My Bicycle Economics

I last rebuilt my bicycle in 2006. I bought a donor bike that had newish parts and frame problems from Packrat, payed far to much money to have them both shipped to New Hampshire from Colorado, waited 6 months, then combined them in the garage in the summer after my first year of grad school.

The donor bike had lots of newish parts, while the original bike, an early 1990's GT had everything worn to knubbins: gears, brakes, shifters, especially the front chain rings. To my surprise, just about everything transfer perfectly, except the headset tube was a wee bit shorter on the old bike, necessitating a fat stack of washers to make up the gap.

Since that point, the bike has gone on mostly without incident. The rear dérailleur cable snapped a few years ago, and every few years the tubes have gone through a rash of flats and required replacement. I exhausted every bottle of bicycle lube anyone had ever given me, and bought my own for the first time out of genuine need. I have scrubbed the drive train down a few times.

Generally though, I just get on and yank chain.

I estimate that I ride about 100 trips per year... I'm a fair weather commuter and would rather drive or take the bus during a snow storm. In NH, that mean a 12 mile round-trip commute. Here, the distance is closer to 10. Over 8 years, those distances have added up: roughly 9,000 miles, while the expenses really haven't. Receipts aren't handy, but $430 seems about right for everything involved, mostly shipping and tubes. That's like $53 per year, and 4.7 cents per mile.

I'm pretty sure that's cheaper than shoes, and thus cheaper than walking.