Comic Strips

Yeah downtown Lemmy users think everyone should be on a bike. It’s not realistic.

The EV argument against Chinese vehicles is hilarious. Everything is already made in china. And the cars might spy on me? And the Americans won’t? I trust the Americans less than the Chinese at this point, I rather be spied by china

I have to disagree with that.

I've been working on my own bikes for decades. I bought a used bike recently and it's been a nightmare. I know how to adjust a rear derailleur, but this one just won't work. I suspect whoever last owned it did something like replace the indexed shifter with an incompatible model. In the past I've also had to deal with wheels that were wonky. I have trued wheels before, and I'm pretty good at taking a wheel that's slightly out of true and getting it back to straight. But, fixing a wheel that's significantly taco-shaped is a whole different matter. Plus, most people don't have a truing stand.

I also didn't realize just how worn some of the parts were on this bike before I got it. The chain just snapped while I was pedalling up a steep hill. I took a closer look and some of the chainrings are pretty worn, so I might have to replace them too. Plus the brakes need a re-work, and the cables should all be replaced.

By the time I'm done with this bike, I probably will have replaced the chain, chain rings, brake pads, cables, tires, tubes, and maybe an indexed shifter pedal. Even after buying all those parts it will probably have been cheaper than buying a new bike, but if you count the hours and hours of labour, I'm not sure I'm coming out ahead. And, what's really frustrating is that with a new bike you get to feel it while it's at its best right after you bought it. With this one, every time I take it out, I realize there's something else wrong with it, and sometimes I end up walking home, like I did when the chain snapped.

Bikes are meant to be bought used.

That's solid advice for your occasional short range bike.
But when talking about substituting a car for a bike with the thereby associated mileage (which the comic implies), in most cases this will be less true.

Main reason for this is that, apart from the frame, bikes mostly consist of wear-and-tear parts.
That is especially true for many used bikes that still have rim brakes and on top may have obsolete parts that are not easy to come by (had that once for my bar-end gear-levers that Shimano decided not to produce any more, because old-fashioned...)

Also a used bike comes as it is, so not really optimized for easy maintenance as you could choose a new bike to be.
I have learned by now (after switching to new bikes every few years and ~20000km before), that the most stressless (and also cheap in the long run) path is to buy a custom bike with robustness and easy maintenance in mind.

So steel frame, no suspension fork but fat 29'' tires instead, mechanical disk brake, standard lower mid range components (less optimized for weight, but often more robust), lowest number of gears possible (less finicky and typically less chain wear).

The initial cost when doing so will be higher, but in the long run will pay itself of when doing 5000km+ per year.

My country doesn't, and I am seriously getting sick of hearing that the forms of transportation we are systematically forced into being called inferior when we have no other realistic choice. Everything and anything is at a bare minimum 15 miles away from me in the Appalachian foothils. Even the very best cyclist would tire easily on these hills in just a few miles. I mean nothing to you personally, but I am beyond sick of the extremely privileged "fuck cars" mentality. I am going full rant here, but I don't have another fuck to give. If you are able to walk or bike to a location to do whatever you want you are much more privileged than the average American. And the entire ethos around "lol fuck you just walk or bike" is precisely why we got into a fascist state.

I once had a 22 Mile round trip bicycle commute and there were absolutely no buses or trains or any type of public transport available from point A to point b. I finally had to quit that job in the thick of winter when snow made bicycling impossible, but before I quit, I got there walking/ running for a couple months.