A few things here, wd40 actually accelerates the wear on your bike's drivetrain. It's sticky and will attract grime which chews away at your chainring and cassette. It also gets all over your pants and stains your leg. Use some proper chain lube and your drivetrain and clothes will last longer.

If you ride your bike a decent amount you'll need to do morem maintenance. Per mile ridden, cheap Walmart bikes require more maintenance.

Complexity of the bike is also a huge factor. Compare the maintenance needed between a fixie with no brakes and a full suspension mtb with hydraulic disc brakes, tubeless tires 12 gears etc.

Adjusting brake cables and derailer limits needs to happen all the time, probably once per 500 miles. Over time chains stretch and then you need to replace the chain and the cassette.

Of course this entirely depends on how much you ride, where you ride, and what bike you ride.

A lot of people would just get a new bike before repairing.

I don't think that most people would buy a new bike when they get a flat tire. Some of course but probably a minority.

Where do you live that's so rich that people get new bikes instead of repairing the ones they have???

I live where if someone spends 1000 on a bike this year. They will repeat next year. Same as cell phones. New iphone prime 5k extra hd space. I'm in.

A lot of people don't buy $4000 bikes.

You forgot the last few ingredients: time and know-how. Some can't be bothered to get their hands dirty, or are afraid of breaking something.

Yes, most people don't want to spend the effort fixing a bike.

I used to do all my own work and repairs but with a few bikes in rotation plus my girlfriends bikes it gets a bit much for one person. I defer yearly tuneups and bigger repairs or upgrages to a proper bike mechanic now.

Your calculation assumes one never needs to replace brake pads, chain, tires; it also makes no allowance for lights, tools, incidentals, or the occasions one might need professional repair. Incidentally, WD40 is not a good substitute for lube.

Personally, I've very rarely needed to replace those consumables, and I ride my bikes very hard. Only time I have needed a new chain and cassette is when I let my bike rust because I rode it all winter without washing it. And I've got like one set of brake pads in the last 5 years for my 2-3 bikes, since disk brake pads last pretty well forever as long as you don't foul them with something. I do go through a lot of tubes though, but no tires yet. As for tools all my bikes need for maintenance is a couple of allen keys and a phillips screwdriver.

I could see people spending that money bringing it to a mechanic for a tune up though. Personally I think that is a waste of money since it's super easy to tune up bikes yourself, but I do know lots of people who spent years with their bike shifting like garbage when it would take just a couple minute tune up to fix.

I doubt your story. Disc brake pads do wear out, especially if you ride very hard. The same is true for chain and cassette.

Everything wears out of course, but I've had mine for 7 years going back and forth to work every day and never replaced my breaks or chain or cassette. Maybe you experience a quality issue if it's a frequent issue?

If the motor is in the hub, then I can believe wear on the chain and cassette is minimal. And if you use brakes very sparingly, they could also last for a long time. I'm interested in the brand of your pads, I need those! I have to change mine every 1000 kilometres.

> If the motor is in the hub,

Is this referring to motor as in an electrical bike? I am not using that.

Sorry, I mixed up with a different comment indeed. On electric bikes with the motor in the wheel hub, the transmission sustains little effort.

I'm in Japan, so prices will be different, but

I bought a cheap chinesium city bike (but with fancy in-hub-generation LED lighting) for under $200, and it came with a "3 years of free checkups and repairs, 5 years accident insurance" plan. For those 3 years I brought my bike in every couple months and they'd clean it, oil it, align the brakes, and pump the tyres.

Additional repairs (wheel & tyre since I'm a fatass who also rides lazy and hard on curbs, some spokes cracked and the tube split) are another $100.

I pump tyres at home with a $15 hand pump, and relube the chain with oil cans from the dollar store.

So a total outlay of about $300 in 5 years of riding. I guess it'll survive another 2-3 years before it's cheaper to just buy a new one.

I bought a bike for $900 about 7 years ago. I ride to work every day (25km back and forth) and the maintenance have consisted of one tube and a few packages of lube for chain, probably around $50 in total. The tires need replacement but so far they hold up...

I think for most people this will go towards having a professional fix their bike. Even simple repairs/maintenance is too much for most people and they'd rather pay someone to take care of it.

just an fyi since we are talking about bike maintenance - wd40 can be used to clean your drive train but then you are supposed to wipe it off and then apply actual chain lube.

