How can I avoid lending my bike?

Question

There's this kid I've been riding with for quite some time that keeps borrowing my bike non-stop leaving me riding his broken bike. Not that I dislike him riding my bike or anything, is just that every time I lend him my bike he will be crunching gears uphill, skiddding and knocking on stuff carelessly and my bike will end up having problems, and when I told him my bike has a problem he will say it's not his fault and I end up using my money to fix it.

He has a folding bike with everything loose and a mountain bike at home that is broken, he is not even bothered to fix both of his bikes. Once, he asked to borrow my bike again and I say no, he looked like he is upset and a bit angry. Is there something I can say to avoid lending my bike to him?

Just curious- do you want to stay friends with this guy or not? Answers may differ in tone depending on how you answer this. — ElizB, May 11 '19 at 19:51
Sounds like saying "no" worked the last time you tried it? Unless you gave him bike anyway after doing so? — Erik, May 11 '19 at 20:04
Some more technical answers were posted at https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/61876/how-can-i-stop-someone-borrowing-my-bike-anymore but that was closed as off-topic because the bike's not the core issue. — , May 11 '19 at 22:25
Related: How do I say no to a stranger asking to borrow my bicycle for a minute? — Mithical, May 11 '19 at 22:30
Heya! I see two people asking you for more information, could you perhaps [edit] your question to include the answers? And, as the answer here is already suggesting there might be some cultural difficulties in declining, a location/culture tag might help users to find the post better and give more tailored answers :) — Tinkeringbell, May 13 '19 at 18:11

Cubemaster · Accepted Answer · 2019-06-26T15:22:10.637

If you're pretty sure that this friend's riding practices are what's breaking your bike every time, I think the best idea is to be honest about it. Say something along the lines of

No, you can't borrow my bike. Every time you ride it it ends up breaking, and I have to pay to have it fixed.

Your friend might get angry, but that's either because you figured out his scheme to avoid paying to fix his own bike, or he could legitimately not know that he's breaking your bike and feel like you are wrongly accusing him of something. Either way, he's in the wrong and you should not feel guilty about refusing him your bike.

Does he have a good reason why he can't just have his broken bike fixed, or why he can't buy a new one? If his bike is not too broken to ride, then why can't he just ride his own bike? Just do your best to not be rude about it, but you are perfectly justified in refusing to let him borrow your bike, at least until he can show he knows how to ride properly.

I was in a similar situation a few years ago, where a friend kept borrowing one of my good tents to go camping with his girlfriend. I didn't really mind because I was never using it at the same time, but I had an issue when he would never return it clean. He would wear his boots inside the tent, leave food wrappers in the tent, all among certain.... other messes. I asked him to stop leaving it so messy, asking that he refrain from wearing shoes and eating inside the tent (bad ideas for more reasons than my personal preference), but he didn't stop doing it. So, I told him:

Listen man, I'm fine with lending you my tent, but not if you keep bringing it back a mess like this. I'm having to spend my own time cleaning up your messes. I've asked you to make sure it stays clean several times and you never do so no, I'm not going to let you borrow it again. Get your own tent if you want to be messy.

Now, the abrupt manner of speaking I used might not suit your specific relationship with your friend, but I believe the general message should work. My friend was a bit upset with me at first, but he got his own tent and realized the work that goes into cleaning it up, and he realized I was right and apologized for it. If your friend isn't an unreasonable fellow, he will probably come around once he has to pay to fix his own bike.

How can I avoid lending my bike?

1 Answers1