Fifty Plus (50+) - Budgeting that bike purchase

There's a great thread here wherein a "newbie" asks questions about what bike to purchase, how far he can reasonably expect to be able to ride in x months, etc. Lots of great advice being offered.

Got me to thinking. When I bought my first bike way back when I had the naive assumption that the price of the bike was biggest financial consideration, and that once I found one in my price range, I was pretty much done with financial outlay.

Silly me! :lol:

There's so much more that goes into it: shoes, pedals, bags, cyclometers or GPS equipment if you want one, racks perhaps, and of course even cycling-related clothing, not to mention spare tubes, basic tools, perhaps lights, and even pie.

I would love to hear your thoughts on what a new bike really costs for someone entering the cycling world, with no previously owned gear. Obviously, everyone's mileage will vary, but what should an informed "rookie" include in his/her plans?

For instance, is that $1,200 road bike really a $2,000 investment within a few months? How would you advise a person to budget for all the basics that are normally purchased at the original point of sale or shortly thereafter?

Could be worse. If you took up golf, the equipment is the cheap part. At least there are no greens fees or membership dues in recreational cycling.
Also, if you go for motorized toys, there's gas, insurance etc etc.

I always feel that the budget is what you make it. After the bike- my first investment was a helmet. Took a while but shorts and jersey were next. Both bought from the sales bins at various shops I always seemed to find in the towns I was visiting. For the cooler mornings--Never seemed to be cold when I started riding 20 years ago- I had a sports sweatshirt and a thin- almost useless- topcoat that was years old and at one time was wind and waterproof. Glasses were just my normal sunglasses. Fanny pack for the repair kit and Levers and a bit of food. Things like water bottles appeared and eventually a Spare tube and multitool. I just used to ride and as I rode with a few friends- never had the problem of breakdowns or mechanicals.

I still do a 100 mile ride with a wedge under the saddle that has a spare tube or two- repair kit and levers and nothing else. Only thing is that in the car before the start there will be a variety of topcoats that range from 100 to $300- a full tool kit and at least one complete set of riding clothing. The camelback has my energy drink in and the two water bottles are carried in bottle holders that cost $30 each and in the pocket of my $60 jersey are a few Vital food stuffs and gels that cost about $25. Should think that for an average distance ride my anciliaries are worth getting on for $500 so how did I get on 20 years ago?

Don't forget to factor in the health benefits of riding a bike and the savings one can accumulate from not having an inundation of health problems due to obeisity or lack of fitness. I'd say for the 50+ group, a man that cycles from the time he is 50 until he is just too old to climb into the saddle would probably save on Doctor bills in the $75,000.00 range, and thats if he has good insurance. No insurance and the bill could go into the $1,000,000.00 range. So, a $1200.00 bike along with all the amenities of gear and weekend rides etc.would probably cost the average rider $2000.00 per year. Therefore, at 50 yrs old if a person is fortunate to ride until he is 80 (30 years) he would still come out ahead $15,000.00

I would answer, but I'm too solidly in denial about bicycling expenses.

I would answer, but I'm too solidly in denial about bicycling expenses.


This. I would probably quit if I actually knew the real price. Stop this thread now!

Got real lucky with my last bike purchase. Came with pedals, shoes(that fit and were clean), cyclometer, bag, helmet. All I bought for it was a tube and CO2. Sometimes that used bike is a good purchase ;)

I would answer, but I'm too solidly in denial about bicycling expenses.
If you annualize the cost over the next 30-40 years, it's as if they actually pay you to buy the bike.

When it comes to the casual rider who isn't into racing etc. even with all the extras, biking is a fairly cheap sport.

It's when you get into multiple bikes and the addiction of having to have the latest accessory when it becomes expensive.

It's like any kind of hobby or sport, it's what you spend, and what you get out of it, whether it be for fitness or pleasure or both, you have to weigh the personal benefit you get out of it, and if it is worth it to you.

There are too many variables. Is the newbie setting up a road bike, commuter, path bike, MTB, etc? Is newbie willing (and able) to shop for bargains and do a lot of work themselves? Is newbie willing to go used on the bike and or other stuff?

