Any question answered...

There would seem to be some sort of puritan hair-shirt attitude at work here though, making the assumption that if you are upgrading things you are doing so whilst sat on the sofa, halfway through your second pack of Lucky Strike, spooning lard directly out of the tub into your chin be-decked jaw.

I would suggest that it is possible to both upgrade parts and train, without having to earn the right to upgrade your own bike by first doing Le Tour on a BikeOfScoble.

People can upgrade all they want, but I'd rather not hear a load of bullshit about it being because they want to go faster; especially if they're already using high-end equipment i.e. not a Specialized Allez with Sora and some fucking Mavic Aksiums and platform pedals or some fucking shit like fucking that or fucking something.