Do I live in a different world?

[Peteaud]

For me i try to buy decent, and up to a point you get what you pay for.

My £40 Altura winter gloves cost £25.00 in the sale, but my best summer gloves are lidl £5.00

 

[redcard]

I don't see the point sticking to budget stuff. I'd rather have 1 good item than 4 average ones. More expensive gear fits a lot better.

I don't go to work 5 days a week so I can buy budget

 

[Lee_M]

Agreed. I have a pair of decathlon shorts that are thin shapeless and with a reasonable pad

However I have a pair of gaerne shorts and santini tights that demonstrate the quality I paid for

And I look cool :-)

 

[Stewart H]

All of my stuff is on a budget, its a point of honour for me, I ride a rather nice BMW motorcycle that cost less than some bicycles that I see, my first proper Yacht cost the same as a brand new composite Mirror dinghy at the time, my rather useful turbodiesel car cost £700 in 2006 and is still going strong, my bicycle was free from a mate, the cycle computer was from Aldis bargain bucket at £2,50 SWMBO did splash out £10 for a new helmet for me though, somewhere deep in the recesses of my wallet there is the tanner that the Midwife gave me
Last week I spent £2.40 on a new gear cable, this is getting serious.

 

[mrandmrspoves]

No doubt there is some snob-ism in the cycling world - why wouldn't there be?.
It's no worse than reverse snob-ism.

I don't subscribe to the belief that spending more will always give you better quality - but if someone wants to spend their hard earned cash on an elite brand - good luck to them!

I used to buy - What Mountain Bike magazine - but when they had an article on best budget suspension forks and the cheapest ones they reviewed were £600 I stopped buying it. (My car isn't worth that much!!!)

 

[Sittingduck]

I don't subscribe to the belief that spending more will always give you better quality - but if someone wants to spend their hard earned cash on an elite brand - good luck to them!

This pretty much sums it up, for me. Each to their own... Who cares what other people wear or spend money on??

 

[Zakalwe]

You can rent a bedsit for 50 quid a week or a house for 500. You can buy a car for 200 quid or 20,000. You can eat a kebab for a fiver or a steak for 50. You can holiday in Bognor or the Amalfi coast.

Is it really, really, any surprise that there are several markets for these things? And if it's not, why should cycling be any different?

 

[jayonabike]

I buy expensive gear, Rapha, Assos, Castelli are the mainstay of my cycling wardrobe. Working for Royal Mail I don't earn a fortune, but I want to feel comfortable for the conditions I am cycling in. Take this morning for example, myself & 2 mates were out for an early morning ride, the temperature was around 2-3 degrees. I was wearing a Rapha jersey and Rapha gillet with Castelli bib tights. One of my mates had 2 baselayers, a cycling jersey, thermal leggings under cheap bib tights, a cycling jacket, a buff plus neckwarmer and he was still saying he was cold. Where as I was having to undo the zip on my jersey and gillet as I was a little warm when cycling up hill.
I am a firm believer in 'you get what you pay for'. There is no snobbery involved on my part, everyone should wear what your happy with. I don't buy high end brands for the label but because it works. But it does annoy me when people say their £5 Aldi Jacket is as good as my £240 Rapha hard shell. Talking of which last weekend in the rain when my mates and myself were on a ride, at the stop my mate undone his "waterproof" jacket and it clearly wasn't, where as when I undone mine not a single drop of water had seeped through. He was moaning about being wet/cold, I wasn't.
Of course a jacket that costs £240 to buy doesn't cost nearly anything near that to make, but you are paying for the science/technology behind the materials used to make it, and the fit is a lot better than cheaper garments.
I get up at 3 a.m and work hard to earn every penny, so why shouldn't I enjoy spending any spare cash that I have on what I want.

 

[Peteaud]

What annoys me is people who moan about the cost of stuff "I would not pay that for that" then go to the pub and blow £40 + on beer etc then moan they cant afford to live!!!!!

My mobile phone cost £20 from tesco and i am on PAYG at about £50 for a year. I think it utter madness my wife blew £100's on a Iphone package etc. but its her money so she can spend it on what she wants.

I like Altura stuff, its not the cheapest but i find its good quality so generally stick with it.

 

[HLaB]

I've spent what I would call daft money on bikes in my time, I liked to think I've got good value out of them though (about 8p per mile for the Kinesis and a wee bit less from the Bianchi, 27p per mile). I don't think I spend too much on kit and have a few stuff from aldi/lidls. Having said that my bikes are probably only high entry level to some and my kit is relatively expensive to others.​

 

[400bhp]

This pretty much sums it up, for me. Each to their own... Who cares what other people wear or spend money on??

Agree, but the rub comes when they try and tell you their purchase of x is better than buying the cheaper y, when they really have no way of knowing and is based on purchase price . Purchase justification working well.

 

[EltonFrog]

What's an Aldi / Lidle, and what are they for?

 

[baldycyclist]

All of my stuff is on a budget, its a point of honour for me, I ride a rather nice BMW motorcycle that cost less than some bicycles that I see, my first proper Yacht cost the same as a brand new composite Mirror dinghy at the time, my rather useful turbodiesel car cost £700 in 2006 and is still going strong, my bicycle was free from a mate, the cycle computer was from Aldis bargain bucket at £2,50 SWMBO did splash out £10 for a new helmet for me though, somewhere deep in the recesses of my wallet there is the tanner that the Midwife gave me
Last week I spent £2.40 on a new gear cable, this is getting serious.

Careful Stew - you'll be buying a new can of GT soon

 

[baldycyclist]

folks - we just like to spend on something new - whatever the price....it all feels good on the first outting evenif it cost pennies
Also-why not include the cost of all the washing and cleaning on the environment!!!!!

 

[Peteaud]

What's an Aldi / Lidle, and what are they for?

It is where people who are too poor to be able to drive a car buy clothes for their cycling.