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how much would you pay to keep cycling?
if you got to a point in your life where you could not cycle to the level you do know, to ride the stuff you enjoy, to keep up with mates, to ride tough offroad routes.
would you pay in excess of £5k for a bike to enable you to still ride like before?
the bike would have to be a keeper.
what cost you enjoyment.
There's folk already paying £5k for a bike.....
.... I'd do it at the drop of a hat.
You're a long time dead 🙂
Can I ask what happened after your ECG request ton?
And, no I don't think I'd pay a vast amount of money; there is far more to life than cycling...
crikey, ecg showed i am back i AF.
agree that there is a lot more to life than cycling, but if you have always cycled or done sport, and all of a sudden you couldnt, what would you do?
Depends on my income.
If it inhibited my quality of life -food, clothes and car then no.
If I would make me happy, then fine.
If you have mates that won't wait - broaden your network?
I certainly miss it; I had a wee affair related issue and in the resultant chaos I didn't ride for a few years. It taught me, amongst other things, that although it seemed really important, its only an activity. I've gone back to it, but I now know that the gap it left can be filled with other things.
It's tough, especially when a part of your identity is as a cyclist, but its not what makes you you, if you get what I mean.
If I was a millionaire, I'd pay a million quid. If I only had tuppence, well I'd probably spend that!
Cycling is important to me, because it makes me happy... You can't put a price on happiness, but if you had to, then I'd give whatever I had to be able to carry on cycling in the way I do now.
And yes, I'm fully aware there are other things in life, I've certainly tried many of them. But the only two that I have never lost the love for are cycling and music, so ain't nobody gonna get in the way of me enjoying them!
(here's hoping I don't go deaf or lose the use of my legs any time soon eh!)
not in the same league as you Ton but my hard climbing days ended with a series of very bad tendon injuries to the point where my hands are pretty mangled these days and don't have full mobility in them. I can still climb but it annoyed the hell out of me to be biffing up 5c when I should/used to capable of so much more. It ended up depressing the hell out of me, so I sold all my climbing gear and got back into cycling. There is always a potential to get outdoors and have a great time with like minded people, but it just may not be doing what you used to do.
Best of luck with whichever choice you make matey.xx
Depends how much you do, my my lungs were diagnosed as ****ed I stopped almost all riding and all competitive riding, it wasn't too difficult as I simply looked for and found something else to fill the void. Little by little I got back into riding too.
It's not that big a deal.
if it makes you happy do it. personaly I love running, I had to stop for 6 months due to injury which NHS couldnt/wouldnt fix. I was like a caged animal, I found a private sports physio which sorted me out pretty much in 2 sessions. Im a single parent of 3 working part time so the bill of 76 quid for both sessions was a great deal of money for me, but it means im out running trails day or night, therefore its turned out to be the best 76 quid i have ever spent!
Good question ton and am sorry to hear you are still struggling. 🙁
I'm currently looking at potentially six months before I can get back on a bike following my accident. Add to the mix two years of worsening health and, quite frankly, I feel like selling my bikes.
I know how it feels to get continually knocked back and sometimes I don't have the energy to fight any more.
Take your time reaching a decision, do what's right for you and look forward, not back.
cg, hope you get over you accident quickly love.
i am looking forwards to be honest, gonna get my electric beast back out of it's short lived hibernation. 8)
how can spending £5k enable anyone to ride a bike like a younger/fitter version of themselves?
you gonna employ TJ to cart you around?
If I was a millionaire, I'd pay a million quid. If I only had tuppence, well I'd probably spend that!Cycling is important to me, because it makes me happy... You can't put a price on happiness, but if you had to, then I'd give whatever I had to be able to carry on cycling in the way I do now.
Basically, that.
I've seen people with artificial limbs riding bikes. I'd like to think, that if I ever ended up in that situation, that I'd do the same.
