Obviously 57 min 40K or 5:10 IM splits are not a product of bike, but rather the rider. In fact, as a buyer of a couple of used bikes, I don’t want a bike previously owned by some uber-fast cyclist because I know he/she probably rode it often, hard, and pounded over whatever road hazard was in their path.
I much prefer the barely used bike purchased by the good-intentioned person that never actually made it off of their couch and is now tired of that rarely-ridden steed taking up space in the garage.
It is all about marketing and packaging. Most buyers want to know that the bike will let them go fast. If some guy biked 5:10 on it, the bike “must be fast enough for the buyer”. Also, people want to be associated with successes and positive outcomes.
This applies across any product category. Adding how fast “a bike went” will directly affect the final price and/or how quickly it moves. This is all about psychology and perception and little to do with any practical or purely logical reasoning. This is what marketing is all about. Most people will pay a premium to buy Stadler’s bike…or for that matter Jonnyo’s bike :-).
As for the fast biker pounding the shit out of a bike, my experience is that most people riding that fast, on a relative scale give their bikes lots of love and care and are meticulous about preparation and maintenance of their body and their equipment. Without this attention to detail, they would likely not have gotten fast in the first place.
I laughed when I saw this post! I told a friend that I was going to sell my TT bike soon, and he said to make sure I say how fast I’ve raced on it, for it would surely help to sell the bike. Based on his comments I was going to include my times, but now I’ll have to re-think the idea!
For the same reason Cervelo tells you how fast Cancellara and Zabriskie went on their new P3C: they hope it will help sell the bike by making the buyer think the speed is coming from the bike itself.
If the time comes to sell my beloved road bike, the add will read something like this:
FS: Used 56cm Trek road bike. Heavy emphasis on USED. Upgraded components to Ultegra, but I road the thing into the ground. I road in the rain and snow most of the year. I have more miles on it than I do my car. It has several scratches from several wrecks, but no dents. It has provided years of both pleasure and pain. Make me an offer NOW!
If the time comes to sell my beloved road bike, the add will read something like this:
FS: Used 56cm Trek road bike. Heavy emphasis on USED. Upgraded components to Ultegra, but I road the thing into the ground. I road in the rain and snow most of the year. I have more miles on it than I do my car. It has several scratches from several wrecks, but no dents. It has provided years of both pleasure and pain. Make me an offer NOW!
How fast did you go though?
Tri slow you need to add. I rode the hell out of that bike and treated it like a rented mule. The paint has more scratches than an old Beatles 45 record and The headseat and BB have more pits than a date farm. Even with the above flaws that bike still has lots of game fo shizzle.
“Tri slow you need to add. I rode the hell out of that bike and treated it like a rented mule. The paint has more scratches than an old Beatles 45 record and The headseat and BB have more pits than a date farm. Even with the above flaws that bike still has lots of game fo shizzle”
Done and done. I can’t wait for the offers to roll in. I should get a little credit for my honesty!
I love it when a new “biker” finds out for himself that riding a bike is whole lot like manual labor. Then he’ll put his spin on it by saying something like “I’ve decided to retire from racing”.
Ha, most faster guys I know would not know one end of their bike from the other including quite a few professionals. They spend so much time riding the bike they never clean it or replace any components until they break. The reason they got fast is from doing so many miles, I buy all my second hand bikes from well intentioned people that never did get to take up that sport of cycling.
