Make Loads Of Money For Free - Ride a BIKE To Work!!!!!



endroll wrote:

> In the end, it's still better than driving (which I normally do) and
> heck it's an excuse not to ride at 0600 but a couple of hours later


ABSOLUTELY!! I drive probably on average once a fortnight. Usually
somewhere on the route as I'm sitting in yet another traffic queue I
wonder what the hell I'm doing in the car, so I'm generally very happy
about being out of the car and out of the crazy (in Sydney) train system
and out on my bike.

brett
 
hippy wrote:

>
> What he said. If it was JUST a commuter, you'd have cheap slicks
> ($120/yr), blowing a shock just wouldn't happen on a commuter and if it
> did I'd be worried about the quality of the bike, besides RIGID ROCKS!
> Destroying a rear wheel wouldn't happen commuting unless you were unco
> or your commute happened to be off-road and a replacement would
> definately be less than $250 on a COMMUTER
> Killing BB's??? WTF? again, not on a commuter with normal use and if
> you did it would almost certainly take more than a year and would cost
> $50 to replace - DH BB?? Not on a commuter!
> I seriously doubt most commuters would have to do a chain and cassette
> swap each year, let alone two and if you were using commuter-spec parts
> it would've cost ~$100 for each swap.
> Two fork services in a year? Not commuting and remember, rigid rules ;)
>
> Slime tubes - $100? Patches $5/yr.
> Bent saddle rails due to a crash (probably mtb'ing right?) is hardly
> commuter use.
>
> Basically what you're are saying is that the bike is not at all a
> commuter. Almost all the costs you listed are related to recreational
> use. Like I said, $300 for an older mtb, leave the gears on it if you
> want and the yearly maintenance would be almost $0. You should see what
> people use in NL!
> Bike not running smoothly? Replace it with something nice, new and
> red.. because we all want to get to work as fast as possible, right?
> :p


hippy, i do agree with you largely. could i have spent less through the
year? without a doubt. in fact i could have saved $500 by biting the
bullet and being without a ride for 3 weeks. i could also be on machine
where less could go wrong with it such as a SS. but would i enjoy my
commute as much and stay motivated to keep up the miles? maybe but i'd
suspect not.

you're right some of the repairs (or frequency of maintenance) are due
to recreational riding, but in 13 months i've done a little under 14k
kilometers on the jekyll. i change the chain and cassette around the
time my park chain gauge suggests which i find regardless of mtb or road
bike is around 5-7k kilometers. so i don't see that as a factor of
offroad use. i didn't really off road the bike in the first 1.5k
kilometers and in that time had a BB go funny. ie making horrible
grinding noises. the second one failed after a big weekend in the Blue
Mountains so chalk one up to abuse ;-) the rear shock failed on a
commute in the locked out position. appparently it's a "known issue" in
the Fox Float. The rim failed on a commute but most liekly the damage
occurred off road.

my point is that keeping your bike on the road isn't free. i treat my
road bike with a great deal of respect and yet parts wear (i just spent
about $300 changing the chain and cluster on it after around 7k
kilometers) and another $150 changing the tires (actually i got 4 for
that price).

brett
 
ritcho wrote:

>
> $200/month? Sounds like you already have a 2K/year disposable bike.
>
> When I think about it, most equipment gets depreciated over 3-5 years,
> so a $5K bike could be amortised at $1K/year, or in other words, you
> would need to spend $1K a year in maintenence so that the machine is
> still worth $5K. If you want a $200 bike to maintain its value, you
> only need to spend $40/year to maintain its value, but I doubt it would
> have 5 year life...


amortizing cost is usually independent of maintaining value by
servicing. typically when you buy support contracts on high end computer
hardware for example you'd expect as a general rule to be spending about
20-30% total value per year. at the end of 5 years your gear no matter
how well serviced is still relatively worthless.

brett
 
Carl Brewer wrote:

>
> I spent around $9,000 on bikes & bike stuff last financial
> year (including aboc jerseys, licences, racing etc). A lot
> of that was costs involved with aboc, but even then, a
> significant chunk was on my bike and bits for it. And it's
> not a flash roady ...
>
> $2k on a high end bike that gets ridden a lot is quite understandable,
> if you include replacing clothes, tyres, chains & gears etc. It
> does add up.
>


i'm actually too scared to total up everything i spent in the last 12
months on cycling related expenditure. but it does add up ...

brett
 

Brett wrote

>my point is that keeping your bike on the road isn't free. i treat my
>road bike with a great deal of respect and yet parts wear (i just spent
>about $300 changing the chain and cluster on it after around 7k
>kilometers) and another $150 changing the tires (actually i got 4 for
>that price).

