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How did you buy your bike ???

19K views 244 replies 191 participants last post by  Mazukea 
#1 ·
For the most this is not a cheap hobby. A typical bike is about $400-$500 which can be just about a typical American's weekly salary for an entry bike, If you upgrade to 29er's, carbon or FS bikes they can be as expensive as 4-5k for a bike. People don't make that in a month. So with the cost of living going through the roof and our bills getting higher and higher. What type of funds did you use to buy your bike.


I charged mine to the "game" ... Visa game that is for my Giant 29er.
 
#23 ·
For years I have followed a couple rules to buying.

1) If it is a toy, you pay cash.
I have paid cash for every motor bike and bicycle I have ever owned.
Sure, the bike is an investment in your health, but a high dollar one is not a necessity.
So, if you can't afford a $3k bike with cash, then get a cheaper bike.
Plenty of good choices for $500 or less and if you can't save $500 then you shouldn't have a credit card.

2) Try and pay cash for anything that depreciates in value.
i.e. I pay cash for cars. I have done so for about 6 years.
I used to finance and just got to the point where I realized that is stupid.
Of course, I settle for what I need and not what I want when it comes to a car but I certainly like not having a car payment over my head and the freedom not owing on a car provides me.
However, if your wants take over, at minimum you never finance the taxes and dealer fees, and you should even pay down the depreciated value of the vehicle before signing on the loan.


Financing a bicycle is just foolish IMO.

BTW, I do not make a lot of money, I just budget myself.
 
#65 ·
For years I have followed a couple rules to buying.

1) If it is a toy, you pay cash.
I have paid cash for every motor bike and bicycle I have ever owned.
Sure, the bike is an investment in your health, but a high dollar one is not a necessity.
So, if you can't afford a $3k bike with cash, then get a cheaper bike.
Plenty of good choices for $500 or less and if you can't save $500 then you shouldn't have a credit card.

2) Try and pay cash for anything that depreciates in value.
i.e. I pay cash for cars. I have done so for about 6 years.
I used to finance and just got to the point where I realized that is stupid.
Of course, I settle for what I need and not what I want when it comes to a car but I certainly like not having a car payment over my head and the freedom not owing on a car provides me.
However, if your wants take over, at minimum you never finance the taxes and dealer fees, and you should even pay down the depreciated value of the vehicle before signing on the loan.

Financing a bicycle is just foolish IMO.

BTW, I do not make a lot of money, I just budget myself.
Very good philosophy. I don't like to buy with credit unless I have to or I get a balance transfer or card with 0% interest.
 
#43 ·
I've worked hard to be where I am in life today. I started a full time job the Monday after I graduated high school. While most of my friends fawked off all that summer and then left for college. Mommy and daddy didn't buy me a fancy car or pay for me to go to college. My adult life started Monday after high school and it was "sink or swim". Everything I have, I learned and I earned it the hard way.

18 years later I still work in the same industry. Im not ashamed to buy expensive things I can afford. Don't let the envy bug eat you alive, worry about yourself and what you can do. Live within your means, set goals and strive to accomplish them :)
 
#63 ·
All my bikes were purchased piece by piece and assembled / build by me so I never really feel the financial impact. Also, I already have a bunch of parts laying around from previous bikes and builds so when I start a new project, I use the existing parts to start the build. Then as I buy the parts I want (as opposed to the parts I have), I put them on. The parts I remove either to go upgrade an already existing bike I have or they're sold off to fund the next thing.

Case in point, the bike I just built -


This bike start out it's life in my household as a fully rigid singlespeed until I had all the parts I wanted for it (which is now how you see it). The parts I took off of it are going on my next build when it arrives (come on On One, HURRY UP!).
 
#76 ·
I basically buy some sort of bike part every month and have an inventory of goodies to apply to building up new frames as I need/want them. That wayI get the bikes I want with the parts I want and it's a fun hobby shopping for the stuff and figuring it all out. I've built my last 3 bikes this way and am in the process of building up a new one. I usually sell off the old frames or give them to friends/family.
 
