Originally Posted by MattoftheRocks

I don’t work for Velo Orange or Jan Heine, so I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything.

It’s just a discussion. My contribution is that the design and finish on these premium priced components do very much evoke a crystal clear sense of the opposite of premium componentry.

If I’m being non-rhetorical and 100% honest, they don’t evoke cheapness- they do just look cheap.

The only way I can understand anyone intentionally kitting their bike up with this stuff is if they intentionally do not socialise with anyone who takes home less than $250k/year, have never driven past housing with rent under $6k/month, and just don’t know what cheap is.

Imagine Maserati releasing a new for 2025 car with two doors, blue-ish clear windows all around, a 95” wheelbase, 5’8” tall, 16” wheels with plastic hubcaps, lift back, single 1.5” exhaust tip, and chrome-backed clear lens Altezza-style lights, but it has a fully carbon unibody & doors, a ZF magnesium-cased 10 speed transmission, and a 3 cylinder engine that revs to 18k rpms. Imagine Gibson selling a Les Paul with an OSB top on a pressure treated green streaked poplar body but has a neck made of certified “old growth” mahogany & rosewood and is priced the same as their Custom Shop instruments. That’s where I’m at with these more-expensive-than-Origin8 components. They don’t look not-cheap at all.

Looks aren’t everything, but they’re not nothing either.

If you love compromised functionality & durability and the look of poverty, that’s very hipster of you and I applaud it so long as you’re fully aware and still just fully in love with the concept of irony. There’s nothing wrong with manbuns, pirate moustaches, lumberjack shirts & boots as office attire, or $10,000 bicycles that look like $100 bicycles and will sound like $100 bicycles after 2k miles of riding in any type of gritty terrain.

At best the concept of black painted blingparts is like that of the VW Phaeton: Stealth Wealth… but nobody bought those.

I cannot fathom what aspect of Ekar GT is, as stated in post #3, a step in the right direction. It seems like a step in a dumb direction. Thirteen ultra thin cogs. At least they gave it a fittingly dumb name.