Peter's Ranting: In defense of cheap bikes and casual cyclists.

In defense of cheap, used bikes and casual cyclists.

Before we start, I wanna stress that cheap is relative. You can buy a perfectly functional used bike for $50. You can also walk into a bike shop and buy a $15,000 carbon super bike. You can also find bikes at any price point in between, so keep in mind that I use the word "cheap" very loosely.

I like bicycles for the same reasons most cyclists do. I like the feeling of freedom, of making my own power. I like the thrill of watching competitions at the highest level. I like that bicycles are great for fitness. I like being friendly to the environment. But the thing I find most fascinating about cycling is how accessible and adaptable it is as a concept. Cycling can be anything to anyone. They can be a utilitarian tool, a deep and complex sport, or part of an active social life among other things.

The aspect of cycling that gets the most exposure in marketing is obviously the competitive side. Competition is what drives bike companies to develop new technology to make bikes fast, lighter, stronger, or whatever they so choose. Building hype for the latest SRAM Eagle drivetrain or whatever sells bikes, keeps the industry healthy, and makes lots of cyclists drool over the latest and greatest before emptying their wallets on the most high end parts they can afford in the pursuit of going that little bit faster. Some of those people race their bikes and genuinely need the best parts to keep up with the pace. From my experience, however, most cyclists don't need anything super modern or super high end. By that, I'm definitely not saying that most cyclists aren't good enough for top shelf bikes. Any cyclist can have a the time of their life on a high end bike regardless of their skill level. What I'm saying is that bicycles in general are amazing machines and older or less expensive bikes still do their job really, really well.

Bicycles have been around for a long time. Starley's Safety Bicycle made the conventional shape of the bicycle commercially successful in 1885. Dunlop invented the pneumatic tire as we know it in 1887. TIG welding was perfected in 1941. The principles behind the bike have been tried and true for a long, long time. I see bikes as old as my grandparents that still work perfectly fine. That used bike from 10 years ago will still ride great as long as it was well maintained. That new bike that costs a quarter as much as your dream bike will still be a great bike if you take care of it.

For the most part, I believe there's no such thing as a bad bike. I do, however, believe that people should seek to educate themselves before buying a bike because you get what you pay for. A lot of people see bikes as cheap and disposable so they buy the cheapest bike possible from a department store. They think bikes are disposable because the ones they buy are literally disposable. The $99 Walmart special is only designed to last a year or two so the bikes work exactly as intended. Walmart wants to sell everyone a new bike every year. For that same $100 or so, the same customer could look at the brands available at  the local bike shop to see what brands are good, then proceed to buy a used, good quality bicycle. Even if they then pay $75 every year for a tune up (which can be avoided with a little effort), it's still cheaper than buying a new bike for $100 every year and the brand name bike will almost always be more pleasant to ride. Even for someone who doesn't describe themselves as a cyclists, it's just good sense to look into options like this before buying a bike. The same applies to cyclists who only want brand new, brand name bikes. Someone looking for a good, reliable road bike for club rides and fitness might want a carbon bike and Dura-Ace components but might actually be better off with an Ultegra or 105 level group set on an aluminum frame. Carbon frames are amazingly reliable these days but aluminum frames are also really good while being much more affordable. The current Dura-Ace or other top end group sets feature electronic shifting which is an absolute joy to play with but cost a fortune. A slightly lower level cable operated group set might not be as awesome but it will still offer amazing performance and possibly better reliability at a much lower cost.  Thanks to the trickle-down effect, mid range bikes right now are using technology that was at the top level less than ten years ago so buying the "best" isn't always the right option.

I say all this not just from the point of view of a guy who's wasted too many years working in a bike shop but also from the point of view of a guy who got into cycling with a budget of zero. I started playing with bikes when my dad found a chrome 24" BMX cruiser in the garbage and brought it home. I spent a couple years buying cheap bikes off Kijiji and from garage sales, stripping them for parts, and building frankenbikes (or Crankenstein's monsters) to learn about bikes and discover what I liked. Working on cheap bikes did a lot to help my confidence while riding the bikes. Because I understood the details of how my bike worked, I felt more comfortable with it, like it trusted it more. When I wanted to get more serious about cycling, I chose to focus on BMX because good, used bikes were cheap. I still buy my BMX bikes used. The resale value on BMX bikes is noticeably lower than other bikes that retail for the same price so a 5 year old bike that's built with expensive, brand name parts can cost as little as a new entry level bike. I enjoy doing tricks on the bikes but I also enjoy riding them like normal bicycles. They're not the most ergonomic bikes but they're quick and reliable as urban bikes for the same reasons that Fixies make great urban bikes. They're solidly built, affordable, and have very few unnecessary components to break. They're just great minimalist bikes.