I spent $300+ above the cost of the bike setting up my new commuter (excluding clothes) and already had some of the stuff I needed (and I shopped deals and did everything myself). I have friends who I ride with who bought a bike and a helmet and that was it.

Don't forget to factor in the cost of air for the tires.

I race, so the road bike has three sets of wheels, one is the Powertap SL+ Enve 45mm carbon wheels, Campy Chorus hubs/Velocity Deep Vs for training and the Mavic Kysrium ES now for training. The track bike has a set of clincher training wheels and a set of tubular race wheels. Ah and road shoes, Bont A-Ones for track and crits, Giro Factors for road and Sidi 5.5 for the touring bike.
I'm not too excessive ;) . I'm a recovering audiophile :twitchy:

When I worked at the shops. I found the numbers to often be right around Bike + 20% for people buying new bikes pretty much at any costs.

a 500 dollar bike they buy around 100 dollars worth of stuff. 1k = 200 and so on. Obviously not ALWAYS true, but it was a very good number to use in figuring expenses and revenue.

Every time I look around the house I think I might soon be the focus of one of those tv shows about hoarding. It seems there are bikes in every room. It can get as expensive as you let it get.

If you annualize the cost over the next 30-40 years, it's as if they actually pay you to buy the bike.

Over walking? Isn't that like saving money because what you want is on sale?

As a runner many years ago, I paid the exorbitant price of $49 for a top of the line pair of Etonics. I thought myself very self-indulgent. Later I had to invest in shoe goo and then, after shaking my head, more running shoes as time and miles went by.

Little did I know what degree of expense lay in my velo-future.

Don't forget to factor in the health benefits of riding a bike and the savings one can accumulate from not having an inundation of health problems due to obeisity or lack of fitness. I'd say for the 50+ group, a man that cycles from the time he is 50 until he is just too old to climb into the saddle would probably save on Doctor bills in the $75,000.00 range, and thats if he has good insurance. No insurance and the bill could go into the $1,000,000.00 range. So, a $1200.00 bike along with all the amenities of gear and weekend rides etc.would probably cost the average rider $2000.00 per year. Therefore, at 50 yrs old if a person is fortunate to ride until he is 80 (30 years) he would still come out ahead $15,000.00
Serously, My most recent stress test showed completely clear arteries. After my most recent operation last week, the doc checking me out of the hospital said all the numbers were excellent, heart rate, blood pressure, lungs, temp, liquid output, blood tests, all perfect. No way I'd be that way if I had stayed the couch potato I was back in 05.

I ran into a thread on another forum about something--maybe kitchen remodeling. One poster replied, "It's like bikes. Give yourself a budget. Then double it."

Transportation is my primary purpose for cycling. When I started out, I budgeted one year of monthly bus passes, $660. My first bike was $380. I hit the budget with helmet, lights, lock, and multi-tool. And NYS sales tax.

A few weeks later I was back for rack, fenders and panniers. It kept going from there. I blew through that "then double it" budget of $1,320 within the first nine months.

On the plus side, later on as the bikes get more expensive, you already own the accessories. I bought Jeeves as a frameset for $1,000. Components, wheels and tires were another $2,800 or so. Didn't spend a red cent on accessories. :thumb:

Oddly, for a person who hasn't owned a car since spring of 1999, I find myself shopping for my second car rack.

I travel with my parents once a year to the family vacation cottage in Ontario Canada. I bought a Saris Bones 3 for taking the bikes along. They just traded-in the LeSabre on a Buick SUV, which has a soft plastic visor/spoiler thingie along the top of the tailgate. Can't attach the straps there. So I'm shopping for a hitch rack. Jeepers those things are expensive! For something I'll use one week a year, and store for the other 51.

I travel with my parents once a year to the family vacation cottage in Ontario Canada. I bought a Saris Bones 3 for taking the bikes along. They just traded-in the LeSabre on a Buick SUV, which has a soft plastic visor/spoiler thingie along the top of the tailgate. Can't attach the straps there. So I'm shopping for a hitch rack. Jeepers those things are expensive! For something I'll use one week a year, and store for the other 51.
Look used. I picked up a Yakima hitch-mounted 4 bike rack on CL for $50 and a Yakima trunk-mount for $10 at a thrift store. Both are like new and give me a lot of options when the need to transport arises.

