Troul 

I do agree, & that type of lifestyle has very energy left fat the end of the day to partage the general interests of cycling. The ones that do engage themselves with the established forum community may experience a disconnect as life experiences of both sides have naturally driven a wedge between such vast different lifestyles.

As it may seem those that I described may not connect themselves at all with our online conclave community, they most likely have there own convocation network that engages them in events that enables a joyous experience of the bicycle culture. If there's beverages, food, & a party, it'll temporarily marry them to our dysfunctional family.

Time is money, & lost time searching for the right lube keeps these folks from enjoying the bicycling event 1,000 miles away in three days. That type of frustration might create for a bad Monday morning for the subordinates at the 09:00 meeting (with or without donuts & coffee) . The predicted solution is to have the secretary *order another bmc TM SLR01 or one of those clunker bianchi oltre xr4 if BMC doesn't have the matte white & ghost black that is preferred.*
​​​​​​​
They use those to putz over to the neighbors.

Secretary will use the best discretion that fits to the scheduling needs.​​​​​​​

It's always easier to pick things apart & point out the negatives rather than just read & promote a neutral or positive response.

Could be worse, that person could stop & tell them that they are doing it wrong & how back in the day how it was done was better. (eats banana, tosses the peel down & rides away)

It's a trait of just being a human being for most. Like when the kid in school has a 1989 camaro iroc z, freshly cleaned mullet, & latest KISS tape. Haters are going to hate.

cordawg92

I think the big three in North America would be Giant, Trek and Specialized so it makes sense.

OldTryGuy

ENVY IS NOT an emotion of weakness but the end product of an individual's mental processes. A finger can not make one feel envious, a toe can not make one feel envious an eye might see something that initiates a mental process resulting in an envious or happy or sad etc. --- emotion.



Not sure of Giant's sources for CF tow(yarn) but the company is one of the ONLY frame manufacturers weaving the CF tow into fabrics used to make frames.

Charliekeet

I think that, like the OP, you're drawing inferences from some observations and attributing characteristics where they're not necessarily deserved... e.g.:
"But successful people also have a tendency to value their time thus outsourcing such mundane tasks such as servicing or spend hours trying to research or resurrect some legacy 3x9 group set. "

How about: -- Successful people have the TIME AND RESOURCES to be ABLE to value their time. There's nothing intrinsic about them which causes them to have that tendency; they just have the money to PAY someone to do the work FOR them. --

Thinking that, say, the fellow who plows my driveway in the winter, or who changes my oil, might value his time LESS than I value mine is not a conclusion to which I'd want to jump!

blacknbluebikes 

There are other ways to phrase a question around this observation. Such as:
Are people seeking advice on repair more likely to own a big manufacturer's product?
Are people who bought more obscure brands more likely to know how to fix them?
Are people who bought no-name bikes unlikely to ask for help?
Can weight-weenies type, or have they removed unnecessary fingers to save grams?

mstateglfr 

If not making anything, then wouldnt the be bicycle brands and not manufacturers? Or can we accept that the owner of a design who contract manufactures is the manufacturer?
Nobody splits hairs with iphones and says 'Apple didnt make this', even though Foxconn or whatever contract manufacturer actually made it.

As for Specialized, they are almost half owned by Merida and its no surprise that Merida churns out Specialized bikes. Its also why Merida isnt a brand in the US. But Merida for sure makes Merida bikes for other markets.
Also, Ideal Bike owns ASE by way of the most confusing and convoluted process ever due to ASI's bankruptcy. So Ideal Bike has a financial stake in Fuji, Kestrel, Breezer, etc. <--that is, unless those brands have been sold once again.

veganbikes

Anyone notice how Trek buyers talk like this; (insert joke here)
and Specialized buyers talk like this: (insert second joke here)

Thank you thank you I will be here till Thursday.

scott967

Why do people come here asking about Trek/Spesh? Well the ones looking for a big box bike get a beat down here, so don't come back. So the next step is someone looking for an LBS bike, and no matter what kind of bike you want those two have a variety in that style, and thus you get questions. Someone looking at Pina or BMC or Orbea probably already has a good idea what they want. As far as Giant and Canondale, good point. I just don't see as much dealer support (the Trek and Spesh guys here are kind of captive, though they do sell some other brands, such as the Spesh place also does Felt).

scott s.
.

chaadster

scott967 Felt is owned by Rossignol, along with Look. What’s the Specialized connection?

