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  #55  
Old September 7th 07, 07:16 PM posted to rec.motorcycles,ca.driving,rec.autos.tech
P. Roehling
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Default California Motorcycle & Automobile Riding & Driving & Written Tests


"Ted Mittelstaedt" > wrote

> Heh. Actually the problem with the bicycle bit came up with our 9 year
> old recently. He wanted a new bike. I took a look at what the average
> sale price of what he wanted new was, it was about $59.99. Well back in
> 1977
> when I was his age and wanted roughly the equivalent kind of bike, the
> sale price as I recall was about $109.99 since I did in fact save up for
> it
> at that time. You see, back then they still made bicycles in the USA...
>
> Including inflation into the picture it really didn't make any sense at
> all
> to
> have him "save up" for what amounted to pocket change in 1977 dollars.
>
> So I said hell with it, bought a used version of what he wanted off
> craigslist for $35, gave it to him, and sold his old bike on craigslist
> for
> $20 and figured if I just drove easy on the gas pedal for a week I would
> have paid for the delta on the bike prices.
>
> There's plenty of other stuff much more expensive than $15 that he
> wants that we play the savings game with than a bicycle.


Yup. Times have changed just a bit since the early 1950's when I never got
the bike I lusted after.

The one I wanted was one of the first 10-speeds I'd ever seen -an import-
as this was way back when single-speed Schwinns were about the only thing
made in America. If I recall correctly, it would have cost me about
sixty-five dollars then; which would probably be several hundred bucks in
today's inflated economy.

Ah well, bikes are like girls: the one you never quite got is somehow the
one you remember most fondly. Probably because you never had the chance to
actually live with her, er, it.


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