P̶a̶i̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶!̶ Murphy strikes again!

I bought an e-bike to ride to work while the transport department spend years making the train line look as ugly as sin. I was calculating savings based on train fares i didn't pay for ($10/day for 30k round-trip - talk about exorbitant ripoffs). Petrol savings are significant too, but haven't been factored in and charging costs haven't been factored out. With about 7 days' riding before the bike had paid for itself, last weekend it got stolen.

A brief interlude for some schadenfreude. The PoS thief was on my property, inside my side gate, quietly smoking skinny Asian cigarettes, waiting for everyone to go to sleep before he made off with the bike. Based on the 40-odd cigarette butts considerately left on the concrete the dumb eejit must have been standing there for about 4 hours. (We don't exactly go to sleep early.) The bike's battery was inside, charging overnight. I had had troubles with the brakes and was half-way through a repair job - when it was lifted, the back wheel was rubbing against the brake pad making riding difficult, and noisy.

So, for standing in the freezing cold for four hours late at night, numnuts has scored himself a very low-end e-bike with no battery and dodgy, screeching brakes. I am not a happy camper, but it sucks to be him.

Anyway, that'll teach me to start telling everyone how well I did with my purchasing decisions and financial acumen. I don't know why I didn't think Murphy wouldn't be listening ... ('When you least expect it ...' - Murphy), but he definitely got me with this one. Going to be juggling bills for the next few months but have got myself a new e-rider for the work commute, and it looks like it's better than the stolen bike, and the last one was effectively free so I can be somewhat positive about the incident, I guess.

So, in a mere hundred-odd days' time, my bike should be paid for. Not quite how I'd expected the original post to look, but still - yay!