"How much did your bike cost?"

[Jiffer]

I was just asked this a couple of weeks ago for the first time. Obviously not a cyclist asking and it did feel a little weird. My friend and I were together and she wasn't responding, so I did. My bike isn't easy to explain the price of, so I explained how all the "parts" on the bike came from my husband's old bike and when he was ready to buy an even better bike, he bought me a frame and had the parts put on it. If I had bought the bike retail all put together, it would have been around $4,000 (Dura-Ace components, etc.), but we saved a lot on the frame because our LBS guy sort of decided dh was on the Cannondale team, so he got the Cannondale team price. And the parts were all bought separately, a little at a time, while dh upgraded his first bike over the course of a year.

And then he asked about my friend's bike and I looked at her and said, "What, about $2,000 or $2,500?" She said $2,500.

After we left I thought maybe I should have simply said "a lot" and left it at that. I did say that, actually, but the guy pressed for more. I'm not sure if my friend was irritated or not. I shouldn't have answered for her. I don't really care if the guy wants to know how much my bike is, except for the fact that we did recently have a burglary at our house, so I really shouldn't be going around telling people how much money I have sitting in my garage. However, luckily, the burglars left all our high end bikes. Police said they'd be too easy to trace I guess. The bad guys also probably didn't have enough room in the back of my Jeep Cherokee they stole to PUT the bikes along with the big screen TV and everything else!!!

[SadieKate]

. . . . except for the fact that we did recently have a burglary at our house, so I really shouldn't be going around telling people how much money I have sitting in my garage. However, luckily, the burglars left all our high end bikes. Police said they'd be too easy to trace I guess.

The police are dead wrong. We lost high end bikes that could not be found and the police suspected it was a planned hit. The burglar probably knew what was in the garage as they parked inside while they "shopped" and took a custom tandem that wouldn't fit the average couple.

You need to lock your bikes even inside the garage.

Another reason I don't discuss the cost of my bikes with strangers.