I’ve decided I need accessories more than a new bike

A selection of accessories will certainly help you spend more time on the road; lights and clothing will go a long way to improving ride comfort and safety.

Cycling computers come in lots of shapes and sizes and you can spend very little money on the basics or several hundred dollars on the very advanced ones. I have two (both Cateyes) and they’re both in the range of $50-$75. They are pretty much the base functionality: they have a small magnet-based data capture device that reads your front wheel RPM, then calculates speed and distance based on you pre-setting what size wheels and tires you’re using.

Models that track your cadence require another measurement point to capture your pedal spin RPMs – as such they’re typically a bit more expensive and require a bit more work to get set up. I don’t have one of this type, but I know that a few other forum members do so they may want to chime in.

Cateye does make a handy chart comparing the functionality of all of their models – http://202.215.251.86/data/resources/cc_chart12_usa.pdf

Don’t Poo-poo the bike upgrade cost, I learned is that the accessories end up costing more than the bike ever did.

Cost of a Be-seen light: $15-20.
Cost of a “Need to see the road because I ride when it’s dark and it’s a new moon and there’s no street lights”: $100-400.

Cost of a TShirt: $15
Cost of a Tech Tshirt: $17 at REI
Cost of a Bike Jersey: $50-120. (Need those pockets – Bike Arlington Jersey at Revolution was $80 when I went thru last month.)

Cost of Exercise Shorts: $15
Cost of Biking Shorts: $50-90
Cost of Biking Bibs: $80-200

Cost of a Cadence Bike Computer: $40-70
Cost of a GPS-enabled Cadence/Speed Computer: $200-700

Then you have to add in the cost of a seat bag, so you can store your spare tube and Bike Arlington repair kit.

@PeteD 44250 wrote:

Don’t Poo-poo the bike upgrade cost, I learned is that the accessories end up costing more than the bike ever did.

Cost of that Starbucks latte you’re drinking in your photo: $44.50.

@lordofthemark 44261 wrote:

Second, since I am trying to lose weight and get more fit, dont the gnarly tires serve the same as the extra bike weight? Third I do still hope to get a road/commute bike not TOO far off.

Extra bike weight doesn’t help you loose weight, it just makes you go slower. Instead, just ride faster–wind resistance increases exponentially which should be enough to make you work harder.

OR, add extra weight AND ride faster.

@lordofthemark 44261 wrote:

thanks for all the suggestions, but Im not enthused about the new tire idea – for one I sometimes need the knobby tires (holmes run trail, Cross County trail, the trail through the park that leads up to Fairview, and the generally gnarly shoulders and service lanes of “downtown” Annandale) – and Im not keen to change tires regularly, or to take up the space. Second, since I am trying to lose weight and get more fit, dont the gnarly tires serve the same as the extra bike weight? Third I do still hope to get a road/commute bike not TOO far off.

Non-knobby != weak. Basically, knobs are for mud. (Not gravel/crushed stone, but mud.) If you routinely ride in deep mud, you’ll need knobs. Otherwise, the knobs just cause rolling resistance and vibration at speed on smoother surfaces, which is unpleasant and fatiguing. You can get a tire that’s just as wide/cushy, but with a smooth tread which is better suited to non-muddy trails and much, much more pleasant and faster on the road.

@baiskeli 44274 wrote:

How economical of you.

We laugh at the ELITEs and poseurs and Freds decked out with all the latest expensive equipment too.

I laugh at myself With all the lights I have strapped to the front of my bike it looks like I’m going on a deep-sea diving expedition. Of course the day all four of my front lights died on the way home I wasn’t laughing…

But yeah. Don’t faff about with cheap lights, because you’ll wind up spending more on cheap lights you can’t see with than you could have spent had you just gotten a couple of good lights to begin with. Not that they have to be super spendy, just, y’know, decent.

My Cygolite 350 was $75 on sale I think and it’s AWESOME, whereas my $60 Planet Bike 2 watt is a nice be-seen light but not nearly enough for a seeing-on-dark-trail-facing-GWP-headlights light. It’s a good backup if I forget to charge the Cygolite, but I had already gotten be-seen lights and could have saved the $60.

@Bilsko 44276 wrote:

FTFY: $47.30

Holy crap. I picked a ridiculously high price as a joke, and still came up short of reality!