Where is a bike's soul?

[zoom-zoom]

The soul has to be the frame, as everything else is easy to replace and, in fact, often replaced.
Before I thought it through, though, my first thought was the chainrings, as that's the central part of the bike - maybe that's the heart and the frame is the soul.

+1 - I like this.

[Susan]

I think the soul of my bikes is in the frame, maybe somewhere around the headbadge.
If a part gets replaced, it's still the same bike, and I often tell my bikes that they will get a shiny new part to put on

[tzvia]

Hmmm...
Frame and wheels. Frame for the fit and the style (townie, racer, endurance, touring...) but also the wheels as they have such a large impact on the overall feel; they connect all the rest and YOU to the road/trail. You can make a great change to how the bike feels with a wheel change. Just look at the pros- TT is one wheelset/type, climbing is another, another for the flats...

[OakLeaf]

The hubs ... everything revolves around them.

[Trek420]

First I thought it is the bars. That's where I talk with the bike and where we connect. My hands rest lightly on the bars, I look and we go the way I glance.

At a hill I start to shift down, there is no down my bike says "dig deep, we can do this".

The bars are where we are one. But then maybe that is the frame, If not for the frame and the builder's design and my LBS art at bike fit that connection would be lost or feel strained.

So maybe it's the wheels. Each time I've upgraded wheels, or got a new bike with "better" wheels, or even test ridden a bike with different wheels it's felt like a conversation with a new person. A person who is twitchy yet responsive and fast, or stable, predictable and reliable.

[Crankin]

Wow, I don't get any "feeling" for this...
My bike is a collection of components. Maybe I haven't found the right bike (after 10 years?), but I think it's just that I can't ascribe human characteristics to a bike. And I rarely feel "at one" with my bike. Cycling pretty much feels like hard work all of the time, unless I am purposely taking it easy. Hard to feel "at one" when you are working hard. I like the feeling after the hard work. Accomplishment...

[Catrin]

I think it is the frame & parts that my body connects with - frame, saddle/seat post and bars. Even when I am working hard to climb that hill, or that headwind that just wont stop and won't allow me to coast downhill...I do feel "at one" with my bike. She connects me to the world around me and forces me to be in the present moment - I can't get lost in some future or the past, and riding her gives me joy.

Sure there is some anthropomorphism in this, and that is ok. Interestingly enough, though my cars have always had at least a general name, I've never had the same connection with it.