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@Lynchman
Unapologetically so I do like nice things. And I don’t mind paying a premium for high quality brand name products. Yet building my first fixie I can’t seem to escape the stigma of allegedly buying into pretentious marketing schemes and designer guff. Correct me if I’m wrong, but over the last decade or so, it’s like then bicycle scene has been hijacked by Rapha styled hipsters, treating their bikes more and more like a fashion accessory than a ride?
Perhaps you know where I’m coming from, particularly if you’re of a certain age. Maybe like me you bought your first Mac in the dos-ages, at a time when the disambiguation of U2 meant a high-altitude American reconnaissance aircraft and the use of a mouse and graphical user interface was something reserved for the happy few. In those days you didn’t have to justify your lifestyle choices, or your reasons for spending a small fortune on a laptop, since owning a Mac, let alone a high-end bicycle, generally was considered more eccentric than cool.
Today it’s different. Lifestyle aside, the gap between the ostentatious and discerning sophistication - a genuine appreciation of outstanding design, quality, and functionality - is closing fast. From baby milk to mobile phones, taste and style has become a consumer commodity, something you can subscribe and unsubscribe to with just a few clicks, in fact there’s app for that.
Thus sat between two chairs, on one hand wanting the very best, and on the other struggling to come to terms with my own insecurities and the fact that riding my new bike I would forever be branded as "one of them", if you know what I mean? For the first time in my life I can actually afford to pick and choose, but ironically money doesn’t even come into the equation. Say for the sake of argument, I could easily spend a month’s wages on restoring a 1968 Pinarello back to its former glory and no one would bat an eyelid, but building a modern alley-cat type racer… I don’t think so!