5d ago

Why am I still faster than you?

E: Let's all talk about what bikes should or shoudn't cost

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I refuse to believe hobbyists are spending $10K on bikes, or commuters are spending $1K.
I can barely accept that the going rate for used bikes is over $200.
- I couldn't believe it either, so I went to the Trek.com site.
  I hate this decade.
  
  Trek is really expensive. Go to Decathlon or equivalent.
  
  Dooood! I went to the site and the first bike I see is almost $11,000.00!!
  I understand that one maker might be less costly, but I'm old enough to remember when you could get a good used bike for one day's labor.
  https://www.decathlon.com/collections/bikes
  
  Wow, the US website really pushes for the high-end bikes! In France they highlight the low-mid range (between 300 and 800€).
  
  A 300 Euro bike is about $350.00 US. That's about what I'd expect to pay for a bike these days.
  
  Frankly, it depends how much you use your bike. I commute these days with a used 150€ bike, for which I invested 100€ in upgrades. But that's because my commute is short (5km) and because it sleeps every day in the street next to a big train station. In the past I was commuting 2*10km daily and I had a 1000€ gravel bike that never stayed overnight in the street. It was definitely much more comfortable.
  I would say a 300€ is fine for daily commute under 5km, but closer to 800-1000€ is probably a good idea for 10km and above.
  
  Thanks for the advice.
- If you want an electric bike, the price goes up fast.
  If you want one with a belt so that it won't take crazy maintenance not to degrade over the winter, it goes up faster still.
  If you want storage for your purse and whatnot, a bit more expensive still. A good large basket is more expensive than you'd think.
  
  I can easily believe a commuter ebike hits a grand.
  I just never assume anything with a motor when I encounter the word "bicycle".
  
  Where I live, 1k gets you a decent commuter bike without a motor. Doesn't even matter much if used or new. Then you spend ~200 on parts every year. It's outside 24/7, I don't have a garage.
  
  I don't have a garage either, but I want to get a shed so I can stop spending $200/yr in repairs.
  
  Anything but carrying the bike up from the basement every morning
  
  A-men
  
  Oh god that would stop me from using my bike so fast.
  
  Oh yeah it took me years to finally find an apartment where the landlord would allow me to get a storage shed. I'm glad I can finally own a bike.
  Leaving the bike outside all the time was always taught to me as a no-no that'll pretty much instantly ruin your bike, so I hadn't considered it.
  Now though I'm moving this year or next year and I'm unsure how we'll manage with my shed. Can it be moved? Will someone buy it? 🤔 Eh, I guess I'll see.
  
  Fair. I just don't consider non-electric one in such a hilly city. I just know I'd be too lazy to face the hills without the help of a motor.
  
  Fr, when I hear bike my default thought is always like a $200 Huffy, not these pro-sumer things that cost nearly as much as a damn car
  
  I mean i got a metal-mesh basket for the back for 20€ and its longer than wide so i can still park my bike in tight spaces. Idk what you mean by "good large basket" but mine is good and large enough
  
  Over here the only one I could find that would allow me to lug around my purse and a little bit of extra cargo if needed was this one. It doesn't even mount on my bike so the people at the bike shop had to improvise with zip ties and the like.
  It took a while to find, because I couldn't trust steel not to start getting rust stains on all my stuff, and my previous one pretty much instantly broke the very first time my bike fell, so I couldn't trust just any kind of plastic.
  I had the employees of no less than 5 bike shops try to recommend me something with little success before finally finding something. Most shops seem to carry 0~1 models of bike basket period, and not to have much more that they can order from their distributors.
  I think North American shops are just confused at the idea of a bike for anything but leisure overall. Which is understandable considering how goddamn dangerous our awful car-centric cities can be.
  I love my big basket, but man was it not easy to find
  
  My first thought on that second link was: Id never buy such a thing made of plastic?!
  In Switzerland you can get normal Baskets for CHF 15.- to 100.- (around 1:1 to USD). https://www.veloplus.ch/shop/ausruestung/koerbe/gepaecktraegerkoerbe You see them all the time, they are so common that the images often don't even feature a size comparison or use demonstration like in your first link, because everyone knows them 😅.
  10-20 years ago it was considered a woman or gay thing to have them but apparently they are convenient enough to have overcome that stigma.
  The one you got is a bit heftier and looks pretty heavy tbh
  
  Oh yeah they look pretty handy, and affordable. Only thing I'd be worried about is that they look like steel. I don't know how well they react to water, snow and salt.
  But you definitely look like you have a lot more options than we do.
  The plastic basket was the best the bike shop where I bought mine could find. Most people here use satchels on the sides of the wheel, but 1. That precludes the use of a trailer for groceries, 2. I don't see what's so convenient about them unless you're a camper.
  There's also just having no storage and using a backpack for everything. A popular option, but backpacks are hot. Not a fan.
  The basket I ended up with is certainly big, but its aluminium construction reduces the weight, and above all, it's handled a few falls just fine so far.
  And well, on an e-bike, weight is much less critical. I paid a fortune for this bike; might as well enjoy the perks.
  
  As someone who repairs bikes for a hobby this all sounds insane. I paid like $10 for my back rack with folding baskets
- 1k for a new high quality bike has been normal for 10-15 years. Anything beyond that has hugely diminishing returns.
  If you want everything for a full shimano 105 set, that alone will cost you like 600$ or more. Then you still need a frame and wheels and saddle etc
  Buying used is really the best play with bikes.
  
  I don't think I ever had that much disposable income to spend on a bike at the same time as living where I could commute to work on a bike.
- Free + a $30 tuneup here.
  
  Hey, those belong to people!
  
  This one actually was being given away.
- You could get a used budget bike for that much like
  Even a couple decades ago they started at hundreds of dollars new, unless you're talking about poorly assembled bike shaped objects made from sketchy parts.
  Also, there are single bikes that cost well over 10 grand. Rich enthusiasts may have entire garages full of high end bikes that cost more than your average car.
- It wasn't the cheapest bike but nothing special. I've had it for 10 years and I'm super happy with it.
- The bikes I am looking to buy for the purpose of commuting over mixed terrain is in the $800-$1,400 price range (as of last year before tariff stuff). I don't currently own a bike but I have owned and ridden a number of bikes in the past. The couple of hundred dollar bikes from like Walmart are just trash that don't hold up. They fall apart pretty quickly under heavy riding.
  All of this assumes one is buying new. If we are talking used then all of the above is somewhat a moot point.
  Even within new the kind of riding matters a lot. If I know for a fact that I would only ever be riding on smooth paved roads then an old fixed frame street bike with skinny tires and very basic brakes and gears would make a lot of sense. There is zero chance that bike is going to be switching between road, grass, gravel, mud, and some of the other terrain I would be commuting across though.
- I commute to work every day, and I don't own a car. My bike (Shimano gear-hub with a belt drive) was about 1k€, and it was one of the cheaper models available.
  
  I also don't own a car and commute every day. I hear people talk about how Chicago has a low cost-of-living and I guess this is what they mean.
- Even lower-midrange level road bikes are now at least $1k. Its a ridiculous market.

129 comments