1) Do you care about what other people think of your bike? YES - Go to 2. NO - Go to 3.
2) Are you the gullible type that believes that frame material contributes more than 1% of what the tires do to the comfort of a bike? YES - Go to 4. NO - Go to 8.
[etc.]
Hilarious! Like a choose your own adventure book, I wanted to follow all possible paths to see where they led. My only disappointment is your paths never ended in choosing a Cervelo. I love my Cervelo and I was curious to see just how I arived at that choice. :p
As I said, I'm in Japan. Although my language skills are not the best I get by. However, if the only serious cyclist I know happens to be my LBS owner that is all about top drawer stuff...yikes. He wants to sell me bling.
Okay, now you have confused me. In your original post you said you wanted to buy a dream bike and now you are complaining about bling. When I think "dream bike" I think 5 - 10K USD made by a small manufacturer that shows that you are a connoisseur and not some yuppy who walked into an LBS and bought the most expensive thing in the shop. Pretty much everything above $1.5K is bling.
If you ask for dream bikes then everyone who owns one will jump up and tell you how the FordThunderCougarFalconbird (Nothing makes you feel more like a man.) they just bought is the greatest. If you want a solid bike with good value for the money then you would do better asking something like, "I want to spend $2500 USD. What do people recommend?"
Okay, now you have confused me. In your original post you said you wanted to buy a dream bike and now you are complaining about bling. When I think "dream bike" I think 5 - 10K USD made by a small manufacturer that shows that you are a connoisseur and not some yuppy who walked into an LBS and bought the most expensive thing in the shop. Pretty much everything above $1.5K is bling.
If you ask for dream bikes then everyone who owns one will jump up and tell you how the FordThunderCougarFalconbird (Nothing makes you feel more like a man.) they just bought is the greatest. If you want a solid bike with good value for the money then you would do better asking something like, "I want to spend $2500 USD. What do people recommend?"
Waterfords or Gunnars for me. I'm a Schwinn guy, but there is no Schwinn in Schwinn anymore. However Richard Schwinn is at Waterford and they still make a world class bike just down the road from me. Waterfords are Paramounts they just can't use the name "Paramount". Gunnars are more standardized, but if you wish you could customize the frame anyway you wish. I love my Paramount. I thought about replacing it, but instead I just might snag me a Rockhound MTB. Waterford bikes are my dream bikes.
There is no magic material. Carbon fiber frames which are cheap, can flex more than twice as much as a suitable aluminium frame. Any frame material, when constructed immaculately, can be excellent. If you want a very very good aluminium frame, bianchi FG lite is a very light, < 1kg stiff aluminium. If weight and comfort aren't as much of an issue, BMC anything will be stiff and different to anything else in the bunch. I just got a BMC SL01 frame to upgrade for racing, and it is great value, and extremely stiff. It is stiffer around the bottom bracket than Giant's flagship frame.
1) Do you care about what other people think of your bike? YES - Go to 2. NO - Go to 3.
2) Are you the gullible type that believes that frame material contributes more than 1% of what the tires do to the comfort of a bike? YES - Go to 4. NO - Go to 8.
etc.
one of the most entertaining and brutally true posts ive read. as for the guy wondering where cervello was-
your "choose your own adventure book" would need be the length of a tolstoy novel to encompass every manufacturer.
i think he chose archetypes. and chose them well.
great post!
i'm still enjoying it and forwarding it to others.
