By Robert Ariail
Looking unconvinced at average bike and bike part price development of recent years.
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
731 points (98.5% liked)
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Bikes are meant to be bought used. They are so dead simple to repair and maintain. All you need is a handful of basic tools and youtube.
Bikes are meant to be bought used.
That's solid advice for your occasional short range bike.
But when talking about substituting a car for a bike with the thereby associated mileage (which the comic implies), in most cases this will be less true.
Main reason for this is that, apart from the frame, bikes mostly consist of wear-and-tear parts.
That is especially true for many used bikes that still have rim brakes and on top may have obsolete parts that are not easy to come by (had that once for my bar-end gear-levers that Shimano decided not to produce any more, because old-fashioned...)
Also a used bike comes as it is, so not really optimized for easy maintenance as you could choose a new bike to be.
I have learned by now (after switching to new bikes every few years and ~20000km before), that the most stressless (and also cheap in the long run) path is to buy a custom bike with robustness and easy maintenance in mind.
So steel frame, no suspension fork but fat 29'' tires instead, mechanical disk brake, standard lower mid range components (less optimized for weight, but often more robust), lowest number of gears possible (less finicky and typically less chain wear).
The initial cost when doing so will be higher, but in the long run will pay itself of when doing 5000km+ per year.
I dunno what typical yearly mileage on a bike used for commuting is... mine certainly did not do 5000km when I was commuting by bike. So your experience might be a bit more frequent maintenance than what most people need to do.
But either way, a used bike is still likely to be pretty easy to maintain. Maybe you're thinking of some specific harder-to-maintain parts? Brakes are a good example; rim brakes wear out quite quickly and are harder to replace the pads on than disc brakes. However, they're still dirt cheap and they're still not hard to replace. I, a cack-handed moron, learnt how to do it fairly easily.
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if you are taking the cost of petrol and using it to buy the bike instead. then the cost for the bike is free as you would have used that money on single use petrol.
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I just cleaned my brakes for the first time. From a two min video on YT. Bikes are the best
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You're looking at those higher end one, where the price has always been expensive. If you just want an average bike and doesn't care about weight and all those snobby stuff and don't mind adjusting it to fit you, get a generic chinese-made bike. It's cheap, it's repairable, it use non-proprietary part, and it's upgradable.
If you are in Europe just get a Dutch bicycle. Cheap (you can find them in any canal in Amsterdam, just hop in and grab one!), repairable, and will last for years post-canal treatment.
Only small caveat is the saddle post clamp on those. Can be real hard to find a new one that fits because the diameter of the frame is some wonky ass shit
That's not only the case for Chinese bikes, though.
I once had my saddle stolen and the bike shop was like:
"Yeah bring the bike over because we need the exact measurement down to a tenth of a millimeter."
Me:
"How the fuck am I supposed to do that? It doesn't have a saddle!"
Hardest 5km I've ever ridden a bike...
Well, you can ride standing, but 5km is a long ride for that. The biggest issue for me would be not to forget about missing seatpost and not to sit back reflectively
Exactly! :-)
Endless loop in my head during the ride:
"I MUST NOT SIT DOWN. I MUST NOT SIT DOWN..."
And the upper legs felt like burning lead afterwards...
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Last I checked you can buy them for as cheap as β¬50.
Or if you want something that doesn't break quickly, still only β¬300-700 total. In ten years I've only spent like β¬100 on repairs.
If you know where to look, you can get a very respectable bike for not a lot of money.
Especially considering that car prices have more than kept pace with bike prices
Fucking creative.
Now I know how to draw a bicycle!
Prove it!
You win! You get a cookie! Just send me your banking information, SSN, date of birth, mother's maiden name, blood n stool sample, a scrapbook of your foot prints, as well as a sample of your writing, and you will find a cookie in the trash over the next week. I've done this literally a trillion times, and half the time it works like 37% of the time, so it's real, dude. Statistics like that are God, obviously.
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Clever. Thought this was c/fuckcars for a sec.
Good job! Have fun with your 40 mile commute.
You take the bike down to the train station and bring it with you on the train. Caveat: Your country needs to have train lines that are actually usable.
My country doesn't, and I am seriously getting sick of hearing that the forms of transportation we are systematically forced into being called inferior when we have no other realistic choice. Everything and anything is at a bare minimum 15 miles away from me in the Appalachian foothils. Even the very best cyclist would tire easily on these hills in just a few miles. I mean nothing to you personally, but I am beyond sick of the extremely privileged "fuck cars" mentality. I am going full rant here, but I don't have another fuck to give. If you are able to walk or bike to a location to do whatever you want you are much more privileged than the average American. And the entire ethos around "lol fuck you just walk or bike" is precisely why we got into a fascist state.
I've been under the impression that "fuckcars" has always been more about "fuck this system that we have developed that makes cars a necessity" and not about " fuck you for driving a car." It has always seemed more like anger at the system than at individuals to me.
That's the spirit of the community but, as in all things on the Internet, it naturally has attracted extremists which have impacted the vibe.
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Theres probably a bunch more reasons than just transportion culture wars that the us is turning fascist, i would imagine, but yeah that was what i was getting at. Very aware that many places in America only are build for cars.
Which is a damn shame. You shouldnt have yo be forced like that. But u know, money and power, big Industry lobbyism and decades of fearmongering about market regulations and public services, thatl get you a situation like that.
Wasnt trying to be snarky or anything fyi, clarifying because im quite over thinking too much about tone, downside being people sormtime misunderstand my vibes. βοΈ
Yeah. I kinda snapped and didn't intend to be mean. My mental state is not great.
No worries comrade, we all crash sometimes (i do at least). Take care β€οΈ
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in the Appalachian foothils.
Think part of the 'fuck cars' problem is the messaging lacks nuance. For example, the problems nearly do not exist in your scenario. Their problems are mainly around big city centers, and perhaps transit between those big cities. Appalachian foothills hardly have enough traffic or land usage to trigger the usual complaints.
Conversely, mass transit is a particularly terrible idea for Appalachia. Rural contexts in general make mass transit a challenge, but those slopes mean you pretty much have to have roads way too curvy for any bus, let alone getting rail going.
In short, a hellscape of traffic lights and crosswalks with no where to build because you have to split it with cars, I get the 'fuck cars' sentiment, but rural and esspecially mountainous areas, well cars are about the only reasonable answer.
Short rant: Your first sentence touches on a microcosm of a much larger problem. Nuance and context are disappearing everywhere. As far as threats to society go, it's in my number one spot, and we really need more people actively dismantling it like this, so thanks.
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I once had a 22 Mile round trip bicycle commute and there were absolutely no buses or trains or any type of public transport available from point A to point b. I finally had to quit that job in the thick of winter when snow made bicycling impossible, but before I quit, I got there walking/ running for a couple months.
E-bike.
OK, you your $5,000 e- bike stops 3/4 of the way home and it took you an additional 2 hours.
ETA, actually doing the math for my old commute - It would take and additional 12 hours by e-bike. One way.
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If Americans had access to Chinese EVs and had more affordable EV options it would be better. Their range is great now days. They can get up to 350 range depending on the car now. Comparible to gas cars. I think local governments should install charging stations as well to reciever some of the profits and to keep it affordable / voted on instead of it all being privatized again. America never learns.
Yeah, we really need this in the US. Very few people here can use a bike as a primary mode of transportation.
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this is brilliant, what a great visual effect
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