Pondering About the Cost of Bicycle Parts is a Really Boring Title, but Accurate.

As I was reading a recent Yehuda Moon strip, I felt a strange resonance.

Not the resonance that I drive anywhere in a $40k SUV, because I don't, but the comparison in costs.

For those of us who commute regularly by bicycle, we have minimal maintenance costs, but they do occasionally pop up. Tires, tubes (I direct you to a recent rant), lube, chains, cables etc.. do wear out or break, and need replacing. 

When that would happen, I would feel a pang of guilt and anxiety about needing to spend money on my bicycle to replace whatever needed replacing. But if the car needed an oil change, new tires, engine work, or more frequently, gas, there would be less guilt and anxiety because we of course need the car to get around!

I don't know why I had the disconnect in thinking that my maintenance costs and repairs were superfluous, but for the car they were not. Yes, my commute could be done by a car, but that would increase maintenance costs for the car, and other intangible costs, such as pollution and my waistline. 

Yesterday, I took the folding bike (review forthcoming) out for the commute. It was lightly snowing, and the roads were wet. Needless to say, I arrived to work with a soggy bum. A quick visit to the river in South America, and a pair of fenders are swiftly making their way to me. This time, I didn't think of the purchase as a frivolous whim, but instead as a necessity, and guess what? The guilt wasn't there.