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How important is it to your enjoyment of cycling vs yr ego/social conformity?
I suppose mine has remained steady at about is 90/10, could be mild aspergers.
Should you care? Beginning to think I'm a bit odd as never gave a toss (since first bike at 11 yrs old) about what other people think about what age, colour, style of bike, clothes or accessories I purchase or manufacture in order to enjoy many different types of cycling. I have of course chopped and changed with styles/fashions that I believed (sometimes rightly, some wrongly) would improve function - such a shorter bars, longer stem in the 90s. 3/4 lycra bib shorts (imo the most comfortable fit-forget hardcore riding gear through three seasons - and arguably the most unfashionable)
I wonder how many of us consider ourselves fashionable/'acceptably' styled in day to day life yet are fully cogent that as soon as we get on a bike then all 'rules' are out of the window? (Always remember: Whatever you ride/wear on a bike Clarkson still thinks you look like a tw*t)
I'm guessing most are about 50/50?
(Bonus question: If you don't care what Clarkson thinks, then who's thoughts do you care for?)
Ultimately we are grown men and women riding bikes. Short of wearing skinny jeans and riding a fixie, we will always be unfashionable to the wider world. However, being fashionable to the cycling world is very different. I tend to choose my kit based on what works though I do at least try not to look to stupid.
On my road bike I wear Lycra and white shoes. I try and vaguely match the shirts to the jersey but this is not always the case. I will often wear a cycling cap and arm warmers as well. In the cycling world this is acceptable attire, in the real world (as proved by the looks I get when I walk through the station most mornings) I am a freak.
Off road, I wear baggy shorts, a "technical t-shirt" and silver shoes. This is, from what I see, fairly standard off-road cycling attire and so to fellow cyclists, I look normal. To the real world I'm closer to normal than road wear but I am still a freak.
100/0, as in couldn't give a toss.
Although i do have Aspergers or ASD as it's now known and, generally, I'm asocial.
I care quite a lot what my bikes, clothing and equipment look like.
I'm not generally sure whether I'm fashionable, or trying for a style (or if I understand the difference), or whether I'm following a fashion that (I believe) seeks to improve performance.
My latest bike build, which I think looks [i][b]amazing[/b][/i], and was carefully specc'ed, custom painted and colour-matched was described by a good buddy as looking "[i]like it was put together by a colourblind person on acid[/i]".
I'm reasonably content that my combination of mountain-biking awesomeness, road-bike fitness and cargo-bike smugness make me considerably cooler than Clarkson, who is a bell-end. 🙂
I ride what works.
I was 1x back in 09 and went to baggies long before that. I see the point of 1x11 and full sus. Too many people dismiss development as fashion, their loss.
"I'm reasonably content that my combination of car-driving awesomeness, couldn't care-less fitness and 4x4 smugness make me considerably cooler than BigDummy, who is a bell-end." - Clarkson. 😉