rydabent

My last bike purchase, now that turned out to be a joke. By the mid 80s I had a nice Schwinn Le Tour. But then--------I bought a Univega touring bike because it had a triple and thot when I got older the granny gear would get me up steep hills. But then----------I bought a mountain bike so I could ride off road with my sons. But then-----------looking at recumbents that looked logical, I bought a Rans Tailwind. But then ------since the Tail Wind was short in the rear and a trunk pack didnt work well, I bought a Rans Stratus. But then--------to get my wife to ride with me I bought a TerraTrike Cruiser. How ever since my wife had knee problems and surgery, I have taken over the trike for in town riding.

Probably never say the bike you have is your "last" bike.

Arios1223

haha i just started

Jon T

I still ride my "last bike". It's an '84 Pug purchased new. I'm 64 yo. It's lasted this long. It's like the Energizer Bunny--it keeps going, and going, and going............
I have no doubts it will long out last me. It ain't broke so need to fix or replace.
Jon

Arios1223

can you please take a look at my last post and provide some advice?

TheDudeIsHere

In the last 20 years, we have had, all name brand quality bikes, no dept store stuff:

3 mountain bikes.
2 hybrids
2 tandems
8 road bikes

Still have 7 of those all perfectly functioning and running well and often. Not into keeping junkers around.

I'm not sure, maybe I'll have to get one more road bike before I croak!

I-Like-To-Bike

Buy low, sell high.

Phil_gretz

My advice? Depending on your age, focus your resources on saving (first), and then investing (second). Learn to do the math to determine what kind of income you'll need in your retirement years, and how you'll get there with your own assets, not the Government's payback.

Then, once you have a solid plan that you're following, you can begin consuming with what's left over. Set a price point, save and buy with cash. Buy as good a bike at the price point as you can, and make absolutely certain that it fits you correctly. Then ride a lot.

J.Higgins 

Oh I'll never say "my last bike" ever. I have some bikes that are keepers forever, but everything else is in flux. I'll be playing with bikes until my dying day.

indyfabz

"Fear? That's the other guy's problem."--Louis Winthorpe, III

delbiker1 

"I will buy no more bikes forever!"

ramzilla

I've got at least 1/2 a dozen last bikes out in the garage right now. They are all for sale. Whenever I get rid of one another one magically shows up.

Rollfast

When you say that I have to ask if you are terminally ill. When you die you won't be buying anymore bikes or parts.

J.Higgins 

...unless you set up a trust.

BookFinder 

Haven't said that about bicycles, but I did say on at least one occasion "this will be the last motorcycle I ever buy."

That was 5 motorcycles ago. I've not yet heard the end of it from my wife and daughters.

Now that I can see the end of motorcycling on the horizon, I find myself watching craigslist for bicycles...

Holy cow - I started watching CL at least a half-dozen bikes ago!

At least I've not protested to my wife and made an issue of it!

livedarklions

I just bought my last bike.... for this year.

Wegrzyn

Agreed. I tell my wife there are a lot worse addictions. It works sometimes.

BookFinder 

Absolutely. For example, if you calculate the price of a fully outfitted fishing boat (live wells, 2-way radio, sonar, etc), licenses, gear and tackle, bait and other stuff, and then divide that by the number of fish it takes to feed your family a meal, it is discouraging!

By comparison, and unless one buys a new $5,000 plus bicycle and all of the supporting gear every year, bicycling is relatively cheap.

I feel better already!

biketampa

I’ve got 4 bikes now and 3 get ridden with some frequency. The mountain bike gets ridden the least of the 4. The tri bike about 6 months of the year. The gravel and road bikes get ridden throughout the year. My likely future path is to get rid of the road and gravel bike and switch to one all around bike for gravel and road. I could do that with my existing gravel bike but it’s quite heavy and I’d rather have an all arounder that is titanium or carbon fiber.

J.Higgins 

Absolutely brilliant comparison, @BookFinder!

When I was in college, I did an accounting paper on the purchase of a brand new Ranger bass boat. Factoring in all of the payments, interest, and expenses for the life of the loan, first annually and then PER USE, it was a phenomenally high amount of cash every time you took it out. You almost had to use it every weekend, because if you took a weekend off to do something different, that figure grew.

We could all buy $5000 bikes, and unless we're spending weekends hopping B&B's with them, the per use expense is very low.

indyfabz

Heh. Back in the mid-90s someone gave me a ticket to the indoor boat show in Philly. I remember looking at financing options, doing some rough math in my head and being amazed at how much you would be paying on a $20,000 boat over the life of the loan.

Koyote

After decades of owning boats, my wife's uncle got rid of 'em and joined a boat share in Florida: he pays a monthly fee, plus a charge each time a boat is used. And has none of the hassle of maintenance, gassing them up, storing them, etc. I once asked him: how many times do you have to go boating each month for this to be financially smarter than owning your own boat? His answer: .5

Wegrzyn

Granted you can spend as much or as little as you want on any hobby. However you can get close to pro level cycling equipment at sometimes reasonable prices.

rydabent

Excellent point I have been trying to make for years. Unless you are filthy rich, go for the mid price bike, or anything else for that matter. Cheap is cheap but as you start going up you reach a mid point to where you are only buying a name and snobbery.

BlazingPedals

My "last bike" refers to my most recent purchase. It in no way implies an end of the sequence.