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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

#131

Post by loeg »

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.

Once a year is plenty unless you're having unexpected failures or a poor experience. If you're riding enough to go through parts faster than that, you'd know it.

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

#132

Post by cardinalfang »

Baeocystin wrote: post #94
abyssin wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Depends on the riding conditions. The pads on my road bike lasted about 10,000km. In 12,000km my mountain bike has needed 6 sets of pads and 1 set of rotors.

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

#133

Post by londons_explore »

Other similar government initiatives always lead to the providers hiking the price of all repairs and maintenance work by €50...

I'm not sure quite why, since presumably market forces should still work to make people go to the cheapest bike shop to get as much value as possible for their €50, but that never seems to happen...

Example: grants to give discounts of ~£300 to install EV charging points in people's houses simply led to the price of installation rising by £300 overnight.

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

#134

Post by loeg »

tomcooks wrote: post #64
hk__2 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. And that’s largely sufficient. Having a bike doesn’t cost a lot per year: according to the FNAUT (Fédération des associations des usagers de transport), on average, bikers spend ~€0.21/km. An air chamber costs €5; an air pump (one-time purchase) is €10.

You can save further by patching air chambers with other air chambers, or better yet fit a ring of old air chamber between you tire and the air chamber, creating a thicker wall that it's harder to penetrate by debris, glass, nails, etc. You can get your tires pumped for free at most bike shops, gas stations, public bike repair stations. Use your saved up 50€ for beers or better yet give it to someone else so she can…

Inner tubes are like $1.50-$2 and with some commuter-friendly tough tires like Schwalbe Marathons or Conti Gator-skins you probably avoid most punctures to begin with. I would not recommend shoving a second inner tube in your tire, that will probably not seat well and may adversely affect handling.

Real tube patchkits are also very inexpensive, there's no reason to bodge something together with old tubes.

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

#135

Post by ViViDboarder »

com2kid wrote: post #121
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…

One thing confused me about this. In major American cities bike theft is incredibly common, to the point that the police won't help at all. I've had bikes repeatedly stolen out of locked garages at home! I'd never buy a bike that was worth any reasonable amount of money, my commute pre-covid was a good candidate for an electric bike, but no way would I spend more than a 2 or 3 hundred dollars on something that will g…

I’m from America, but I visited Copenhagen a few years ago and was amazed by how many bikes there were. On top of it, most bikes were parked with only a wheel lock and not chained to anything.

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

#136

Post by dmurray »

dmoy wrote: post #100
ogre_codes wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The docked bikes in my city have way better build quality and maintenance standards than the undocked ones. They're both heavy but the undocked ones have chains falling off, broken shifters, etc. I expect it makes sense that these get less investment as they are easier to steal.

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

#137

Post by abyssin »

wutwutwutwut wrote: post #120
abyssin wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt your story. Disc brake pads do wear out, especially if you ride very hard. The same is true for chain and cassette.

Everything wears out of course, but I've had mine for 7 years going back and forth to work every day and never replaced my breaks or chain or cassette. Maybe you experience a quality issue if it's a frequent issue?

If the motor is in the hub, then I can believe wear on the chain and cassette is minimal. And if you use brakes very sparingly, they could also last for a long time. I'm interested in the brand of your pads, I need those! I have to change mine every 1000 kilometres.

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

#138

Post by abyssin »

Baeocystin wrote: post #94
abyssin wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Mine usually last 1000 km. What brand are yours?

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

#139

Post by groestl »

com2kid wrote: post #121
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…

One thing confused me about this. In major American cities bike theft is incredibly common, to the point that the police won't help at all. I've had bikes repeatedly stolen out of locked garages at home! I'd never buy a bike that was worth any reasonable amount of money, my commute pre-covid was a good candidate for an electric bike, but no way would I spend more than a 2 or 3 hundred dollars on something that will g…

> no way would I spend more than a 2 or 3 hundred dollars on something that will get stolen within 3 years.

I'd neither, but a friend of mine did. He got his bike insured (replacement value), for a pretty reasonable amount, considering. And AFAIK most people with expensive bikes do, which is probably also the reason police is not too keen on acting.

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

#140

Post by BurningFrog »

com2kid wrote: post #121
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…

One thing confused me about this. In major American cities bike theft is incredibly common, to the point that the police won't help at all. I've had bikes repeatedly stolen out of locked garages at home! I'd never buy a bike that was worth any reasonable amount of money, my commute pre-covid was a good candidate for an electric bike, but no way would I spend more than a 2 or 3 hundred dollars on something that will g…

When I lived in Sweden, on average one bike would get stolen per year. My experience in California is similar.

Once you accept that, it's not that much money. The bad part is that you can never buy that Really Nice bike you'd really want.

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