PatrickGSR94

Depends on how reliable your car is, though. Since I started keeping records 7 years ago, I have spent a total of $3,270 on maintenance and repairs (all work done myself). That's an average of $467 a year, and most of that has been maintenance (less for actual repairs). I know I've spent far more than that every year on my bikes. If I were to replace my car completely with bikes, my bike costs would go up even more as the bikes would be getting a lot more use.

I think the real savings comes if you can replace a car completely with bike(s). For some people (me included) that would likely mean using some kind of e-bike for the longer trips. If I could get rid of my car altogether, I could probably justify about $2K or so for an e-bike or e-bike conversion. Then I could probably ride to work every day of the week instead of only 2 days a week.

But at this point my wife's car is more of a POS than my car so I can't really justify getting rid of mine right now.

TexMac

I got my commuter as a present and other than a new tube, zilch $$

Giant Doofus

I disagree and would argue that biking even a few miles a day really is a fitness activity when you take two things into account:
1. You don't have to be geared up like an athlete and sweating bullets while "working out" to be engaged in healthy movement that, cumulatively, makes a difference.
2. Many people are almost entirely sedentary. Any movement built into the day makes a difference in their long-term fitness level. That's why pedometers can be such powerful fitness trackers even if they don't motivate people to go out to take a walk but just to get up from their desks and move around more often.

Being fit isn't about being athletic; it is about having a body suited (fitted) to the normal activities you want to do on a daily basis. Being able to walk up the steps or get on the floor to play with kids are fine fitness goals.

Steely Dan

i bought a new bike last may, but it wasn't really for bike commuting, so i suppose that doesn't count.

i did buy a new wheelset and new disc brakes (avid BB5's suck!) for my everyday CX commuter - $500.

that was my only bike commuting related expense of 2015 that i can think of.

spread out over the year, that's only 40 bucks a month, still way cheaper than owning a car.

bmthom.gis

Sometimes I get the urge to find some sort of new accessory for my bike. At times, I find the shopping fun - finding the perfect balance of quality and price and finding a good deal...but there's really not much for me to buy! I tend to only really spend money when I score a Craigslist special and start building it up the way I want to build it up. That's when I tend to get in trouble :-\

grolby

My experience is similar to this, though I have bought a handful of bikes specifically for commuting. I've only ever bought one new bike, over $200, specifically for commuting, though. That was quite a few years ago. I do have a crummy old hybrid that I've used for commuting a lot or only a little bit depending on the length of my commute over the last two years or so. I've definitely done some tinkering with it, but I've avoided spending much money on that, mostly making do with parts I had lying around. For the most part, I commute on the bikes I use for racing and training. I have occasionally bought lights, a new backpack, things like that. But that pales compared to the time and money it would cost me to take public transportation. Like @caloso, maybe a couple hundred dollars a year. That's vs. the money I spend on racing and related costs every year, which is easily a couple thousand dollars. If not more. My bike habit is not saving me money, but not because of the commuting. Were money no object, I probably would buy a bicycle specifically for commuting. What's more likely, though, is that I'll eventually replace my CX race bike with a new one, and the old one will become my primary commuting bike as well as "B" bike during the race season.

dim

I've been commuting by bike for 4 months

Paid £40 for my bike, (cheap old hybrid) and added new tyres, new chain, new inners, new back cassette, back light, bike lock, front light, pannier bags ...

the total cost (including the cost of the bike) is £224

had I have travelled by bus/train to work, I would have spent £453.60

so, not a huge saving so far, but I have most of the gear, and from now on if I keep this bike, I should save £6.30 per day (£150+ per 4 week month)

and ..... it's a lot faster by bike .... I work at several sites every day, and now get home more than an hour and a half earlier

Hermes1

Yes and no. I have spent a few dollars but for maintenance and replacing worn parts and equipment. When I look at what it would cost me to drive everyday, I still am in the black, not to mention the enjoyment and exercise I get.

