Most friends would rather die than tell me the price they paid for a bike There are many pleasures to be taken from a friend buying a new bike. There is telling them they bought the wrong model. There is picking it up with a theatrical grunt and saying, Yeah, youre right, its always as well to buy something robust. And, for me anyway, most enjoyable of all is bluntly asking how much they paid for it.The UK national sheepishness about matters financial means that most people would rather die than just tell me. For example, even my bold-as-brass mate Bernard was evasive last summer when he showed up with a new bike:Nice. How much did you pay for it? I asked.Well, I got a deal on it. You know, Ive got a mate, and he ah, he sorted me out, he said.Youre a lucky man. Whos the mate? Whats the deal? I said.You wouldnt know him, hes in the trade. I dont think hed want me to tell you.Ive heard lots of variations on this down the years. People arrive on bikes so new they have tiny flecks of polystyrene stuck to them, but which they claim to have bought at wild levels of discount as a used bike on Ebay. And youd be surprised how many people Ive known who have, a rich mate who buys a new bike every six months and sells the old ones cheap to get rid of them. The most dramatic claim of all is that they didnt pay at all. I have one middle-aged acquaintance, whom Ive known on and off for twenty years, who simply claims that manufacturers or distributors give him bikes, shoes, helmets everything essentially. He describes himself as a brand ambassador. For what brand exactly he runs his embassy depends very much on what his most recent expensive acquisition is.The evasiveness has become more pronounced in recent years. For a long time, well into my early years in the sport, it was unusual for a racing rider to buy a new bike. Instead their house or garage contained a constantly shifting collection of bits bits bought, bits found, bits taken off one bike to make way for an upgrade, bits borrowed off a friend (usually me) and never returned.These bits would arrange themselves into a bicycle, then as more bits appeared, a second bicycle would coalesce, then maybe a third. Only a small proportion of these bikes were ever bought per se they just happened, as if theyd been assembled by mice in Shimano overalls. The biggest purchasing event would be a new frame, and back then frames were relatively cheap compared to the full build. Riders of a certain age arent just embarrassed about the price, theyre embarrassed theyve bought a bike at all.The other reason for the evasion is that we all want to feel were insiders. No one wants to be a mere consumer node in an activity thats part of their identity. We want to know the inside line, have connections, be able to pull strings. And how can you possibly bill yourself as an insider if you have to hand over actual money to a faceless corporation just to lay your hands on a bicycle? I mean, arent we all brand ambassadors really?Ive come to really admire people who just go the other way completely. Earlier this year I asked someone how much their bike cost and was genuinely taken aback when he just said, 5,000. Then I upgraded the wheels for another 2,000. Good value I think what dya reckon?But honestly, my all-time no-bullshit, unembarrassed answer (and coming from a 40-year-old competitor) was, I dont know. My mum bought it for me, and she didnt say how much it cost.
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