#97 ·
This is what I did. Over the years I picked up "last year's stuff" for cheap. Have quite the stash (actually no need to buy more parts for a while). When I built up my Superlight a few years back, I gave my #2 HT to my dtr in law.

Bought the SL frame, fork, wheels and HS from my LBS for cash. The rest from my stash.
 
#154 ·
I have a unique way of getting the bikes I want. I work full time for the Army and have 5 kids. I am in no way well off. I don't go into debt for bikes and I really like nice bikes.

So, I got a "job" with the local bike shop. I work two hours in the evening Mon-Thurs and 9 hours on Friday. My weekends are mine. I get a great shop discount and the hours I work are credited towards any purchase I want to make in the shop.

In the last year I've picked up a Giant Anthem Advanced X29er 0, a Giant TCX 2 cyclocross bike, tons of parts/clothing and nutritionals. I even get to ride any of the demo bikes anytime I'd like.

I basically feel like a crack whore working for the dealer to get the fix I need. Love it!
 
#4 ·
I bought the ancestor of mine on a 'pro deal' through the shop I worked at about 14 years ago. It was about half a month's salary at the time. I had taken a line of credit to buy a computer and spent half on the computer, half on the bike. I paid off the line of credit with student loans when I started college. I still pay on my student loans. I've since swapped out items piece by piece using my monthly income, including the frame and all that remains of the original bike is the right shifter and the rear derailler.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Bought my Stumpy by charging it (as I do for most big purchases) and then subsequently paying it off the next month. You are assuming a lot of people don't make $4-5K/month, but plenty of folks do...or more! The weekly salary you figure is ~$26K a year...that is fairly low for a "typical" salary. Average annual income in the U.S. is somewhere around $45K last I saw. I should also that I have always helped my gear addiction by selling my old stuff to help buy new stuff. I have also bought used to save money and bought a lot of things when I worked at a shop in college and got a discount; I still have quite a bit of it!
 
#17 ·
Well I figure there are several people with low income jobs compared to more fortunate people with middle america income. Either way a Bike is still a big investment. Several people can make that before taxes but once uncle sam takes his cut your left with more pennies than nickels. Either way I am looking into getting a Trance X and the chunk its worth is a prettyyyy penny.
 
#6 ·
When I left my previous job, They'd gave me €1500,- extra money on reservations. I've sold my Haibike Edition RX hardtail for like €500,-, then I'd had enough cash to buy my dreambike, a Cube Stereo. But now, after 3 months, I discovered the big world of upgrading. Beautiful parts, but small wallet;).
 
#12 ·
Credit card for my most expensive bike, probably paid about $100 in interest on the $3,500 it cost as it took a few months. I didn't have the money at that moment, but I couldn't pass up the deal and I needed the bike.
All my other bikes ($3,300, $550, $750, $1,650) I paid with credit card for the protection and paid them off immediately after.
 
#149 ·
This. Been doing it that way since '03. Bought a full-suss Motobecane from BikesDirect that year, and had to pull the parts off it to put on a Pacific hardtail that crutched me through the last half of '04 -- the Moto frame BROKE, got no support or feedback. (That's why I'm so anti-BikesDirect....) '05 was the last year I bought a frame & parts that lasted less than 5 years.

'03 was also the last year I bought a complete bike; ever since, I've been building up my own mixes. (Guaranteed, no one else has an '06 Kona Coiler Supreme with Sun Equalizer wheels, a Nixon fork in urban camo, and an NC-17 riser bar clamped by an Evolve Sterling stem, with a Selle SMP Trk saddle....)
 
#19 ·
There aren't many things better when you are my age than they were 30 years ago, but one of them that is, for me at least, is when I decided I needed a new bike during 2012, money was not part of the decision criteria. I could get whatever I wanted for cash and not think twice about it. And that's what I did.
 
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