RubeRad

It was a rather expensive year for bike-commuting for me, driven by a $92.00 used Selle Anatomica Titanico X saddle I bought off eBay; my previous saddle (a vintage leather Ideale I got from my dad) was tearing. Other than that, lots of little bits&bobs, most of it I think falls under periodic maintenance:

92.00 Titanico X
14.36 brake pads
11.59 super-cheap 'pinned' platform pedals
6.06 VP-1 patch kits X 2
8.98 Cree XML T6 zoomable flashlight (headlight)
16.52 helmet (catlike whisper knockoff)
6.63 rack bracket (for road-found cygolite hotshot)
1.71 red bar tape
.68 red plastic chainstay protector
13.59 red housing/cables
-----
172.12

In comparison, I paid $279.92 in gas to drive my car 2102 miles. If I replaced all my bike commutes with driving, that would be an additional ~2000 miles. So I guess I saved about $100. But it's not every year I buy a blingy saddle.

(Now those are only my commuting-related bike expenses, there was probably almost $2000 more because my wife & I each got new mtb this year, plus various other maintenance costs for the fleet)

hyhuu

I easily save $1000 a year. That doesn't include saving from car maintenance and gas.

RubeRad

?!?! How do you save $1000/year not even counting gas? Parking & tolls?

caloso

Parking in downtown Sacramento, which is not exactly a huge metropolis, is $150/month. I would imagine it's at least as much in the DC area.

hyhuu

Commuter bus fare. It's $16/day round trip. The bus station is only about 4 miles from my house. that is cheap comparing to driving to and parking in DC.

gaucho777 

No. I go through a pair of tires each year, and I buy a lot of patch kits (~$75). This past year I needed to replace a freewheel ($45 for a vintage Italian-threaded Regina, yes I commute with it) and a pair of pedals, though I had an extra set of pedals already in my parts bin (paid $20 for them). I also bought some new lights ($100). In total, I spent about $250 in commuting expenses last year. This is still much cheaper than driving to work; monthly parking is expensive ($150+ per month) and I'm bad at avoiding parking tickets ($72 each in Oakland for 2-hour parking or expired meters)

jrickards

I started with one bike, a MTB, that I used for (dirt road) cottage riding and then commuting. I then decided that it wasn't working for me so I bought a 29er that I more miles on commuting than riding at the cottage but I used it for both. However, for the purpose of commuting, I switched out the knobby tires for narrower smoother tires and I bought some lights and a rear rack and panniers. As time went on, just a couple of years, I used it less and less at the cottage because of the smoothish tires but I was still getting a lot of use out of it commuting. I then developed an interest in bike touring so with the inheritance from my mum's passing, I bought a touring bike and another set of lights. The touring bike became my commuting bike and I put knobbies back on my 29er for cottage use. I purchased a handle bar bag (used some old smaller, broken panniers on the front which have been replaced this week with new nice ones) and went on a short bike tour (with plans to do more touring over the years). I then went on a 190km recreational weekend bike ride and later went on a 900km charity bike ride and although the other riders made sure that I was never alone, I was always the last with my 40lb touring bike. Because I plan to do more recreational and charity bike rides, I bought a nice used road bike and although I will use it sometimes while commuting, it will likely be that I will extend my morning commute on that bike to get in some training time/distance for the next event. For very little money, I had picked up an old road bike and was thinking of selling it until I realized that putting some 650B wheels and wider tires on it, I could use it to ride out to the cottage (70km).

Have I spent a lot on commuting? Not really because most of the expenses/bikes listed above have not been specifically for commuting but rather another activity + commuting. Sure, wear and tear on tires, tubes, brake pads and cycling kit has primarily been because commuting is where most of my distances is done but each bike has been purchased for a specific purpose and, strangely enough, none specifically for commuting: I don't have the money to afford a purely commuting bike and right now, if I did, it would likely be very similar to one of the ones I currently have. It is likely that I will lose my 29er to my son and I'm not sure I'll replace it.

RubeRad

Dang! There's not a monthly pass or something that can bring that down?

Astrozombie

Is this typical? We should do a poll, that seems excessive for just one year ?

Andy_K 

I think for the vast majority of people this is an empty argument, and a little silly. Would you count the extra expense of more food in the cost of a gym membership?

I have a cousin who likes to do triathlons. He's obsessive about his calorie intake and buys specialized sports nutrition products to consume while he's riding his bike. The extra food intake of cycling costs him money. For me, I don't change my food intake based on whether or not I've ridden the bike unless I'm dieting, in which case having ridden the bike just gives me the freedom to take in as many calories as I would have wanted to anyway and still lose a few pounds. I don't think I've had an unplanned calorie deficit since I was 12. I don't think I'm unusual in this respect.

