18 in college

>>1026932
It's better to know how to, and be licensed to legally operate a motor vehicle than to be unable. You can have a license but not own a car. Assuming you live in the United States, there are circumstances in which being able to carry the kind of cargo or passengers a car is capable of containing matters. Medical emergencies, for example, taking a friend to the airport, or ever being somewhere outside of a city for more than a day, are simplified tremendously when you have the options a motor vehicle affords you.

As far as building a bike, if you're budget-minded, you're really best off getting something used but in good shape from a local shop that has decent components on it.

>>1026932
Nah, you should definitely buy a complete bike to start out on.

Putting a bike together from parts is only cheaper if you already have all the necessary tools, knowledge that will keep you from making costly mistakes, and can source parts inexpensively. The retail price of parts plus the retail price of a frame always adds up to more than the retail price of a complete bike, and that's before you factor in the time and labor involved.

>>1026932
>I'm a child that thinks I know better than everyone else.
You should listen to your dad, retard.

do you even know anything about bikes in the first place?

>>1026944
>listening to your dad just because he is older
You know, he can be old, but he can be wrong.

Building your own bike from scratch is only a good idea when you have all the tools, bits and pieces needed to put it together. It isn't like building a computer at all, really.

What you should do is (assuming you are in the USA)

>learn how to drive and consider it a skill you might need one day
>buy a used, decent, steel road bike
>get to know it
>ride it, get the miles in and become familiar with road bikes
>save
>buy something modern and carbon and fast
>dismantle the steel bike, give it a thorough clean, reassemble it

It might appear on the face of things that you can take the whole thing apart with simple tools, but that is not the case.

You should probably just stay inside

You'll regret how embarrassing not having your license becomes as you get older.

>>1026934
You act as though there is a shortage of vehicles or people with licenses to drive them anywhere on this planet.

>>1026962
It's not that there's a shortage, but that the ability to do it for yourself is valuable.

>>1026961
Driving
>Costs more than public transport/walking
>Bad for environment
>Bad for health
>Endangers walkers

I'll take the embarrassment and maintain my morals.
And if I do learn to drive something it will be a motorcycle

>>1026965
>costs more than public transport/walking
and is more reliable/faster/on demand
>endangers walkers
only if they're jumping out in front of you, or you're driving on the sidewalk

>>1026965
>I do learn to drive something it will be a motorcycle
Look into motorcycle licensing requirements in your state. There's a good chance you need to have a license before you can get motorcycle-certified. One drawback is that a motorcycle can't generally carry much more than a bicycle (barring a sidecar), and another is that a motorcycle isn't a very practical vehicle if there's weather where you live.

>>1026965
>Learning how to operate a vehicle is a matter of morals.
Kill yourself faggot.

>>1026932
Being an edgy autist about cars aside, do you know anything about bikes? Bikes aren't computers, building your own bike won't save you money, if you want a good bike just buy one, you can always customize it to make it better.

Don't start your history with bikes with the frustration of making one. The lack of standards makes any project that hasn't been 105% verified to be all compatible parts nearly impossible to do with the initial estimate of both time and money. I'd say if you do build one have some shitty $20 Craigslist MTB as a backup. Also learn your local trash pickup zoning and skim the areas the evening before. The bikes you find that way can always be salvaged for parts.

>>1026932
Show ur Dad about half a dozen insurance quotes 4 u [young], PL&PD for a used POS in your zipcode. He'll shit kittens.

>>1026962

You act as if situations can't come up where there literally won't be any other people nearby who can operate a vehicle. Shit like that happens literally all the damn time.

I know lots of people have said the same thing, but

>learn to drive
even if its a skill you rarely use, you will still benefit from being able to if you have to
and just because you learn to drive and get a license doesn't mean you need to get a car, it just opens up options in the future
also, drivers licenses are the most common form of ID, and not having one looks suspicious

>build a bike
do it, but get something cheap and ridable first
for less than $100 you can get a good 90s rigid mtb off of craigslist/used bike shops/local coop and it will last you for the rest of your life if you treat it right
putting together a bike is fun as fuck, especially if you have a coop nearby that'll let you use a workstand and answer questions you have
knowing how to maintain your own ride makes it a really cheap form of transportation and a whole lot of fun

>>1026932
>Honey, I'm pregnant!
When you hear that will be when you realize you need to be able to drive. Unless you live in one of the really big cities like New York where you really have to be rich to be able to afford to own a car, you really can't get through life without at least having a drivers license, and as per my example, when you get married and you have a baby on the way, you're not going to be able to get by not being able to drive.

