Originally Posted by
wphamilton
It wouldn't be much of a test if he deliberately held back from spending anything. As I see it he's trying to see how a cheap bike does, whether and how much it saves him in the long run, if he uses it normally. That would include buying extra tubes if that's how he usually rolls.
The other issue, is how much time do I really to work on it. It's supposed to be replacement for a car or bus here (or subway/tram somewhere else). I wouldn't need to work on those items to use them, so the most accurate comparison is to not work on the bike that much.
To be fair, I used to race cars and did engine swaps ... yada, yada ... I also renovated a Victorian house myself ... but those days are behind me.
I'd rather focus on research and travel (and at some point family), so I'd like to keep personal maintenance to a minimum and while it is interesting to patch tubes, I'd rather be engineering bacteria to produce new biofuels or chemical precursors.
Yeah, that's how I currently roll, I'm in tube buying mode.