Why buy the expensive gear if you don't use it for it's main purpose (Page 3)

I don't think the OP has an issue with buying expensive stuff. I think it is that people buy expensive tri bikes but then do things to them that degrade their performance. Would you buy a sports car to tow a trailer? Or put a giant square roofbox on a ferrari when you go to the track to race? But we do this on tri bikes all the time. Sure, there are reasons  but this whole discussion has gone from "why do people do this" to "I buy expensive stuff because I can".

There is a funny... stigma to conspicuous consummtion and wealth. As though it is somehow bad.

Like any big, broad topic it's unreasonable to blanketly label buying nice bikes as "wise" or "foolhardy".

I'll suggest many people convince themselves it's a "wise buy" or "necessary". That's fine. I'll further suggest it is as pragmatic as buying anything that is bought with discretionary income. We buy it because we like it, want it and we can.

It gets hazy when we loose sight of that motive and disguise it as something else.

Let's state a fact here:

Expensive stuff is always nicer than cheap stuff.

So why not get the nice things if you can afford them?

Doesn't matter if it is the $2k Espresso machine, the $150k car or the $10k bike.

People that have a lot of money most likely sacrficied soemthing for it at some point in there life. So they need to gett nice things to make up for what they missed.

The question of "needing" something, if taken to the bare essentials.. Human don't need any of this other than some food, some water and oxygen...

Excellent

This is funny, because by it's very nature your question takes things 'too seriously'.  People do things for all kinds of reasons.  Some logical.  Some less so.

I have seen some discussion that is about 'working on the engine' vs buying speed etc and there is always some discussion of working up to your potential - and i think your discussion point takes people to a place where we know we may not be using our equipment in the ideal way but then when is anything ever ideal??

I mean, I live in a city of 3 million people - it's just not feasible to ride in aero all that much for my shorter weekday rides ... so should I just not bother?

I am training for Ironman i need to put un-aero bottles on my bike frame in order to stay hydrated for long rides - what is better - to be perfectly aero or to have hydration that works for a long period of time?

I am not trying to make my life more difficult but in my mind just being practical.  Then, I am not aiming for any competitive heights in my training - just some modest improvement, fitness and a sense of accomplishment

You didn't ask 'someone'.  The way it came across is you asking a generic audience why 'some people' would do something you view as stupid.

I was chatting with a lad who recently bought a P-51 Mustang. The aircraft was high six figures and he had a number of necessary maintenance projects done to it for FAA certification that topped it out over seven figures. He's a high net worth fellow.

I said to him, "I didn't know you had one of these."

He said, "I don't let people know. They get weird about it."

So ends the lesson.

I kid you not, it took about 20 seconds to realize that was diddy in the pic...

This.

OP, your post came off, to me at least, as not a sincere question, but a judgmental one.  As in, "why would you do something so stupid?"  Not a great way to get an intelligent discussion rolling.  Especially backed up by naive claims of "it was just a question"    If you want to ask why people make aero bikes un-aero, ask it in a straight forward manner, but don't veil it in insults.

OK, carry on.  BT has gotten a bit weird for me lately.

I would drop a mil on a P-51 before I would by a 1 mil car...  That would be awesome.

I wonder if a corsair would be any cheaper?

We need a flow chart of who he is today...

Blame it on taper madness.

I fly and have friends that have spent $100k on used planes and $30k on engine rebuilds (preventative maintenance).  Usually I fly more than they do, but I rent.

The owner of a plane I'm flying now was stunned when I thought nothing of shooting an approach (flying through clouds, i.e. no outside visibility, on instruments to low altitude for a landing) that had clouds below the minimum approach altitude.  There was a nearby airport that was better, but sometimes the weather reports are wrong at small airports.  It was wrong and we landed.  If it was right I would have just gone missed and then flown to the other airport and waited it out; we were picking up someone for an Angel Flight mission.

People buy stuff because they want it and they can afford it (or can go into enough debt).  Doesn't mean they need it or even know how to use it properly though.

If you have to ask, you can't afford it.  

I'm still chuckling over:

 I yell, "your bike sucks!!!"

and

Get off my lawn

I love walking through transition and enjoying all the bike art. I'm way to slow to benefit from most of the goodies but I can't wait to get a Triathlon bike. 

I need it for the loan papers.

Ah, true. Good call...

But just think, If they didn't buy all the fancy aero features, then loading down their bikes will all the extra crap would just be doubling the drag coefficient of their non-aero bike. The aero features and the non-aero features just cancel themselves out. So it's still a win in a way...