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Cheap bikes, pt6
6 years ago
General
[CAUTION, I'M RAMBLING]
As of (or after) today, it would be too late to get a refund on my bike. Perhaps I should have taken everyone else's advice and just returned it.
But I wanted to give it a chance, and it's not as though it was just a willy-nilly decision to get anything. I did weeks of research and review searching to come to terms with the bike I chose.
There might have been better ones, but at the time I just didn't have the money. Also this bike has a very pretty metallic blue color scheme. At least to me.
With that being said, out of the box there were problems. Now, when I first thought about getting this bike, I fully intended to upgrade it to make it an awesome bike, as I already know many of the base components are on the cheap side.
As long as I could have fun with it now and get used to riding a bike again over time, that was fine. But as I said, out of the box I had to deal with problems.
I had to fix my bike 3 or 4 times since I've had it. As of today being at the 90 day mark, I've only ridden my bike 3 times. What a lousy number.
Yes the bike works. I managed to fix the pedal issue from last time. I had to replace the entire crankset. And because of that, I had to get another tool.
I was hoping to get at least 30 days of riding out of my bike, but alas.
I've been getting a... suspicious amount of extra rides since I got it, which almost defeats the purpose of getting a bike. Not that I'm really complaining, but at the same time, it's a waste of money that I really could have used elsewhere.
But there's something else.
See, because I had gotten back into bikes, and I was looking around some more, I had the sudden urge to look into motorcycles.
I was thinking for a bit and was back and forth as to upgrading my bike into a motorbike by adding a gas motor. But to do that, you need specific frames and mine isn't compatible.
I would also probably be pulled over as it would be considered a motor vehicle, I'd probably need a motorcycle license, I'd need a tag, etc.
It would have been somewhat affordable to me. I also looked into E-bike conversions, but that is too expensive. Just for a motor wheel and the battery would have been 2-4 times more than what I paid for the bike. That's too much.
So I have been looking into scooters and motorcycles. They so much more faster than a bike, and street legal if I get anything 150cc or higher.
I don't need something super fast. I don't want to go super fast, certainly not in something like a motorcycle. Getting around a lot faster would be better though. But is it really worth the cost of a used car?
Especially when I'm trying to save to move on as soon as I can. Probably not. But it's not so much for now. It's for later, when I move and in the case I have a car, and that car breaks down.
If that happens, I'll be screwed. Thus a secondary vehicle. I don't know about motorcycles, but scooters get great MPG. I'd be getting at least 50 or 60 MPG if I got one. I could fill up on gas for 5 bucks, and probably drive around for weeks.
But there are problems with this. The first is the price. I could get a cheap Chinese scooter, and it would take a couple of months to afford it, but something told me no. Was it the speed?
A 150cc could only got 55 MPH. Not that bad, but not so good if I got on the highway or something. But again, just a secondary vehicle, and something to get around the city with a bit better than walking. I have to remember that.
250cc scooters (or 200cc if you can find them) are recommended, but the price got up by about 4x. At that price, I'd just get a used car.
And the wheels on a scooter are very small. Usually 12 or 13 inch wheels. They wouldn't do much good except on smooth road. I was kinda looking for something I could take off-road if need be.
A motorcycle is fast, and has decent size tires. Usually about 17 or 18 inch tires. But they are the most expensive, the hardest to ride, loud, and I'd have to invest in ride armor if I'm going to seriously get one.
Not necessary, but I'm not quite that dumb. I already have a helmet.
I meant to add, when I am referring to scooters and motorcycles, I have had my eye on the touring variants.
Now, there are even more things I haven't talked about yet. Weight, space, weight limit.
My bicycle weighs about 45 pounds I think. It only supports about 275 pounds though. It doesn't take up a lot of space, but if has no space to hold anything.
A scooter weighs about 250 to 350 pounds. It supports about 350 pounds. Sometimes scooters and motorcycles have secondary seats, especially the touring models, but you'd have to be some skinny riders if you're bringing a passenger.
It doesn't take much more space than a bike I think, and has a tiny amount of space to put things.
A motorcycle weighs almost half a ton, especially the bigger touring models. Well over 500 pounds usually. It supports the most weight. Not sure how much though. (Looking it up, it's about 350 to 450 pounds).
