Originally Posted by
acorn54
in my neighborhood there are alot of hispanics that commute to work via 70 dollar walmart mountain bikes. do people on bike forums think these walmart bikes are a viable form of transportation. it seems if they are, buying a bike for more than 70 dollars is just throwing money away.
Well, let's do the math.
A bus pass for a month is $66. The bicycle in question is $70. Will a Walmart bicycle last longer than a month? Yes. Therefore is buying a $70 bicycle "throwing money away"? No.
And BTW - I rode my Walmart mtn bike for approx. 15,000 km over a period of about 5 years ... commuting year round, and doing the occasional winter century. I paid a little more than $70 for it, but when I added up all the bus passes I did not have to buy, because I commuted on my bicycle instead, I came out something like $3000 ahead. It's the only one of my bicycles to have actually "made" money for me.