I look at it dividing the cost by the amount of miles or hours of riding. It don't look so bad.
Can't got to the movies for that price.

I look at it dividing the cost by the amount of miles or hours of riding. It don't look so bad.
Can't got to the movies for that price.
Very true. The more miles you ride, the more efficient the money you invest becomes.

I'm 65, and I've had plenty of hobbies/interests and still do most of them, and biking has been one of my favorites now for the last 20 years, and I can honestly say it's the least expensive of all of them, and I own four bikes at the moment.

Two years ago, I replaced the trusty 20 year old Nishiki with a 105/FSA-equipped KHS carbon/alu road bike. It cost $1200, which was in my "somewhat over $1000". I'd posted a which-bike-to-purchase question in the 41, but because I wasn't looking at either a BMC or CAAD-10, well, you know where *that* went... ;-)

I'd been riding in cotton shorts and t-shirts all those 20 years, maybe I'll get some lycra shorts and a proper jersey, too. Someone (probably in the 41) mentioned Ribble as one of the online places, and I got a Giordana jersey and bibs for about $120. The only existing gear I could reuse from the old bike was the helmet.

First thing I noticed was the seat had to go, and new pedals too (but not clipless). The stock Kenda tires made for a *really* rough ride, and I always liked my Continental Gatorskins. But the 41 recommended GP4000s, so I ordered them from Ribble a little later (sterling recommendations, BTW, for Ribble and GP4000s). With more comfort came longer rides than on the Nishiki, so I'd better get a seatpack too. More reading of bikeforums, and I became aware that 10-speed chains are more fragile than the 8-speed ones that could last me 5 years, so a chaintool and multi-tool seemed prudent for these longer rides (80-100km by then). You can see where this is going ... once the weather cooled, I needed arm warmers and tights. A CO2 let-down meant a new backup frame pump. And so on. A few of the purchases were impulse, but most weren't.

I don't have a lot of cash to throw at this hobby, so I waited for Ribble sales and favourable currency exchange periods to stock up. So, in the end I probably added another $800 to the purchase price of the bike, bringing the "entry fee" to an even $2000. But the bike will last years more, and so will some of the clothing and accessories. I'll probably continue to spend about $300+ per year on new/better clothing and required maintenance that I can't do myself (which is anything involving hubs or bottom brackets).

In the end, though, it took some luck (KHS, Giordana, and 105 were all just mildly expensive guesses) as well as some good advice from here and I'm very happy with almost all my purchases to date, both price and quality-wise. I honestly don't look at/lust after blingy stuff like Di2; in fact, I used to take pleasure in passing lycra-clad posers on Treks on my 30lb steel bike wearing cotton shorts and no helmet!

No offence to Trek riders ... in those days, it was the only brand name recognizable enough to me to sneer at. ;-) Now, it's Pinarello! :-D

I would sum it up by saying you can spend whatever you want. Understand that you don't -have- to get anything. But here are some thoughts on fairly average costs. Some are wild guesses, but here's what I think is nearly critical stuff.


$40 shorts
$20 gloves
$120 shoes
$165 pedals
$ 20 saddle bag
$100 basic tools including floor pump, spare tube, chain oil, whatever.
$20 water cages/bottles
$60 bike computer
$75 helmet

Of course you can get many of these things in a wide price range but we know the cost of cycling isn't limited to the purchase of the bike. I have several sets of tires, a second set of wheels, many tools and a professional stand and just got back from a cycling vacation....I'd guess I'm not that unusual when compared to other people in this forum in that I devote a fair bit of my recreational resources in terms of both time and money, to cycling.

I would sum it up by saying you can spend whatever you want. Understand that you don't -have- to get anything. But here are some thoughts on fairly average costs. Some are wild guesses, but here's what I think is nearly critical stuff.


