COTD: James May Gets Sideways Edition

A person's hobbies offer the best insights into their personalities, whether it's James May cruising a Harley through Napa Valley while slurping chardonnay between stops or auto enthusiasts swapping pictures of kittens. (You know who you are.) In that vein of widening our horizons that Vichercules suggested our esteemed editor was onto something when he suggested we look a little closer at bicycles:

Pedalopnik/bikelopnik is a great plan. Start it now. Most of the gearheads here don't know that you can buy a single speed commuter bike made out of carbon with a gates carbon belt for 3700.00. It is no less absurd/blatantly conspicuous than a 2000hp armored yacht hauler.

There are $14,000.00 bikes out there that perform no better than those that can be had for 3k. There are hundreds of aftermarket parts manufacturers for tuning and customization. It is car culture without the spare tire and resulting heart attack. You've got monster truck bikes downhill racing, sports bikes at stupid speeds in the corners, you have pileups with man and machine flying in every direction. You race in the mud (cyclocross) there's WRC style mixed surface courses (Paris Roubaix), you can stay up all night with a welder or set of wrenches trying to get ready for the next mornings event, or you can cruise on sunday with zillion spoked Daytons and a chain steering wheel. You have 24 hour endurance races with Lemans starts, you can even go down to Mexico as a underfunded privateer and race through the barios and mountains for a substantial purse (Chupacabra).

The only problem is, you can't buy your way to a better time at the track. You have to bust your ass several hundred miles a week or get punked by some guy with crappy equipment.