[Jeff in Kentucky]

How Not to Buy a Bike

From a longer article in Bicycling magazine, April 2010, by Bill Gifford:

My friend Roy has needed a new bike for at least five years. We did a summertime 50-miler once that left me feeling like a gutted deer. He outgrew his bike years ago, priced and designed for beginners.

Roy is not merely paralyzed by indecision. Not Buying a Bike is a delicious state of longing. It is like a crush on one of the cutest girls in your high school who was dating the star quarterback, and she would never talk to you unless multiple laws of the universe were suspended simultaneously.

You must want, and wait, and research, and compare; test-ride and sit on bikes until every dealership nearby is sick of hearing you say you “want to think about it for a while.”

Unlike Roy, I managed not to talk myself out of buying the right bike at the right time.

Poor Roy has fallen victim to the little voice inside all our heads, that sensible, maddening, meepy little voice that pipes up right before our “big” voice is about to say, “I’ll take it!” But you don’t really need a new bike, the voice chirps. The vehicle that you have now gets you from Point A to Point B.

And this voice is right, of course. But the newer bikes are better- just like Apple’s cheapest laptop in 2010 is more powerful than the multimillion dollar NASA computer in the Apollo capsule that went to the moon and back in 1969.

A new or used bike is a lot of money. However, figure out the cost per day if you keep it for 5 years. If it costs $10,000 (an expensive new bicycle, or an above average new motorcycle), it is a little less than $6 a day, not including maintenance or insurance. If you ride it for 10 years, it is closer to $3 a day. The higher quality, newer machine will turn better and stop quicker, and will maybe save your life, along with being more enjoyable to ride and requiring less maintenance.

If you buy a used bike for $3,000, it is $600 a year for 5 years, or less than two bucks a day. You can’t even take the bus for that anymore. But then you’ll be so poor that you’ll have to ride the bus…

Exactly! And taking the bus sucks, so you’ll ride your new bike instead. See how it all works out?

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Bicycle shorts for $75:

Companies like Voler and Performance make some shockingly good shorts for this amount of money; if you spend less the fit and comfort may be subpar.

For $120 to $150, you get improved fit and comfort- the fabric is silkier; the padding is better.

For $160, you’ll wear shorts that disappear beneath you; more comfortable bib straps and high-tech fabric with nifty details like laser-cut vents.

(I paid about $80 7 years ago for my gel-padded bicycle shorts with bib straps, that I use for motorcycle riding. My short street and gentle trail trips on a mountain bicycle do not require any special clothing, except a helmet.)

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