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...