Cycling on a shoestring

[Gravity Aided]

I would also agree. Pawn shop, also helpful when my truck died right before a work week and I had to ride a bike to work, no other alternative. I got good money for some film based photographic gear, got good bike 1 and 2, and kept on working . A good thing to have 2 bikes for commuting, even if it just means you don't have to fix that overnight flat tire before work. True, you have twice the maintenance, but also twice the reliability.

 

[slowmotion]

1) Eat porridge for breakfast. It stops snacking

2) Learn how to do basic servicing and when you can't...............

3) for God's Sake don't use CycleSurgery, Shepherds Bush to adjust your front derailler

 

[palinurus]

1) Eat porridge for breakfast. It stops snacking

This doesn't seem to work for me. My capacity to eat stuff at my desk and then fill up on leftover buffet food probably disgusts my colleagues.

2 & 3 seem like good advice tho'

 

[Arfcollins]

My Aldi winter trousers and base layer top and tights are on their 3rd winter.

I bought 2 pairs of Aldi cycle shorts about 10 years ago and they are only just reaching the point of needing replacing. But Aldi's specifications do change, and I'm not sure they make them like that any more.

 

[MattDB]

This doesn't seem to work for me. My capacity to eat stuff at my desk and then fill up on leftover buffet food probably disgusts my colleagues.

2 & 3 seem like good advice tho'

Left over buffet food saves money though!

 

[Tynan]

ride the bike until the offending part fails, it's amazing how many months you can squeeze out of parts that seem about to fail

I rode a front wheel with rims so worn that they exploded (scaring some armed coppers a lot)

I regularly eke out brake blocks until metal on metal

I'm almost certain the bottom bracket is about to fail at the moment, and I very think the freewheel is on the way out, i stopped on a ride home late at night because the drive train was spinning freely, i actually turned it with my hands, after getting back on and wiggling a bit it caught again and off I went, now it seems like something I imagined

point being when you think you've pushed something to the limit but can't or won't buy the new bit, keep and you'll get months more riding, it might not even fail when you're doing 20mph+ and your money will go much much further

I well remember having wheels rebuilt a few years back just because they were getting noticeably worn, the LBS is terrified to look at my bike now

But it still goes (doesn't always stop as quickly as it should mind)

 

[Gravity Aided]

Parts failure could cause injury or worse. Or at least a long walk home.

 

[summerdays]

ride the bike until the offending part fails, it's amazing how many months you can squeeze out of parts that seem about to fail

I rode a front wheel with rims so worn that they exploded (scaring some armed coppers a lot)

I regularly eke out brake blocks until metal on metal

I'm almost certain the bottom bracket is about to fail at the moment, and I very think the freewheel is on the way out, i stopped on a ride home late at night because the drive train was spinning freely, i actually turned it with my hands, after getting back on and wiggling a bit it caught again and off I went, now it seems like something I imagined

point being when you think you've pushed something to the limit but can't or won't buy the new bit, keep and you'll get months more riding, it might not even fail when you're doing 20mph+ and your money will go much much further

I well remember having wheels rebuilt a few years back just because they were getting noticeably worn, the LBS is terrified to look at my bike now

But it still goes (doesn't always stop as quickly as it should mind)

I just can't do that, I hate feeling that the bike isn't trust worthy, my main one is making a horrible sound at the moment, and I stupidly decided to book it in for a service in half term, and they said it was fine to ride till then, but the trust is gone, i have riden it a couple of times but avoided pulling on the rear brake at all! Mostly I'm just using my spare bike instead so I may as well have booked it in sooner!

I often wonder whether there is still enough life left in the components that someone else would still find a use for them. I have a number of old tyres for example that I have replaced when they got to the point where the fairy would start paying me the occasional visit, yet I bet others wouldn't mind and would get another 6 months or more out of them.

I hope that makes sense, I don't have a problem others doing it but I always give in and replace items sooner if I think it makes the bike unsafe. Somehow I have to feel it's reliable. That said I run disk brake pads into the ground as I don't notice when they need replacing!

 

[ColinJ]

I rode a front wheel with rims so worn that they exploded (scaring some armed coppers a lot)

I regularly eke out brake blocks until metal on metal

I don't think those two statements are entirely unrelated!

 

[Tynan]

indeed not, the pin on one of the blocks had scored a line into one side of the rim and it cracked on that

I might still be riding on that wheel now if the wear had been even

one hell of bang though, none of the coppers drew a firearm but they sure as hell thought about it for a second, until they saw me trying to stop from quite fast with about a quarter of the edge of the rim flapping about between brake and fork (and the front brakes all of a sudden not working as well as before)

 

[ColinJ]

indeed not, the pin on one of the blocks had scored a line into one side of the rim and it cracked on that

I might still be riding on that wheel now if the wear had been even

one hell of bang though, none of the coppers drew a firearm but they sure as hell thought about it for a second, until they saw me trying to stop from quite fast with about a quarter of the edge of the rim flapping about between brake and fork (and the front brakes all of a sudden not working as well as before)

I confess to having gone for the cheapskate brake block replacement policy on my first mountain bike. Having done the same as you and destroyed a rim, I decided that it would be a lot cheaper and safer to replace the blocks before my wheels went pop!

 

[MattDB]

To me, cycling on a shoestring would mean replacing things at some optimum point between unnecessarily soon, and when they start to damage things. Saying that I just had a chain snap on me, but I do get what you mean and I'm amazed at people who seem to be cycling problem-free on a bike they've never done a thing to!

 

[MattDB]

1) Eat porridge for breakfast. It stops snacking

2) Learn how to do basic servicing and when you can't...............

3) for God's Sake don't use CycleSurgery, Shepherds Bush to adjust your front derailler

What happens at CycleSurgery??

 

[ColinJ]

What happens at CycleSurgery??

I would hazard a guess that perhaps they do unspeakable things to front derailleurs?

 

[shadow master]

Buy top the most expensive cycling shorts on offer,they work out cheaper in the long run!
Example £59.99 decathlon shorts,not very good pad poor comfort after 1 year of use sold on eBay for £10.
A loss of £49.99 and product was not that good.
Rapha shorts £150 top performance,very comfortable.sold 2 years later on eBay for £100 same loss but twice the use and had the benefit of the best product. Cheapest product nearly always mean poorest performance and virtually complete loss as they have no perceived second hand value.