Your bikes Cost per Mile

[Notsototalnewbie]

yet no one have talked about the cost off food we all enjoy doing a ride and after a ride

I didn't cos when I don't cycle I tend to stuff my face out of boredom anyway. In a laying on the sofa in front of the TV kind of way, most unhealthy. I think I ate more when I was off the bike with a broken elbow. 

[Chris S]

I guess the best example I have is free skip job (known as "Skippy" hereabouts) which I spent about £100 on making it a gash fixie for pub/grocery runs. It's so heavy it has its own gravity well. #1 son uses it for commuting now.

Last odo reading was about 10,000km.

[Wendy]

Crikey, my 'bent costs a lot more than I thought it did!!  27p/mile at the moment, and that's not counting any clothing or food.

[Naggers]

  This thread is going much better than I thought it might.

Some great responses, a lot of which were also running around my head when I started it.

I'll add some more thoughts if I get a chance at work tonight. 

 

[Hummers]

The Hummercian ensemble is one year old in May and is currently costing 75p per mile including clothes.

Including beer, that rises to £5.50 per mile.

H

[geraldc]

I ride a b'Twin Sport 1 road bike for commuting. It's done 2600km, and it cost £115 from new. I purposefully got the cheapest bike I could find. Commuting and shopping I ride about 100km a week on it.

I got it in late Sept 07, and in the last month or so I've had to spend a tenner on new brake blocks, about 15 quid on inners, and a set of new tires, specialized armadillos 40 quid.  So it went for about 6 months before I had to replace anything.

So it's about 4-5 per km. That's not bad.

I will need to replace the chain and rear cassette once I can be bothered...

[Naggers]

I think the calculations could get very complicated.

Maybe would be easier to combine the miles of all bikes as spending on kit, tools, etc are shared between them.

I really think Kit probably should be included as, simply, I couldn't ride in normal clothes.
But should you offset the savings you make by cycling? Almost certainly, I guess.

I've saved plenty by having to buy less normal clothes.
I've only bought one or two pairs of jeans in the last few years. Pre cycling days that would have been at least two or three pairs every six months as I wore nothing else.
 
And obviously, I've saved a fortune by riding rather than driving.
Even without the other driving costs I save £4.60 every day I ride to the station.
 

[MSeries]

I think the calculations could get very complicated.

Maybe would be easier to combine the miles of all bikes as spending on kit, tools, etc are shared between them.

I really think Kit probably should be included as, simply, I couldn't ride in normal clothes.
But should you offset the savings you make by cycling? Almost certainly, I guess.

I've saved plenty by having to buy less normal clothes.
I've only bought one or two pairs of jeans in the last few years. Pre cycling days that would have been at least two or three pairs every six months as I wore nothing else.
 
And obviously, I've saved a fortune by riding rather than driving.
Even without the other driving costs I save £4.60 every day I ride to the station.
 

One would have to compare the cycling cost against the cost of the alternative form of transport. I this job I have never driven to the office, I have used the but at times though, especially recently when I couldn't ride. I couldn't drive either. The days I ride I don't spend £3.70 on the bus but of course I do wear out my tyres and brake blocks (unless I use my fixed on which I don't use the brake much). Totalling the bikes together will make things easier to calculate but since I have been cycling for over 20 years now there is no way I know how far I have ridden or how much I have spent.  Does one need to include entry fees to audaxes, sportifs, cycling holidays where I have used my own bike ? The cost of those miles is higher.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Bike cost £300 (2nd hand)
approx £150 spent on parts and clothes in first 2 months.
then about £30 per month.

So, since March last year it's cost me about 5p per kilometer, or 8p per mile. About £4 per day for commuting to work. Hell, that's a lot higher than I thought it would be. Hope my other half never sees this . . . .

[GruB]

I like to think about what I am saving when using my bikes for commuting and fun.
For instance, not having to purchase, run, tax and insure a second car.
Not having to pay to join a gym to exercise.

Keeping fit by commuting does cost me but I think I have gained a lot more by my expenditure of a cycling nature.

But, I cannot put a price to it.

[andygates]

New bling bike: £1500
Chain, cassette, tyres, snacks: £225
That feeling you get cresting a rise and seeing a view open out before you: Priceless.

[Frenchie]

No idea.

I have spent about £1,000 a year over the past 5 years*, now that I could afford it, but we only have one car and I am pretty near full satisfaction with the fleet. I reckon I still have one last superbike in me though... 

That feeling you get cresting a rise and seeing a view open out before you: Priceless.

Indeed.

