Mountain Biking Is A Fashion



Thats the title for my dissertation, i'm going to be investigating this as an argument, for and against the statement. If anyone can give any views i would be very grateful.

For example, you can ride trails easily on a pair of old marzocchi z1's, but many riders would rather replace these for the latest forks, being sucked in by technical specs which can offer little or no noticeable differences.
Is it by accident that your bike is colour coded? and if not why not.
Also theres the introduction of Pink accessories... retro goggles, fox & Troy Lee race gear and the likes.  Peak or no peak?   

A few words, a paragraph, any opinions will help me out.

Thanks 

its just trends mostly or putting your own touches on your bike/s/parts/body

If i'mspending

99 % of people riding whatever be it dj, dh, bmx, trials when buying most parts take into consideration how its gonna look even if they admit it or not... changing stuff is not always about trying to look different either but the ones that do need to realise the next guys different anyway so why make a big thing about it?

I was going to post something similar to this the other day. BMX has loads of fashions, ghetto paint jobs, certain wheels, etc, your either dirt park or street, tere's nothing else. An insanely light bmx with one brake and no pegs is your park dog set up, heavyish bike with one brake is your trail dog, and the ghettoest, pegged, brakeless bike is your street dog. Street bmxers swea by G-sports on Big City's, Parks swear on Odyssey hubs built on to Hazard Lites, and so on. There's also a lot of fasion decisions go in to what frame you buy etc. BMX is one bg fashion in terms of what bike you ride, and I guess MTB has a similar thing. DHers swear by Bulbs on D321's, because they look great, and they're strong, etc, they'll also do their best to keep their bike as light as possible, a bit like your BMX park dog. And well, street and DJ speak for it's self lol

Bikes become fashion accesories, maybe without even realising it is, your bike maybe a fashion accessorie, ok, you might be serious about the sport, but obviously your going to want to want your bike to look good, and be up to date, everyone does, although not everyone can afford it.

think about it, its easy to say i'm not trying to look cool.

 but lycra skin suits are faster than mx kit, yet not many wear skin suits that says alot, fashion does play its part in mtb

Spot on, thats one example im looking at, similarly to peaks. spd's.

im not saying that i agree with my title, i need to look at both sides, and assess opinions.

im also looking at 'lead user' effect on cycling trends

Havent read all of the above but has anyone mentioned the placebo effect of getting new kit?

There's nothing like getting some shiny new kit and firmly believing you are actually quicker using it, even though you may not be!