Narhay

When I first started on c&v bikes and bikes in general...I had a gas pipe sekine with a bent front steel wheel and stem shifters in a size 21" (I should be riding a 23" or 24"). I've flipped many a bike in the past year but haven't found any c&v road keepers for myself.

Nowadays I've been on a streak of early 90s mountain bikes (1991 Team Marin, Titanium Merlin, 1990 Gary Fisher CR-7 Evolution) all dripping in Deore XT parts.

I can appreciate a nice bike and know the owner is happy but I find myself looking down my nose when I see bikes with parts that are not the top of the line (Deore LX or DX on MTB, lower or mid level campy, suntour or shimano on roadies). They are nice but they just aren't "the best".

Is this just an affliction I have developed because i know it isn't all it could be or is this common with those that get into the hobby?

Epicus07 

I respect bikes and components that are lower end if they function well but tend to prefer nicer things for myself. I don't think this makes me a snob.

Narhay

I'm going to agree with you and feel similarly.

Zieleman

Isn't it true that Deore LX stuff is just heavier than XT and therefor will probably live longer? Sometimes lighter stuff is not what you need but rather durability (touring/randonneur).

Italuminium

The only C&V I kept after fixing and riding some gaspipe bikes is a fully Super Record equiped bike, so yeah, my "collection" of one is rather snobbish at the moment. I however really enjoyed those gaspipes as soon as I got them fixed and dialled in, and had memorable rides on all of them.

Gary Fountain

+1

I don't mind any bike but I've been involved with bikes for many years and I do have my favourites.

kc0yef 

Dx is not even close to the best pssf

frantik

I've gotten pretty snobby about what i will buy for myself, but when it comes to other people's bikes, as long as it looks well taken care of i don't hate too much. The bike i ride the most often is my grocery getter which is a low end parts bin build that has served me well, so it's hard to get too snobby... That being said, now when i buy bikes I avoid anything below Deore/105 level, even though Exage stuff in the mid 90s was fine for mtbs, just a lil heavier

you pay a premium for the very top end stuff which often isn't significantly better than the 2nd tier. Mtb parts from the late 80s especially, I notice the difference between XT and plain Deore on some stuff is extremely minor. There's a lot of similarity between Dura Ace and 600 too, and even plenty of 105 stuff seems like 600 bits without the nice finish



PS I'd love to add a TI Merlin to the stable.. maybe bling it out with all XTR while i'm dreaming

krobinson103

I don't bother going over deore/105. To my mind thats where the best value lies. My two beaters don't even get close to having named components.

bradtx

Narhay, In the past I was certainly snobbish regarding the group. I stepped slightly off my high horse many years ago when I reconfigured my distance bike from full Ultegra to a full 105 w/triple to cope with my 2nd of three left knee injuries. The 105 performed flawlessly, HMMM.

When I built my first touring bike I did the same, only dropping even lower in the group, HMMM still working flawlessly. With my '86/'88 Cannondale resurrection I decided to run as much RX100 as possible, just because I don't see that group anywhere these days.

A friend of mine who was a Campagnolo snob bought a complete bike with a Veloce group. It worked so well he wondered why he spent so much for Chorus and Record groups in the past. Like myself he's more interested about how the bike works day in and day out, and the quality of the build is more important than the bits and bobs attached.

Brad

peazweag

"Best"is a fairly broad term.

Miyata110

Nope, quite the opposite. I can't imagine paying for the "better" stuff. For what? So I can brag about it here? If I happened to luck into something nice - great (how I ended up with my 531), otherwise I'm perfectly content with chromoly fitted with Light Action.

auchencrow

It's a tough question.
While C&V tastes are pretty discriminating, I still have an affinity to certain lower-end bikes, and count them among my keepers.

wahoonc

I run the very low end stuff on some bikes and middle of the road on some others. Somewhere in my pile of stuff there is a Campy derailleur that came off some nondescript Italian city bike, it is barely above WM grade. IMHO once you get much above the middle of the product line you are playing the game of diminishing returns. I have had plenty of bikes with Suntour V-GT that were perfectly serviceable and great riding bikes, even the Peugeot with the plastic Simplex can be a good bike. I have had a bikes with high end components that rode like crap and lower end bikes with lower end components that rode much nicer. To each their own. I ride what I want, if someone else chooses something different that is fine.

