Frugal Bicycle Thread

Great post! Thank you for finding all of this information. The electrc bike conversion is now in the works.

I cannot live without a car, minivan, and my bike collection. And it would be really harsh biking 28 miles to work in all kinds of weather. A car is a must, especially if your a working professional.

If you're talking frugal bikers - I often think about those poor people in Chicago using a thrift store special bike for transportation. Like an old 80's to 90's road bike.

A car is not a must; it is a luxury. Always has been, always will be. I can ride 31 miles to work, put in my full day and ride the 31 miles home. I won't say it is easy or that it doesn't take a long time, only that it can be done if one has to or wants to badly enough.

Heck, without the car, I could find a job closer to home, making less per hour of work and still come out ahead. Unfortunately, my priorities are still a shambles, so I won't... yet.

You can't ride a bike on the highway to work in most places.

batjerk said:

A car is not a must; it is a luxury. Always has been, always will be. I can ride 31 miles to work, put in my full day and ride the 31 miles home. I won't say it is easy or that it doesn't take a long time, only that it can be done if one has to or wants to badly enough.

Heck, without the car, I could find a job closer to home, making less per hour of work and still come out ahead. Unfortunately, my priorities are still a shambles, so I won't... yet.

Reminded me of an American Indian saying I once heard:

Modern man works at a job,
so that he can pay people,
to do the things,
he doesn't have time to do,
because he is working.

It's rather simplistic, but thought provoking as well.

JTE83 said:

You can't ride a bike on the highway to work in most places.

That really depends on what you mean by "can't" and "highway".

I will presume that by "can't" you mean that it is unlawful to do so. I will also presume that by "highway" you mean a limited access highway such as the Eisenhower Interstate Highway system.

If I have presumed correctly, you are quite correct, it is unlawful to operate a bicycle on a limited access highway. If you are referring to a State Route, a trunk highway, a county road, or city street simply having a posted speed limit somewhat higher than is typical for a residential area, you are quite mistaken; it is perfectly lawful to operate a bicycle on all public roads, save those designated as "limited access", easily identified as being free from road level intersections and interchanges only in certain locations.

If you meant what I have presumed, then it still does not make a car necessary. A car is still a luxury item: it is possible to get wherever you are going without using a limited access highway. If you did not mean as I have presumed, you were simply mistaken and a car is still a luxury item.

I only know that's it's illegal to ride a bike on the Chicago highways. If you can take a cross country trip by bike using the highway it would be great, but chances are high you'd get run over. And mostly, I've never seen a biker on the highway except once here in Texas.

Well, I heard the traffic is really bad in the Los Angeles highways. It would be great if you could bike the LA highways by the side instead and zoom past traffic. Anyone know if this is true.

The only "limited acess" highway I've seen that it is legal to cycle on is I-40 in southern California.

I have to guess that when you say highway, you are referring to the Interstate Highway System.

Check out kenkifer.combikepagesOpen ↗, you can see that he had made several cross country trips using the highways. Again, it is only illegal to cycle on the limited access highways. All others are fair game. There is always an alternate route to the limited access highways, with the exception of that stretch of I-40 in SoCal, maybe. That would be the only reason I can think of for that freeway to be open to bicycles.

If any given roadway is the only route between two points, it has to be open to all forms of traffic. Everyone has a right to the roadways with the exception of motorists. Operating a motor vehicle is a privilege extended to you by the state; it is not a right. Unfortunately, there are too many motorists who are either stupid or ignorant and don't see it that way. They are, therefore, dangerous and should be prohibited from operating their motor vehicles on public roads.

JTE83 said:

I cannot live without a car, minivan, and my bike collection. And it would be really harsh biking 28 miles to work in all kinds of weather. A car is a must, especially if your a working professional.

If you're talking frugal bikers - I often think about those poor people in Chicago using a thrift store special bike for transportation. Like an old 80's to 90's road bike.

There is nothing wrong with riding 80's or 90's road bikes, and there are some excellent bikes from those years to be found in thrift stores.

A car is not a must for a working professional if all they do is go from home to office and home again - I will agree a car is necessary if they spend large amounts of the day out of the office visiting clients.

JTE83:

1. I'd hazzard a guess that about 95% of the time there's a side road with almost no traffic that can take the place of a highway.

2. You can get fully covered recumbents - meaning the weather wouldn't affect you in these much more than they would in your car.

matagi said:

I will agree a car is necessary if they spend large amounts of the day out of the office visiting clients.

I will concede that point. I never claim that corporate autos are not necessary. I wouldn't want to be without shipping, either! My point was only that privately held automobiles are a luxury item. It is only our present culture that makes them seem more necessary than they are.

batjerk said:

I will concede that point. I never claim that corporate autos are not necessary. I wouldn't want to be without shipping, either! My point was only that privately held automobiles are a luxury item. It is only our present culture that makes them seem more necessary than they are.

actually, I was hoping that this would be a thread detailing which new lower end bikes seem to have the best quality...