Everyone in the household has a “fun fund” – grown ups get $20 a week, kids get less – it’s money that you can use without anyone else giving you the evil eye saying that it was a silly purchase. I run my “fun fund” pretty low – I think I have about 45 dollars in my account now, because I like to spend my money on margaritas with my Rett mom friends or monogrammed stationary or yoga class or my poker buy-in – Jeremy is much more patient with his savings, he was almost up to $900 and had his eye on his first expensive bike. I think that a $1000 bike is a pretty silly purchase for basically
riding the 1.25 miles to the Metro – but it’s all his to spend. My brother, a bike enthusiast, will tell you that real bikes just start at 1K, but to me it just seems like a tremendous investment for non-racers like us. (Jeremy – for five years now – has been riding every day my brother’s old Trek that my parents bought for him in 1988 or so – you can tell by the purple detailing). For years, he’s been looking for bikes all around the DC metro area, obscure brands that no one carried and would have to special order. Every where we are near a bike shop, he wants to stop in and see if they have exactly what he wanted.
So last week, we stopped into a local bike shop and he ended up spontaneously buying a Trek which was used in a rental program for a song – they were clearing out last year’s bikes to get in an infusion of the 2013 models – it’s like buying a rental car. A used bike that was guaranteed not to have been stolen, included a U-lock, fenders, and to top it all off, faux leather seat. I think he paid just over $200 for it and now still has enough money left to buy a flat screen TV he has been eying.
Btw. Real bikes start at 1k. :p
Bike people are an interesting group. Josh is sooooo into bikes. He spends free time either riding one of the 8(!) that are in our garage or replacing brakes pads, derailers, etc. It makes him so happy. He's also into "fixy's" which is a fixed gear bike. Okaaay. One bike is named Colonel Mustard. It is a 10 speed that weighs like 900 lbs that he bought at a garage sale and fixed up. It is according to all his friends, awesome. He and his friends volunteer at "Yellow Bike Project" which is a pretty cool place. Big warehouse with bike parts and folks just working on their bikes. You spend time helping others work on their bikes or organizing the sorting bins. Sorta like Habitat For Humanity Restore but for bikes. But I think it adds to the addiction. Sigh.
Oh – so cool to hear about Josh's bike habit – it apparently could be a life long affliction – just ask Donald 🙂
I kinda think bikes now are what cars were in the 70's – you can actually work on them and fix them yourself. It's pretty empowering. Plus there's this feeling of being able to go places with bikes – having this freedom. You don't really get that running.