Breakages

If any greenie fanatic ever tries to tell you that bikes are cheaper to run than cars, run them over and roll them into the nearest ditch. They might be "cheap" if you only use them for short trips, like if you work 1km from home. However, if you start to rack up the miles, the bills start to add up too.

Like any mechanical beast, they need to be serviced regularly, and things wear out and break. Anyone who says a bike costs nothing to run has clearly never ridden it past the 1000km mark.

I guess that happens with a lot of bikes. Someone gets enthusiastic, the whole family trots down to Target and everyone gets a two wheeler of some sort. After an initial flurry of riding, they go into the garage and are only ever seen again by spiders and lizards. If you treat the bike like that, then they are very cheap to run, requiring zero maintenance, servicing and parts replacement.

A 10,000km service on the Disco generally sets me back about $1,000. I joked with an auto electrician the other week that every time I drive it into a garage, it costs me $1,000. He looked at me and said, "I wish you had told me that before I made out your bill", which only came to $120. That service involves changing lots of fluids, swapping out all sorts of filters and things and generally leaves a reasonable pile of replaced things filling up the rubbish skip out the back.

I really should get the bike serviced every 3 months. A really basic service costs about $120. A proper service is more like $200 or more. Given that there are no fluids that need replacing (apart from those in my water bottle), no filters to swap out and no shock absorbers or grommets or gaskets or other thingys to degrade, you start to wonder where the money is going. Sometimes, the only things to be replaced are the brake pads, and you can fit the front and rear sets of pads in one hand. One very small hand.

The thing to remember about that is that the distance covered between services is much less. When I did a lot of driving for work, I used to cover at least 6,000km per quarter. On the bike, I am sometimes lucky to cover 600. Yes, I don't have to fill the bike with diesel, but I have to fill my guts with food, and I can tell you, the grocery bills do go up when you start riding over 100km per week. And don't forget the supplements to stop the cramps and the lotions to stop your balls chafing. Walking into a health food shop is a great way to empty the wallet in a hurry.

I don't have to register the bike, but I do buy insurance each year in case I wipe someone out. Bikes also need replacing sooner than cars. My Disco is now entering its 8th year of service, and is about to clock up 170,000km, and it is probably only halfway to the point where I will want to replace it. That will give it a useful life with me of over 300,000km and 15 years on the road. After that, some other idiot will probably drive it for another 20 years.

The bike on the other hand might see out another solid year of service, then it will be replaced with something new. After being pounded over Sydney's potholed goat tracks for four years, it will simply have been beaten to death. Yes, you do see some really old bikes chuntering around from time to time, but I always wonder how many km they have on the clock. It's like when you see some old duck driving around in an original Monaro - garaged since it was bought, driven to the club once a week and no more than 8000km on the clock. Of course it will be in mint condition. My bike is better compared with a taxi.

Then there are all the other things that you have to buy to ride which also wear out. One pair of shorts is getting so worn at the front, you can almost see my nuts through the fabric. My shirts are starting to fray around the shoulders. My gloves are knackered. I had to glue up my shoes the other day. The helmet really needs replacing. My cycling sunglasses have been impacted by so many bugs and low hanging branches, they are scratched to bits. Shoes, shirts, shorts, gloves, helmet and glasses add up to well over a thousand bucks. All that kit needs replacing on an ongoing basis. It is rare for a month to go by without a visit to one bike shop or another to shop for something that has given up the ghost.

I don't give a shit about what it costs, because in the end, I am going to undertake one form of exercise or another, and it is cheaper than going skiing for 2 months a year or taking up offshore sailboat racing. Even walking costs money, since doing a lot of walking wears out shoes and shorts (mine normally go in the crotch). Unless you want to take up nude, barefoot walking. I also don't care as I enjoy it, and it makes me feel good. The endorphin rush from a good ride is worth the expenditure.

Just don't believe some shithead when he says it's cheap - or free.

The point of this whole post is that my front dérailleur went yesterday. That's the thing which changes the front cog from the big one to the little one and vice versa. I hit the lever to change up to the big cog, and it felt a bit sloppy and nothing happened. I didn't think about it, except to hit the lever harder, which produced a gear shift. It still felt really sloppy though.

Then I tried to change down. No dice. The lever just kind of dangled there in front of me, wobbling this way and that, and producing no effect. I had to dismount, fiddle with the dérailleur and change back manually. I still rode into town, since I can survive on just the small front cog. It means a cut in top speed, but I was willing to trade a lower top speed for getting a first hand look at the loonies at the APEC rally.

Now I just have to get the damned thing fixed. I figure the cable has simply warn down to the point where the broken strands of cable are jamming in the cable run and preventing free movement.

What I do know is that I am facing another $100 bill - or more. To change a bloody cable.