Originally Posted by beng1

Pssssssssst. The title and start of the thread asks if new equipment is a bad investment for those not pushing a competitive edge, for the average consumer. To clear things up for you, a "competitive edge" means that YOU are capable enough physically to win competitive bicycle races, so that the only thing holding you back from winning might be not having as new equipment as the other top finishers. So you putting up a comparison between a new and old bicycle is completely irrelevant.

For 99.999% of those who ride bicycles and who do not have a "competitive edge" where equipment is keeping them from winning road-races or time-trials, they will still not win no matter if they are riding the same equipment as the Tour De France winner, so dumping the cash into that is a waste of money unless they are okay with spending one or two thousand dollars for each mph gain they get, and still losing anyway.

But you did mention "coolness" which is a completely different subject, unless of course your "competition" is as a hipster having the most expensive bike you don't have the physical fitness to truly make use of on your weekly slow-roll with all of your hipster buddies you ratchet-jaw with as you putt along at 15mph.