Budget Bicycling

What's this all about, then?

This is an experiment to see how long it takes to break even on the purchase price and running costs of a sub-$100 department store bicycle, used for commuting purposes.

Why?

Because I'm of the opinion that you don't need a carbon-fibre-equipped $2000+ bicycle and full tour-de-France riding gear to rack up substantial commuting mileage without significant breakages. I suspect that a major reason for the bad reputation of cheap bicycles is that people are far less likely to do regular maintenance on a $100 bicycle than a $2000 one.

The Bicycle

I chose a $73.48 Blade XTI-18 men's mountain bike from Big W. This was a sale price, the normal price is $98.00. It should be pretty representative of the sub-$100 mountain bike range in most department stores. The pictures below show its main features.

In the box - just like xmas! That's my 30-year-old Batavus 10-speed in the background.	Unpacked and assembled, with a collection of plastic and cardboard bits removed.	I don't like excessive stickers on my bikes, so I removed most of them. I left the stickers on the top tube and down tube to cover the red-silver paint transitions.
It's a Blade!	Lined up next to my current commuter bike. The Progear has an aluminium frame, but once you add a rack, dynamo hub, water bottle and lights the two bikes weigh about the same.	Plastic brake levers, and flimsy-looking plastic gear shifters. You don't even get grip shifters on bikes in this price range.
This is how many Shimano components you need to be able to advertise a bike as "Shimano Equipped".	Fine, sturdy, 1-piece cranks, plastic pedals, and some rather ugly welds disguised with a thick coat of paint. Yummy!	Plastic V-brakes. They're still quite powerful though.

Me

I'm 34 years old, 180cm and 82kg. I normally commute 16km each way to work on a moderately tweaked MTB (in the winter) or an elderly 10-speed road bike (in the summer).

Follow the numbers

I'll be counting each successful trip to or from work to be worth $3.00, since that's the cash price of a bus ticket here in Canberra. Once the "Running Total" makes it to $0.00 I'll have broken even.

I'm not going to be masochistic and include the cost of items that would be needed for ANY bicycle, such as a pump, patch kit, spanner, screwdriver, helmet and gloves. I'll list the cost of any replacement parts as and when they are needed.

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