$500 or $5,000?

I’ll be the first to admit I was considering buying a new bike. Actually, I still am going to buy a new bike, but not the same bike I had originally planned to buy.

Once I learned that as an employee of Avenue A I might become the recipient of a generous discount on Jamis bicycle purchases, I immediately thought, Perfect time to put the aluminum Giant to bed and step up with a carbon fiber frame.

Can you blame me for thinking as much? The discount is going to be significant, so I saw little downside to investing roughly $1,300 in a bike that would cost around $2,000 in a shop or online. I thought, $1,300? What’s the big deal? No sweat. Drop in the bucket.

Let’s get real, though. Where I come from, large means $100, so when something costs $1,300, that’s thirteen large as far as I’m concerned. More importantly, is a bike that’s made out of carbon fiber going to make me any faster? Probably not. Well, I know this is an argument with both sides and there’s probably someone out there right now reading this (as unlikely as that may seem) and thinking, Actually, brainiac, a carbon fiber bike will make you faster, and he or she would be almost right for thinking as much. That may seem contradictory to my first statement, but let me put it out there like this.

Yes, I recognize that the lighter the bike, the better off I’ll be. I recognize that a carbon frame means a smoother ride and better components mean smoother, more accurate shifting. I get all that, really, I do. I recognize that better equipment overall generally translates into improved performance.

Yet let me say this. I come from the motocross community. After not having ridden for years and years, I bought my first new bike in 2001 and, a few months later, while flipping through motocross magazines a frame of mind where I began thinking that if I had a better exhaust pipe, lighter pegs, aluminum handlebars, Michelin tires, and a Pro Circuit piston, I’d be that much faster out on the track. Luckily, I soon learned that frame of mind would leave me with nothing other than a thick credit card bill because every time I made my way out to the track either (a) ten-year-old kids on beat-up minibikes would blow past me, or (b) I would blow past those guys with all the tricked-out after-market parts covering their bikes.

In other words, it’s all mental (when it comes to motocross, at least). As long as the bike is running well, it’s up to the guy sitting in the seat twisting the throttle. Sure, if you’re fitness level is shit you won’t finish five laps on the track, but if you lack pure talent, you’ll never have the balls to twist that throttle the way it wants to be twisted.

What I like about cycling is that you can be as good as you want to be. I really don’t think it matters if you’ve got a $500 or $5,000 bike under you. Yes, I know one is nicer than the other, but let me put it this way. Take two semi-professional cyclists of perfectly equal talents and conditioning. Put one on my aluminum Giant. Put the other on a $2,000+ carbon frame bike. How much space separates them at the finish line?

With all that said, I think I’m going to stick with my aluminum bike for now, although I am planning on investing in a better set of wheels because if I break one more spoke someone at Giant is definitely going to die. Also, I’ve had this unnatural curiosity to ride a fixed gear bike, so it’s only a matter of time before you see me on one of those ridiculous machines.