Brett, if you keep an eye on your chain wear you should almost never have to change your cassette. It is only if you wear your chain to far that the cassette is affected. This can save a fair bit of money over time. I have a Shimano XT cassette that I have had since 9 speed was released and it has been on everything from XC race bikes to DH race bikes and it is still fine because I kept an eye on the stretch (wear in the pins) and changed it before my park tool went in to the red. This is a pretty good saving as an XT chain is about $50 vs about $150 for an XT cassette. This means based on a chain being good for about 4k (my last chain did 4.5k) that it costs me $200 to do 16k vs more than $400 in the case of using a chain and cassette for 7k and having to replace both. Also $50 every 4k doesnt feel as steep.

Ask your bike shop about this and if they are honest they will tell you its true. My girlfriend has been riding for about 10 years and over that time every shop had hit her up for a chain and cassette together, when if it had been checked in a service a little earlier she would have saved a heap of money over the years.
 
Like many on here, I'd hate to add up what Paulie and I have spent on bike gear in the last 12 - 18 months (having said that, I'm absolutely positive that money spent on bike clothing and road related expenses would add up to less than $1000), exclusive of bike purchases. At the end of the day, we both like commuting to and from work and much prefer to do so than by car. Also, we now only have one car, so we justify a lot of spending on bikes because "what the heck, we've only got one car".

I'm sure commuting will put wear and tear on our bikes, however, I'd rather ride more k's than less... besides, a good road bike should easily last 5 years.

LotteBum
 
LotteBum wrote:
>
> Like many on here, I'd hate to add up what Paulie and I have spent on
> bike gear in the last 12 - 18 months (having said that, I'm absolutely
> positive that money spent on bike clothing and road related expenses
> would add up to less than $1000), exclusive of bike purchases. At the
> end of the day, we both like commuting to and from work and much prefer
> to do so than by car. Also, we now only have one car, so we justify a
> lot of spending on bikes because "what the heck, we've only got one
> car".
>
> I'm sure commuting will put wear and tear on our bikes, however, I'd
> rather ride more k's than less... besides, a good road bike should
> easily last 5 years.
>
> LotteBum


And don't forget you can add in the health benefits of cycling and use
it to subtract the money you'd be spending in your local pharmacy on
doc-prescribed drugs etc.

Hehehe Paulie was very posessive "my girlfriend" WELL GUESS WHAT PAULIE
I'M GONNA LEAVE YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S BUM A LONG WAY BEHIND AT MURARRIE
TOMORROW HAHAHAHAHA.

Ahem, I'm calm now, excuse me.

Tam
 
Paulie wrote:

My bike never goes to a bike shop cause I worked as a mech in one throughout uni

Haha, he comes in handy every now and again, this one! Now, line up Tam, Abby...

LotteBum
 
Paulie wrote:

Ask your bike shop about this and if they are honest they will tell you its true. My girlfriend has been riding for about 10 years and over that time every shop had hit her up for a chain and cassette together, when if it had been checked in a service a little earlier she would have saved a heap of money over the years.

Ding ding! I'm blonde!

Lotte
 
Tam

How about "my defacto spouse" , "partner" or "biotch."

WELL GUESS WHAT PAULIE
I'M GONNA LEAVE YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S BUM A LONG WAY BEHIND AT MURARRIE
TOMORROW HAHAHAHAHA.

Not when I give her a hell lead out and she wins:eek: So there.

Tomorrow its OOOORRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNe. The crit that is
 
LotteBum said:
Paulie wrote:

My bike never goes to a bike shop cause I worked as a mech in one throughout uni

Haha, he comes in handy every now and again, this one! Now, line up Tam, Abby...

LotteBum

Confusious say "man should learn to masturbate...come in handy"

Adam
(well it is Friday!)
 
Paulie-AU wrote:
>
> Tam
>
> How about "my defacto spouse" , "partner" or "biotch."
>
> WELL GUESS WHAT PAULIE
> I'M GONNA LEAVE YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S BUM A LONG WAY BEHIND AT MURARRIE
> TOMORROW HAHAHAHAHA.
>
> Not when I give her a hell lead out and she wins:eek: So there.
>
> Tomorrow its OOOORRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNe. The crit that is
>
> --
> Paulie-AU


That leadout won't help much if I can sprint 10km/h faster :p

Anyway, you just wanna cash in on the BJ. I know. Read Adam85's comment!

Tam
 
Tamyka Bell said:
LotteBum wrote:
>
> Like many on here, I'd hate to add up what Paulie and I have spent on
> bike gear in the last 12 - 18 months (having said that, I'm absolutely
> positive that money spent on bike clothing and road related expenses
> would add up to less than $1000), exclusive of bike purchases. At the
> end of the day, we both like commuting to and from work and much prefer
> to do so than by car. Also, we now only have one car, so we justify a
> lot of spending on bikes because "what the heck, we've only got one
> car".
>
> I'm sure commuting will put wear and tear on our bikes, however, I'd
> rather ride more k's than less... besides, a good road bike should
> easily last 5 years.
>
> LotteBum


And don't forget you can add in the health benefits of cycling and use
it to subtract the money you'd be spending in your local pharmacy on
doc-prescribed drugs etc.

