New Bike or Old?

Winter is not kind to bicycles. The dirty, salty water that gets splashed all over them at that time of year turns clean bikes into ones that looks like filthy, derelict wrecks. Every spring, when I take my bike in to the shop for general maintenance, I’m given a list of parts that need to be replaced after the winter. And often it is suggested to me that I might as well buy a new bike because the repair costs are so high. As much as I’d enjoy having a new bicycle, I don’t think this is a good financial strategy.

I quite like my bike. It has served me well over the years. But aside from the frame, it doesn’t have many of its original parts left. If I were to tally the cost of all the replacement parts I have ever put on it, I would end up with an amount that would more than cover the cost of a new bike. The people at the bike shop suggest I get a new bike in part because they don’t think it is wise to spend so much on an old bike. They are also thinking of all the money I have already put into it. (And of course they’d like to sell me a bike...)

But that is applying old-car thinking to old bicycles. Car owners know that when a car reaches a certain age, a decision will have to be made about whether to pay for an expensive repair or sell the car. With old cars, selling rather than repairing often makes financial sense. Do you want to replace the transmission of an older car when the car’s resale value is plummeting?

With bikes there are no hugely expensive repairs looming in the future that might persuade someone to buy a new bike to avoid having to pay for those repairs. A well-maintained and newly repaired older bike is almost like having a new one. So, for an annual maintenance expense that isn’t really all that much, I can have a bike that is almost like new. If I were to buy a new bike to avoid having to pay for repairs on my old one, those repairs would still have to be made after the same amount of time on the new bike. The end result would be that I would have a bike in the same condition as my old bike, generally, but would have pointlessly put out a large amount of money.

Of course there are other reasons for buying a new bike. I wouldn’t mind getting a lighter bike, or one with narrower tires. But repair costs won’t motivate me to buy a new bike.