My commute is about 10 miles each way and most calorie calculators I've looked at estimate this as burning somewhere between 450 and 600 calories each way, but I have found that if I subtract that number (even the low end estimate) from my calorie consumption on whatever diet plan I'm using I don't lose weight. I have to use a figure that is about half of the typical estimates. If I'm not trying to lose weight, I just eat what I feel like eating and I maintain my weight without any problems.

As for the environmental impact, I don't have a study to back this up but ask yourself, who is more likely to have a cheeseburger for lunch, the person who rides a bike to work or the person who drives to work? Healthy lifestyle choices tend to lead to more healthy lifestyle choices and vice versa. I would wager that people with sedentary lifestyles consume a lot more cheeseburgers than people who are active. For instance, although as per my argument above riding my bike to work frees me to eat a cheeseburger with fewer consequences, I also know that I'm more likely to see the performance gains I'd like to achieve as a cyclist if I choose a lunch that's lower in fat and maybe have some vegetables on the side. Don't get me wrong, I still make the bad choices and eat the cheeseburgers pretty often but, honestly, not as often as I did before I started cycling.

Finally, every time you drive your car it becomes more likely to break down because things are wearing out. The same is true of your bike. It's not true of your body. That's where the real cost of biking to work comes in. I'm probably going to have an extra 5 to 7 years of food and shelter costs to cover that I could avoid by not being physically active.

InTheRain

Well, this thread went the way of all the other threads. It's all about how much you're saving. Not for me. I invest in my commute as a fun time. I have come to realize that I spend much more money on my commuting bicycle than most. Call me crazy... but I'm having crazy fun. Thus far this year, I have commuted by bicycle 11 of 14 workdays. 2 days by scooter (I only do that to keep riding it through the winter so I don't have to "winterize/store" it.) And one day by car - had a flat on the commuter bike that wasn't fixed in time for the commute... and the weather was too horrible for the scooter. Riding a commuter bike that I love keeps me commuting by bicycle... and probably spending more money. I always take the long way home.

BikingZombie

I draw similarities between biking and hammock camping. People will sometimes say that camping with a hammock is lighter than a tent, but that is usually not the case. Sure, the hammock is lighter, but after you factor in a tarp, an over-quilt, an under-quilt, tree wraps, tie-outs and a multitude of stakes it really doesn't make your camping experience lighter. It may let you enjoy your sleep a little more, but it isn't lighter.

That being said, I've spent significantly less money on my bike than on my car, gas & maintenance, however, I do WAY more laundry & biking is an investment in time on prep, tear-down & weekly maintenance and care. In the past month I spent around $500 in clothes for winter & biking, so that certainly plays into the mix as well.

tjspiel

The definitive word:

.be

Andy_K 

So what I got out of that is that I need to buy some Zipps to reduce my carbon footprint.

Rock Head

I have been scanning this thread and I am not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but if you only put 5,000 miles on your car per year like I do (mostly from a 400 mile drive to visit family), the value of your car goes up every mile you ride. Plus, who can put a price on the escape and the mental "unplug" that attracts most people who commute?

mr geeker

I spend more on cigarettes for my aunt monthly than I do for bike commuting. On the other hand over the course of the last year, I've spent roughly $550, but that includes purchasing a brand spankin' new bike in it too... so probably closer to $150 on commuting if I don't count the new bike that is put up till nicer weather.

As for how much I save/spend vs driving, couldn't tell ya, I don't drive. Never have.

CrankyOne

My primary bike is a Workcycles Opafiets that cost about $1500. It came with just about everything needed; front & rear dynamo lights, ring lock on the rear wheel, heavy duty rear rack, heavy duty frame mounted front rack, fenders, mudguards, spats, chaincase, brooks leather saddle, ... Over 25 years and 50,000 miles of riding it will need maybe 4 sets of tires, a chain or two, maybe some new cables. Guesstimate $500 max. No special clothes, shoes, helmets or anything. So $2,000 / 25 years = $80/yr.

And it will still be good for another 25 years.