When is it time to retire a bike instead or repairing it?

  • Thecornershop@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    I’m really bad at letting go of bikes, but I’m also bloody good at getting new ones. That means I have around 12 fully working bikes in my garage, and could likely build up a couple more from the various bits and pieces I can bring myself to let go of.

    That might sound shallow, consumerist or like I have no restraint or discipline, but it’s actually quite the opposite. I form really strong bonds with every bike i’ve ever had, and I can’t bring myself to sell them or move them on.

    A bicycle is something really special in the human experience, it is transport, it is sport, it is recreation, it provides a moving meditation, health benefits, it save money, it’s the most energy efficient form of movement know in the animal kingdom. They allow a freedom and self actualisation that almost nothing else in adult life can.

    They transcend categorisation and provide more to the person that rides them than anything I can type can describe.

    They’re also just fucking fun.

    Keep the bike, but don’t let it stop you from getting a new bike. Turn this one into a commuter, a pub bike, a bike for special occasionally rides, poach parts off it for other bikes, eventually hand the frame on the wall of your garage so you can remember all the great times you shared.