My bike needed a little maintenance this week. I’d put more than 3500 kilometers on it since I bought last year and it was time to replace some of the moving parts.

I bought a chain, a rear 8-speed cassette and a knobby mountain bike tire and I had the bike shop do the labor. Total cost: US$66

You could barely buy a chain for that much in America, let alone add in the tire and cassette/sprocket set and labor. I checked Richardson BIke Mart’s online site for prices and I came up with about $80 just for the tire and chain. No sprocket, no labor.

Suck it, America.