One of the hardest parts in life is being able to separate the Like's and Want's from the Need's. Sadly in life, we are bombarded with all these likes and wants that tend to eat up quite a bit of time and a whole load of money. But how do you justify or work to make a case for a like into a want and then a need?
I am stuck with a conundrum. I am not sure if I have a like, want or a need. I have an old mountain bike. I use to ride a whole lot when I was younger. it was fun and I would go out 2-3 times a day. Even with a busy work schedule, i could fit in a real early morning ride before driving in to work, then another one when I got back. Weekends I would get out whenever possible.
Then I got into a major accident that seriously injured me, and wrote off my bike. It was replaced by the insurance company, but I never really got to ride it as much as I use to because of the injuries and then the court case where they were trying to prove that I didn't have cognitive injuries because I could still ride a bike.
So now my bike is 13 years old. it still works for the most part. Well, it is full suspension mountain bike, but the suspension is shot. The wheels are 26" and getting harder to find parts for. The gears of mostly warn out and need replacing along with a new chain, but again due to age, getting parts that will fit to fix is getting harder and harder. But in a sense it still works.
I would really like a new Advanced XC carbon fibre bike. I know it costs way too much to really justify. (ie 5-6k). Knowing that I do want to replace the old bike with something newer and comparable in the sense of getting something around the same spec level as what I got 13 years ago but just newer. This helps bring the price down to the 2.5-3k mark. This will give me a much better bike that what I have now.
The need part is a bit harder. As I have said, the bike well, sort of mostly works if you are willing to look past the problems. As the gears and chain is worn, when I ride it hard (as there is no other way to ride) the chain skips and sometimes just falls off. Not great when you are going up a hill, or peddling through a corner. The shocks are shot for me as they can no longer support my weight (by their design) and tend to bob when I ride losing speed and efficiency. The tires and tubes need to be replaced along with the grips and saddle. (old age dried out and cracking). So buying replacement parts to bring it back to good condition working would set me back 1.5k to make a frankenbike. But in a different look, the bike sort of still works, so it's not like my bike that was written off because it was bent after getting run over by a mini van.
So it is at the level like when you get 10 years into a car and have to decide is it worth spending constant money in break fix or just give in and spend the money to buy a new car.
Is it enough to say it makes little sense to keep on trying to keep an old bike that has had a good life and pay the piper to get something better. It really is an incremental cost to get a much better bike. But then it's the slippery slope from the Want to the Like knowing the two sides that as time goes on new technology will keep on moving forward, and the side of inflation were the same spec level bike won't cost the same next year and the years going forward as what you are paying today. For example, how much did the M80 v1 speakers cost compared to the newer v4 of today. Sure the newer speaker is better, but it still costs quite a bit more in $ than what you paid 15 years ago.