While I still love my BMX bikes, they're not the most popular style of bike among most of the cyclists I know. To spend more time riding with my friends and to get more involved with the local scene, I picked up a used mountain bike last year. It was a Jamis Durango, but make and model are irrelevant here. What matters is that it cost me $200 and it's a 26" wheeled aluminum hard tail mountain bike. It had 3x9 gearing, a Manitou coil fork, and cable operated disc brakes when I got it. It honestly did great. It stopped, pedaled, and shifted nicely and didn't really need any changes. When I did eventually change it, I only upgraded parts after I crashed and broke them because more modern parts are affordable. When the drivetrain got stuffed into some rocks, upgrading to 10 speed was only marginally more expensive than using new versions of the old parts. Basic hydraulic brakes from Shimano actually cost less than a mechanical brake from Avid when the time came. When Dan didn't have a bike, I sold it to him as a great first mountain bike. When he took over the bike, he upgraded the fork and wheels not because he needed to, but because it was easy for him to find a fantastic deal on used 26" components. When all is said and done, between the two of us, we've spent about the price of a new hard tail mountain bike with 3x9 gearing but the end result is a bike with 1x10 gearing, hydraulic brakes, a Rockshox Pike, and a dropper post. Well worth the effort in my opinion.

When I sold my old mountain bike to Dan earlier this year, I decided to buy a new one. I work still work at the local bike shop so the price I paid is irrelevant. What matters is that bike shops have access to more bikes than they can possibly stock, including any leftover bikes that the distributor has from the previous model year. I ordered a Rocky Mountain Fusion 940 from last year and because it was on sale at the distributor, it was on sale for me as a customer. Anyone can do the same thing and most bike shops will be happy to help because the discount on old bikes can be passed on to the customer without cutting into the shops margin. It's a win-win if you don't see a bike that suits you in stock at the shop. When I was deciding what bike to get, I really wanted to get one of the Rocky Mountain Vertex models but they were all out of my price range. I settled for the Fusion, a mid range model, and I haven't regretted it. I don't race the bike but I push it pretty hard. I like jumping it, making it drop off thing, going over rough things, all the stuff you wouldn't expect a recreational level bike to handle. I've put slightly wider tires on and changed the bar for one with different angles for comfort but I haven't had to change anything else. I've barely had to do maintenance on it and I was expecting to have to give it a lot of work. I got the bike in the spring and after a summer of abuse, I've only recently had to true the wheels and adjust the derailleurs for the first time, and the brakes still work like new.  I'm truly impressed with the capability of what is a "cheap bike" by the standards of today's bike industry.

If you're looking for a good, reliable, fast, and fun bicycle, you get what you pay for but you don't need anything like the modern breed of competition level bikes. Cycling author Eben Weiss, AKA The Bike Snob, compared buying a bike to buying a pet. Sure you can get a pure bred that costs a fortune, but for the most part, it would probably be best to adopt. Like pets, there are plenty of bikes that need homes and someone to care for them. Once they have that, all parties involved are usually happy and will stick around for a long time. If you can't adopt a bike, don't look for a specific bike, look for a bike shop where you feel comfortable, one you can trust. Bike shops provide services that enhance cycling like free service or custom fitting, which makes the price of brand name bikes well worth it if you don't want to work on your own bikes. If you do work on your own bikes, a good bike shop can be an amazing resource for information that you might not be able to find online. Finding a friendly shop where you're happy to bring your bike is much more important than exactly which bike you get or how much your bike costs.

So whatever kind of bike you ride or you're looking to buy, don't feel pressured to use your bike any specific way. It's your bike so experiment on it, find what works well for you. Older or less expensive bikes can still be amazing machines, so you probably don't have to spend big money to enjoy cycling.