Sunk costs and high speed human powered transport
Late last year, soon after my move to the (glorious :) ) city of Hamburg, my bicycle started having... issues. This bike (nicknamed the Tankmobile by a friend who shall remain nameless *grin*) has been with me since before university, and has clocked over seven thousand kilometres. It's a tough little thing (mmmh German engineering :) ), and I've replaced most of its parts over the years (several more than once - normal wear and tear), but soon after its introduction to the frozen wastes of northern Germany, several things went wrong at once.
First, the forward brake pade wore through. No problem, replaced them, 15 €.
At this point I decided to upgrade my bike lights from a sidewall dynamo to a hub dynamo. After a few weeks in Hamburg I found that the sidwall dynamo was not only noisy and very inefficient, but failed whenever it was wet (this being Hamburg... it was wet a lot), and since it got dark so soon in the evenings I badly needed good lighting. So: lighting upgrade. All parts, no assembly (that engineering degreee has got to be good for something, right?), 140 €.
Then the rear brake pads wore through (all that grit from the snow-covered streets, perhaps?). 15 €.
Then the rear gear hub failed. Not spectacularly, but after so much wear the one-way rotation mechanism died, leaving the hub to free-wheel in both directions. Since the hub is a part of the wheel that meant a new rear wheel. And a new gear hub, which had been badly worn by all the free-wheeling and slipping chain. New gear hub with worn chain = baaaad, so throw in a new chain. Plus assembly (I can assemble a chain and gear train, but it's an enormous pain, especially since I'd be working in my apartment hallway): 100 €.
So far, that was all (touch wood), although the front gearshift is starting to give signs that it's about to go, and even the frame occasionally makes creaking sounds it probably shouldn't.
Throughout this process I kept asking myself if I was doing the right thing, whether I should just have bought a new bike. I'm well aware of the sunk cost fallacy, but I had trouble applying it here. The cost of a new bike obviously exceeded the cost of any one repair, but when taken in combination... (I'm not there yet - a new bike of the sort I'm looking for would probably set me back 500 €, but if things keep breaking...).
So, a question to you, dear readers - when something starts breaking and needs to be repaired, at what point do you throw it out and replace it? And what would you have done in my place?
Postscript: Hub dynamos, especially if you've known nothing but battery lighting or sidewall dynamos, are a godsend. They generate almost no rolling resistance (at least, I can't notice any), are completely silent, run in all weather conditions, and don't wear out. You control your lights by a switch on the front lamp, and even mid-range models have light sensors which switch your lights on and off depending on how light it is outside - so they turn on automatically whenever it gets dark or you enter a tunnel. The same mid-range front light is wonderfully bright (much brighter than my old one, even when I'm going slowly), and the rear light has a capacitor which will keep it burning for about three minutes when I' stopped at a traffic light.
I know that hub dynamos are not available everywhere (the bike shop salesman in France had never even heard of them), but if you do any cycling in twilight or darkness, I can't recommend them enough. Gorgeous pieces of engineering.
Post-postscript: Tuesday's snowfall turned to ice by Tuesday night, and that ice probably hid a nice shard of glass somewhere... flat tyre. Curses.
First, the forward brake pade wore through. No problem, replaced them, 15 €.
At this point I decided to upgrade my bike lights from a sidewall dynamo to a hub dynamo. After a few weeks in Hamburg I found that the sidwall dynamo was not only noisy and very inefficient, but failed whenever it was wet (this being Hamburg... it was wet a lot), and since it got dark so soon in the evenings I badly needed good lighting. So: lighting upgrade. All parts, no assembly (that engineering degreee has got to be good for something, right?), 140 €.
Then the rear brake pads wore through (all that grit from the snow-covered streets, perhaps?). 15 €.
Then the rear gear hub failed. Not spectacularly, but after so much wear the one-way rotation mechanism died, leaving the hub to free-wheel in both directions. Since the hub is a part of the wheel that meant a new rear wheel. And a new gear hub, which had been badly worn by all the free-wheeling and slipping chain. New gear hub with worn chain = baaaad, so throw in a new chain. Plus assembly (I can assemble a chain and gear train, but it's an enormous pain, especially since I'd be working in my apartment hallway): 100 €.
So far, that was all (touch wood), although the front gearshift is starting to give signs that it's about to go, and even the frame occasionally makes creaking sounds it probably shouldn't.
Throughout this process I kept asking myself if I was doing the right thing, whether I should just have bought a new bike. I'm well aware of the sunk cost fallacy, but I had trouble applying it here. The cost of a new bike obviously exceeded the cost of any one repair, but when taken in combination... (I'm not there yet - a new bike of the sort I'm looking for would probably set me back 500 €, but if things keep breaking...).
So, a question to you, dear readers - when something starts breaking and needs to be repaired, at what point do you throw it out and replace it? And what would you have done in my place?
Postscript: Hub dynamos, especially if you've known nothing but battery lighting or sidewall dynamos, are a godsend. They generate almost no rolling resistance (at least, I can't notice any), are completely silent, run in all weather conditions, and don't wear out. You control your lights by a switch on the front lamp, and even mid-range models have light sensors which switch your lights on and off depending on how light it is outside - so they turn on automatically whenever it gets dark or you enter a tunnel. The same mid-range front light is wonderfully bright (much brighter than my old one, even when I'm going slowly), and the rear light has a capacitor which will keep it burning for about three minutes when I' stopped at a traffic light.
I know that hub dynamos are not available everywhere (the bike shop salesman in France had never even heard of them), but if you do any cycling in twilight or darkness, I can't recommend them enough. Gorgeous pieces of engineering.
Post-postscript: Tuesday's snowfall turned to ice by Tuesday night, and that ice probably hid a nice shard of glass somewhere... flat tyre. Curses.