[Closed] Do you form emotinal attachments to your bikes ?

I used to, but now i realise they are just 'things'. That's not to say I don't try to look after them, but the enjoyment comes [b]from [/b]them, not from [b]having[/b] them...

DrP

Hell yes!

That said, I don't talk to it.

no but even I get a bit sad when we have to part company

Racing beat that out of me. They are tools, for a job.

I still own and regularly ride every bike I've bought since 1999 (except the road bike which is a bit ignored).

I think it's a mix of sentimentality, finances and practicality that drive it and that I chose good bikes that suited me and what I ride. Trail centres (or at least the ones I ride with any regularity) have got bigger at about the same rate as my skills/confidence so the kit still copes well enough and the 'hills' of Southern England haven't got any bigger.

I am the limiting factor not the (many) bikes!

I also believe in the n+1 theory of bicycle ownership so buying a bike and not ending up with more just seems wierd. 😉

[i]Do you form emotinal attachments to your bikes ?[/i]

No, I think I did with teddy bears though, according to my mum.

only to the memories of good rides I've had on them.

Yes. Mine are actually hound substitutes, well I do an awful lot of walking with the bike these days. 🙂

When my Marin was stolen I missed it, then a few days later I spotted it in town, some thief had just sprayed it in black all over (chain, mech, tyres everything) i did get a but upset like an old friend had turned to drugs or something and I saw him in the gutter.

Agree with C_G on the 'hound substitute' thing. I've been known to (occasionally) give them a hearty pat on the saddle as I leave the garage after a good ride out - a "thank you", I guess.

So saying, they don't have names, get talked to or anything completely daft like that. That would be very silly.

</fruitcake>

I have a slightly broken frame that will be hard to get rid of (I can see me spunking a silly amount of money on it at some point....)

My favourite seems to have worked her way into the kitchen. I say 'good morning' to her [s]and I'm sure she winks back[/s] 😀

Yep...I can't bear to part with my first full suss, eight years on.

So I won't.

Nope. Never have, never will. Mass produced things I can replace like for like with ease.

Surfboards on the other hand.

Errr...all mine (5) live in my bedroom 😳

bikes I haven't like get punished by being destroyed, sold, or in the case of my old Mongoose frame, stripped of paint and all components and left in the damp shed under old paint tins and bits of rubbish to rust away slowly and get defecated on by insects and rodents. bad frame.

My head agrees with the 'they're just tools' ethos, and I know when I find something that works better for me than my current bike does I'll move on to that without any hesitation. What the bikes allow me to do is where the emotional centre of biking lies and not in the metal and plastic itself.

However, that doesn't explain the 2001 Trailstar with similarly aged 80mm Bombers on it still hanging in the garage ready to ride at a moment's notice...

slainte 😳 rob

I have an emotional attachment to my cove particularly. I can't see me getting rid of it but my winter bike eclipses it (as it was my brothers).

Yes.

Bit of both. I'm quite attached to my ancient carrera, I've owned it longer than anything else apart from a couple of teddy bears, but it still gets ridden most days. Could get a better, faster commuter but I don't want to just for that reason.

And I guess I'd say my Hemlock's the bike that I've learned to ride properly on, and I know it inside and out, plus it's nicely worn in, like a well used hammer. I'd miss it a lot if I were to lose it- I'd get another I'm sure but it'd take a while for it to be my bike I think.

But the others are really just tools.

What DrP said. They're just stuff to me really, as I discovered when I had one nicked. I was still pissed off, but felt a bit better when the cheque turned up. I felt attached to my old Diamondback, but only because I'd inherited it from my Dad - even that had to give way when I had no space for a road bike. I'm not such a hard bastard in other respects, honest.

Yes.

I think it comes from the journey you've been on - agreed they are tools for a job, but then you'd not have had the experiences you've had, had it not been for [i]that[/i] bike (or equally of course any other bike, but it's not about any other bike - it's about *that* bike).

What about say ... SS'ing the Cube and using it for different rides than the 5-spot?

Only after I've fiddled with them. Bought a complete bike but didn't feel it until I'd taken it apart and replaced the fork. Only when you've 'built' it do you build a bond.

Yep. Dunno if its all the happy memories or just that i get so used to a bike and how it rides but i hate retiring a bike (normally due to breakage)

might be retiring my heckler this year, that'll be a wrench, really like that bike.

