Val23708

$1 per 2 miles is my budget

patentcad

You budget slashing genius, they need guys like you in Washington.

dmb2786

im going to spend every dollar i earn on bike racing, since i now have my parents to feed me.

SushiJoe

Not much. I think I spent '09, '10, '11 and '12s budget this year...

Psimet2001 

Seriously....I'm laughing while reading this. That's soooooo it. The only time I care is times like when you're digging into a corner faster than you would normally ever take that corner and you feel the tires hold and you think...."thank god that's a nice tire."

....but I never think "you know....this seatpost is really holding me back..."

With this in mind I think I am going back to my "crit" bike I made up for racing last year and only ended up using in one crit. It's not that I don't love racing my Giant, but the thought of having to replace it is just killing me.

...but the cirt bike is all campy so that all will have to go....The team is sponsored by SRAM now so maybe a new Rival group.....

....see...that's how this kind of crap starts....

jmechy

I plan on spending much more than last year. Getting race fees, overnight rooms, and gas payed still left me only paying for bike repairs and food last year. This year is going to be expensive. :-\

slim_77

You can't ignore a multi thousand dollar annual expense -- that is the $5000 gorilla in the room. Well, that is unless your debt to income is nominally small. I want spend money on other things...like kids and tuition someday.

The $2k this year is good compared to last years ($2k + $3k bike + roof rack) budget. Next year, after I upgrade, I want a team bike and a PT, so I think that perhaps a multiyear average makes more sense.

Say, including my expenses for 08, 09 and 10 my 3 year average will be about $3.?k or $300-350 per month.

By not budgeting for this, I'll be perpetually in debt and crunching stuff I don't want to. If I do it right, I can afford this effing sport and the stuff I want.

slim_77

yep...I'm looking at that team offer for next year. My SystemSix con Force is really nice and a bit too nice...

Coyote2

We run on a tight ship, which allows us to live on one of our two salaries. The rest is saved and used for debt retirement. If you want to get ahead, you have got to have a budget and stick to it -- otherwise you end up like our federal government.

Aside from a new bike (which happens about every 5-6 years - often enough to take advantage of genuine technological advances) and the occasional birthday or Christmas gift, I get $160/month for parts, repairs, maintenance, clothing, helmets, etc. Racing license and registration fees come from that, but not travel to the races since we often turn them into vacations. And if I don't spend the whole $160 in a month, it accumulates in an account. That means that any expenditure definitely involves foregoing something else now or in the future (true for any expenditure, but this makes it something that I and I alone will forgo, and hence makes me much more careful with the purchases).

And my wife and I discuss each race in terms of cost to both our budget and our family time.

ericm979

Just chains and tires have to add up to more than that in a year. Not to mention anything that breaks- I average one wheel rebuilt each year, then there's headsets, BBs, etc etc all of which eventually go bad.

I do all my own work except wheelbuilding and I'd guess that I spend more like $4-600 a year on maintenance. That's on two bikes and I'll ride a total of about 550 hours this year.

Flatballer

More money than I currently have. Considering I'm in debt to my parents pretty heavily, and about to ask for another loan to cover me until I start working again next summer between semesters.

School pays entry fees, I already bought kit/bike, all I have coming up is food/housing/travel. We carpool so gas isn't too terrible, although we do drive a long way sometimes. I eat cheap food, cheapest carbs I can get. Usually bagels and pasta (plain) and such. Housing, we usually stay with someone from the host school, or occasionally stuff a bunch of people into a seedy motel room.

It's nice racing with college kids, because we're all in the same boat. None of us have any extra money to be spending, so we're all trying to save as much as possible.

That being said, I splurged and bought two kits.

gsteinb

You're supposed to win tire primes

Bob Dopolina 

2009 may be the first season in a LONG while where I actually have to pay for stuff. This could be a bit of a shock to the system. I may even start patching tubes.

ericm979

Being a skinny climber who doesn't race crits and can't sprint, the chances of that are essentially zero.

urbanknight

I keep reminding my wife of that. I used to race cars. She used to sail.

I keep reminding my wife of that, too.

Duke of Kent

Sounds like you've pigeon holed yourself.

I hope you win a lot of races, otherwise the "skinny climber" moniker is useless.

Duke of Kent

Here's mine:
Bikes = free
Parts = free
Clothing = free
Entry fees = we're still waiting on cash sponsors to make up their minds.

Despite the uncertain team budget, we had everyone who was asked to race for the team sign on again for this season. Even if I have to pay entry fees from time to time, I'm still making $$$ every weekend, and having a blast doing it.

nitropowered

Now that I've thought about this for a while, I figured that I race an average of once a week, race March thru november, its 36 weeks, 36 races. If races average $25 a pop, thats $900. Lets round up and say $1000 in entry fees.

Gas lets say $25 a weekend, so again about $1,000.
After Race meals $500
Occasional hotels $500
UCI License $150
Monthly Massage $720 (wish it was weekly)
Total: $3,870

I'm sure I spend $2000+ on equipment, supplies nutrition a year.

wfrogge

So you only spent 500 bucks on racing?

slim_77

yeah, good point. didn't consider the other general stuff as my bike was new in July 08, so nothing needed then. Luckily that is only another $17 per month. ugh.

nice. very nice.

urbanknight

I didn't know people that talented wasted their time here on BF.

Duke of Kent

I'm not particularly fast.

I do my job, for my team, and I am compensated for my meager contributions. I took myself out of the money at all but one SuperWeek race, because I was simply not at a level necessary to RACE and help my team. I wasn't going to steal from them, when I never sniffed the front of the race.

urbanknight

Come race against me. You'll feel better.

Creakyknees

Well I bought a bike a couple weeks ago so that really skews my $ for the year.

But no, I don't keep track of it; I did exactly 2 races this years that required a hotel stay; mostly I did Tuesday nighters which I pedal to and they cost $10 for entry.

A few tires, chain, cassette and a few other entry fees / gas / food, but absent the new bike I think I'm spending less than a lot of guys here.

And it's the first new bike since '02 so it's not like I'm a compulsive upgrader or anything.

Creakyknees

hey guys, when you're totaling up gas $, do you include the days that you drive to a training ride start?

and is it just gas $ or a loaded depreciation factor on the car?