Surviving the credit crunch…no wait recession…oh no it’s now a Dep[CENSORED]on

I’m sure that we are all feeling the ‘pinch’ at the moment, job losses, non existent credit, housing market given up, Bankers stolen all the money, Alistair & Gordon seem to have taken the taxes my kids are going to pay and bet them on a 3 legged donkey called Rodney to win the national.

So things are pretty rubbish, so how in such a climate are we suppose to feed our cycling habit?

Cycling is pitched as a cheap alternative to driving and it can be…. buggered if I can work out how, cause I have to buy bike stuff as often as I eat, but I’m told it can be.

Having pondered on this issue I have come up with a few tactics.

1. Stick with what you have.

Now this may seem radical, as the new bike you’ve been eyeing up is still calling you softly, but there is method in my madness!

By not buying the new bike you will not spend £xxxxx or $xxxxxxxxx (add your own figures) on the new perfect, make your life complete bike. You will have to ride your current steed for a while but you can get away with treating it to some of the following:

• New grips – makes it feel lovely
• New tyres – gives a whole new feel to the ride,
• New saddle – so the saddle sores you would have got from the new bike will not be missed out on.

The biggest pro of this is the your spouse, by mentioning that you will restrain from buying the perfect, make life complete steed for the benefit of family,money,recession blah blah blah reasons, and mealy purchased some maintenance essentials.

He / She will think that you are very responsible and praise and love you for it.

(note: this is in the bag for when things turn around. The price of the bike you currently have your eye on will be dwarfed by the one you will be able to get away with in 6 – 12 months time, as you have waited so long for a new bike, you poor little soldier)

2. Get a part time job at your LBS (local bike shop)

Now there are loads of good reasons for doing this and they shall be listed thus:

• Extra money – Yes they will pay you to hang out a drool over bike bits all day long
• Discount – All the essentials and none essentials, bikes, clothing everything is discounted to usually just above cost price….. IT’S AWESOME!!
• Most of the other people who work at the LBS will be into biking too, so you can hang out and talk bikes all day!
• You get to talk to people about bikes all day and they are actually interested.
• You get discount on everything!
• It adds massive kudo’s to your cool meter for working in a LBS.
• Your family and friends will be in awe of you working hard at 2 jobs (if you call hanging out talking about bikes working)
• Did I mention the discount?

3. As the market traders said “SELL SELL SELL”

You like I will probably have loads of bike bits hanging around, old bikes long forgotten, unfinished projects, bits of things you’ll never use.

Ebay is your friend!

The other benefit of selling bits is that you can very easily use that money to fund buying the bits you need!

4. Recycle.

Things that can be recycled.

• Tubes – patch them up and stuff them in your bag as a spare
• Tubes – Cut them up and use them as frame protectors
• Tubes – Cut them up and use them as mud guards on the forks
• Tyres – Clean them down, cut them up and use them as belts, bag straps, wrist straps,
• Cables & cogs – Can be used as an interesting wind chime (bit lame but true)
• Cables & cogs – assassin tool kit of choking wire & ninja stars. (joking)
• Chain – Used as necklace, bracelets, bag accessories,
• Whole Bikes – packed up and sent to Africa HERE and HERE and HERE (OK this won’t help you other than to get rid on a spare bike but it will help someone)

Suggestions for other financial Dep[censored]on surviving cycling tips welcome!