Personally I think the biggest factor in the min-max experience is patience, with a close second being knowledge. On the knowledge part, Andrew, I think your articles do probably the best job anywhere of distributing useful knowledge to riders of all levels (except for the budget has no ceiling people), especially beginners, for putting together a good bike that will serve them well. The patience/time thing is something that's up to the individual.
I've gone the routes of buying budget, buying high'ish-end and min-maxing to a point of almost obsession and can honestly say that as long as the bikes have been in good working order I've found the difference in fun factor on the trail to be negligible. The added benefit to min-maxing though is that there is definitely a certain sense of pride to be had knowing you built up a well performing bike on a budget that is a fraction of the cost of a comparable new bike.
Lastly, I think one of the best experiences an accomplished/experienced rider can give themselves is to somewhat regularly (5% of the time?) take a dated geo/tech bike out for a ride in order to reset your skills that can get a bit dulled from having floated on the best tech of the day for too long.
Feb. 28, 2022, 2:50 p.m. - Mark
Personally I think the biggest factor in the min-max experience is patience, with a close second being knowledge. On the knowledge part, Andrew, I think your articles do probably the best job anywhere of distributing useful knowledge to riders of all levels (except for the budget has no ceiling people), especially beginners, for putting together a good bike that will serve them well. The patience/time thing is something that's up to the individual. I've gone the routes of buying budget, buying high'ish-end and min-maxing to a point of almost obsession and can honestly say that as long as the bikes have been in good working order I've found the difference in fun factor on the trail to be negligible. The added benefit to min-maxing though is that there is definitely a certain sense of pride to be had knowing you built up a well performing bike on a budget that is a fraction of the cost of a comparable new bike. Lastly, I think one of the best experiences an accomplished/experienced rider can give themselves is to somewhat regularly (5% of the time?) take a dated geo/tech bike out for a ride in order to reset your skills that can get a bit dulled from having floated on the best tech of the day for too long.