Even if I had to resort to an electric bike or something,.I'd still want to get out there and enjoy riding. Woon't have to be gnarly trails or owt, towpaths and stuff would be fine.
If I had the choice of having to lose all my other stuffs, or lose my bikes, I'd keep the bikes.
I'm currently looking at potentially six months before I can get back on a bike following my accident. Add to the mix two years of worsening health and, quite frankly, I feel like selling my bikes.
Don't. Bikes are the best things you will ever own. You will ride them again soon enough.
gnarly trails and mountains a plenty, with what i am planning fred.............. 8)
Surely way too soon to make this sort of decision? A second procedure may be successful and if you have weight you can lose that may increase your exercise capacity even if you remain in AF. Do you know what your left ventricular function was on the echo?
stoatsbrother, when i had my 1st ablation, the consultant struggled to ablate my atrium, he said it was very big (60mm?) and he ended up leaving it.
when i spoke to him the other day, he said he was not averse to doing another ablation, but he feared that it would be the same outcome if he was not able to work on my atrium again.
he told me that he feared i would be in permenant af for good if this was the case.
if i could get a bike that would still allow me to enjoy cycling, i would pretty much pay whatever i could.. though it might require a bit of saving up
A big right atrium is not a brilliant sign in keeping people out of AF. 60mm is big . Know anything about the left ventricle?
no mate.
there was mention of af node removal, but i did not take it in to be honest.
You got problems with your ticker Tron? I'm sorry to hear that, I guess I now realise the reason for the question, to which the answer would be whatever it takes I guess.
If I couldn't continue to live my life the way I'm used to, which kind of comes on slowly anyway, I'd frankly not really want to continue anyway.
I had the whole death and revival experience once, after a nasty accident and i have to say, without wanting to sound like a complete nutter, the death bit was very pleasant for lots of reasons I won't dwell on.
Pay the money dude and carry on until you can't, best money I spent were my two bikes, one and all carbon XC thing that took ten years off my legs and the other a big mountain freeirde thing which tbh I didn't get anything like what it was capable of until I went on a course with the smiley dude from UK bikes skills. That would be money well spent, he fixed a lot of my issues..
Having your wife say "Its not worth living like this" as her MS takes over even more of her body.
I guess the amount of money matters little, its the quality of life that matters.
things like that put life into perspective mate.
chin up and be strong for her.
A friend has MS and rides an ICE trike - cycling is worth over 2K to him, but he has no balance (and not much speed either). I test rode a range of nice electric bikes at the bike show, and to be honest, I'd drop 2K on one tomorrow if it was that or no cycling. In fact I predict in years to come, when battery power has improved, we'll all be using them for assistance (can you say uplift?)
For some perspective, there are some people out on the trails who seem to put in little effort, and don't feel the need to justify their hydrocarbon usage. I'd feel the same about a well designed e-bike.
I'd find it pretty hard to get on without cycling, but then again, I used to feel the same about motorbikes and now my bike is rotting up the back of the garage (behind a pile of pushirons) I'm sure I could find something else... But I don't want to, so I guess I would pay every penny I possibly could.
I've got this on order due into the uk 22nd Dec cant wait 😀
Ton - sorry to hear about the results of your ECG.
But more directly in answer to your question - if spending £5k on something that is important to your quality of life (like cycling obviously is!) - then do so without feeling you have to justify it (as long as it doesn't stop you paying for essentials like food etc 🙂 ). If that doesn't work out for you, then adapt - try put other activities and you may end up surprising yourself by what you enjoy.
I had to stop doing 'proper' mtb'ing a few years ago due to injury and illness - it 'cost' me a lot - mainly loss of friends, self-esteem and confidence, and contributed to the end of a very long term relationship. But I also gained a lot by adapting to new activities and now have a really passion for road cycling and cycle touring.
