about as far off as the moon when I started riding my £120 10 speed racer. A key moment on that was a 50 mile loop round Somerset wearing jeans fuelled by lemonade and snickers bars.
Re: Remember when you first got into road cycling.....
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 8:21 am
by elviento
Just to add 2 observations:
Today's bikes are getting more sophisticated than 20 years ago whether it's gimmick or true engineering advancement.
Plus the cost of making bikes are going way up as well. Today, the per frame cost of paintjob for the Falco carbon frame (subj to minimum order of 100 frames) is 3 times more money than my first bike. Imagine that.