I'm curious about how much ppl spend on cycling kit. It seems from several cycling forums that ppl have money and a lot of it to spend on kit. I don't. That makes me hold off on buying kit because I think it's just too expensive.
We're talking about the amount of money you need to spend on kit to leave you worrying if you've spent too much. For me I hesitate in 3 digits my bike is less than 4 digits and whilst I needed it I doubted whether it was too much. I mean I could get a serviceable bike for £300 so why spend £650?
Clothing I buy Aldi or Aldi sort of price. Lights £40 for main light and I think it's too much.
I don't earn a lot which explains my views but even if I earnt ten times as much I'd still not spend £6500 on a bike, indeed I'd possibly bail at £2000. I think it's within me not to feel comfortable spending a lot even if I could afford it.
So do you have a limit? Even if you had the disposable to spend anything on bikes would you still have a limit?
I am just curious about the spending mindset of fellow cyclists.
I'm young(ish), single, and have no dependents, so everything I'm not spending on food, shelter, and internet is basically available for me to spend on bike stuff. Since I started my new job a few months back I've spent far too much on bike parts. It's a running joke at work now when a package arrives (daily), what bike part is it this time? don't you have enough parts to build a second bike? etc... But after years of earning next to nothing, having a salary controlled diet, I'm happy spending money on quality stuff. I am a major fan of the
Sam Vimes Theory of Economic Injustice. And am happy to spend money if it's something that will last. In building my bike I spent over half the cost of the bike parts just on tools, as I will use them again, and most of them last a life time[1].
But with all this said. The idea of spending 2k on a bike? Maybe for a custom made one of a kind bike. But for some factory carbon... nah. Would I spend 500 on some wheels? Probably not.
But then I don't race, so I'm not looking at the €200 marginal gains from the latest carbon widget...
I spent €27 on a rear bike light. My colleagues think I'm nuts. It's perhaps the upper limit of what I'd spend tho.
Ultimately for many bike related things you get what you paid for, but only upto a point, where you start to get diminishing returns.
Perhaps if I was racing and that €200 euro widget could be the difference between being on the podium or not, maybe I'd have a different view. But for the riding I do, it's about having something that works, will work for a long time, and is a joy to ride.
Now back to looking at merino cycling jerseys...
J
[1]Tho I'm slightly miffed I spent €49 on a crown race setting tool, only to discover on build day it was the wrong size and I had to bodge things with some pvc pipe...