They take the most space, and have barely any more space than a scooter.
When it's time for me to leave, I'd have to carry all this stuff with me. Having a thousand extra pounds to carry doesn't bode well for me at all.
I've been trying to talk to a person on Craigslist about their motorcycle trike, but the thing about Craigslist / a lot of online marketplaces is that real people act like they don't want to sell you anything.
They don't want to respond, or take forever doing so. They act like they don't want to actually sell the thing they listed for sale. They often ask for too much and don't give you all the info, etc. Scammers respond instantly and never want you to leave.
Honestly, motorcycles may be out of the question.
But scooters still cost too much. I need at least 150cc to do anything, and those are the cheapest. At least 250cc to keep up with most traffic, and at least 300cc+ if I want to really blend into traffic.
But again, those wheels are small. I don't want to go airborne after hitting a small pothole at 70MPH. The biggest issue to me though is price.
So it's kinda back to the bike.
I came across a video or two that shows how to make an E-bike for about 200 bucks. The range (with the homemade battery) was about 30 miles at about 40mph speed.
I can deal with that.
I'm not playing any more with these online seller people. If the guy wants to act serious and talk to me about his motorcycle that I've asked a few times about now, then we'll talk and I'll spend the next... year? paying it off.
Otherwise, it's looking like I'm going to be modifying this bike.
I planned on upgrading it anyway, and I did want to make it motorized if possible, but the path of upgrading will change.
I... have to change the way I think about personal products. I get so enamored (is that the word?) with how I'm "supposed" to do things, that I forget one very important thing:
My property is ~MY~ property. I can do to it whatever ~I~ want to do. I don't have to take the path of how everyone else upgrades their bikes. It's always the same anyway.
Strip everything and change everything to make it as light as possible. Switch everything to carbon fiber. Switch to air suspension instead of spring suspension, etc.
But I want to take a different path. I want my bike to be a hybrid between the mountain bike that it already is, and a motorized touring bike.
I was going to say what I was going to do with it here, but I've been rambling since this (yesterday) morning, and I really should be in bed.
So here's to another journal in the near future. Hopefully much shorter and to the point...
As of (or after) today, it would be too late to get a refund on my bike. Perhaps I should have taken everyone else's advice and just returned it.
But I wanted to give it a chance, and it's not as though it was just a willy-nilly decision to get anything. I did weeks of research and review searching to come to terms with the bike I chose.
There might have been better ones, but at the time I just didn't have the money. Also this bike has a very pretty metallic blue color scheme. At least to me.
With that being said, out of the box there were problems. Now, when I first thought about getting this bike, I fully intended to upgrade it to make it an awesome bike, as I already know many of the base components are on the cheap side.
As long as I could have fun with it now and get used to riding a bike again over time, that was fine. But as I said, out of the box I had to deal with problems.
I had to fix my bike 3 or 4 times since I've had it. As of today being at the 90 day mark, I've only ridden my bike 3 times. What a lousy number.
Yes the bike works. I managed to fix the pedal issue from last time. I had to replace the entire crankset. And because of that, I had to get another tool.
I was hoping to get at least 30 days of riding out of my bike, but alas.
I've been getting a... suspicious amount of extra rides since I got it, which almost defeats the purpose of getting a bike. Not that I'm really complaining, but at the same time, it's a waste of money that I really could have used elsewhere.
But there's something else.
See, because I had gotten back into bikes, and I was looking around some more, I had the sudden urge to look into motorcycles.
I was thinking for a bit and was back and forth as to upgrading my bike into a motorbike by adding a gas motor. But to do that, you need specific frames and mine isn't compatible.
I would also probably be pulled over as it would be considered a motor vehicle, I'd probably need a motorcycle license, I'd need a tag, etc.
It would have been somewhat affordable to me. I also looked into E-bike conversions, but that is too expensive. Just for a motor wheel and the battery would have been 2-4 times more than what I paid for the bike. That's too much.
So I have been looking into scooters and motorcycles. They so much more faster than a bike, and street legal if I get anything 150cc or higher.
I don't need something super fast. I don't want to go super fast, certainly not in something like a motorcycle. Getting around a lot faster would be better though. But is it really worth the cost of a used car?
