I ride my bike three times a week, every week, all year. I don’t even stop for the winter. It is my way of getting some fresh air and exercise. I enjoy the outdoors, and three weekly trips is my minimum time for enjoying nature.
Unless I’m going on one of my occasional extended jaunts, my normal route is a short distance in the vicinity of 7-8 miles. Weekly that doesn’t added up to too many miles, but over the course of the year I log probably over 1,200 miles. That will wear on a bike. Especially the winter months. Water, salt, and sand are the worst enemies of a bike.
The last bike I bought was a Wal-Mart special. If I remember right it was on sale and what might have been an original price of around $110 was knocked down to maybe the $80-$90 range. I bought it back in February 2004. It served me faithfully, if not without its faults, for three years. I treated it brutally and used it relentlessly. I put some repairs into it, and after the last brake replacement I figured I had pretty nearly put as much money back into the bike as it had initially cost. Soon a very expensive part would fail, so the next time my brakes expired or my derailleur finally gave up the ghost, I would get a new bike rather than invest in more repairs.
As it happened my brakes and derailleur expired at nearly the same time. I squeezed every last bit of life I could out of both, but finally the brakes were completely shot and there wasn’t a single gear I could still ride up a hill in and not have the chain pop (something that drives me out of mind). My bike had lasted three years, and it was time to get that new one.
First I went to the local bike shop. I don’t have vast amounts of disposable income, and I knew what quality mountain bikes are running for, but I decided to take a look. First bike my eyes rested on: $799. Disk brakes, the whole nine yards. Yow-wow, slick stuff. I talked with one of the salesmen and he said that with the hydraulics there had to be at least $200 worth in the brakes by themselves.
Clunk. That’s me falling over. With parts at that price we’re just about competing with a car brake job.
So, after looking around the shop and admiring all of the nice bikes in stock I went down to Wal-Mart and bought a bike for $60.
The new bike is from the same exact line as my previous, a RoadMaster SX, so I knew what performance and quality to expect. In other words, nothing astounding, but sufficient. As an added bonus, the latest model had some feature improvements. My old RoadMaster had what I will call a Y handle bar and the clamp joint that held the handlebar to the stem did not have the gripping power to keep the handlebar from rotating when I applied strong downward pressure (like when going over a bump). Since the handle was a Y there was strong torque pressure and the handlebar would eventually rotate down. This made for an uncomfortable handlebar position. The new model Roadmaster has a straight T handlebar so there won’t be the torque pressure or a rotating handlebar. Further, there are what I call “spur grips” added on, which allows me to switch my hand grip to the vertical position. Both of these features means I will have a more comfortable ride, with less problems with my hands going numb.
On top of all this, the price of the latest model is less than I paid for my previous RoadMaster.
I took the new RoadMaster out for the first ride today. It was a little strange having a bike that worked properly. I’m sure I’ll get used to it quickly. And hopefully it will serve me well for three years until the miles, salt, and water take their toil and another bike must take its place.
If I get wildly rich maybe I’ll think about buying that $799 bike. But not in this lifetime.
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