BryanD wrote:
Not really. Everyone assigns value to something differently. I think owning a Mercedes or other expensive cars is a waste of money....but I have no problem wanting a P5-X.
So if someone buys a $16,000 car and a P5-X or Pinarello.....are they just as foolish as someone who spends $50,000 on a car?
To me it's percentages.
I buy a car based on my salary. If say I make $100K per year, I buy a car for $50k so that's 50%. (yes, I know, I take 2-3 years to pay off the car, but you get the point). If my bother makes $200k per year, he goes out and gets a $100k car and pays it off over a couple of years.
Same goes for bikes. When I first started tri's I was poor with a young family. I bought a use 300 road bike and threw on some aero bars. Now I'm old and make more money and the kids are gone, I have the ability to buy more expensive bikes, and I do. It still turns out to be about the same % as back in the day, so I think that's reasonable. If I made more money, I'd buy even nicer bikes.
I'm not jealous or begrudge anyone buying nicer stuff if they can afford it of if they buy nice/expensive stuff and give up on other things. It's just percentages or maybe focus.
I had a very wealthy friend years ago. He bought a VCR for $1500. As he carried it to the car, we saw another store with the same VCR for $1300. I asked if he hated being ripped off. He said he hadn't been ripped off. He was in the store, wanted the VCR, saw the price, decided it was worth it, to him, so he bought it. He was happy with his purchase. I learned a lot that day. While I do price shop when I buy stuff, I do remember my friend and if I think a really nice bike is what I want, and to me it's worth the money, I buy it. I let other people make those decisions for themselves and some of them buy Pinarello's. I hope they enjoy riding them because I sure like riding nice bikes when I get the chance.
TriDork
"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"