Hehehe Paulie was very posessive "my girlfriend" WELL GUESS WHAT PAULIE
I'M GONNA LEAVE YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S BUM A LONG WAY BEHIND AT MURARRIE
TOMORROW HAHAHAHAHA.

Ahem, I'm calm now, excuse me.

Tam

Somehow, we need a racecam....

SteveA
 
Tamyka Bell said:
Paulie-AU wrote:

That leadout won't help much if I can sprint 10km/h faster :p

Anyway, you just wanna cash in on the BJ. I know. Read Adam85's comment!

Tam
This goes back to a comment I made to Lotte that I might as well lead myself out. Best off looking after myself. :D

Paul
 
spook wrote:
> hippy wrote:
>
>>
>> What he said. If it was JUST a commuter, you'd have cheap slicks
>> ($120/yr), blowing a shock just wouldn't happen on a commuter and if it
>> did I'd be worried about the quality of the bike, besides RIGID ROCKS!
>> Destroying a rear wheel wouldn't happen commuting unless you were unco
>> or your commute happened to be off-road and a replacement would
>> definately be less than $250 on a COMMUTER
>> Killing BB's??? WTF? again, not on a commuter with normal use and if
>> you did it would almost certainly take more than a year and would cost
>> $50 to replace - DH BB?? Not on a commuter! I seriously doubt most
>> commuters would have to do a chain and cassette
>> swap each year, let alone two and if you were using commuter-spec parts
>> it would've cost ~$100 for each swap. Two fork services in a year? Not
>> commuting and remember, rigid rules ;)
>>
>> Slime tubes - $100? Patches $5/yr.
>> Bent saddle rails due to a crash (probably mtb'ing right?) is hardly
>> commuter use.
>>
>> Basically what you're are saying is that the bike is not at all a
>> commuter. Almost all the costs you listed are related to recreational
>> use. Like I said, $300 for an older mtb, leave the gears on it if you
>> want and the yearly maintenance would be almost $0. You should see what
>> people use in NL! Bike not running smoothly? Replace it with something
>> nice, new and
>> red.. because we all want to get to work as fast as possible, right?
>> :p

>
>
> hippy, i do agree with you largely. could i have spent less through the
> year? without a doubt. in fact i could have saved $500 by biting the
> bullet and being without a ride for 3 weeks. i could also be on machine
> where less could go wrong with it such as a SS. but would i enjoy my
> commute as much and stay motivated to keep up the miles? maybe but i'd
> suspect not.
>
> you're right some of the repairs (or frequency of maintenance) are due
> to recreational riding, but in 13 months i've done a little under 14k
> kilometers on the jekyll. i change the chain and cassette around the
> time my park chain gauge suggests which i find regardless of mtb or road
> bike is around 5-7k kilometers. so i don't see that as a factor of
> offroad use. i didn't really off road the bike in the first 1.5k
> kilometers and in that time had a BB go funny. ie making horrible
> grinding noises. the second one failed after a big weekend in the Blue
> Mountains so chalk one up to abuse ;-) the rear shock failed on a
> commute in the locked out position. appparently it's a "known issue" in
> the Fox Float. The rim failed on a commute but most liekly the damage
> occurred off road.
>
> my point is that keeping your bike on the road isn't free. i treat my
> road bike with a great deal of respect and yet parts wear (i just spent
> about $300 changing the chain and cluster on it after around 7k
> kilometers) and another $150 changing the tires (actually i got 4 for
> that price).
>
> brett



Theres a trick to getting cassettes to last you know.. other than oil :)

Change the chain before the halfway mark on the wear guage and (unless
its got a broken tooth or something) you wont need to change the cassette.
 
Paulie-AU wrote:

>
> Brett, if you keep an eye on your chain wear you should almost never
> have to change your cassette. It is only if you wear your chain to far
> that the cassette is affected. This can save a fair bit of money over
> time. I have a Shimano XT cassette that I have had since 9 speed was
> released and it has been on everything from XC race bikes to DH race
> bikes and it is still fine because I kept an eye on the stretch (wear
> in the pins) and changed it before my park tool went in to the red.
> This is a pretty good saving as an XT chain is about $50 vs about $150
> for an XT cassette. This means based on a chain being good for about
> 4k (my last chain did 4.5k) that it costs me $200 to do 16k vs more
> than $400 in the case of using a chain and cassette for 7k and having
> to replace both. Also $50 every 4k doesnt feel as steep.
>
> Ask your bike shop about this and if they are honest they will tell you
> its true. My girlfriend has been riding for about 10 years and over
> that time every shop had hit her up for a chain and cassette together,
> when if it had been checked in a service a little earlier she would
> have saved a heap of money over the years.
>


ok. fair comment. i've simply been under the belief that you change one
and change the other at the same time, i have been gauging the chain
wear on a park tool and doing the change when it suggests (and the
cluster at the same time). next time it's due i'll change the chain
without doing the cluster and seeing how the shifting runs.

brett
 

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