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France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

cyclingweekly.com

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Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#91

Post by wtallis »

vadansky wrote: post #77
ogre_codes wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bikes tend to degrade slowly over time if you don't do regular maintenance. Most people don't notice the slow decline until it's quite bad when suddenly it feels like an unreliable POS. Giving people who are just a little frustrated with their bike might go a long way to helping keep people from getting to that point at least once.

Now you have me worried about what maintance I should be doing. Going to a bike shop once a year at the start of summer seems to have been enough for me. After a quick google search I got crazy suggestions that I should be changing my cables every 6 months.

If you commute by bicycle every day rain or shine, then changing the cables twice a year might not be as crazy as it sounds. I doubt that's enough time for them to rust to the point of being in danger of breaking, but it probably is enough time for them to collect enough grit to interfere with smooth shifting and braking. Though a lot of that will depend on how exposed the cables are on your particular bike.

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#92

Post by _Wintermute »

Raed667 wrote: post #75
profikid wrote: post #29

In holland you can buy a bike for 50 euros.

And in France as well (leboncoin.fr), I guess the idea here is to encourage people who needed a push to fix their tires or breaks to make the move and use all those bikes left collecting dust.

The price of second hand bikes increased massively during the transport strike, I'm not sure if they've come down yet.

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#93

Post by Aeolun »

NicoJuicy wrote: post #76
jamil7 wrote: post #73

People in this thread are getting really hung up on the idea that someone with a bike == cycling enthusiast. In Europe a huge amount of people just own a bike. Often some beaten up thing they probably paid €30-200 for at a flea market or bike shop and use to commute or meet friends. Maybe it's fallen into a state where it's unrideable. The €50 is just a simple nudge for all those people to get it roadworthy so they c…

> Often some beaten up thing they probably paid €30-200 for at a flea market or bike shop In Belgium, Belgian people buy mostly new ones in the range of 500-1000. People who don't earn much or students, buy the cheap/used bikes you mentioned. Electrical bikes are > 2000 € and pretty popular. In general, a whole family can bike together and it's very popular during the summer. We can bike were-ever we want during Covi…

> 1 € / bike / 24 hours for 12€ / year)

At that price point it becomes hard to justify owning a bike yourself...

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#94

Post by Baeocystin »

abyssin wrote: post #80
GhostVII wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can lock up the front and back brakes easily with a single finger, and haven't touched them in a couple years. And I use that bike constantly.

What type of brake is this? I've never heard of such performant and maintenanceless brakes. Drum brakes like Shimano Rollerbrake can go for thousands of kilometers with very little maintenance (although you're supposed to grease them), but they wouldn't lock up with a single finger. Disc brakes and v-brakes require to change pads every few hundred kilometers. How many kilometers do you ride every year?

I've ridden my (heavy!) e-bike for a few thousand miles, and although I've replaced tubes and tires, I'm still on the original disc pads. I don't think they're anything special, just middle of the road cable actuated stuff. Do pads usually wear faster? Honest question.

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#95

Post by greeniron »

Aeolun wrote: post #93
NicoJuicy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Often some beaten up thing they probably paid €30-200 for at a flea market or bike shop In Belgium, Belgian people buy mostly new ones in the range of 500-1000. People who don't earn much or students, buy the cheap/used bikes you mentioned. Electrical bikes are > 2000 € and pretty popular. In general, a whole family can bike together and it's very popular during the summer. We can bike were-ever we want during Covi…

> 1 € / bike / 24 hours for 12€ / year) At that price point it becomes hard to justify owning a bike yourself...

unless they're really bad bikes

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#96

Post by kalleboo »

xenocyon wrote: post #49
GhostVII wrote: post #9

Do most people really need $50 for bike maintenance? I think I've spent about $15 on my beater bike over the last couple years, just to buy a new tube and maybe some wd40. For the vast majority of people I would imagine that they don't maintain their bike at all, modern bikes hold together pretty well.

Your calculation assumes one never needs to replace brake pads, chain, tires; it also makes no allowance for lights, tools, incidentals, or the occasions one might need professional repair. Incidentally, WD40 is not a good substitute for lube.

I'm in Japan, so prices will be different, but

I bought a cheap chinesium city bike (but with fancy in-hub-generation LED lighting) for under $200, and it came with a "3 years of free checkups and repairs, 5 years accident insurance" plan. For those 3 years I brought my bike in every couple months and they'd clean it, oil it, align the brakes, and pump the tyres.

Additional repairs (wheel & tyre since I'm a fatass who also rides lazy and hard on curbs, some spokes cracked and the tube split) are another $100.

I pump tyres at home with a $15 hand pump, and relube the chain with oil cans from the dollar store.

So a total outlay of about $300 in 5 years of riding. I guess it'll survive another 2-3 years before it's cheaper to just buy a new one.

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#97

Post by brenden2 »

greeniron wrote: post #95
Aeolun wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1 € / bike / 24 hours for 12€ / year) At that price point it becomes hard to justify owning a bike yourself...

unless they're really bad bikes

I've ridden them, they're not bad, but it's better to have your own.

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#98

Post by microtonal »

zymhan wrote: post #6

Let's be honest, 50 Euros per person is a drop in the bucket compared to the subsidies governments give to other modes of transportation.

But then biking is cheap. When I was a student, I would buy a bike at a used bike shop for ~80 euros. They would last me a year and I would bike almost daily to the university, to go to friends, or go out at night. Besides not having incredible amount money, bikes are stolen on such a regular basis that it wasn't much use buying a more expensive bike.

Maintenance costs were very low. Every now and then I had a flat tire, buy a new inner tube for 3 Euro and you are done. Later when I did my PhD I had the same second-hand bike for years. Though, I would usually bring the bike to the store to get a flat tire fixed, which would usually cost 10-20 Euro.

Now that we have enough income, I usually buy a new bike for ~700-800 Euro every two years or so. But even then it is very cheap compared to car ownership or even public transport. Plus much healthier.

The biking infrastructure in The Netherlands is exceptionally good. However, if I was in an another country (I lived in Germany for ~5 years), I'd rather have them invest the N * 50 Euros in bike lanes. Because I think in many countries the problem is not the cost of owning/maintaining a bike, it's just that the infrastructure is bad compared to that for cars. I lived in what is considered to be a 'green' city in Germany with a Green mayor and all, and the cycling infrastructure pretty deplorable.

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#99

Post by frankohn »

Adoption of cycling would require more serious actions like improving the road system for the bicycles so that cyclist are safe from the cars. The cycling should be also a pleasant activity so that people can do it naturally, without being forced.

I am in France and I am enjoying now the reduction of car traffic and the improvement of air quality but this is going to end as soon as the confinement is over.

Re: France offers each cyclist €50 for bike repairs once lockdown ends

#100

Post by dmoy »

ogre_codes wrote: post #72
cultus wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't get enough attention in cycling promotion. One of the absolute biggest reasons that people aren't on their bikes is maintenance. Wheels go out of true, shifting gets wonky, and it starts to look like an unreliable form of transport. Sturdier commuter bikes help a lot with this, but every commuter seems to think they need a bike with super-light wheels and a thin, weak 12-speed chain.

One of the reasons I think people like the bike share programs. The bikes are burly and slow, but they get the maintenance they need where they usually don't end up truly horrible.

I guess this depends on the bike share program. I've definitely ridden my share of bike share bikes that were in very bad shape (and I have a fairly high tolerance for junkers).

The bike share program in question shut down and isn't available in my area anymore, so maybe that was just because they were cutting back.

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