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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

#31

Post by chippy »

maelito wrote: post #30
a3_nm wrote: post #7

> The French government is slowly bringing its lockdown to a close from May 11, with cyclists allowed back onto the roads for the first time since March. To clarify, this is somewhat inaccurate: biking is permitted, and has always been permitted, during the French lockdown, as a judgment (in French) recently confirmed: https://www.conseil-etat.fr/actualites/actualites/le-gouvern... . Cyclists were just subject to the…

The french "interior ministry" lied about cycling on twitter, saying you weren't allow to go out for your daily 1h by bike. The law never said that. All the newspapers relayed this lie without checking this fact.

then one can expect that the population also believed it and social pressure enacted it?

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

#32

Post by maelito »

Nasrudith wrote: post #19

Really why not just spend the money on community bicycles and docking stations, increased racks or similar efforts instead of maintenance? I don't object to promoting bicycling at all but the means puzzle me a bit.

Because there are probably more than 100 million bikes in France, lots of them in garages are not ready to be a daily means of transportation.

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

#33

Post by hk__2 »

Nasrudith wrote: post #19

Really why not just spend the money on community bicycles and docking stations, increased racks or similar efforts instead of maintenance? I don't object to promoting bicycling at all but the means puzzle me a bit.

France is doing both.

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

#34

Post by abdullahkhalids »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #21
SirLuxuryYacht wrote: post #16

Since this isn't just a €50 windfall direct deposited into their bank accounts, as in the IRS stimulus, it seems like the best approach towards getting people on bikes. If you are skeptical about whether or not this is a waste of government money, consider why you have not yet begun commuting by bike. The French just bought €300M worth of new bike highway and they want it to be used. What costs could outweigh better…

It does not get anyone on bikes since it targets people who already have bikes. It is bizarre to think that people who have bikes were waiting for a €50 windfall before actually riding them.

When you own a 200$ second hand bike, their is a weird psychological pressure to not spend 30-50$ on repair because it is 15-25% of the actual cost of bike.

I have definitely experienced it myself.

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

#35

Post by aplummer »

CalRobert wrote: post #11

People are focused on the relatively small amount here, and that's valid, but I suspect that some of the incentive here is to keep momentum in cycling going (from people avoiding transit, enjoying temporary bike infra, etc.) and trying not to lose that progress. There might be a lot of people for whom that €50 means a tuneup that gets them to take the bike out when before it would've just rusted. I mean, data would b…

If you’re right that money in a public health system will pay back dividends I imagine.

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

#36

Post by Hamuko »

ben_w wrote: post #22
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.

£50 would get a bike shop to give you a brief look-over in the UK. I don’t know about France, as I can say it’s amazing how much prices can change over short distances. Two years ago, I cycled 1050 km along the Rhine, and the bike needed work before and after, in addition to me using ~£15 of chain cleaner on the way.

Yearly checkup for a bicycle is like 100 euro here.

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

#37

Post by morsch »

arrrg wrote: post #5

I don’t think TCO is an issue with bikes. I would estimate the TCO of a bike to be somewhere between €15 and €50 a month†. That compares favourably to cars which would be somewhere up at €350 to €700 per month, so that’s an order of magnitude off. If that payment can be an effective incentive to use the bike more that’s nice, I guess, but I’m not sure it can. Infrastructure would be the most important (and also most…

That's for a fancy bike, not that there's anything wrong with it. You can get by with a tenth of that if you get a "beater", which may or may not be sufficient for your urban transportation needs.

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

#38

Post by gnarbarian »

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.

A few things here, wd40 actually accelerates the wear on your bike's drivetrain. It's sticky and will attract grime which chews away at your chainring and cassette. It also gets all over your pants and stains your leg. Use some proper chain lube and your drivetrain and clothes will last longer.

If you ride your bike a decent amount you'll need to do morem maintenance. Per mile ridden, cheap Walmart bikes require more maintenance.

Complexity of the bike is also a huge factor. Compare the maintenance needed between a fixie with no brakes and a full suspension mtb with hydraulic disc brakes, tubeless tires 12 gears etc.

Adjusting brake cables and derailer limits needs to happen all the time, probably once per 500 miles. Over time chains stretch and then you need to replace the chain and the cassette.

Of course this entirely depends on how much you ride, where you ride, and what bike you ride.

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

#39

Post by duxup »

morrbo wrote: post #28
tentboy wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just an fyi since we are talking about bike maintenance - wd40 can be used to clean your drive train but then you are supposed to wipe it off and then apply actual chain lube. This is easily bought at any bike shop for well under the 50 Euros being offered here

Cyclist for years and never knew this. Thanks very very much

WD-40 somehow picked up the reputation for just spraying it on everything where for a lot of uses, it's not really something you want to leave on there and there are better products for lubrication... in almost every WD-40 use case it seems ;)

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

#40

Post by mytailorisrich »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #34
mytailorisrich wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not get anyone on bikes since it targets people who already have bikes. It is bizarre to think that people who have bikes were waiting for a €50 windfall before actually riding them.

When you own a 200$ second hand bike, their is a weird psychological pressure to not spend 30-50$ on repair because it is 15-25% of the actual cost of bike. I have definitely experienced it myself.

Well it only means that these 'repairs' are not required for you to ride the bike. Or you don't plan to ride at all.

Either way, the point is that this is windfall spending but does not change anything to the actual daily use of bikes.

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