$40 shorts
$20 gloves
$120 shoes
$165 pedals
$ 20 saddle bag
$100 basic tools including floor pump, spare tube, chain oil, whatever.
$20 water cages/bottles
$60 bike computer
$75 helmet

Of course you can get many of these things in a wide price range but we know the cost of cycling isn't limited to the purchase of the bike. I have several sets of tires, a second set of wheels, many tools and a professional stand and just got back from a cycling vacation....I'd guess I'm not that unusual when compared to other people in this forum in that I devote a fair bit of my recreational resources in terms of both time and money, to cycling.
I'll say. I might spend 100 on pedals while having like 300 dollars of bottles/cages. If you're doing your own wrenching, add about 300-1k in tools EASY including stands...
The rest is all not as important.. cept maybe shoes. helmest are cheap.. 30/40

I'll compare cycling to two other sports that I know a little about from long, long ago namely bowling and downhill skiing.

BOWLING: Though the bowling ball and shoes don't cost all that much, lane rental never goes away. League bowling requires dues and of course the drinking that accompanies bowling gets expensive. Now, what are the bare necessities? Not much. You can rent shoes. Most bowling establishments have bowling balls free to use. The lane rental is the big cost. Even if you own your equipment, you have to rent a lane. And don't forget you have to get to the bowling ally somehow and gas is back up near $4 per gallon.

SKIING: Similar to bowling...you need to purchase a lift ticket to ski. Equipment costs becomes the smaller part of the financial picture. Transportation to and from the ski slope and lift ticket costs make skiing a reletively expensive past time.

BICYCLING: This is the one sport of these three that anyone can just walk out their back door and participate in. Once you have acquired a bike all you need to do is ride it. Cycling specific clothing is nice to use but it is not required. Lights are required for night riding and an audible device is good for safety reasons but everything else is not absolutely necessary to ride your bike. If you don't have a rack, use a knap sack. Fenders will keep you cleaner but they don't affect the bike handling.

I suspect that in the end, bicycling has the potential be the least expensive of at least these three sports. Of course, one can make bicycling very expensive indeed but I must ask you to think back to your youth. If it was like mine you received a bike for some special occasion and commenced to riding. No helmet, no cycling clothes, just you and your machine. And it was free!!!!

So to answer the original question about budgeting for a newbie cyclist...it all depends on the newbie. Some of us don't need much to be content and some of us never get there.

I'll compare cycling to two other sports that I know a little about from long, long ago namely bowling and downhill skiing.

BOWLING: Though the bowling ball and shoes don't cost all that much, lane rental never goes away. League bowling requires dues and of course the drinking that accompanies bowling gets expensive. Now, what are the bare necessities? Not much. You can rent shoes. Most bowling establishments have bowling balls free to use. The lane rental is the big cost. Even if you own your equipment, you have to rent a lane. And don't forget you have to get to the bowling ally somehow and gas is back up near $4 per gallon.

SKIING: Similar to bowling...you need to purchase a lift ticket to ski. Equipment costs becomes the smaller part of the financial picture. Transportation to and from the ski slope and lift ticket costs make skiing a reletively expensive past time.

BICYCLING: This is the one sport of these three that anyone can just walk out their back door and participate in. Once you have acquired a bike all you need to do is ride it. Cycling specific clothing is nice to use but it is not required. Lights are required for night riding and an audible device is good for safety reasons but everything else is not absolutely necessary to ride your bike. If you don't have a rack, use a knap sack. Fenders will keep you cleaner but they don't affect the bike handling.

I suspect that in the end, bicycling has the potential be the least expensive of at least these three sports. Of course, one can make bicycling very expensive indeed but I must ask you to think back to your youth. If it was like mine you received a bike for some special occasion and commenced to riding. No helmet, no cycling clothes, just you and your machine. And it was free!!!!

So to answer the original question about budgeting for a newbie cyclist...it all depends on the newbie. Some of us don't need much to be content and some of us never get there.

Piffel I say, what happens when you try to wipe down that chain and get some grease on your hand? Admit it there is the likely-hood you will contract the N+1 disease. More likely than getting drunk on beer when in College. When you catch N+1 you are doomed. N+1 can start with Shoes, gloves, jerseys, wheels, tires and tools. When I got back into cycling I had an empty parts box. I had one tool, an old spoke wrench. Today the box is full and I am thinking about another bike. Did you warn any newbes about that? "I think not" No one warns us about bike grease infection.

