Economic cycles

by Simon Handby in Your car on 20.08.08

Ah, the joy of the bike ride: the freedom; the exercise; the wind in your hair; the money saving!

Well, yes and no.

A few weeks back I was evangelising on the benefits of going car-less. I mentioned how some of the money saved went to pay for the occasional hire car, but I conveniently overlooked the cost of my favourite form of transport: keeping a bike on the road, or in my case a mountain bike off it.

It’s tempting to see the bike as a free ride, costing nothing more than the odd bottle of oil and an energy bar here and there, but I’ve just had a reminder of how that’s not really the case. If you’re a keen biker, and particularly if you make a habit of riding off road, the chances are you’ll encounter the occasional big bill.

And I mean big. I’ll admit that I’m fussy after some bad experiences with cheap parts, but I learned today that the cost of getting my 10-year-old bike back into tip-top shape would be just shy of £400. Come back Peugeot 306, all is forgiven.

Saddled

In case you’re wondering, £400 pays for two new wheels (broken), a few replacement cables (ancient, probably about to snap) and a new transmission (progressively eaten by the greensand of the Surrey Hills).

Or, a brand-new, £700 bike through the government’s ride to work scheme.

Yep, you read that right. By reclaiming VAT from the purchase price and offsetting income tax and National Insurance, you can make huge savings on a bike that you’ll use (at least some of the time) for commuting. No matter how much you love your current bike, you’d have to be a fool to patch up old faithful when you could be zipping around on a newer, better replacement, wouldn’t you?

Well, yes and no.

This time round I’ve opted to do just that – replacing the parts that could otherwise kill me, and sticking with my bike’s tired but working transmission for the time being. Old bikes aren’t worth anything second hand, but after a few scrapes they end up with a sentimental value that makes them hard to let go, even for a good cause.

Right now, mine feels like something of an old friend. A needy, slightly grumpy, but still wonderful old friend.