Which One Are You?

[twodogs]

Is it the wind in your hair and morning rides with the crew or is it the beauty and functionality of your bikes that rings your bell?
Let us know in the comments what about cycling makes you most happy....

[pwa]

So long as it fits me and all the parts are working well, I can enjoy a ride on any bike. But if the bike is especially nice, with every component chosen by me, I get an extra layer of pleasure. My current bike, the only one that is complete and ready to ride, is the culmination of decades of refining what works best for me, so I take pleasure from that in itself. it isn't the most expensive bike you will every see, it isn't the flashest, but when I am on it I never see anyone else on a bike that would be better for me. There is nothing on that bike that I would change.

So I enjoy the ride and I enjoy the bike.

[Cugel]

Is it the wind in your hair and morning rides with the crew or is it the beauty and functionality of your bikes that rings your bell?
Let us know in the comments what about cycling makes you most happy....

That's a very short list of motivations for cycling. What about the other 173?

Wot's that - you want a list? I can't remember them all, I'm afraid. Also, mine change from day to day so it makes it quite hard to answer with any true meaning. And what about the lower motivations churning in my bonce of which I'm completely unaware. Well, not completely - I know the rascals are there!

By the way, why do you want to know?

[twodogs]

Is it the wind in your hair and morning rides with the crew or is it the beauty and functionality of your bikes that rings your bell?
Let us know in the comments what about cycling makes you most happy....

That's a very short list of motivations for cycling. What about the other 173?

Wot's that - you want a list? I can't remember them all, I'm afraid. Also, mine change from day to day so it makes it quite hard to answer with any true meaning. And what about the lower motivations churning in my bonce of which I'm completely unaware. Well, not completely - I know the rascals are there!

By the way, why do you want to know?

Why do I want to know?

Well I s'pose I'd like to know if there are any other weirdos like me around who enjoy the components. I can get pleasure from just passing a nicely engineered deralieur between my hands. Mrs twodogs has caught me sitting quietly admiring my bikes on many occasions. I have a relatively cheap but very well made Campag Calima wheelset I bought for my winter bike but I can't bare to fit them because they'll get wet!

[Cugel]

Is it the wind in your hair and morning rides with the crew or is it the beauty and functionality of your bikes that rings your bell?
Let us know in the comments what about cycling makes you most happy....

That's a very short list of motivations for cycling. What about the other 173?

Wot's that - you want a list? I can't remember them all, I'm afraid. Also, mine change from day to day so it makes it quite hard to answer with any true meaning. And what about the lower motivations churning in my bonce of which I'm completely unaware. Well, not completely - I know the rascals are there!

By the way, why do you want to know?

Why do I want to know?

Well I s'pose I'd like to know if there are any other weirdos like me around who enjoy the components. I can get pleasure from just passing a nicely engineered deralieur between my hands. Mrs twodogs has caught me sitting quietly admiring my bikes on many occasions. I have a relatively cheap but very well made Campag Calima wheelset I bought for my winter bike but I can't bare to fit them because they'll get wet!

Ah ha! The real question emerges.

Well, I too am a fondler of well-engineered gubbins albeit not only those gubbins of the bicycle. My own lusts-to-feel encompass many kinds of tools, especially woodworking tools.

Which particular bicycle gubbins get me anxious to feel 'em? It used to be Suntour (the original stuff, such as Superbe) and sometimes Sugino. I was never excited by Campag; and Shimano is just ... Shimano (although I liked their Sante stuff in white - until it scuffed).

[pwa]

I must confess that I have caught myself enjoying the sensation of flexing a beautiful folding tyre between my fingers, prior to fitting it to the wheel, and wondered how others might view this fetish. There may be therapy available for this condition. But I have never actually licked a component.

[VinceLedge]

I must confess that I have caught myself enjoying the sensation of flexing a beautiful folding tyre between my fingers, prior to fitting it to the wheel, and wondered how others might view this fetish. There may be therapy available for this condition. But I have never actually licked a component.

[twodogs]

I must confess that I have caught myself enjoying the sensation of flexing a beautiful folding tyre between my fingers, prior to fitting it to the wheel, and wondered how others might view this fetish. There may be therapy available for this condition. But I have never actually licked a component.

I quite like the smell of new tyres.

[Mike Sales]

I enjoy cycling because a bike multiplies by so much my physical powers, because it is so much easier to roll through our beautiful country and cover distance with less effort. The sheer pleasure of this is our best approach to flying.
I enjoy the ingenious engineering which enables this miracle.
Take the bicycle wheel. Somebody said that compared to a car wheel it is like a suspension bridge set against a plank across a ditch.
The green efficiency of the bike is a delight.
Steve Jobs expressed it well.

And so for me a computer has always been a bicycle of the mind, something that that takes us far beyond our inherent abilities." This compelling analogy highlights the way that computers, like bicycles, augment human capabilities, enabling individuals to accomplish more with less effort.

[freiston]

Well I think that we all have a soft spot for componentry, especially if it is high on both form and function - and when a bike is comprised of such, a compilation well thought out (and possibly evolved through trial, error and discovery), then the effect is exponential. I reckon that few of us are hung up on the perfect bike and that we realise the point is to ride what we have, but I dare say that most of us are on a journey whereby we're getting closer to that perfect bike - and that what we see that perfection to be will shape our aesthetic appreciation of the componentry and the bike (and possibly vice versa)

I must confess that I have caught myself enjoying the sensation of flexing a beautiful folding tyre between my fingers, prior to fitting it to the wheel, and wondered how others might view this fetish. There may be therapy available for this condition. But I have never actually licked a component.

I have a relatively cheap but very well made Campag Calima wheelset I bought for my winter bike but I can't bare to fit them because they'll get wet!

When I worked in a supermarket as a teenager, we used to say that if it wasn't for the customers, we could get that store perfect.

[Brik]

But I have never actually licked a component.

You've thought about it though, right?

[Brucey]

........Well I s'pose I'd like to know if there are any other weirdos like me around who enjoy the components.....

Ah ha! The real question emerges. .......

I tried and failed to find a category into which I fitted, from which I conclude that there are not many weirdos like me around.......

[jimlews]

I must confess that I have caught myself enjoying the sensation of flexing a beautiful folding tyre between my fingers, prior to fitting it to the wheel, and wondered how others might view this fetish. There may be therapy available for this condition. But I have never actually licked a component.

When searching for a puncture, I inflate the naked inner tube and pass it close in front of my lips to find the escaping air.
I may look like some sort of kinky connoisseur.
To find the precise position of the hole, I dab the tip of my salivating tongue on the tube.
So I'm a component licker
The principle pleasure of the bicycle of course, is the ability to travel great distances completely without charge (get it ?).
But I'll often pose the machine against a pretty landscape and just sit and admire it's mechanical perfection (sandwiches optional).

[PH]

I like stuff that functions really well, looks the part (IMO) and lasts. I don't mind the time taken, or the money spent, getting that where I consider it right. How much that enhances my cycling is debatable, but it would only be a failure if it distracted from it, which thankfully it rarely does. To return from a ride, or a tour, and not had a single thought about the bike is IMO perfect.

[cycle tramp]

Deleted