>>1026932

> My dad keeps pressuring me to learn how to drive but I really don't want to.

don't do it. I got my license more than 10 years ago because my parents wanted me to. I still hate drving, still get around without it. Getting the license was a big waste of money.

Moreover, self-driving cars will be with us soon. Taxis are with us already.


> I'm thinking about building a bike rather than buying one

I agree with everyone else: buy a complete used bike. Building a bike is fun, but takes time, is more expensive than buying a complete bike, and you need several specialized tools. Get a bike first, ride it, learn to service it. Only then think about building one yourself.

>>1026932
If you live in the USA anywhere other than Manhattan, you should learn how to drive. Even if you don't plan on owning a car, it's an important life skill. Like most things in life, it's easier to learn when you're young.

My dad grew up in a third-world soviet-block country and didn't learn to drive until he was in his 30s. He was apparently never very good at it, and just gave up entirely when I was a small child. It was a real burden on my mom to have to drive both the kids *and* my dad around everywhere, and I could tell she hated it. She was super happy when I got old enough to drive myself and my younger siblings around ourselves.

>but muh self-driving cars
I work at Google in the same building as the self driving car folks. Ain't happening for real for another decade.
>but muh Tesla Autopilot
Don't make me laugh. Elon's mouth is writing checks his engineers can't cash. Morale on the Autopilot group is non-existent and turnover is sky-high.

>bike stuff
Buy a decent used bike right now. Ride it. Maintain it yourself. Upgrade it as necessary/desired. Learn how stuff goes together. Learn what you like and don't like. Planning a $1000 bike build for two years in the future is pointless.

>>1026957

Yeah but he's not though, is the point.

File: 1331524407492.jpg (80KB, 443x388px) Image search: [Google]

80KB, 443x388px

>>1027076
>he got married
>he had a baby

>>1027099
>his wife's son

>>1027076
>falling for the baby propaganda
>not being DINK master race

>>1026976
this.
OP are you literally retarded. holy shit im out, this has to be a troll

fucking
>MORALS
LOL

>>1026961
>You'll regret how embarrassing not having your license becomes as you get older.

Read the DMV drivers handbook (it's online)

Make an appointment at the DMV. Take the written test. Get your learners permit.

Find a few friends with cars who will let you practice driving. This would be a great time to learn to drive a stick-shift too.

After you're comfortable driving, take two or three lessons from a real driving school, so they can explain what you should do to pass the DMV driving test.

Take the DMV driving test. Get your license.

Now when you and your buddies get some stupid idea to drive 1200 miles during Spring Break, you won't be the dead weight in the back of the car who can't do their share of driving.

>>1026962
I bet you also rely on all those other people to pay your welfare checks. Learn to drive, it's a detriment to society if you do not.

Also, you must not get out of the city a lot do you?

>>1026962
this is some quality bait

imagine a rare handbuilt ritchey mtb in NOS condition comes up on craigs for 50 bucks. Are you going to be the sucker that has to call up every friend you have to drive you over there to pick it up? Are you going to go rent a car for the occasion? Do you want to pay an uber to take you there and back, mean while stuffing the bike in their trunk? All meanwhile, someone else might have snatched it up.
Or do you want to text your roommate that you need to borrow their car for the afternoon and handle it yourself?

Even in conditions that aren't nearly as important, it opens up a world of opportunities, with few costs.

>The way I expect this to work is like computers,
You're completely wrong. Completes are fairly consistently cheaper.

What MIGHT work, depending on what you've got is to buy a broken piece of trash and rehab it into a bike.

Or go with a used bike.

>>1026962
Simply having road experience in cars will make you a better, safer cyclist. If you're in Copenhagen, London, or NYC, you can ignore this.

>>1026965
Sure, get one of those too. And what kind of sense of morality celebrates ignornace?

>>1026932
kys

>>1026932
> think it is ethically and morally wrong to drive a car
have you been tested for autism?
but for real, having a license can be useful every now and then, especially when trying to get a job. you never know. and it's not like you have to have a car as soon as you know how to drive, you'll still be allowed to walk or take the train

>>1026932
>don't even know why, but I look down on people that drive cars.
I suggest you move someplace where most people don't drive cars.
/thread