When I worked as an Audio-Visual Production Manager for theater/concerts/corporate meetings, I learned the term "expendibles". These are the things that, in essence, you spend a buttload of cash on before the show, and at the end of the show you have no tangible object left to show for that cash outlay, other than the sense of accomplishment that comes from pulling off a successful production. IOW, they're the things that get used up during the course of a show: lighting gels, gaffer's tape, tie line, etc.

Cyling has a ton of "expendibles": Tubes, tires, chains, cassettes, bartape, shorts, shoes, gloves, helmets, yadda-yadda-yadda. The bike may be the single largest one-time outlay of cash, but (off the top of my head) I would bet within the first two years of riding as a reasonably obsessive enthusiast, you will match or exceed that dollar amount with expendibles.

I tried budgeting at 5K and missed the mark by a lot. I am not good with budgeting or self control.

When I bought my first bike way back when I had the naive assumption that the price of the bike was biggest financial consideration, and that once I found one in my price range, I was pretty much done with financial outlay.
...
There's so much more that goes into it: shoes, pedals, bags, cyclometers or GPS equipment if you want one, racks perhaps, and of course even cycling-related clothing, not to mention spare tubes, basic tools, perhaps lights, and even pie.

Unless I mistake your picture and misremember your intro, your mistake is one of chronology. "When I bought my first bike way back when..." there was no GPS or cyclo-computer, and they neither were nor are essential no matter how fun they may be. One needn't have, and still needn't, run with expensive shoes unless one absolutely needs that little bit of extra performance. Pedals came on the bike, especially one's first bike. A pump and tiny toolkit probably came with the bike, and the only required addition was a tiny patch kit. For some recreational use one needn't have a rack. While specialized cycle clothing can be nice, it is not essential, and one has to buy clothes for other recreation use anyway. Finally, you would have eaten all that pie anyway. So the biggest not-the-bike expense would be tires or tubes, depending on how much you rode and how many flats you got.


Don't forget to factor in the cost of air for the tires.
One can always find good Internet deals on air if one looks long enough. I don't bother because I have the Park Air Refurbisher tool. (I think it is no longer available.) It has paid for itself many times over.

I tried budgeting at 5K and missed the mark by a lot. I am not good with budgeting or self control.
Well it hasn't affected your ability to have in excess of 5k to spend on a bike, so you're better off than most. ;) To me anything less than 100 dollars a pickup item at any moment. Less than a thousand is pretty much justifiable for almost anything if you are serious about, over the 5k mark is typically a More than serious type of budget. This is true for kayaking as well. That being said, it is very easy to justify individual items below a certain price point and very rarely understand the greater scheme of things. (all of the items added up)

Individually, none of my bikes or things are THAT nice. Maybe a a couple grand into any given bike. But you add them all up and include all of my shop equipment, and apparel and there is easily 10k in bicycle related items in my basement. I never look at it that way though. I look at it as 10-100k miles of fun and pleasure instead.

What is this budget idea of which you speak? Does it involve some sort of planning? And must it apply to things of passion?

I would agree with the assertion previously stated that "they're paying you to ride the bike."

Worst case is driving a car purchased new. A nice car, including all taxes, is about $30,000. You amortize that over ten years, you are paying $3,000 per year just for the car, not including fuel, maintenance fees, insurance, etc. But most people will not substitute a bike for a car; they'll keep the car, but maybe just not drive it as much since they've got the bike.

So you leave the car parked and take the bus to work. That'll likely cost in the neighborhood of $1,000/year, and that's assuming you get the more economical monthly pass. If you ride the bike instead, you can get a nice bike for $1,000 in year one, and you're not likely to be spending anywhere near $1,000 per year in subsequent years to operate and maintain it. And this is a real alternative. It's either the bike or the bus, although you could combine the two modes. I know a guy who rides to the train station, puts the bike in a secure bike locker, takes the train downtown, pulls the 2nd bike out of the locker there, and rides to work. So each day that he does this costs him $5 each way for the train, $0 for the bike, except maybe $20 for two lockers every three months.

