One of the lesser mentioned and debated side effects of not riding as much as one used to is that bikes and kit simply don’t wear out as fast as they did when one is young and keen. I once reckoned that if a cartridge bottom bracket (remember them anybody? – you know the ones that just used to fit practically every frame on the market…..) lasted more than six months it was doing exceptionally well. Things like rims and saddles would regularly fall victim to the twin evils of crashes and neglect and would be swopped out at least once or twice a year. Bar tape on the road bike would start to unravel and fray and well, lets just say theres only so many times Persil Non-Bio washing powder can work miracles on that favourite pair of bib shorts before replacement becomes an essential matter of some urgency.

Anyway, because I’m not trashing or wearing out bits of bike or items of cycle specific wardrobe as fast these days I’m nowhere near as clued up on the price of kit as I used to be. No longer do I haunt my local bike shop in search of bargain end of line items or feel the need to buy energy gels in bulk on-line because I’m always running out of them. These days the last gel in the box is likely to be out of date by the time I get to it. Its all part of the ever worsening decline of my middle aged work/life/riding balance issues….. but as usual I’m digressing.

So with the festive excess of commercialism and credit card bashing that has overwhelmed and completely hidden any hint of the original ancient Judaeo-Christian festival in full swing (don’t get me started on this one) even crusty old moaners like me have been required to give a few ‘present ideas’ out to my nearest and dearest. I could of course wax lyrical about the frankly insane duality of having to provide some of the funds which my own as yet sadly un-selfsuffient offspring will use to purchase the gifts they will present to me (badly wrapped of course) on Christmas morning…… but there I go digressing again.

So whats got me putting finger to keyboard again? well to be honest just when did everything get so dammed expensive? I sort of need a new trail pack / hydration bladder type thing as my faithful old Dakine pack is finally succumbing to my chronic neglect and inability to find a way to remember to clean the bladder after using it. Now theres a new Camelbak Mule out this year but I can’t justify the £140 price tag of the latest model. The poor long suffering Lapierre’s weak point has always been its poverty spec fork. How about a nice new Fox 34 or a Rockshox Pike? well at around £900 or more thats almost half what I spent on my last car. Its not just the big ticket items like forks etc either. Any tyre that gets good reviews in the printed or on-line mountain biking press is going to set you back at least £40 or more. Decent brake pads, cables, grips and inner tubes all add up as well.

Yes I know that after Christmas cometh the January sales, and after the January sale comes the on-line sale, and after the on-line sale comes the ‘Spring Event’ etc etc etc. If you are addicted to price matching cash back websites and allow your inbox to be infested with email offers from Wiggle, Chain Reaction and Rutland Cycles (to name a few) I will freely admit there are probably bargains to be had and massive savings out there for the canny shopper. However the time spent hunting out these elusive offers is time you will never get back. Time you could of spent riding…. or  in my case at least thinking about it.

So whats my point? well as usual I’m not entirely sure. I guess it’s that riding bikes more than casually is simply not a cheap pastime anymore. A new bike or big upgrade is a major investment. Replacing broken or worn out kit is going to cost a significant amount  over a year if you ride a lot. I know that personally the take home pay in my pocket and the portion of it I feel i can divert from spending on things like feeding the kids and heating the house doesn’t seems to have rocketed over the last few years. My disposable income for want of a better word seems to have remained fairly static whilst the cost of everything I’d like to spend my money on has rocketed.

I’m sure my eldest son who assures me he is actually revising for his A level economics exam next year could explain to his father that the rising cost of our hobby is linked to Brexit or the stagnant Japanese economy or the fluctuations in the global currency market, but all I know is the rising costs of pedalling will mean no new forks or Camelbak for me this Christmas.

I might ask for some more gortex socks but thats not very exciting is it?