This is easily bought at any bike shop for well under the 50 Euros being offered here

Cyclist for years and never knew this. Thanks very very much

WD-40 somehow picked up the reputation for just spraying it on everything where for a lot of uses, it's not really something you want to leave on there and there are better products for lubrication... in almost every WD-40 use case it seems ;)

You do see a lot of people riding beaters with flat tires and I get the impression that they do not really like riding their bike but it's better than walking. Seasonal tuneups are pretty popular for people who actually like riding and do so recreationally. Working with the cables and derailleur can be vexing if you don't know what you are doing. It's also nice to support a local business that serves your hobbies, but that's just me. Trade the wd40 for some triflow though. wd40 does not stand up to water.

Bar tape, inner tubes, and lube are all I really buy regularly; and the tape is just because I am vain and like to change up the look.

I just use chainsaw oil.

1L for $5 and I’ll likely die before I use it up.

And an eBay sourced $3 applicator bottle. Or just re-use another oiler.

Does it smell like bananas, though? This is important.

If you want working brakes and use your bike more than twice a year, you definitely need more than buying a new tube every two years. Working brakes will save your life.

I can lock up the front and back brakes easily with a single finger, and haven't touched them in a couple years. And I use that bike constantly.

What type of brake is this? I've never heard of such performant and maintenanceless brakes. Drum brakes like Shimano Rollerbrake can go for thousands of kilometers with very little maintenance (although you're supposed to grease them), but they wouldn't lock up with a single finger. Disc brakes and v-brakes require to change pads every few hundred kilometers. How many kilometers do you ride every year?

Some generic Shimano disk brake, I think BR-something. Got BOS1 brake pads on it. I don't commute on it, but definitely ride at least a few hundred kilometers on it a year. They aren't particularly performant, you should always be able to lock up hydraulics with a single finger if they are adjusted correctly imo. Even my mechanical avid BB7 disks I could lock up with a finger when my brake cables were newer.

I've ridden my (heavy!) e-bike for a few thousand miles, and although I've replaced tubes and tires, I'm still on the original disc pads. I don't think they're anything special, just middle of the road cable actuated stuff. Do pads usually wear faster? Honest question.

Depends on the riding conditions. The pads on my road bike lasted about 10,000km. In 12,000km my mountain bike has needed 6 sets of pads and 1 set of rotors.

Mine usually last 1000 km. What brand are yours?

The stock pads the came with the Rad Rover. Tektros, I think. https://www.radpowerbikes.com/collections/brake-pads

I have to replace the chain every 1500 km. I replace the chain multiple times, store the old chains and then do a second run (the rationale is that putting a new chain on a used drivetrain does not work, so I need to wear them gradually). After 12000 km (4 chains in the process, 3000 km per chain) I need to replace the cassette and after two of these replacements (24000 km) even the front gears. That's 4 * 6 EUR for chains + 10 EUR for the cassette + 20/2 EUR for the front gears every couple years, or more than twice more than what you say, and that's only the drivetrain... I ride 4500 km/year (daily 2 * 7km commute + a few bigger trips during summer). According to a quick Google search, 3000km per cheap chain is reasonable.

It's a nudge, to get people on their bikes who wouldn't otherwise.

£50 would get a bike shop to give you a brief look-over in the UK. I don’t know about France, as I can say it’s amazing how much prices can change over short distances.

Two years ago, I cycled 1050 km along the Rhine, and the bike needed work before and after, in addition to me using ~£15 of chain cleaner on the way.

Yearly checkup for a bicycle is like 100 euro here.

In the very next week, I'll get my 30y old bike getting painted, pedals, breaks replaced and wheels polished.

My company will cover the costs. Not that I couldn't pay for it, but it's a nice gesture to motivate us to use them, just like this French deal.

50 dollars is about what it costs for a service for a bike in Dublin and London.

Please buy a new chain. You'll go so so much faster.

Bikes wear out if you ride them daily. I also ride a cheap bike that doesn't have to work perfectly, but eventually everything breaks down. Even faster if you don't maintain them, and it will spread out to other parts if you don't replace the worn parts in time. Tires, brakes etc. just wear out in any case.

You can then either replace parts or get a new beat up bike that at least rolls (and stops) for $15, but that's not always realistic. I'm tall and need a large bike, and these are not always easy to find used.

tl;dr 50 is not a lot.