This is gonna get expensive

[Xiorell]

So I am loving this new cycling thing I've gotten myself into.

Been riding around on my hybrid.... but already thinking of spending 700+ on a decent MTB... but then I've also been feeling a further spend on a road bike would be a sound investment. I am faced with the problem now of which one should come first, I was gonna go get an entry level road/race while I saved cash for the MTB but having took my hybrid over rough terrain today, the MTB seems like it's in dire need.


This was supposed to be cheaper than getting a little car! Not happening lol I'm enjoying myself to much

 

[monnet]

Welcome to the world of n+1 and a hobby that sucks money faster than heroin.

It took me 5 years of saying 'I'll just get this then my cycling stuff will be complete and I can get a little car.' I have the car now and the only mileage it does is to transport my bike around the country!

Don't forget you'll get the MTB, then the entry level racer. Then you'll get all intrigued by carbon and titanium and lighter wheels and luxury shorts and...well, you get the idea.

If Trainspotting's anything to go by, it's a darn sight more fun than heroin!

 

[Xiorell]

Welcome to the world of n+1 and a hobby that sucks money faster than heroin.

It took me 5 years of saying 'I'll just get this then my cycling stuff will be complete and I can get a little car.' I have the car now and the only mileage it does is to transport my bike around the country!

Don't forget you'll get the MTB, then the entry level racer. Then you'll get all intrigued by carbon and titanium and lighter wheels and luxury shorts and...well, you get the idea.

If Trainspotting's anything to go by, it's a darn sight more fun than heroin!

Is that a bet on the MTB coming first?



I'm ebaying off a shed load of collectables and what not that I no longer see the point of keeping. This is to be the start of my "next bike fund"

200quid made in 5 days, still 90% of the stuff I am selling yet to be listed! WOOOOOOOOOO

 

[ramses]

Welcome to the world of cycling!

It's as addictive as hell, and you always want something else. If it's not a bike then it's accessories and clothing.

I started with a MTB and before a years was up I upgraded and now I also have a road bike, but by no means has it stopped there!!

Nearly every month I am buying something for the bike, and each month I say that's it, shouldn't need anything else now. HAHA!

I am just kidding myself!

 

[jayonabike]

I bought my first bike in Feb 2010, I bought my 4th last month

 

[MacB]

I bought my first bike in Feb 2010, I bought my 4th last month

Sounds familiar


Oh, and great idea on e-baying stuff to build up a bike fund....but just watch how it vanishes on things you never intended...I keep a permanent wish list running on a spreadsheet(yep I am that sad) and keep it updated constantly. To clear off all the items, as of this very moment, would cost me £4530.24. However I have each item graded from desire through want to need.....the need total is only actually £159.81 and it's mainly workshop tools. The desire items change quite a bit as I refine what I want but they don't become a 'need' until I'm sure.

Oh, and I have an entirely seperate wishlist/spreadsheet for clothing, as that involves a weight reduction versus reward calculation...plus the painful realisation that there's no point in me buying some of the items, even in XXL, as I just couldn't get into them.

There you go, that'll either make you feel better or make you feel worried

 

[Bicycle]

I pity people who have loads of bikes... I have only one.

Unless you count the MTB... but I don't go off-road much.

That older MTB? Well, that was one I used to use before I bought the other one.

And unless you count the fixed-gear... but that's just a frame I had lying around. I doesn't really count because it's older.

Those other bikes?

Ummm... they're used by my children, so they don't really count.

Well... not that blue one... that was mine, but nobody uses it now, so I don't count it.

The old Kona MTB... that's different... it's a really early Kona and I'm saving it for... something...

And of course the ones in the cellar don't count. Who counts bikes in the cellar?

All those spare parts? They're not assembled, so they really don't count.

And you have to understand, a lot of this stuff cost me much less than you'd expect.

... and I could give up cycling any time I wanted to. I'm not, you know... addicted or anything....

So like I said, I pity folk who have loads of bike.... I have only one.

 

[Globalti]

I came back to cycling in 1988 and rode MTBs exclusively until about three years ago when I get stale and discovered the road. Now I wish I'd started with road riding because I'd have been so much fitter and would have done much better in MTB events like trailquests and Polaris events that I undertook. Oh well.

 

[the_mikey]

You won't believe what I'm doing, I'm selling one of my two bikes, so I can replace it with a new bike, I've broken the n+1 rule , but seriously, if I had a garage it would be filled with bikes. My dream garage would contain:


Pretty italian race bike (or three)
Pactical sportive bike
Super light carbon race bike

Cyclocross bike
Mountain bike

Although with that choice of bikes, I don't think I'd ever actually ride the MTB...

 

[Cyclopathic]

Is it possible that there is a crossover of cycling enthusiasm and the practice of retail therapy? Being an optimist I choose to think that I am indeed fortunate not to have enough money to find out if there is any real correlation between the two.

I like bikes and all things bikey and I am trying to indulge my passion on a tight budget which in itself can be quite rewarding. I find myself always on the lookout for ways of improving my ride for not much money which forces me to be selective and means that I have to spend a good deal of time deciding between one thing and another. Much of the enjoyment is finding a piece of kit or a part that I need after waiting for ages for it to come along and so there is a kind of protestant enjoyment of frugality that I either have to embrace or become embittered about.

I still look through catalogues and sites at all the wonderful shiney new things and sometimes fantasise about having enough cash to just click everything I want into my shopping basket but I imagine everybody does that. I've got a few old bikes in the shed which are in various stages of repair and or being stripped of the valuable bargain basement bits that might be needed on another project.

Every now and then something unusual or interesting comes along and I put it to one side for further consideration. I was donated a very early model Moulton Mini a few months ago. On the one hand it is extremely worn and needs much tlc but on the other it is as far as I can tell all original and it has a two gear system operated by a quick back pedal to change up and down. Until I got the moulton and had played with it for a while I didn't even know that such things existed.

So to cut myself short (too late I hear you cry) being bitten by the biking bug doesn't have to mean spending absolute fortunes. Admitedly I would say I am right at the cheapest end of things but no matter what your budget you can get a lot of enjoyment out of seeing how far that budget might be able to take you.

 

[delport]

I spend quite a bit on cycling stuff, when you are a teenager owning a bike can come to almost zero, teenagers often don't bother with lights or buy anything at all for the bike.

My best bargain this week was the Giant bike for £5, i've stripped plenty off it, nice expensive rear light, but i already had 2 expensive rear lights!

My mud guards were needing replaced as bits were breaking off them, the £5 bike had good mudguards and in good order, so i took those.
Excellent quality pannier rack on the Giant bike, i have 3 pannier racks already mind you, and a newly built bike trailer, and 4 panniers

This hobby is almost as bad as computer stuff, i used to spend a fortune on computer items upgrading constantly, every few weeks new stuff bought, now i don't bother so much, i have that habit under control, to be replaced by the cycling one.

Oh and i forgot the quick release wheels, i got two good quality ones on the giant bike, with decent tread schwalbe tyres still on it.

 

[theloafer]

its only money you cant take it with you .... have 3 at the moment

1..hand bulitmade to measure tourer(arthur caygill)
2..cube mountain bike
3..trek road bike(now to be winter hack+turbo bike)
4..this is the next one poss due this thuesday...
http://www.westbrookcycles.co.uk/bi...ynapse-carbon-sram-apex-road-bike-2011-p88441