Does your bike hold sentimental value or is it just a tool?



Uawadall

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Jun 14, 2015
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Do you have any attachment to your bike or is it simply a tool that needs to be traded in for the next best thing?
 
I have never traded or sold a bike.

i still have my 1972 Italian made Masi in the attic.

I do consider bikes to be tools. I keep the bearings and drivetrain clean and lubricated but the rest can be scratched and dirty. I have a brand new 2016 Cervelo S3 that I plastered reflective tape all over it because I do a lot of events requiring night riding. The bike looks horrible but it is just a tool.
 
They're definitely tools, but I have some sentimental value to my bike. I had it for 10 years (with some upgrades along the way of course) and I have cycled to some destinations and have some cool pictures with it and since I always rode alone, it definitely feels like somebody that shared my adventures with me.
 
Life is measured in bicycles. You depend on them to get you home and to keep you alive. You derive pleasure from them. You are aware of every nuance about them and carefully maintain them and polish them.

I started training and racing in 1972. Unlike Weatherby, I sold off a couple of the many bikes I've owned before I became aware of their significance in my life. Of the three I sold I regret selling two of them. Actually, I even regret selling the first over-weight POS bike that started this whole madness. It may have been junk, but it was my first real racing bike and while it never placed me in a top-ten finish it did light the flame.

I should have never sold any of them. Not the lowly Continental. Not the feather weight PY-10. Nor the hand made Romic road racer.

I still have the 1974 Paramount P-13-9 I had made-to-measure for me. And all the rest. They are all far more than tools. They are the story of my life. Through college and post grad work and career changes and divorces they have been a constant direction point by which I've steered.
 
There are only four bikes that I no longer have. One was stolen (one of the first Cannondales ever made). I broke two steel frames and had to get rid of the frames although I wish I spent the money getting the British made 531 frame repaired but it was prohibitively expensive and since I was on a long distance tour (80's), I had my bike shop owner ship me a Klein and I build that bone rattler up. I had deemed the broken Miyata 912 or 910 (forget the number) to be a POS and tossed it in the garbage can with all of it Suntour stuff hanging off it. Then there was the buttery smooth Vitus Carbon 9 with Campy C Record. I did La Marmotte and lots of long rides on it until its joints and tubes and various metal bits failed miserably but she was a sweet ride while it lasted until she kicked me out and we parted in one furious, painful breakup. I went to the ER, she to the dump (I salvaged the Campy naturally).
 
Quote by Weatherby:
"I had my bike shop owner ship me a Klein and I build that bone rattler up."

The early C-dales and Kleins were great crit frames..if you didn't mind welding on the snapped-off-in-a-crash derailleur hangers. Other than for that, their main purpose in life was to keep dentists in boat/Porsche payments with all the fillings that needed to be replaced.


"Then there was the buttery smooth Vitus Carbon 9 with Campy C Record. I did La Marmotte and lots of long rides on it until its joints and tubes and various metal bits failed miserably but she was a sweet ride while it lasted until she kicked me out and we parted in one furious, painful breakup. I went to the ER, she to the dump (I salvaged the Campy naturally)."

Those things freaked me out. A buddy had one that started to ooze white powder at the head tube. We convinced him to trash it before it trashed him.


Now that Romic Sr. is dead, I would over-pay to get that frame/fork back. It rode like a Caddy over the rough stuff, but was stiff enough and agile enough to road race or do the weekend crits on.

The Peugeot was a death trap. It had a bad case of high speed wobble that no amount of knee clenching or weight shifting could eliminate. Geared 14-21 at the back and with a monster 47-53 up front all I ever did on that bike was work hard and go fast. And **** myself coming off hills at 40+ MPH with the front end shimmying like a Norton Commando with a loose headset and badly cupped front tire.

The Schwinn Continental got me started after borrowing a dorm mate's Continental for a few rides. Even after stripping down that 38-pound tank and re-fitting it with some better pieces parts it was still nothing more than an education in what a road bicycle should NOT be.
 
I've still got my first bike from when I was about 4 or 5 years old but all the rest I've bought, sold and traded in along the way. I've had that many to be honest that it's a good job as if I kept them all I wouldn't be able to get in the house!
 