And for public transportation, we're not even factoring in the hidden subsidies you are charged to the taxpayer. To say nothing of the subsidies for roads and other motor vehicle facilities that misleadingly reduce the perceived cost of driving. But these apply to everyone (except for the taxes hidden in fuel). The unfortunate aspect of these hidden taxes is that they encourage greater use of motor vehicles ("as long as I'm paying this, I'd better use the car more in order to maximize my personal benefit versus what I am paying!" In other words, motorists like the idea of being paid to drive the car. The more you drive, the more you spread the fixed costs - the car itself, the annual fees and insurance, the hidden taxes, although the variable costs, which increase with more driving, are far in excess of the marginal costs of cycling or busing).

So yeah, what do you include in your budget? Should you also add the externalities - medical expenses, your share of the health care expenses for treating people injured in traffic incidents?

Personally I like to think of this as a no-brainer, looking at the most short-term marginal costs: if I take the car downtown, it will cost me $20 to park all day. If I take the bus, it will cost me $5, $7.50 if it's rush hour. If I take the bike, it costs me nothing! So I take the bike. What's my investment? Who cares, it's already a sunk cost.

Luis

When I first came back to bike commuting 3 or 4 yrs ago I just started riding my 10yr old $300 Raleigh mountain bike. Clothing? Wore street clothes and brought spares to change into at work. Lights? I bought cheapies at one of the big box stores, the whole set cost about $20 and I can use the headlight as a flashlight.

When the Raleigh was stolen a year and a half ago I bought a Trek hybrid for $400. The $400 dollars includes the rack, lights and u-lock.

Tools? I already had a small kit. Mostly auto tools plus tire levers.

Tubes and tires? I've had to buy a few but less than $200 over the last few years.

$5k? My pickup cost less than $4k when I bought it 6 years ago.

We all spend our money differently. If you got it, go for it.

Recently budgeted around $500 for a cheapo cyclocross bike from Bikes Direct. Paid $450 for the bike and have $50 leftover for accessories. It's easy to not go over budget when you literally have no money left to spend.

If I had DG's money, I'd throw mine away! Come to think of it, I do that anyway.

Turst me. You do NOT want my money. Unless, of course, you like not having any. :cry:


If I had DG's money, I'd throw mine away! Come to think of it, I do that anyway.

The more time I spend on my bike, the more I appreciate the nuances of having better stuff.
Like - cycling socks - love how they support my feet and keep them dry. Wicking skullcaps. Different kinds of shorts - some are best on hot days, others on cold days. Jerseys with back pockets. Cycling jackets. Toe warmers. Good bar tape. Powerful lights w/ long runtimes. HiVis and reflective gear. The hammer gel works much better than powerbars/clif bars/big breakfast.

The more often I ride, the more I appreciate having enough sets of bike clothes so I can wear clean stuff each ride without doing laundry during the week.

And with all the nice stuff, there are many mistakes that I need to ditch.
The entire series of underpowered lights, the cheap shorts that ride up, the too-snug shoes, the too-small water bottles, flapping safety vests, too-bulky gloves, too-short baselayer tops, fanny-packs, plain T's (no back pockets), too-basic cycle-computers, the slime tubes.

Anything that motivates me to do something that is good for my health is money well spent. That includes the small fortune I've spent on chamois butt'r and wet wipes. :)

Just fitted out the new bike with the riding accessories. Pump- bottle cage- Wedge with tube- levers and repair kit. Priced it out and that is $100. I suppose that it should have a computer fitted and It does have my old pedals transferred over so that would be another $100. Still got to ride the damn thing as I have turned into a wimp and don't want to ride in -10C but when I do I might find that few other items become necessary like NEW saddle- and better tyres. And I dare say that I would want a better quality of wheel fitted too.

Luckily I have been riding for 20 years and all these items are either in my stock or could be transferred from another bike. Don't think I could afford to start riding again nowadays.

I would agree with the assertion previously stated that "they're paying you to ride the bike."

Worst case is driving a car purchased new. A nice car, including all taxes, is about $30,000. You amortize that over ten years, you are paying $3,000 per year just for the car, not including fuel, maintenance fees, insurance, etc. But most people will not substitute a bike for a car; they'll keep the car, but maybe just not drive it as much since they've got the bike.

