Daylight savings has ended, and it's quite dark when I leave the confines of the office, at the end of the workday. Last week I dug out my light systems, to see what was still functional, and what was in need of repair. Repair is a tough call on these light systems. We ride a lot at night, and the guys I ride with go damn near as fast in the dark, as they do in the light. Consequently, the light systems have gotten expensive, to produce the light needed to keep up with these fast bastards. I try to take care of them, but during the long hot summers, cycling through battery charges is far from my mind, and the batteries occasionally come up short the next season.
Batteries have gotten outrageous! A new battery for my HID light runs about $135, ON SALE!!! That kills me, as I can buy an overseas built, new school LED light, for about $85. The whole system for $85, and they work great. I have one now, and use it almost every ride. My hang up is with the waste. I cannot stand to toss a perfectly good light, that simply lacks a battery. In the appraisal business, we call this incurable functional obsolescence. The cost to cure the problem, exceeds the contributory value of the item damaged. Or in this case, it exceeds the value of the ENTIRE system. But the waste....
I go through the same thing with cordless drills. I have two drills that I bought for about $135. But both batteries are roached, and no longer take a charge. New batteries run $45/ea. Here we go again....
I have two dead drills and multiple dead cycling lights, all sitting in no man's land on a shelf. I can't bear to toss them, but they don't work. I have a few friends that have dared to call me a hoarder. These are close friends, and can get away with that, but still... Is it truly hoarding when you just don't want to be wasteful? I have a shop full of 10 generation old cycling parts, and I'm a hero when I pull out that 1994 widget that saves your favorite ride's shifting. But the rest of the time, folks snicker and point, and suggest that I should be on that damned TV show. I can see it now, bald and wailing as some bright shirt and glove wearing jackass tosses my first generation XTR cranks into a trash bin, and a counselor tries to discover what grave happening in my life triggered my salvation excess.
Maybe there is some great issue in my past, that my psyche decides to bury beneath bike parts. But mostly, I believe it comes from not having money as kid growing up. So now, when I have something nice, I intend to hang onto it until it rots away in my fingers. Even in my shop days, I was a fixer, more than a replacer. I always tried to get that guy's shifter to kick out a few more weeks, because I knew his money was hard earned, too.
But now I'm at a crux. These lights, they cost more to fix than a whole new light, so that runs counter to my saving the cash ideology.
But the waste...
I think I have a problem. Anybody know a good hoarding counselor?
3 comments:
During the zombie apocalypse you'll be glad you've got all those parts.
I'll be glad to counsel you. But you have do to exactly what I tell you.
Oh, and the only fast bastard on the ride is the one commenting above. ^
When it comes to music gear I NEVER throw anything away. I always end up using it.
As a recipient of the above scenario where I have been saved by your old parts, I say keep them and wait for the time of need. Also, get a few more cats and stop doing dishes or taking out the trash.
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