I have on-going joint problems (finally got my referral to specialist physio treatment at the muscular-skeletal clinic - hurrah!), but I also get to go out and have a fantastic day riding bikes (albeit differently from how I did before). Sometimes it's hard to manage the pain - the enjoyment from riding makes it worthwhile! I still get out on my mtb occassionally to do 'low tech' rides (which is all my joints can take), but I love soaking up the scenery (and watching Elfin and Kev crash ...).
Cycling / biking is an amazingly diverse activity - you can do it in any way that works for you 🙂
Sorry to hear the bad news Ton.
If you can afford it, £5k is a small price to pay to continue doing something that you enjoy. To put it into perspective, it will still work out as a relatively cheap long term cost compared to motorbikes, golf, skiing, sailing etc. plus lots of people spend that amount of money on a bike or bikes anyway.
So unless there's something else which would give you that much pleasure for the money, it's a no brainer.
and watching Elfin and Kev crash
What did Sue say? [i]'Be very careful this is a very dangerous descent'[/i]. Did Elf and Kev listen?
No, they both ended up in a ditch.
What a pair of idiots. 😐
I often wonder with keeping fit, cycling, gym all the walking I do if it really make any difference to your health sometimes! I'm not that healthy really and still pretty young in my early 30s. But have a few health problems. I often see people drinking,smoking and general larding about and they don't have a single health issue! Just makes you think sometimes.
Back more on topic though regarding buying a bike that expensive would it actually make you go any faster or allow you to keep up with your mates etc? I pretty much doubt it would but if it made you feel better and you could afford it then as said above your a long time dead and to my knowledge you only get one crack at this!
You can't put a price on happiness but 5 grand is a lot of money for a bike IMO.
If it'll mean you can ride and be happy then as long as you can afford it £5k's nothing.
Hope it all works out for you Ton 🙂
how much would you pay to keep cycling?
Certainly not 5k! But then again I'm from yorkshire....
It has it's ups and downs though, Bad weather and constant bike maintence pisses me right off! Especially having to constantly replace chains and cassettes every three months which cost stupid money now.
I've been off the bike for the last seven months, and miss it terribly and finally had a downer about it a couple of weeks ago, when I saw a consultant and had an X-ray and it was fine (almost wanted him to turn round and tell me I had a bone spur or fracture or something much worse)
pisses me off that my tendon won't stop aching (even after a six month break off the bike), i've stopped going to the Physio recently cause just don't see the point at the moment
Actually went out on the road rat yesterday on the Dee Loop and really struggled to ride 23km of flat cycle path, three quarters in and I was done for
Got an MRI booked next week, so will have to see what that shows
Been filling my time with new house projects instead! There is always something else to spend your hard earned cash on!
I would pay whatever i could afford to keep cycling,it's who you are and if it means enough to you and you can afford it, do it. I saw an electric assist Nicolai Dh bike on their website and must admit i thought WTF! But for someone in your position i can see the point!
Good luck to you Ton,keep your chin up!
As some have said I'd pay what it takes. It is last on my list of activities I'd sacrifice (motorbike, snowboard both brill but would give them up tomorrow if it meant I could keep riding).
valuing a financial cost depends on your disposable income, but in a 12 month period I've probably spent close to £5K on cycling anyway (new expensive bike, foreign riding holidays), and it is undoubtedly the biggest single area of my disposable spend.
I've had 3 months off this year with injury, and 3 months off in the summer of 2009 (hence the username) and both drove me mad, but I had the relative luxury compared to you that I knew it was temporary so turned the frustration into motivation- I borrowed a road bike and a turbo and sat in the garden stopping the rot on my fitness.
Cinnamon, you will bounce back and that first ride will be memorable, the fact your'e still on here shows how much it means to you (I became an avid user in the summer, living the MTB vicariously but found it inspiring not frustrating. STW inspiring, good grief!).
Ton, good luck and if like many of us you are a nicer, better person for being able to ride then if you can find the money without suffering genuine hardship then do it.
crashtestmonkey - thanks for your wise words. 🙂
Apologies for my whining - just feeling sorry for myself. 😳