"How much did your bike cost?"

[kelownagirl]

Has anyone who was clearly not a cyclist ever asked you that? How did you respond?

I ask because now I've been asked twice. The first time was maybe 5 years ago when I was on the tandem with my daughter. We'd ridden to the Golden Gate Bridge to watch the Blue Angels. A guy who was clearly not a cyclist asked me the question and I answered him honestly. We'd just gotten the tandem and I was painfully aware of what it cost. DH later chided me for telling him, saying people who didn't ride or weren't aware of the cost of bike stuff would think that was over the top.

This weekend a nice guy came up to me at the market where I was resupplying for my century ride. He said: "So how much did your bike cost?" Me: "Oh I don't know, it's old." Him: "What, like $600?" Me: "Maybe. I don't know. It's old."

I later thought that I could have said it was a gift (true), so therefore I didn't really have any idea how much it cost (not true).

How would you respond - or how have you responded - to such a question?

It depends on the person. If they have a nice bike, it doesn't bother me to tell them how much. If they're not a cyclist, they always gasp so sometimes I just say 'lots" and my health and fitness is worth it. Also, when someone implies that I spend too much on cycling, I ask them how much their TV cost. Most of them have those $3000-5000 big screen things. Mine is less than $400.

$3500 on a bike or $3500 on a TV. I mean really, there's no comparison.