Especially when I'm trying to save to move on as soon as I can. Probably not. But it's not so much for now. It's for later, when I move and in the case I have a car, and that car breaks down.
If that happens, I'll be screwed. Thus a secondary vehicle. I don't know about motorcycles, but scooters get great MPG. I'd be getting at least 50 or 60 MPG if I got one. I could fill up on gas for 5 bucks, and probably drive around for weeks.
But there are problems with this. The first is the price. I could get a cheap Chinese scooter, and it would take a couple of months to afford it, but something told me no. Was it the speed?
A 150cc could only got 55 MPH. Not that bad, but not so good if I got on the highway or something. But again, just a secondary vehicle, and something to get around the city with a bit better than walking. I have to remember that.
250cc scooters (or 200cc if you can find them) are recommended, but the price got up by about 4x. At that price, I'd just get a used car.
And the wheels on a scooter are very small. Usually 12 or 13 inch wheels. They wouldn't do much good except on smooth road. I was kinda looking for something I could take off-road if need be.
A motorcycle is fast, and has decent size tires. Usually about 17 or 18 inch tires. But they are the most expensive, the hardest to ride, loud, and I'd have to invest in ride armor if I'm going to seriously get one.
Not necessary, but I'm not quite that dumb. I already have a helmet.
I meant to add, when I am referring to scooters and motorcycles, I have had my eye on the touring variants.
Now, there are even more things I haven't talked about yet. Weight, space, weight limit.
My bicycle weighs about 45 pounds I think. It only supports about 275 pounds though. It doesn't take up a lot of space, but if has no space to hold anything.
A scooter weighs about 250 to 350 pounds. It supports about 350 pounds. Sometimes scooters and motorcycles have secondary seats, especially the touring models, but you'd have to be some skinny riders if you're bringing a passenger.
It doesn't take much more space than a bike I think, and has a tiny amount of space to put things.
A motorcycle weighs almost half a ton, especially the bigger touring models. Well over 500 pounds usually. It supports the most weight. Not sure how much though. (Looking it up, it's about 350 to 450 pounds).
They take the most space, and have barely any more space than a scooter.
When it's time for me to leave, I'd have to carry all this stuff with me. Having a thousand extra pounds to carry doesn't bode well for me at all.
I've been trying to talk to a person on Craigslist about their motorcycle trike, but the thing about Craigslist / a lot of online marketplaces is that real people act like they don't want to sell you anything.
They don't want to respond, or take forever doing so. They act like they don't want to actually sell the thing they listed for sale. They often ask for too much and don't give you all the info, etc. Scammers respond instantly and never want you to leave.
Honestly, motorcycles may be out of the question.
But scooters still cost too much. I need at least 150cc to do anything, and those are the cheapest. At least 250cc to keep up with most traffic, and at least 300cc+ if I want to really blend into traffic.
But again, those wheels are small. I don't want to go airborne after hitting a small pothole at 70MPH. The biggest issue to me though is price.
So it's kinda back to the bike.
I came across a video or two that shows how to make an E-bike for about 200 bucks. The range (with the homemade battery) was about 30 miles at about 40mph speed.
I can deal with that.
I'm not playing any more with these online seller people. If the guy wants to act serious and talk to me about his motorcycle that I've asked a few times about now, then we'll talk and I'll spend the next... year? paying it off.
Otherwise, it's looking like I'm going to be modifying this bike.
I planned on upgrading it anyway, and I did want to make it motorized if possible, but the path of upgrading will change.
I... have to change the way I think about personal products. I get so enamored (is that the word?) with how I'm "supposed" to do things, that I forget one very important thing:
My property is ~MY~ property. I can do to it whatever ~I~ want to do. I don't have to take the path of how everyone else upgrades their bikes. It's always the same anyway.
Strip everything and change everything to make it as light as possible. Switch everything to carbon fiber. Switch to air suspension instead of spring suspension, etc.
But I want to take a different path. I want my bike to be a hybrid between the mountain bike that it already is, and a motorized touring bike.
I was going to say what I was going to do with it here, but I've been rambling since this (yesterday) morning, and I really should be in bed.
So here's to another journal in the near future. Hopefully much shorter and to the point...
