A note on the economy of bicycles

Recently, the bicycle I used on my daily commute to work was stolen. The loss hit me very hard emotionally; anything you use on a daily basis and with the intimate contact one has with a bike it is easy to become very attached to it. It took me a few days to process the loss and move on to more constructive activities. The first thing I did was to pull out of retirement an older bike I have ridden some in the past. I needed to replace a few missing components and adjust things here and there, but was able to ride again the next day.

Point One: It is easy and fairly inexpensive to have a backup bike. Or two.

Although the backup bike could get me to work, it was not as comfortable as I might want. I did a bit of shopping at few of the local bike stores, and pretty quickly found a new bike I thought could be my new main commuter bike. The cost of the bike was $550, and I have probably spent about another $100 on extras (rear rack, lights, water bottle cages, etc). The most important upgrade was an item called a stem riser ($22). This riser brought my handlebars up about 3" and eliminated the pain in my lower back, arms, and hands from the handlebars being too low.

Now, to many people the idea of spending $650 for a bike seems absurd. They might think "I've seen bikes in (insert name of any large dept. store) and they were only $98!". But for $650, I have well built (and assembled) new bike, with quality shifting components, disc brakes, and should be reliable daily transportation.

Now, a couple of quotes to help put the expense of a new bike in perspective:

In the United States, the average down payment for a car is $2,400, the average amount financed is $24,864 and the average monthly payment is $479, according to Edmunds.com.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/ABCsForAGr...

According to the Insurance Information Institute, average auto repair bill is $871 (as of June 2004) http://www.essortment.com/hobbies/carrepairauto_sgxo.htm