Originally Posted by
zowie
It's more than that, for me. If I've ridden a bike many 1000s of miles I'll have gotten physically comfortable on it for all day riding.
Some new bikes take a long time and maybe costly parts swaps to get dialed in, and some I never get adequately comfortable on and regret.
That's another kind of investment in an old bike that should go into the equation and why I just had an 8-speed AL road bike reconditioned.
I know what you mean. For me it's the memories a bicycle brings me. I've ridden many thousands of miles on some of my bikes and I hate to see them go. Sometimes though repairs are more than what the bike is worth such as when seat stays break off the seat tube or in the case of one bike I had that died when I hit a wrong way riding bicyclist who was riding on a one way street the wrong way and exited a blind corner right in front of me. I bent the top tube and the down tube so badly that the front wheel could not turn past the down tube. I flipped the bike over, braced my feet against the bottom bracket shell and pulled on t he front fork legs for all I was worth. I managed to straighten it enough to ride the 25 miles home. I took the bike to a shop here in town and they told me it's cost more to replace those two tubes than what the frame was worth. I got the same answer from other shops including online ones. That wasn't even considering the cost of repainting the frame. I sure wish I could have grabbed that other bicyclist and held him until the police came. Unfortunately he was able to get up and take off. Needless to say that frame of mine was dead.
Cheers