I'm emotionally attached to them through what they allow me to do. I'm currently in Sweden away from the bikes for 3 months and thought I would miss them but I actually miss the riding. They look pretty, I built them all myself and I care for them but unless they do the job I want them to they are worthless.

I've had my Heckler since 2005 but I don't feel particular loyalty to it. Not a week goes by without me eying up some other frame on the off chance that it would be "better".

Emotionally attatched to a piece of metal hanging in the garage? Err, no.

It's a bike. Weirdos 😆

For mtb yeah. I've been thinking about swapping my Bullit for something else but its the bike I took to Canada with me and I progressed loads out there whilst riding it. Dunno if I can bring myself to selling it. I have a bit of a love/hate thing with my Trailstar. Fun bike to ride but I've had some bad crashes on it so I don't always have confidence when riding it!

Road bike no, it's just a tool for fitness.

Interesting question. I've bought and sold a few bikes over my time, the only one that I wish I hadn't, and the bike I had the longest actually, was the Cannondale Beast of the East. I would still be using that now if I hadn't got rid of it. I loved that bike. I occasionally check out ebay for one when I have a little spare change.

Other than that, I have a frame (GT Arrowhead) that I bought off here, built up, stripped down (but for some reason kept), built up, stripped down. I'm now taking the paint off it so I can run it naked.

Other bikes are tools that keep me interested or get disposed of. I had a steel Cindercone that I crashed in Cannock. I bent the forks, can't remember why but I left the bike at a guy's flat in Stoke, never saw it again. I got a road bike, didn't like it so sold it on the classifieds for the cost of the wheels I'd put on it.

TBH, I get just as much enjoyment from fiddling and faffing with bikes as I do from riding them, so getting rid of a bike and getting new bits is really exciting for me.

Bikes have soul...... Always

Unashamedly yes. All my bikes have had names, given after a few rides when I've discovered it's character. An sx trail I had didn't get a name. It got sold quickly. I was genuinely gutted when I sold my GT, and distraught when bikes have been pilfered.

I need help...

ha i was slightly tipsy when writing this and now very hungover after a night out for a mates birthday and did not expect such a response.
I echo some of the sentiments written on here i think part of it is i learned to ride (propperly) on it and learned to feltle with it as well. (The only thing that remains from stock the same is frame and seat)and yes i am in the camp of talking too and patting my saddle after a good ride !!

69er - Member

Emotionally attatched to a piece of metal hanging in the garage? Err, no.

If I lost the hammer I inherited from my grandad I'd be gutted.

Used too.

My second BMX (Raleigh Aero Pro) was an xmas present that sat, covered with a blanket, in our spare bedroom from early November. Every day after school i'd remove the blanket and practice my 'starts' with the front wheel propped against the wall. Loved it before i'd even rode it properly. It didn't disappoint in the slightest. It took me all over the country and we shared many 'radical' moments. It was cleaned regularly and prepared lovingly. If it need new tyres, cables or brake pads, it got them. Thanks to Raleigh's 15 year F+F warranty it kept me blissfully happy for about six years. I was the best thing I ever owned. Then some scrote stole it.

I rarely clean and service my bikes now, they're just bikes. I still occasionally pat the seat of my big bike (horsey fashion) if it gets me safely down a particularly rough bike of trail, but that's as far as it goes.

euro - i still have my 1983 mag burner you can see whats going to happen !

Yes, I've invested in some real beauties and they repaid me with happy days and happy mental health. I won't easily part with the older two ti bikes I have. The 2009 one might be easier to part with but they all represent a part of who I am.

I build all my bikes from the ground up with carefully selected parts. Even if I have to compromise at the initial build I will have a clear upgrade path for when these parts need replacing, so yes, each bike and all its parts are a very personal choice and I get attached as a result.
Currently in the process of replacing the frame and forks in my full sus but keep putting off stripping the bike down. I find myself standing in the shed looking over it but not actually stripping it down.
I feel the need to pass bikes on (even friends bikes that I have built and serviced) to 'appropriate' recipients rather than just ebay them off to anyone. I will often find myself servicing the bikes once they are owned by someone else just so I know it has been done right.
Sad? Maybe, but my 2006 Heckler frame and its respective 130 vanillas will be missed, but hopefully only until next spring when it comes back for the full service treatment.

Yes, the emotion i feel often is hate for the bl**dy things when they won't rip up climbs, fly down descents and trounce all comers. What's that you say?--It's me that can't do those things, Naargh, surely not?