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Massive first world problem, but does anyone else get weary with the massive range of products so many bike parts and accessories manufacturers seem to carry? I can think of lots of occassions when I've needed 'X' part, gone to look at whats available and then thought, "nah, I can't be bothered/don't have time to figure out which one I want right now".
Example being bike pumps. I want another Lezyne hand pump so I go on their website to take a look at the range, ok its for the MTB so High Volume - there's 12! How can there be 12 permutations! Tyres are similarly tiring to chose!
I guess it's down to my personaility, over think, over analyse! I hate buying something suboptimal! I'm sure I'm not alone in this on here though! (Decisive/rash people, flame away!)
Just bought a Garmin watch and I totally agree
Yup, agree. Same with everything.
Apparently the way to avoid spending your life staring at specs is to stop trying to find the BEST whatever, and find one that's acceptable to your needs and just buy it, rather than worrying you've missed out on a better one. You'll never know, probably. Easier said than done though.
I had a similar experience looking at heart rate monitor chest straps. Soooo many out there from under £20 to over £70. In the end I had to just grab Decathlon's own brand one when I went to pick up an order or I'd have fretted about it for days.
Thankfully when it came to a steering block for smart trainers there were only 2 options and only 1 was wireless so ordered that
I obsess over it. Find the BEST one, then spend another age finding the best price for the best one. Then realise that the new one might be an even better one. And the loop starts again. And then add in COVID stock shortages, and I end up at the point where I eventually figure out what I want, but nobody has it in stock.
It's great, I've saved a fortune in unecessary crap.
Find the BEST one
To quote Churchill (or maybe Wilde)
‘I am a man of simple tastes. I am easily satisfied by the best.’
Words to live by.
Yup, impulse buying just doesn't happen for me.
Even something like an extension lead tower for £35 requires a few hours of research, checking specs/size, reviews...
Additionally, if it's over £80 I always have the voice in the back of my head saying 'do you really need that?' and I have to justify it to myself. Or sometimes after months of thinking of buying something, countless hours of reviews/specs/video reviews etc etc I realise I'll probably never fully justify the purchase (like my new to me camera) and end up just saying 'sod it' and pressing buy.
I tend to go through buying spurts too, I won't buy anything for ages then will spend £500, £600, £700 in the space of a few hours.
I'm going though one of those at the moment, nothing big but lots and lots of £10 -£50 buys. Trying to make sure I have everything for #1. post lockdown trips. #2. Post lockdown jobs!
Look up "the paradox of choice". Major source of stress in modern times. A first world problem for sure, but still annoying.
😀 - I can relate to all of the above, especially what honourable george and ta11pau1 wrote! I have been meaning to buy a 4 bar extension for in the garage for months now!
My wife is the polar opposite in that respect, there's a seemingly none stop stream of packages arriving for her. She finds my deliberations infuriating!
Ironically I've found big life decisions fairly easy (proposing, having kids, which house to buy).
Every time a part breaks on my bike I dread the search fort a replacement. I miss the simplicity of my BMX days when sizing was pretty much the same and you had a small run of manufacturers.
It's a minefield.
At work today I was restocking shelves with water. I couldn't believe the choices for something I just turn a tap at home for! Apart from still or sparkling then there are some with a hint of some such artificially created fruit concoction, then there's umpteen sizes of bottles, do you want a " sports" cap? 🤔 Italian, Scottish, English they've all come from hundreds perhaps thousand year old natural springs so why do they have a best before date???? 🙄 🙄 🙄 And don't get me started on all the plastic involved! We live in a country with exceptionally good quality water on tap so why?????
If it's something I'm interested in like bikes or gadgets I'm happy to spend lots of time researching and searching and will enjoy every minute of it. If it's something I've **** all interest in (such as cars) it'll be more like, minor research, that one will do.
I’d like to advertise my time as a consultant. Have been through the journey from materialism to not publicly on this forum, I now find it very difficult to buy anything at all.
I’ve saved a small fortune, and you could too by paying me £100 each for my anti- material Seminar coming soon 😉
I sometimes suffer from the same.
I call it 'Analysis Paralysis'.
Don't forget budget creep.
Set out only wanting to spend £50, then you see a slighter better option for £60, and a much better one for £80, oooh but this version also does this at £100 which means I could replace this...
3 days later you're looking at £300 ones...
My mother in law is the same. Well, nearly, not for bike parts but it took her about 2 years to buy the last telly and a sofa and curtains..... 😲
This infuriates my missis as she's the polar opposite. All the carpets in our house chosen in about 15 mins, last car we looked at 2. Parked next to each other in the first garage we went to. Was even ambivalent about having a test drive. 👍
oldfart
At work today I was restocking shelves with water. I couldn’t believe the choices for something I just turn a tap at home for!
The last hotel I stayed in (back when work travel was a thing) had 3/4 types of bottled water in the room when I checked in, ranging from free to about $20 for a "Premium" bottled water