elkootcho

Part of my commute is via Los Angeles Subway and I occasionally get asked "How much did that bike cost?"...my pat answer is "I bought it on Craigslist for a few hundred." I commute on a 2009 Fuji Roubaix Pro that I got on sale for about $1K so it's not some crazy expensive bike but I'm not about to discuss that value of something I have with my with some random person.

How do you respond to strangers asking how much your bike cost you?

NCbiker

On sale at Walmart, $99.95

Boudicca

More than your car.

sirtirithon

+ 1

I dont hide it.

ben4345

I say -$5,000 in future doctor bills.

nelson249

No idea, it was a gift.

Onions

"Not much."

dynodonn 

If asked, I'll tell them flat out the bike's replacement cost.

DntWorryB.Happy

Im more uncomfortable telling someone who lives in my neighborhood vs a random person i see when traveling.

RaleighSport

Didn't we just do this? anyways simple solution if you don't want to hear that question.. make your nice bike UGLY, example.

windhchaser

i say what bike i dont have a bike as a peddle away

SlimRider

Tell 'em five thousand six hundred pennies and forty two cents!

CommuteCommando

I used to get that on the Red Line with my '98 KHS Alite 500. My answer was usually tempered by my appraisal of the asker. It varied from an honest $300 if the person seemed like someone I could talk to, to a blank "no speeka da eengleesh" stare.

caloso

"Three"

Ira B

Free, but it cost me about 50 bucks to overhaul.

Bill Kapaun

A marriage

DVC45

Eleventy five and a few cents.

gear

I can never understand why people feel compelled to answer questions put to them, especially when the questioner is a complete stranger.

There is no law that says you need to answer questions.

People don't get everything they ask for, including answers to their questions.

dramiscram

I hope it's a very nice bike!

bikemig 

That sounds expensive . . . did you get a quick release with that?

bikemig 

Ugly bikes make awesome commuters. This is my current ugly beater lock up bike, ,a 1984 Trek 720 badly in need of a paint job, which has been converted to SS commuter duty:

CommuteCommando

. . . at Bilbo's Bike Shop.

bloodbox

Having lived in LA and taken the subway and the Goldline with my bike, I think your standard answer is good-- a few hundred. Nobody needs to know the real value. You have to size up the people around you and determine if they're friends, foes, or neutrals. I don't support the "just don't answer" idea because I try to avoid conflict, and some people will take stony silence as an insult. Also, some of the roughest-looking people I've ever talked to are actually really nice... so I learned I couldn't always judge a book by the cover. But you gotta protect yourself first.

fizbiz

True...there is no law that say you need to try to be a half decent human being capable of showing at least small amount of respect to strangers, in fact many of them encourage the opposite. Still, if a big bad STRANGER shows genuine interest in something I am doing I am more than happy to talk to them for a minute or two. I'm certainly not going to turn around and walk away. Call me crazy...

Artkansas 

Asking strangers the cost of something first off is so gauche. It sets off big red flags for me. They don't care about the bike, they care about the money.

In your case I'd probably say, "You could get one like it on Craigslist for $XXX"

My Hard Rock was a freebie, so I have no problem discussing its price.

My Bacchetta takes more discretion. Unless I think the person is truly interested in getting such a fine machine for themselves, I usually say that Walmart has recumbents for a couple of hundred dollars. The person who actually is interested I find usually will preface that question with others, like what are the gears, how do you start from a stop, how easy is it to pedal uphill...