So you leave the car parked and take the bus to work. That'll likely cost in the neighborhood of $1,000/year, and that's assuming you get the more economical monthly pass. If you ride the bike instead, you can get a nice bike for $1,000 in year one, and you're not likely to be spending anywhere near $1,000 per year in subsequent years to operate and maintain it. And this is a real alternative. It's either the bike or the bus, although you could combine the two modes. I know a guy who rides to the train station, puts the bike in a secure bike locker, takes the train downtown, pulls the 2nd bike out of the locker there, and rides to work. So each day that he does this costs him $5 each way for the train, $0 for the bike, except maybe $20 for two lockers every three months.

And for public transportation, we're not even factoring in the hidden subsidies you are charged to the taxpayer. To say nothing of the subsidies for roads and other motor vehicle facilities that misleadingly reduce the perceived cost of driving. But these apply to everyone (except for the taxes hidden in fuel). The unfortunate aspect of these hidden taxes is that they encourage greater use of motor vehicles ("as long as I'm paying this, I'd better use the car more in order to maximize my personal benefit versus what I am paying!" In other words, motorists like the idea of being paid to drive the car. The more you drive, the more you spread the fixed costs - the car itself, the annual fees and insurance, the hidden taxes, although the variable costs, which increase with more driving, are far in excess of the marginal costs of cycling or busing).

So yeah, what do you include in your budget? Should you also add the externalities - medical expenses, your share of the health care expenses for treating people injured in traffic incidents?

Personally I like to think of this as a no-brainer, looking at the most short-term marginal costs: if I take the car downtown, it will cost me $20 to park all day. If I take the bus, it will cost me $5, $7.50 if it's rush hour. If I take the bike, it costs me nothing! So I take the bike. What's my investment? Who cares, it's already a sunk cost.

Luis

That's the left brain logical version. This is from the right side of my brain.

A bicycle is also the ultimately cost effective status symbol.

Park a $30,000 boat and trailer in your driveway and your neighbors might not even notice. Casually let it drop that you paid $5,000 for a bicycle that you still have to pedal and they'll think that you must be made of money.

After fourty years, it's so much a part of my life that money doesn't matter. I would have to spend over $1000 per month for the next 10 years to burn through what it has saved me in car expenses. I just talked myself into a new bike!

Marc

Don't forget to factor in the cost of air for the tires.

And don't forget to change the air every time you lube your chain.

My whole life is bikes. I am thankful I don't have to give more or end up with less to be surrounded with bikes. I am sure I would do it.

After fourty years, it's so much a part of my life that money doesn't matter. I would have to spend over $1000 per month for the next 10 years to burn through what it has saved me in car expenses. I just talked myself into a new bike!

Marc

Yeah! What he said. I think I need another one too. Thanks for starting this topic. I'm getting myself a new bike! (did I say that out loud? did my wife hear it?)

Occasional & fair-weather cycling is very affordable with few special costs.

Cycling gets to be considerable more expensive when riding becomes an all-weather habit or if performance becomes a motivating factor. Once a cyclist wants to ride several times a week or wants to keep a ambitious pace, certain equipment is needed.

I budget $200/month for cycling without any guilt. I’m very pleased with the value provided by cycling. The health benefits have been outstanding for me, that alone makes it a strong positive value by any measure.

I also enjoy the hobby of bike-building. I like being my own Product Manager.

Finally, I’m very fortunate to have met some great people through cycling.

Budget? We don't need no stinkin budget. Don't ask me. I just replaced my old Garmin Edge 305 with a shiny new 500. The old one was failing. A partner at work who can ride circles around me wanted to know why. He has a silly bike computer that only tells him time and speed. We had to make him buy a new bike when we got a bonus a couple of years ago. Budget? I think not. Right now I'm lusting after a Lynskey Ti bike with Ultegra, but to get it outfitted how I want, I'm looking at $5k. Retirement is coming up. We're a little short. But I'm gonna find that $5k, I promise.

The total cost of bicycling at the level I enjoy and having a new, middle level bicycle and nice kit I like does not compare to what I spent to race motocross over the years. I get so much more satisfaction out of bicycling and the health benefits outweigh the cost hands down.

Bill