Wildwood 

I was swayed by the 'awe factor', this over priced Trek is tough to operate and understand. it keeps squeaking = 'Beach!'

Does Trek make good bikes?

Kapusta

I assume that the reason you see more posts about Trek and Spec is that they are two of the most common brands owned on this sight. Especially road bikes.

scott967

That if you walk into what's probably the biggest bike shop in town (3 branches) it has always been (or at least 20 years) a Specialized shop (bikes, accessories, everything) so for a new customer who walks in there, he/she is probably going to see Specialized so that's why the questions are focused on that brand. But my point was that it isn't 100% that case, as the shop did pick up Felt a couple years ago. But still, in my town you have the 3 branch store that's mostly Specialized and a 2 branch store that's mostly Trek.

scott s.
.

prj71

I can go along with this. My income is such that I value my time more than money. If something needs fixing, I drop it off at the bike shop these days. Same goes for my cars and small engines. I used to do all my own work on bikes, cars, small engines...those days are gone. I pay people to do it for me now.

jack pot 

In SE Texas the bike shops between Houston and Lake Charles La are either TREK or Specialized focused. If you want a Salsa or Cannondale or Surley or _________ you might get it on an order if you deposit money up front

Toespeas

i like specialized allex sprint frame , but everything else they both make are crap , with the exception of some of the mid range trek off road bikes , those companies are best shopped on the used markets !

Charliekeet

Hold on, do you consider the rest of say, the S-Works stuff “crap”?
And how do you figure that nothing but the MID range Trek bikes are worthy of being purchased new? Not sure I get it.

Cyclist0108

What sanctimonious twaddle.

Troul 

black cassette, crank, rotors faces & blacken front der arm. Add black caps on, then loose the logos. I'm sold.

Koyote

Atlas seems to suggest that "successful people" have an innate tendency to value their time more highly, which is nonsense. Our subjective valuations of time are not innate, but rather are driven by market signals.

This is correct: in a market economy, higher income (wage or salary) means a person's time is more valuable, and thus leads to different decisions regarding uses of that time. For example, I used to change the oil in my car until my income rose enough that I could, in the same amount of time, earn more than it cost to have someone else do it for me.

Atlas displays a common misunderstanding, a form of backwards logic -- the belief that market success comes from some innate characteristics, that some individuals are special. The evidence convincingly suggests that circumstances -- birth family, family income, location, race, gender, etc -- play a very significant role in most people's market success. (I would happily provide sources to demonstrate these points, but no one around here ever seems interested in, you know, learning about stuff other than bikes.)

Cyclist0108

I think I need to pay other people to read the internet for me.

Sertsa

For new shoppers like I was a little over a year ago, the choices can be a bit overwhelming, so it's easy to narrow down to the most visible brands and shops.

Trek and Specialized were the first brands I looked at when I wanted to get back to riding, because that is what the major bike shops in my area sell. They were among my first stops when shopping, as I've seen one chain around since the 90s.

So if I didn't tend to over-research and over-analyze just about everything there's a good chance I would have went ahead and bought a Trek hybrid from my area's major chain. And it likely would have been too small for me.

But I kept researching, visited a few shops, and trying out a few bikes. I wound up buying a Kona from a small shop in a converted bank next to a bike trail. The main factor in my selection was that shop spent the most time discussing where I wanted to ride and ensuring I was getting a bike in the correct size. When a large Kona hardtail was a bit too small, they assembled the only XL Kona in stock to check fit.

Ghazmh

When I recently looked at the new 520 Grando I couldn’t help but to see a bike designed by a committee whose sole focus was playing catch up as poorly as possible.

prj71

Guys,

Did Trek mess up selling me this bike today? They did leave the reflectors on. I guess that's kinda messed up isn't it?

Reflector Guy

Those do look like good reflectors. I approve!

Troul 

are those the new HDMI Bluetooth 9.5 pedals?