The Budget Bike

So, I'm not quite ready, being that cycling's a new hobby and all that, to make that leap and spend decent money on that really special vintage road bike. I'm not sure what decent money is nor sure which really special vintage road bike to get but mainly I don't feel that with only one Spring under my belt, the time is right to splash out so for the time being, I'll be sticking with my perfectly adequate budget bikes; but there's a problem.

I should be thinking, 'hey, all that money I've saved by buying a cheap bike on ebay and lavishing it with tender loving care and a few cans of spray paint instead of shiny new components with actual brand names on them, could be spent on shiny new components with brand names on them but here lies the problem. When you're bike's that cheap, any decent major component would likely cost more than the bike and that just seems wrong. So I look to accessories like clothes or shoes or vintage French bottle cages and the same thought occurs.

Wow! Cool shoes! They must have set you back a bit. Yep, three times the price of the bike actually.

My wife has an interesting outlook on purchase trade-offs. She buys a whole load of stuff from Boden, tries it on, decides that either the stuff doesn't fit or she doesn't like it, sends it back, gets a refund, goes shopping, spends a similar amount on one item and when I involuntarily raise an eyebrow says, 'yes, but what about all that money I just got back from Boden?'

I could apply the same logic. Buy the shoes, send them back, get a refund, put the money towards a new bike until I've got enough to buy a bike expensive enough to justify having the shoes. Sorted! But I don't.

Instead, I content myself with looking at photos of these desirable items and trying to feel satisfied with what I've got. The bike would most likely get stolen anyway. At least no one would steal the shoes off my feet unless of course I lived in London.