Originally Posted by Doug64

My wife rides an "expensive" custom built bike that was my present to her when she retired. The custom frame alone costs twice as much as my bike. Add the components I used when when building the bike up for her, and it is probably worth 3 time the value of my bike.



She loves the bike and has put about 16,000 miles on it in the 5 years she's had it, more than half of those miles were loaded touring. She has 2 other bikes she rides, another touring bike and a road bike, but this one is her go-to bike.

The picture below shows our bikes packed onto a ferry on a tour a few years ago. When I looked down in horror at the pile the deck hands had made of the bikes, my wife just said, "they are only tools." When I get snobbish about equipment, she just chuckles and says, "it must be a man thing." She could care less about the logo on the down tube.

Her bike is the blue one in the middle of the pile, and mine is the maroon one with the yellow panniers.