About three years ago I upgraded from a cheap MTB bike to an upright dutch-inspired urban bike.
For the equivalent of about $300 USD on sale, I got an aluminium frame, front and rear mudguards, internal 7-speed hub, extended handlebars, and all-weather rollerbrakes. Theyβre nowhere near as powerful as diskbrakes, but they do the job.
The pie chart data is from a bike expenses spreadsheet I keep, was surprised actually to find out how little Iβve spent on maintenance, in comparison to completely optional accessories for the bikeβ¦
About my previous and current commuter
My cheap MTB had served me well for 4 years prior, despite being a bit neglected in the maintenance department. Donβt get me wrong - there was chain cleaning and re-lubing after wet weather, replacing diskbrake pads and all that stuff, but it wasnβt perfect and sometimes it was just plain tedious to do.
The upgrade made a lot of sense at the time, and after 3 years of owning the Dutch-inspired bike Iβve not needed to do much maintenance at all. However, itβs a little difficult to get parts for the bike outside of the Netherlands, worsened slightly by the original retailer no longer selling consumables such as the rollerbrake grease and internal gear grease. Despite that the bike has been rock solid, still shifts and stops like new. Iβll need to give the internal hub an oil bath at some point though - not looking forward to thatβ¦
200β¬ for Decathlon Elops Speed 500, and another 100-ish for the lock, front rack, fender, lights. But now I can keep my bike inside the office, so I just ride my gravel bike.
About 2000 for the Brompton and about 200 for the bag.
Then some 30 or so for some nicer grips.
Might get another bag and/or a helmet with a visor soon but weβll see.
