Yeah, I figured this out as a teenager. We had a half-marathon through rough terrain (gravel, sand, tree roots etc.). I had my 200€ bike from Facebook and a sports t-shirt from school. I felt very out of place with all these big men in their tight spandex suits and decked out bikes.
I passed most of them and finished 13th out of 130 (which is not amazing, but definitely not bad).
Have a friend who was a minor professional cyclist in Europe for a bit. Never close to leader board but professional nonetheless. He often rides a hard tail 70’s three speed with a basket on back country trails. MTB riders with the latest gear and full kit regularly tell him he can’t ride that bike on the trail. His standard reply is, “Obviously I can, because I am. You however…” He lets the sentence trail off and with a shrug rides away.
Road bikes also get the same comments. I have a hybrid/trekking bike so I can annoy both sides. But realistically I use my bike to get to places along paths in the UK, I don’t need to do jumps but I do need something that can manage shit road surfaces, dirt and gravel. Even light mud is fine with 700x37 tyres. I could use wider tyres for winter if I really wanted to use some of the muddier paths but there isn’t much need to.
Cheap bikes are great, ignore the elitist pricks that think you actually need to spend £2k on a bike.
That is a cheap bike if you’re going mountain biking.
I’ve found mountains to be very challenging to pedal and steer. Rocks in the other hand
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Yeah, I figured this out as a teenager. We had a half-marathon through rough terrain (gravel, sand, tree roots etc.). I had my 200€ bike from Facebook and a sports t-shirt from school. I felt very out of place with all these big men in their tight spandex suits and decked out bikes.
I passed most of them and finished 13th out of 130 (which is not amazing, but definitely not bad).
Have a friend who was a minor professional cyclist in Europe for a bit. Never close to leader board but professional nonetheless. He often rides a hard tail 70’s three speed with a basket on back country trails. MTB riders with the latest gear and full kit regularly tell him he can’t ride that bike on the trail. His standard reply is, “Obviously I can, because I am. You however…” He lets the sentence trail off and with a shrug rides away.
Road bikes also get the same comments. I have a hybrid/trekking bike so I can annoy both sides. But realistically I use my bike to get to places along paths in the UK, I don’t need to do jumps but I do need something that can manage shit road surfaces, dirt and gravel. Even light mud is fine with 700x37 tyres. I could use wider tyres for winter if I really wanted to use some of the muddier paths but there isn’t much need to.
Somewhat same, my everyday ride is a Surley Disc Trucker, it’s my weekend ride too, but it’s my everyday ride.
I spent $50 on a beat up used bike from a thrift store, and slapped a $600 ebike upgrade kit on it. It looks like trash but gets me where I need.