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Who's bike is more valuable than their car?

3K views 40 replies 27 participants last post by  meatsteak 
#1 ·
I bought my wife a new car and now driving her old Expedition. The only thing green about it is the color of the paint, but it makes a great Turner bike hauler with room to spare. Since the gas price spike these massive gas guzzlers are worth nothing. My latest trip to Autotrader.com told me my mechanically perfect hauler is worth $2100 - Ouch!
 

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#27 ·
Cool thread, but why do people quote the street (real) value for the vehicles and the top-dollar, no-one's-ever-going-to-pay-that price for the bikes???

For me, my 5 bikes (FR, XC, bmx, speed bike, city cruiser) totaled up are probably even in value to my car, in real money.
 
#28 ·
Don't own a car? How do you do it?

6thElement said:
I currently own 5 bikes and no car, so even my cheap $250 commuter is worth more than my $0 car.
I've continually owned a car or truck or both since...well, a previous century. Do you walk to the corner store? Ride your bike or bus out of town to get to trails? I would love to have a lifestyle where I didn't need a vehicle but right now that's really a foreign concept. How do you do it?
 
#29 ·
Living in a city with mass transit and bike paths everywhere rocks. Hell, we even have our own traffic lights for bikes.

My perspective changed because in the US, I'd drive to the the store nearby instead of walking a perfectly walkable distance in only a few minutes. When/if I return to the US, it will be with the intent of using a bike as transport as much as possible. The only issue is bike thefts and lack of places to chain them up. Out here, there are bike stalls just about everywhere.

Our car can sit sometimes for a month or more without use, but we tend to use it for practicality, such as grocery shopping. We make up for the lack of use by frequent cross-country trips to visit family or vacations.

For example, if one goes to Zurich, Switzerland, it actually sucks having a car there. The tram, train, and bus service is so extensive, one really doesn't need a car. In fact, when I visited, I parked my car in a nearby suburban town and used public transit. Dresden is somewhat similar, along with having extensive bike paths, including one along the Elbe river that joins cities and eventually goes even somehow into the Czech Republic. One must think of it as an autobahn for bikes. We took it to a nearby city today. It was quite fun.
 
#30 ·
Jerk_Chicken said:
Living in a city with mass transit and bike paths everywhere rocks. Hell, we even have our own traffic lights for bikes.

My perspective changed because in the US, I'd drive to the the store nearby instead of walking a perfectly walkable distance in only a few minutes. When/if I return to the US, it will be with the intent of using a bike as transport as much as possible. The only issue is bike thefts and lack of places to chain them up. Out here, there are bike stalls just about everywhere.

Our car can sit sometimes for a month or more without use, but we tend to use it for practicality, such as grocery shopping. We make up for the lack of use by frequent cross-country trips to visit family or vacations.

For example, if one goes to Zurich, Switzerland, it actually sucks having a car there. The tram, train, and bus service is so extensive, one really doesn't need a car. In fact, when I visited, I parked my car in a nearby suburban town and used public transit. Dresden is somewhat similar, along with having extensive bike paths, including one along the Elbe river that joins cities and eventually goes even somehow into the Czech Republic. One must think of it as an autobahn for bikes. We took it to a nearby city today. It was quite fun.
I can picture having enough mass transit around departing and arriving frequently enough as to make it convenient to use. I can picture corner stores close enough to walk to. I can even picture bike friendly bike lanes. The reality where I live is the complete opposite. Just shlepping groceries from the store (only a 10 minute traffic dodge away) would suck. Living in downtown Denver? Well...the real trails are at least a 30 minute drive away, who has time to ride for an hour just to get to the trailhead?

Is it that it's just completely different over where you live JC and I guess 6thElement so it's all easily possible? For me, envisioning a car-free existence and the reality of it are polar opposites...but I can dream.
 
#31 ·
Well, I'm only in Europe for half a year now. Despite crazy traffic, one thing is it's still safer here, as encounters with cars looking to teach me a lesson as a cyclist on their roadway. That's the only reason I had a problem with biking. That, and the asswipe manager of the place I worked in the US thought he could punish our department by making it very difficult and unreasonable to bike to work, a distance so short, it would only take 5 minutes more by bike.
 
#32 ·
nickhart said:
hey greenlight that truck's bigger than our street! here in the uk we see some ram's but more commonly they're surrounded by ewes........

i'll get me coat.....
:D yes, it's Texas sized. It would not have been easy to get around in Germany (when I lived there) with this thing, however, no regrets buying it. I'd wanted one for 10+ years and it gets much better fuel economy than the SUV it replaced - plus, the longevity it'll give me means all the money I save not making a car payment, can go towards biking stuff and building wealth - in that order :idea: .
 
#33 ·
Dude, while it's odd to think they would be out here, there are more than just a few Dodge Ram trucks I've seen here, with several very close to where I live. Don't know why, how they get parts and repairs, but whatever floats their boats. There's even a guy around the block with a Chevy Impala (square body) from about 1980 or before (I grew up with one that was a wagon) in the same gold color our family wagon was. Perfect condition. In fact, I see lots of odd cars I would never think I'd see here.

Hey, while I got you on the horn, did you ever follow the advice on the hub bearings? How are they treating you?
 