* I got a couple of custom jobs which raises the bill even if the fleet is dominantly made of fixed bikes. My other bikes, Pompino and Langster, were rather affordable and return a rather high pleasure/cost ratio. I guess I need to spread the cost of the special machines over a longer period, but simply considering service and insurance for a decent car £1,000 is not a silly number.

[Adam]

I wouldn't know where to start calculating the costs as there'd be so many little things to add on.  All I know is that it's a darn sight less than a second car, and it keeps me fit.  That's good enough for me. 

[TheLurker]

Finally got around to working out what my cost per mile was for 08/09.

Total bike related (clothes, parts, tools, consumables)  expenditure was 430 quid and I covered nigh on 4500 miles.  So a fraction under 10p / mile or about what I would have spent on petrol. However I rate last year as 'expensive' cos I treated the bike to a new pair of wheels.

Of course, given that I _loathe_ using the car to get to and from work, I am _spiritually_ ahead of the game _and_ I get the extra bonus smug points for not having added another tonne of CO₂ to the atmosphere.  *Polishes halo*

[Wendy]

On my Fujin SLII so far?  About £2/mile.

[LEE]

I've got 6 bikes.  Do I use the sum of all those and divide by my mileage?

I'm too scared to do that in case I realise I should have bought a Ferrari to keep costs down.

[Greenbank]

The Tempo has done a shade under 11,000km so it's probably at 15p a mile now with the extra bits I've lavished on it in the last 2 years.

[TheLurker]

I've got 6 bikes.  Do I use the sum of all those and divide by my mileage?
I'm too scared to do that in case I realise I should have bought a Ferrari to keep costs down.

*Guffaw*
Aha! I think we may have found a fundamental problem with the rule of, "n+1".

[mike]

I refuse to work this out. It's the kind of thing Mrs Mike would suggest..

[PaulR]

At its simplest, commuting bike cost £265, to which I have added bar tape, brake blocks, new sprocket, tyres and tubes costing about £120 in total.  I commute just over 16 miles a day, at least 230 days a year and I've had the bike for 2 years and 2 months.  I make that a bit under 5p per mile, not including the extra miles done at weekends.

I'm glad the trek singlespeed is proving economical; I probably managed about 90p a mile on it!

[cyclone]

The first one was free.... a 20 year old Lejeune which I used for six months and cost me a set of mudguards and tyres total £35 for 2500 miles giving 1.4 pence!
The "hammer" bike was a build up based on new and used bits (all purchased) including now 2 sets of tyres...1000 miles approx for £450 giving 45p a mile. :-
The ride to work and audax machine gets the most use, is the youngest and cost so far £200 but has covered 3000 miles, 6.67p per mile (on worn out tyres). :
The fixed 1000 miles for £150, 15p per mile.
And yet we always want n+1 butplease dont tell the wife!!!

[Jaded]

My hybrid is the cheapest - mainly because I've had it the longest and at one point it did all my miles. 9p per mile

The SCR 2 is running at 16p

The tricross is currently £1.12, but then it is a new little thing! 

[Morrisette]

Interesting idea!

My commuting bike - a banger - cost 170 quid in 2006. Since then I've spent about 100 quid on services, bits etc in the LBS, and bought some bags and stuff for it - another 50 quid say? I don't commute in special clothes as it's only 4 miles each way. So say 350 quid. Last year was the first time I kept a mileage log and I did 2400 miles.

I think that comes to about 7p per mile. But....did I work it out right??? Do I divide the mileage by the cost?? MATHS FAIL is a strong possibility.  

[vorsprung]

Let's consider the bike that is currently a single speed
I bought it in 2003 for 800 quid
Shortly after I bought it, it got a new frame/forks for 200 quid..I really should be more careful.  Since then it has had

new chain/spocket * 4
new middle/inner/outer chainring
new rear derrailuer
new saddle x2
new front wheel
new rear wheels x2
new gear/brake cables
lots of tyres
lots of brake blocks
lots of chain lube/grease/oil/wd40/degreaser
2 expensive services
new bottom bracket
3x new mudguards
new rear light x2
new bartape
new brake/shift levers
new front derrailuer

The bits remaining are the seatpost, bars, stem, cranks and pedals
lots of the tools I bought were specifically to service this bike
Last year it did 5000km

Let's assume it has done 5000km each year so that's 5x5000 25000 km
I guess all the bits are £1300

So um that's 25000/ 2300 = 10.86p a km
or 6.75p a mile

And since I started commuting on it I've been saving about £3 a day on not-petrol and not-parking

[PrettyBoyTim]

I think I'm somewhere between 15p and 20p per mile.

Edit: the Oystercard the bike is replacing would have cost me £1000 - £1200 per year.