What bike to instill envy!

littledove44

Forget speed, performance, price etc.

What bike do you buy or build to make everyone else jealous?

markhewitt1978

Anything team issue.

marcusjb

Weird way to choose a bike, but I'll bite.

Custom built.

There are very few, even high end off the shelf bikes, that make me envious. But a really special custom bike with lots of individuality, that's some thing else.

A high end off the shelf bike takes money, nothing more.

A really great custom bike takes imagination, vision, patience (and money).

sungod

custom + shiny

cycleclinic

Trying to instil envy in others should not the the aim. Getting a bike that impress's you should be, after all you are the one riding it.

littledove44

thecycleclinic wrote:

Trying to instil envy in others should not the the aim. Getting a bike that impress's you should be, after all you are the one riding it.

Yes, but what if you are shallow and more easily influenced by others opinions than your own?

Let me rephrase?

What bike would make you jealous? Pictures would be nice.

littledove44

marcusjb wrote:

A high end off the shelf bike takes money, nothing more.
A really great custom bike takes imagination, vision, patience (and money).

I like your way of thinking.

cal_stewart

MCip RB1k

paul1000

I ride a de rosa superking r, turns a few heads.

Bozman

I like a Look and a Colnago but there's a Feather in the bikes section that looks like the dogs, I really like the look of a quality custom built bike and I feel like I'll be making a move in that direction in the future.
Put a Ferrari next to an E type and know where the crowd will gather.

mfin

Riding a crap bike past people on a more expensive bike is more often a better way to make people jealous

thegreatdivide

mfin wrote:

Riding a crap bike past people on a more expensive bike is more often a better way to make people jealous

Hmm...that's just snobbery.

But buying a bike just to make folk jealous is just a wee bit sad. Ride what you can and ride with a smile on your face!

jordan_217

Is this hypothetical or are you so shallow that you'll google what responses you get, see which is the most bling bike and then buy that one?

I never really get envious of other peoples bikes - I just love bikes so when I see a really nice one I feel happy for the person who will get to ride it every day. I'd also never mock anyone who turned up for a club run with a £150 Tesco road bike or a 'vintage' steed that looks like it was recovered from an allotment clearance. Turning the pedals is where I get my kicks from. Now envy of those people that can do it faster than me, that's a different story :evil:

Agree with the comments on custom bikes - IMO they always seem that little bit more special to perv at.

GGBiker

Agree, the only envy I get is of other people's performance, that's a good reason to love cycling, it's an egalitarian sport. Our club has had a recently joined beginner cyclist who is just incredible, blows a lot of highly trained A3 riders out of the water already. You can see this gets a few peoples hackles up, the older club members are wise enough to just delight in his natural ability.

You can ride what you like but people will chuckle as you are passed by the guy on his Triban 3 who is fitter and trains harder (I would say this only applies if you've spent more than £1500 on your bike as any more than that is getting into bling territory).

smoggysteve

Just stick some expensive 50mm carbon tubs on. Make any bike look cooler.

Seen a Specialized Allez once with Lightweight Meilenstein tubulars and full Dura Ace. That looked amazing even though the frame was worth less than the shifters!

MattC59

Anything custom, shiny and with obvious a thought that's gone into the component choices.

mfin

thegreatdivide wrote:

mfin wrote:

Riding a crap bike past people on a more expensive bike is more often a better way to make people jealous

Hmm...that's just snobbery.

But buying a bike just to make folk jealous is just a wee bit sad. Ride what you can and ride with a smile on your face!

What's snobbery about overtaking expensive bikes on a crap one? ...maybe you read it as the opposite?

Slo Mo Jones

GGBiker wrote:

You can ride what you like but people will chuckle as you are passed by the guy on his Triban 3 who is fitter and trains harder. (I would say this only applies if you've spent more than £1500 on your bike as any more than that is getting into bling territory).

Will they?

I'm as slow as a bus. I've just bought a new bike for more than your £1500 threashold to replace my starter bike. I'm still as slow as a bus. I will continue to be overtaken by old steel bike man, stick thin 6' 6" man, and 16 year old on junior sized bike. I wasn't aware that it was a race. I would've cycled more.

northpole

I had a moment's jealousy the other day when one of the cycling group pulled out his iphone and showed us his photo of a Lotus bike (the one which was banned all those years ago) affixed to his meeting room wall. Still looks an astonishing piece of original engineering.

