Is cycling materialistic?

Holy shit I had a lot of coffee last night..

Reasons for riding;

Posing - Materialistic
Well-being - Hedonistic

Easy.

(Is this thread some subtle Market research for Create?)

The bikes and components one chooses to spend one's money on, is their value and their worth comprised entirely of their function? or do they have some value that is supplementary to function, either an aesthetic value (I love the look of my drops, but I rarely use the lower grip), a cultural value (some would be attracted to aerospoke or tripspokes because of their embedded reference to the culture of velo riding, something which one might have engaged with long term as a culturally active agent) or a supposed-function that really is an 'intellectual turn on' (some might splash out on carbon parts knowing that they will shed a couple of kilos in total - something of value, but not something that will be felt on the commute).

What people have said so far basically posits the notion that if something exceeds function, it becomes 'materialistic' but I think that investing in cycle riding, building and maintaining as a culturally expressive act, as opposed to an A-to-B mode of transport, likens it to a social endeavour, and makes it less materialistic. The objects that we purchase become signifiers of how we, individually, navigate the contemporary social sphere - and the choices/products we invest in become how we assert ourselves -

fixed riding is an interesting example as a culture that proliferated out of an inherently counter-functional way of riding - 'fuck all your million gears and disc brakes and STI shifters, I'm going to ride a stripped back, simple fixed for the love yo'

Obviously fashion as a blind culture gets involved and thus the hipster adopts the fixie but the choices to ride fixed, shoot film, run in barefoot shoes or drink fentiman's cola rather than coca cola are all materialistic, but they have value as the way in which we navigate materiality without become passively comsuptive. I guess it's the whole prosumer/consumer binary

the choices to ride fixed, shoot film, run in barefoot shoes or drink fentiman's cola rather than coca cola are all materialistic

False. Fentiman's cola doesn't even taste anything like coca cola.

damn right it doesn't.

Are school holidays materialistic? Do cabbages have souls?

Do cabbages have souls?

Not the purple ones.

this thread is half comedy, half masturbation.

Much like life, really.

touche

touchy

Only half the time.

Aestheticism or materialism ?

I like a nice looking bike from an aesthetic point of view. The fact that most nicer looking things also tend to cost more (in life generally) means that you cannot avoid having to spend more.

https://www.lfgss.com/thread1187.html
https://www.lfgss.com/thread12631.html

2008

Every bike I've ever bought has been custom built from the best parts I could afford. I've never known the joy of cobbling together anything from begged, borrowed or stolen parts just to be able to ride. I have, and still do, put purchase of bike parts above food.

This

Cycling isn't materialistic, people are.

Although having the disposable income to spend on things like fancy bikes and all the accoutrements that go with that doesn't necessarily mean that a person is materialistic either. The regard you have for these things and the value you place on attaining them is different and in addition to the act of just owning them.

Is cycling introspective?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCo1XdKtIjw

Weird, I'm listening to that this morning.

First album I ever bought.

Think I did well.

Yes!

Materialism or commodity fetishism, as I believe Marx described the social-economic relationship between people and market exchange of labour, goods and services, including bicycles, is fundamental to a capitalistic economy.

Good or bad and whether or not commodity fetishism, as Marx would argue, conceals the true nature of the relationship between proletarians and capitalist, thus a “false” value system, is of course debatable. However, anyway you look at it, cycling i.e. bikes are indeed materialistic, at least in the social-economic sense of the word.

PS
Is this discussion for real?

Yes

Think about the Starvin Marvin and the other ethernopians, they can't get food but they build wooden bikes.

^^Labour.

Thank you, snotty...

I own a Ti road bike. But it's my only bike I now own. I look forward to commuting every day. My petrol costs are 0, so for me a bicycle has a function but in having a function I also have immense pleasure.

I love spending money on my bikes when I can but so long as I have a bicycle I don't mind too much.

I'd also like the idea of living simplistic, not many things but I think I like the thought of it more than I do actually doing it.

Depends how you approach it, I suppose. Cycling is certainly an easy way to spend loads of money.