My bike has been with me through a lot of miles so it holds very special sentimental value to me which is why I don't think I'll be changing it any time soon. In fact all my bikes have had sentimental value to me and I've always been devastated when they had to go or stolen which my last one was.

Hell, even if I got a beater of a bike I would still hold a strong feeling towards it and try to get it in a good working order again.
 
Maybe that's the reason that my bikes don't hold sentimental value for me, I've always bought bikes off the shelf rather than fixing one up or building a custom one.

I guess if you put that much work into one, then they're going to hold more value to you than one you just choose on a website or from out of a shop.
 
Maybe that's the reason that my bikes don't hold sentimental value for me, I've always bought bikes off the shelf rather than fixing one up or building a custom one.

I guess if you put that much work into one, then they're going to hold more value to you than one you just choose on a website or from out of a shop.

A few of my bikes have been out of a shop and I've still felt the same about them.

My bikes are tools, but they also hold sentimental value to me. They are like a part of me when I use them.
 
No sentimental value whatsoever here. They are just tools to me and the only attachment I may develop would be financial at times. Even that is limited.
 
I haven't answered my own question myself yet, but I see it as more than a tool. I've been riding less than a year, 8 months or so.Riding my first road bike was more exciting than when I received my drivers license and bought my first car.I bought the bike used, it had some wear and scratches. I've often wondered what adventures its previous owner took it on. Sometimes I hit more potholes than I avoid and it has kept me safe for the most part... When I had my first crash, I was surprised at how well the bike held up. When I eventually have space and money for another bike years down the road, I'll still be keeping this one.
 
My bicycle is more than a tool and also has great sentimental value to me.

I have only ridden the same bicycle since the early 1980s, and until this year it was the only bicycle I owned. It is a 1977 Schwinn Sportabout, the cheapest and heaviest ten-speed sold by Schwinn that year. Over the years it has been upgraded with lighter components from more expensive Schwinn models of similar vintage as shown in the following video. I use it to play guitar as I ride and have done this many tens of thousands of miles since then. Since I am a traveling minstrel, of course it is called The Minstrel Cycle. It has its own Facebook page.

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Because of worsening arthritis the past few years I decided to get a ladies' model Schwinn Sportabout with a step-through frame so I won't have to lift my leg as high. Since it is a ladies' model of The Minstrel Cycle I call it Lady M (not to be confused with Laidium, a chemical invented by Bill Cosby to assure success on dates). It is still bone stock though, heavy as ****. I have not yet transferred the upgraded components from The Minstrel Cycle to Lady M.
 
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It's hard to feel sentimental about today's generic, cookie cutter bikes.

I do see where your coming from and a lot of the modern day bicycles aren't exactly unique in their design.

A lot of the personality of the bike has been lost if you want to call it that and it is hard to get any sense of individuality these days when choosing a bike.
 
While I enjoy bikes, I just can't get sentimental over them. I do consider the bike as a very valuable tool that helps me to get around. But when it comes time to upgrade, I will sell my current bike and replace it with the new one. I just don't have the space or time to collect or get sentimental about bicycles.
 
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While I enjoy bikes, I just can't get sentimental over them. I do consider the bike as a very valuable tool that helps me to get around. But when it comes time to upgrade, I will sell my current bike and replace it with the new one. I just don't have the space or time to collect or get sentimental about bicycles.

That's pretty much my feelings aswell to be honest and while I can appreciate that certain bikes in a person's life can bring back good memories, that doesn't mean you have to store the bike away. Your memories will always be with you anyway so it shouldn't really matter if the bike still is.
 
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The only bike I own that has sentimental value to me is my 1984 Trek 660 that I had built with Suntour Superbe components, but the reason it's sentimental to me is because it was my main racing and training bike back in the day. The other bikes have no sentimental value to me but I'll keep them just the same.
 
It's hard to feel sentimental about today's generic, cookie cutter bikes.
I'm not all that sure, most of todays bikes are or do seem like they came from the same mold but the one you get is yours and once you start going a few miles on it, adding stuff on to it and stuff you start to grow a fondness towards it.

That's how it seems to be for me at least anyway :D
 
Every bike I've had has had sentimental value to me. It may have something to do with the fact that I don't buy bikes, but build them from the frame out myself. It is like I gave birth to each and every one of them. Hell, I even name them!
 

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