MEN are increasingly limiting their mid-life madness to buying bikes they do not really want, it has emerged.
The Institute for Studies found that 43 percent of professional men aged 35-50 have spent more than £500 on a bike without really knowing why.
Professor Henry Brubaker said: “Historically, men of a certain age have spent their disposable incomes on small fibreglass sports cars that the man in the shop described as a ‘fanny magnet’.
“This would be combined with pointy shoes, brown leather clothing and a hip flask – the objective being an overall sense of virility that would impress ‘dolly birds’.
“So it’s interesting that today’s middle-aged man is choosing instead to spend the disposable income generated by the job he hates on a Tungusku 9000 super-lightweight racing bike made from some sort of space carbon and weighing less than a grape.
“And then riding around on top of it. Wearing spandex. And a plastic hat. Like a total bell-end.
“Clearly these are not the actions of a sexual predator.”
Roy Hobbs, 41, said: “I dressed myself in the gear and looked at myself in the mirror and thought, ‘What have I become?’ I looked like a chunky wasp.
“Maybe I’ll take the bike into the garden tomorrow and smash it with a mallet, while weeping.”