Aaron

jimmuller 

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I bought a UO8. I still ride it. Over the years I moved upscale and learned what better bikes feel like. I prefer the better bikes so in that sense I'm a snob.

Now when I see an old bike with components that declare it as low in the price structure, I find it interesting only for its possible history but not as rider for myself. In that sense I'm a component snob, because the components can betray the bike.

Yet the brakes on my Masi are Campy Gran Sport, not Nuovo Record, and no hoods on the levers. They look great and work wonderfully. Some of the minor components are not Campy though they look very much the same. I like VGT-Luxe and Vx derailleurs. I do not own a Books B17. In that sense I am not a snob. Components are what they do, not what they say.

sloar

I have always owned high end bikes but I still cruise on Junkers, I ride a ratted down 3 speed huffy to work all the time. I just enjoy bikes.

RobbieTunes

There's nothing snobbish about trying to outfit the nicest frames that appeal to you with the best components you can put on them. Unless you have unlimited funds and time, you will always compromise in some way or another, for personal preference, limited choice, or limited availability. There is always a better bike, better components, better wheels out there, for someone, and you either settle for what you have, or never stop upgrading.

This is not a gold-plated hobby at this point, and the relative affordability of 95% of the things we see here hardly qualifies for true snobbery. Heck, many people with serious wealth still don't know or pay serious donero for such mundane things as bicycles. One of the sardonic things about "The Bike Snob" is the title of his blog.

It's pretty hard to be a true snob when the high end is around $13000 for the latest greatest, and $2500 for most of the older greatest. Still, it's human nature to feel your $500 bike is better than someone else's $200 bike. Being insecure in that thought it what drives the devilment, perhaps.

I've seen people spend $1100 to make their bikes conform to what a bunch of Rivendell owners will appreciate. And yet, for other snobs, the pedigree isn't pure enough. Takes all kinds.

Heck, you should see the lawn mower arms race in my neighborhood. It long ago stopped being about cutting grass.

krobinson103

For a lot of people $13,000 for a bike is something that will never happen. Things like mortgages and kids have to be dealt with first.

mconlonx

I am a snob, but I'm just as happy putting something together with less-than-stellar parts on some humdrum frame, as assembling best of the best parts on a custom frame. Just that it seems easier to go wrong with crappy parts than it does with higher end stuff. There are, however, some pretty horrible bikes out there with awesome parts...

iab

I'll get what appeals to me. Most times, it is the "good" stuff. But sometimes, it isn't.

Does that make me a snob? I don't care. But I also don't give two rat's craps if your bike is the "best" or "worst". In my book, it is looking down on other people that makes you a snob.

Pars 

More so when I was younger. When I got my Raleigh RRA (as a frame trade), I really wanted a Professional. The RRA thus had to be full Campy (NR was top of the line at the time), so that is how I built it (had all the parts except for the brakes). Even though the French components the RRA came with that year were quite good (Stronglight 99 crank, Simplex SLX metal derailleurs, and Maillard 700 hubs which I understand are quite good).

I've never ridden anything with Suntour on it, but have a pair of Cyclone MKII derailleurs which I am going to use on the bike later this year with a triple. Rebuilding these, they seem quite nice. and probably shift better than the Campy Super Record I currently use, at least on a larger spread freewheel.

As for current bikes, yeah 13-15K for top of the line any more is insane, but I still seem to cling to what top end bikes cost back then (Raleigh Pro for $450, Masi for $500 or so). Everytime I see this, I laugh, and think I should get one, but wouldn't be comfortable with it:

KonAaron Snake 

+1 - I love building über high end nostalgia bikes that I'm not good enough to truly need, but for the every day stuff I really love LX, 105, etc. I don't want Dura Ace on a bike I ride every day around town.

I look down on people for behavior, not possessions.

gl1000honda3

+2

sailorbenjamin

I dream of someday having a $13000 car, my bikes are below that on the food chain.
I've got a couple of Raleigh Competitions. I can't decide if I like the Huret one or the Campy one better. But I like to build a rat rod out of dumpster parts every now and then get it all muddy and leave it out in the rain and then give it to a neighbor kid and watch him ride the *&^% out of it and then bring it back 2 years later for a bigger one.

puchfinnland

big bike snob
4 PUCH/Austro Daimlers
most are full campy
have a few lower end bikes-always upgrading them.

some cheap bikes i just give away. if they have no value