this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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I dunno what typical yearly mileage on a bike used for commuting is... mine certainly did not do 5000km when I was commuting by bike. So your experience might be a bit more frequent maintenance than what most people need to do.
But either way, a used bike is still likely to be pretty easy to maintain. Maybe you're thinking of some specific harder-to-maintain parts? Brakes are a good example; rim brakes wear out quite quickly and are harder to replace the pads on than disc brakes. However, they're still dirt cheap and they're still not hard to replace. I, a cack-handed moron, learnt how to do it fairly easily.
Most people that I know live in the range 10-20km from their place of work, with a second peak around 30-40km (the ones that decided for more rural living) 20km being somewhere around the upper limit of what makes practical sense to still do by bike, this would be 4000-8000km when biking to work 200 days per year.
I was around 18km (so 7000km yearly) for most of the past 20 years, but home office since corona reduced that to much more relaxing 3000km/year.
Maintenance also depends hugely on whether you drive through the winter or stick to the summer months. Wear during winter especially of the drivetrain is crazy...
Regarding the rim brakes: I was talking more about the wear of the rims themselves. Depending on pad/rim-material combination they worn down after 20000km at the latest, rear wheel often even earlier.
One of the main reason I bought completely new bikes every 3 years until about 10 years ago. Drivetrain components worn down even when changing chains regularly, new wheels to become necessary because of rim wear and suspension fork just a piece of extra nonfunctional weight after three winters.
No suspension and easily maintainable disc brakes was a game changer, together with a steel frame and fork, which let me sleep more relaxed because not so susceptible to hidden wear.
A cheap wheel is like Β£100 new though and easy to replace. So sure, that's another point in favour of disc brakes, but buying a new wheel every few years is, I would say, not worth worrying about - even if you are doing that kind of distance. (I wasn't and had to replace a wheel, either I used worn brakes for too long or something got on the rim and wore it down very quickly) so I would still say used bikes are a good shout.
Also, you can pick up a rideable used bike for Β£200, maintain nothing except the chain, then buy another used bike, and you'll likely still end up spending less money than if you'd bought new and maintained everything fussily.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your approach is bad! But for someone considering getting a bike and worried about the outlay (as the OP was), buying used is very much a good idea.
I see it this way: Colleagues riding their car to work typically spend so much more money on convenience extras alone like entertainment system, comfort seating and stationary-heating, while effectively spending less time in their cars than I on my bike, that I see no point in going the complete hardcore way.
Having a bike that leads to less hassle and maintenance time while on top also being tailored to my specific needs and fitted to my stature is more than worth the roughly 30% increase in cost per km, imo.
But I admire all that go the minimalist way!
There is e.g. this one guy who regularly flies past me on an old, much to small 3-gear-woman's city-bike - completely impressive!
Then there is this other guy riding a custom rebuild three-wheeler, complete with canopy, bike horn and an integrated stereo system blasting Metal music, casually greeting everyone passing, as if riding a Harley. :-)
That's part of the fun of riding a bike - there is more variation between bikers, as you have much more freedom to still affordably realize your ideal view of it!
That's true, if you're replacing a fairly nice car with a bike that's not for racing, you will always save money.
I first commuted by bike in northwest Germany where most everyone bought their bike from a humongous bike market held every month. It was fairly unusual to see anyone riding a fancy bike, compare to the thousands of bike commuters you'd see every day.
What I always thought was funny compared to some other countries, is that you were as likely to get overtaken by a little old lady in a long skirt as by a lycra-clad young athlete. Somehow that seemed to dispel the concerns a newbie might have about their own pace.