How to Justify a Garage Full of Bikes
How to justify a garage full of bikes:
1. Sell a car.
2. Do the math.
- Car Payment: $350
Insurance: $50
Gas: $300
Maintenance: $100
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Total monthly savings: $800
3. Figure you’ve effectively bought yourself a new bike every month or two with the savings.
4. Ride ‘em.
8 Responses to “How to Justify a Garage Full of Bikes”
Hey Alan,
I’m seeing about $20/ week savings by switching to a multi-modal commute…which equals to a new (2007 model) Dahon MU P8 for this year!
Mike
Alan, you left out depreciation, which may be equal to or greater than the car payment.
Unless a person gets completely rid of a car, many expenses continue…even if you do drive less. So the only thing you can really put in the bike fund is money actually saved by using less fuel, and perhaps some savings in maintenance.
If a person drops their gym membership to ride bikes, the money can add up pretty quickly to support a bike collection.
I’d be happy to get the garage down to about 5 bikes: GRR; Ryan Vanguard which I hope to upgrade to a Slipstream someday; EZ-1 AX with 20″ front wheel conversion; and maybe a Stratus XP at some point.
PS: Had some great vegan raw food sauces and main dishes recently. Really good stuff.
there was no no silver bullet single bike to suit all my cycling wishes, but my tour easy sure comes close. i have thought of sending in the frame to easy racers for a disc brake modification, and 406 forks, (and paint the frame red, my original tour easy color back in the late 80′s) so i could ride gravelly roads on some fat 2.5 maxxis hookworm tires, and get this newfangled “revopower” 2 stroke motor within a mountain bike wheel (supposed to come out this year) on an extrawheel 26″ trailer (a pusher motor for climbing and winds)
i am not a cycling purist, i’m more of a 2 wheeled powered velomobile tinkerer. on the other hand, i DO have that purist streak in me and riding my unicycle the streak gets satisfied.
i’m not considering gearing for my unicycle, (it’s available for $1,000) or an engine.
i have come to the conclusion that a stableful of beasts is right. an ox, a horse, (what is a unicycle? a unicorn?
no, more like a very large st. bernard because it’s big enough to ride, but i spend a lot of time walking my unicycle.
..and i am not a snob but i can be a snubber. ecospeed just about made me flip out for joy when i discovered them-
@Andy
Speaking of Ecospeed – I was told Easy Racers bought them, then suddenly everyone acted like it never happened. Do you now what happened?
Thanks,
Alan
NO…Ecospeed was not sold to Easy Racer…still up in Oregon…just got my converted Bike E RX commuter back from Thunderstruck motors in Santa Rosa, CA (check them out…they do great EV conversion and collaborate with Rotator recumbents) and Brent (Ecospeed) did the EMD motor for me…I am in heaven!…
geewhizpat, I’d like to speak to you more about this ecospeed thing.
Please email me at veran777 at hotmail dot com. Thanks,
Sorry, make that vegan777 at hotmail dot com.