#34 ·
Jerk_Chicken said:
Does that apply to cars brought from out of the country? I noted some Danes come down to DE to buy cars, and people from DE go to NL and to Au to get their cars a bit cheaper.
It applies to imported cars as well :-( I think the reason many danes buy cars in Germany is that compared to DK the cars are in better shape and with less miles on them

Kasper
 
#35 ·
xcguy said:
I've continually owned a car or truck or both since...well, a previous century. Do you walk to the corner store? Ride your bike or bus out of town to get to trails? I would love to have a lifestyle where I didn't need a vehicle but right now that's really a foreign concept. How do you do it?
How? I did it for many years with a cargo bike and one bike for each family member (except me of course I always have more bikes than the rest of them together)

The cargo bike hauled groceries and our smallest daughter from daycare. The big girls has ridden their own bikes in the city of Copenhagen (Denmark) since they were 8 or 9. Before you judge me on letting them do so you should know that Copenhagen is the most bikefriendly city there is. Period :) See this post https://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=100136. And of course they werent let alone on the streets when they were 8

As far as MTBing goes I DO envy all your mountains, scenery and wilderness but that said my trails starts in the woods 15 km away from my doorstep and I live in the center of Copenhagen. Getting there is no problem its on bikepath seperated from other traffic all the way. If you feel lazy or its cold or windy I just take a train -all our trains takes bikes and they leave every 20 minutes 500m from my doorstep

So for me it worked and still does but thats because I live where I do. I only use the car when the entire family needs to go out of town -we have four children so I think I qualify for a car ;-) Evereyday groceries and picking up kids is still done with the cargobike or they transport themselves on their own bikes. The big girls are 12 and 14 now and pretty much goes everywhere they wanna go on their bikes

Cheers - Kasper

My old cargo bike (Yes! Thats a 2003 Turner 5-spot in it :))
 
#36 ·
Kasper said:
How? I did it for many years with a cargo bike and one bike for each family member (except me of course I always have more bikes than the rest of them together)

The cargo bike hauled groceries and our smallest daughter from daycare. The big girls has ridden their own bikes in the city of Copenhagen (Denmark) since they were 8 or 9. Before you judge me on letting them do so you should know that Copenhagen is the most bikefriendly city there is. Period :) See this post https://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=100136. And of course they werent let alone on the streets when they were 8

As far as MTBing goes I DO envy all your mountains, scenery and wilderness but that said my trails starts in the woods 15 km away from my doorstep and I live in the center of Copenhagen. Getting there is no problem its on bikepath seperated from other traffic all the way. If you feel lazy or its cold or windy I just take a train -all our trains takes bikes and they leave every 20 minutes 500m from my doorstep

So for me it worked and still does but thats because I live where I do. I only use the car when the entire family needs to go out of town -we have four children so I think I qualify for a car ;-) Evereyday groceries and picking up kids is still done with the cargobike or they transport themselves on their own bikes. The big girls are 12 and 14 now and pretty much goes everywhere they wanna go on their bikes

Cheers - Kasper

My old cargo bike (Yes! Thats a 2003 Turner 5-spot in it :))
Kasper, you're living "La Vida Buena".
 
#37 ·
Jerk_Chicken said:
Dresden is somewhat similar, along with having extensive bike paths, including one along the Elbe river that joins cities and eventually goes even somehow into the Czech Republic. One must think of it as an autobahn for bikes. We took it to a nearby city today. It was quite fun.
They must have put some thought in to the bike/transit system when rebuilding it after WWII. I understand there was little to nothing left at the time?
 
#38 ·
"They", being the Soviets? When did you know of the Soviets to have done anything?

Hah, we still have dirt sidewalks in many places. No one knows or questions where the Reunification Tax is going. There's a lot more that needs to be done to improve the infrastructure. It's extensive, but well thought out is questionable, especially since old and new parts of the city had to be merged and connected.
 
#39 ·
Travis Bickle said:
I remember back on the late 90's an old Ford Tempo parked at the trailhead. This car was so beat that insteat of a roo rack it had bike mounts bolted directly to the roof and trunk. I didn't see the bike but am pretty sure it was worth more than the Tempo.
I've seen this too. A French-Canadian guy came down south for the winter in a Ford Pinto with a front skewer mount bolted directly to the roof and a 6" section of tire rail bolted where the rear tire goes with a piece of nylon strap he tied to hold the rear wheel in place. I would have upgraded to velcro.
 
#40 ·
xcguy said:
I've continually owned a car or truck or both since...well, a previous century. Do you walk to the corner store? Ride your bike or bus out of town to get to trails? I would love to have a lifestyle where I didn't need a vehicle but right now that's really a foreign concept. How do you do it?
I live in NYC, so the store I use for groceries is a 5 minute walk away (corner shop is about 70 yards). If it's dry I commute to work via bike, takes about 20 minutes, otherwise the subway takes about the same time.

To get to decent MTB trails takes about an hour, so riding on dirt is generally confined to the weekends. To get to the parks I'll take the train, roughly a 35-60 minute journey depending on where I'm riding, with a couple of miles ride the other end to reach the park. During the week I'll stick to riding on the road, unless a friend with car is doing in a night ride, in which case I'll grab a lift. Same principle for other parks which aren't easily accessible via train, plenty of people have cars to grab a lift from and just give them some gas money.
 
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