Time to discuss something I probably should have written to begin with and that is why would anyone want a bike, especially one of the many used road bikes I told you how to find. Of course there is the obvious answers, it’s cheaper, helps you avoid traffic, its better for the environment, and it provides good exercise. But the real question is, are these things valuable enough to you and others and at what point does it make sense to invest in used road bikes?
The obvious reason many people would want to buy and ride used road bikes is because of the savings associated with bicycle transportation. If you use the techniques mentioned in the previous post, you should have no problem finding a decent ridable road bike for less than $30 (or find a non working one for cheaper and learn how to make the simple repairs for well under this amount to get a good running bike). Now, let’s take a good look at this.
Depending on what kind of car you drive, you likely spend this much on a single tank of gas or double this is you drive a gas guzzler. The typical vehicle gets an average of 350 miles per tank (or per $30). Lets assume you buy a road bike and ride it 10 miles (which is hardly anything on a road bike) per day instead of driving…whether it be to a friends place, the store, work, etc. By doing some simple calculations, you’ll see that it takes approximately 35 days to save a tank of gas. This means that after just over a month, the bike has paid for itself. And every month after that you are saving $50 by riding just 10 miles a day instead of driving. What could you do with an extra $500-$600 a year?
This is all assuming you still need a car for other things…which many people do. But if you live near the city, work from home, or live close enough to all the places you visit regularly and don’t have to own a car at all then you’ll have enormous savings from: the cost of a car, maintenance, insurance, tax/tags, etc., which could easily amount to $5000 or more per year. What could you do with an extra $5000 a year?
I’m sure at a later date I’ll discuss the health, environment, and time benefits of riding a road bike, but I think this single example gives you enough incentive to at least start searching and considering the potential of used road bikes.
Another quick thing I’d like to address is why buy USED road bikes? Why not just buy a new one? A few reasons. One, is because the more you spend on the bike the more it will need to be ridden to pay for itself. This is fine if you know you are going to be riding it a lot, which leads me to the second reason. Many people buy brand new bikes then they sit in their garage or basement for weeks, months, years and hardly ever get used. By buying used road bikes you’ll be able to get the same result by spending much less, then if you don’t use it as much as you had hoped it’s no big loss (you’ll have a road bike for your neighbor when s/he comes a knockin’). The point is, new road bikes are pretty, light, comfortable but they still only get you from point A to point B, and used road bikes can do this just as well at a fraction of the cost.
That’s all for now…subscribe/stay tuned for tune up and maintenance tips!
October 28, 2007 at 10:20 pm |
I know where I live bikes are stolen at an incredible rate. And a lot of them are very nice expensive bikes. You are way better off with a used bike from craigs list then a new one.