Nonsense. How much do you think bike parts cost? Basic pads for a bike are about $10-15, depending on rim or disc brakes. With most rim brakes you only an allen key. Most cars need a tool to depress the piston, not to mention you have to lift the car and remove, remove lugs, etc. Compared to a disc bike, you can compress the caliper using only a tire lever, and most bikes have quick release hubs or worst case 2 nuts to remove per wheel.
> Most cars need a tool to depress the piston, not to mention you have to lift the car and remove
mechanics do it for 50 euros here.
And I can change my brake pads, everybody could do it, it's just that people are unaware of how easy it is.
They mostly are unaware of how easy it is to change brakes on a bike too, that's why bike shops make more money than car shops compared to the amount of work required.
Plus one on the huge gulf between how easy the job actually is and how hard people think it is.
I’ve shown about 5 friends how to do it. I don’t think any have continued to DIY additional work, but I tried and at least they know a bit more about their car now.
> Maintaining a bike is cheaper and easier than maintaining a car.
but very few do it, given that they are not forced to keep it functional, unlike here, where I live, where your car has to pass a state mandated safety inspection every 2 years.
of course: this is the largest bike parking in the Netherlands (6,000 bikes) [1]
You can see by yourself the kind of the average bike and its maintenance state
notice: I deliberately chose the Netherlands because it's the country with the most bikes, the best infrastructures for bikes and with the best kept bikes, so Imagine that 90% of the bikes in Europe are in much worse shape that those you can see in the picture.
