I’m like 87% certain you’re joking. But this really needs to be a thing.
You should see what my brother spends on Golf… let alone his bourbon collection. 
I’ll never understand how places get to charge money for entry to a park with holes dug in it
Which watch to use, which HR strap, maximal or minimalist shoes, carbon plates, etc.
100%. I’d be remiss in my forum etiquette and as a human if I didn’t reply with an acknowledgement of the tier-1 support and good intentions. Not going to lie, though, I defo cringe when support or the pod brings out the calendar in responses unless the person has given permission to discuss it in public. Some appreciate it, I wouldn’t.
I do appreciate the tough spot TR is in when someone brings the product down and actual facts about their product use is the only way to defend TR; I don’t envy that position.
In the circle of friends we have recently discussed how expensive hobbies are and it seems cycling (with around 2000-4000€/year) was mid tier.
There were surprising things like how expensive hiking can be (travelling around every week end and the mountain huts quickly become expensive).
Or going out which a lot of people do every week.
Yup, the hiking might be parallel to Nordic skiing with the need to travel and pay for fees just to use a site. Their is another tier for machines that use actual fuel that puts our “expensive” sport in a different light (ex: riding & racing motorcycles & cars).
Haha. My wife and I have a running joke for when I spend too much on bikes or guitars…”at least I don’t fly airplanes”.
Multiple pairs of shoes, and new ones every few months (and have you seen the price of those shoes…)
And then there’s all the treatments / physio / massage equipment / etc. for the continuous string of niggles and injuries…
Been there, done that. Cost of flying can be pretty reasonable if you’re low and slow. The fully-loaded hourly cost of a Cub or C172 goes from $40 to $100. But a nice piston twin like a Piper Seneca, which will get you a LOT farther, with more people and stuff, is $180-$200 per hour. A pressurized piston twin like the Cessna 414A is $350-$400 per hour. Turboprops go faster and higher, but they START at $800/hour and maintenance surprises can be $50K. Jets are even worse.
Flying is wonderful… but definitely stick to the lowest, slowest, smallest airplane that’ll fit most of your needs.
I was laughing about how much cheaper it is to ride bikes than to autocross… at least until I broke my collar bone. But I’m still way ahead of my many friends who do wheel-to-wheel!
Indeed. I have dabbled in AX for about 2 decades. I get in just often enough to have some fun (4 races last year)… and then consider the longer term costs of doing it regularly (no plans to race this year 
). I raced MX in high school and still hang with others who race today. Initial equipment prices are one thing, but repeated costs and maintenance for the real “go fast” sports are next level IMO.
I am convinced there is a gene on the y chromosome, only expressed above a certain income level, which compels us to seek out at least one hobby where we convince ourselves that we’re forever only one piece of he right gear away from achieving our fantasy level of performance.
I could buy a new Sworks SL8 for the cost of my daughters violin/bow (yes it was very much worth it). My wife’s grand piano cost alone should get me bike upgrades every year for a while (it was also very much worth it). 
Bike manufacturers now a days are not manufacturing anything. They just assemble parts and in most cases that includes the carbon frame.
The phrase “time crunched” needs to die
Joe
I think that the feeling of “it’s expensive” comes from knowing that I actually don’t need most of the stuff.
Like 50€ for socks, on the one hand they are nice and may save 0.5 watt, on the other hand it won’t change anything obviously. 
I know that caring about training/life style has the bigger impact, but again this conflicts more with the rest of my life style/social life than just spending 50 bucks.
My philosophy is that once you get past a certain level (different for all hobbies/activities and people) all activities get expensive, as expensive as you allow them to be/can afford. There is always something better in carbon, titanium, or unobtanium or hand-cnc’ed japanese steel sourced only from the northwestern mountains of Hokkaido. Diamond-tipped shoe cleats or that new sram transmission drivetrain which are equally expensive 
I have a buddy that has done several more or less expensive activities over the years and he says nothing he ever comes up with even begin to compete with his wife that train and compete with, breed and sell show jumping horses. Just having a horse fed and alive in a stable bleeds money.
A lot of it is about being a certain age with disposable income and finding it fun to be able to spaff up loads of cash on things that 30 years ago you’d consider to be ridiculous to spend a week’s wages on.
Because it’s too long?