Some of the Feather bike images look fab.

When I'm wheezing my way up a hill, a Ducati tends to bring out the envy gene in me!!

Peter

neeb

It's nice to see a top-end frame that has been built up by the owner with carefully chosen, coordinated parts, and which fits perfectly. As opposed to an off-the-shelf build with a huge stack of spacers and the saddle at a bizarre height and/or angle...

jane90

GGBiker wrote:

You can ride what you like but people will chuckle as you are passed by the guy on his Triban 3 who is fitter and trains harder (I would say this only applies if you've spent more than £1500 on your bike as any more than that is getting into bling territory).

The real irony of this attitude is that, depending on where they are in their mesocycle, anyone following a proper, serious training plan is likely to be doing a lot of riding in their zone 1, ie less than, say, 150W for a lighter cyclist.

RedWheels

I ride a Orbit Gold Medal, that i picked up for free after it was converted into a fixie. i sand blasted and lacquered it without paint. Needless to say £60 all in and it gets positive comments everywhere it goes.

As for cycling past a high end bike, as long as they look like they can handle there machine and there not wearing full sky team regalia i don't care.

Any top quality Bianchi or De Rosa gets the envy going for me though.

rolf_f

I've seen lots of bike on here and in real life that I liked but I've never seen one I'd swap my bike for.

pitchshifter

Anything Parlee has me looking..

t4tomo

jane90 wrote:

The real irony of this attitude is that, depending on where they are in their mesocycle, anyone following a proper, serious training plan is likely to be doing a lot of riding in their zone 1, ie less than, say, 150W for a lighter cyclist.

what ever happened to riding for fun, fitness, enjoyment, fresh air, nice scenery and a chat with your mates?

Mesocycle, training plan, zone 1 - Pish and nonsense

napoleond

The only cyclists I'm envious of are those out riding their bikes when I can't for whatever reason. I own my dream bike but it's not 'custom' or the most bling, I suspect no one really covets it like I do.

I do 'easy' rides, usually up to 3 hrs on empty with no food taken on the ride. I get overtaken by all sorts of folk.

drlodge

sungod wrote:

custom + shiny

My rear stays make you jealous then

jane90

t4tomo wrote:

jane90 wrote:

The real irony of this attitude is that, depending on where they are in their mesocycle, anyone following a proper, serious training plan is likely to be doing a lot of riding in their zone 1, ie less than, say, 150W for a lighter cyclist.

what ever happened to riding for fun, fitness, enjoyment, fresh air, nice scenery and a chat with your mates?

Mesocycle, training plan, zone 1 - Pish and nonsense

You're quite right, that has a lot to recommend it too. I did it for a year and enjoyed it before, against my better judgement, I decided I missed the challenge of competition.

My point was simply, as NapoleonD has also pointed out, how silly it is to see someone riding slowly on a nice bike and to make any sort of judgement about their fitness, or indeed, anything else about them.

nevman

Here's mine

http://www.scapin.com/eng/bici-carbonio ... ti-colore/

ai_1

When you're buying a new bike or just admiring one, tech lust kicks in and you start looking at prettier and more up to date shapes, pain jobs and specifications. It seems important and you assume your enjoyment of cycling will be reduced if you end up with a lesser bike. Surely the guys with better bikes must enjoy cycling more? Surely better is better? In reality it's cycling we enjoy, not our bikes as such. Maybe some people enjoy their bikes as objects but that's not cycling. I'm an engineer and I do like the technical side of bikes but that's mostly something to think about when I'm procrastinating over my next bike online at work (not that I'd do that). It's not something that matters all that much in reality when you're out on the road. So long as your bike is functionally well suited to you, the rest isn't really that important. A bike can ruin a great ride but it can't make one.

Getting fussed about the spec and appearance of your bike doesn't make you a cyclist any more than standing around a car park with blinged up hatchbacks makes you a driver.


Just my opinion you understand but does anyone else agree?

Mccaria

I see no point envying someone else's custom bike - it won't fit me.....