So what’s the problem if the high-end consumer types are being fleeced by a subset of the industry?! There being a segment of the industry fleecing them is sorta the standard for all people who take a fashionista approach to anything, not just cycling: the crowd doing stuff to be seen doing stuff are always feeding from and feeding back a whole segment selling overpriced “for show” stuff. I mean, think Fashion (the clothing and shoes one): there’s High Fashion for people with more money than sense and then there’s a far far larger segment of the industry for everybody else.
During my time cycling in London I kept on doing it in a relaxed way like in The Netherlands (even though the cycling facilities in London were laughable compared to those in even the smallest of dutch towns) and yeah, there were plenty of what I called “Les tour de France” (fancy bicyle, kitted like they’re in The Tour complete with fake sponsor sticks) commuting right along with me but that didn’t seem to make any difference for the regular cycling community or their access to decently priced equipment.
Sure, whilst on one hand seeing people out there commuting by bicycle over-dressed (if you will) might make many think they need all that kit to do it, on the other seeing lots of people cycling on the road also gives confidence to others that “it’s not that dangerous after all” and inspires them to try it, plus also trains the other road users to properly account for bicycles sharing the road with them. Certainly this is what I saw during my years commuting to work by bicycle in London when, in 6 or 7 years, it went from quite niche to a lot more common.
As far as I can tell either there is really no difference for the wider cycling community that such people exists or they might even be subsidizing the rest by overpaying for untested new equipment which sometimes ends up getting adapted for the broader community (and there standards do matter and a parts maker is not really going to be able to sell parts that require bulk cycle manufacturers to make custom solutions just for those parts) plus they’re helping to get everybody else used to there being bicycles on the road.
So what’s the problem if the high-end consumer types are being fleeced by a subset of the industry?! There being a segment of the industry fleecing them is sorta the standard for all people who take a fashionista approach to anything, not just cycling: the crowd doing stuff to be seen doing stuff are always feeding from and feeding back a whole segment selling overpriced “for show” stuff. I mean, think Fashion (the clothing and shoes one): there’s High Fashion for people with more money than sense and then there’s a far far larger segment of the industry for everybody else.
During my time cycling in London I kept on doing it in a relaxed way like in The Netherlands (even though the cycling facilities in London were laughable compared to those in even the smallest of dutch towns) and yeah, there were plenty of what I called “Les tour de France” (fancy bicyle, kitted like they’re in The Tour complete with fake sponsor sticks) commuting right along with me but that didn’t seem to make any difference for the regular cycling community or their access to decently priced equipment.
Sure, whilst on one hand seeing people out there commuting by bicycle over-dressed (if you will) might make many think they need all that kit to do it, on the other seeing lots of people cycling on the road also gives confidence to others that “it’s not that dangerous after all” and inspires them to try it, plus also trains the other road users to properly account for bicycles sharing the road with them. Certainly this is what I saw during my years commuting to work by bicycle in London when, in 6 or 7 years, it went from quite niche to a lot more common.
As far as I can tell either there is really no difference for the wider cycling community that such people exists or they might even be subsidizing the rest by overpaying for untested new equipment which sometimes ends up getting adapted for the broader community (and there standards do matter and a parts maker is not really going to be able to sell parts that require bulk cycle manufacturers to make custom solutions just for those parts) plus they’re helping to get everybody else used to there being bicycles on the road.