Five Years of Folding Commute!
 

Today is the 5 year anniversary! Feb 28, 2007 through Feb 28, 2012. I thought I'd post my stats:

795 round trips of Folding Bike + Amtrak commute (Center City Philadelphia to Malvern, PA)

6,758 MILES BIKED (8.5 miles / round trip)
270,300 Calories Burned (That’s 77 Pounds of Fat)
47.4 Vertical Miles climbed up Cedar Hollow Road (Paoli, PA) (315 ft hill in 1/2 mile)

42,135 Miles NOT driven
1,685 Gallons of Gas NOT burned (@25mpg)

Total Bike Expenses $1462
Bike cost per trip $1.84
Bike cost per mile $0.22

Approx. $4200 saved overall vs. driving (including bike costs, train tickets, car insurance savings, extra food costs, car driving avoiding savings etc.)

Bike #1: Downtube NS total overall expenses $696, lasted 422 round trips (3587 miles / 3 years) then the seatpost cracked.
Bike #2: Downtube 8H total expenses to date $766, 373 round trips (3170 miles / 2 years) and going strong.

Man that is so cool! I'm proud when I make it just a week. Here's to keeping it up.

Do you have a recent pic of this bike? Btw - great job!

I don't but I guess I could take one. It's not very exciting.
Changes from stock:
42T front chainring for lower gearing
Planet bike fenders (ordered from the Xootr store) for fuller coverage.
Hub is newer XRF8[W] due to the original breaking in a crash 1 month into ownership.
Marathon tires

Good job!

On the financial side, if your calculations are correct and you save only $70/month over using a car it suggests that the bike-only lifestyle is not as cheap as some think. Yet another Freakonomics effect.

Did not mean to imply that I am car-free. I have a car, and I put 4,000 miles / year on it now, primarily weekend trips. I end up driving to work maybe once per month on average.

A large portion of the non-savings from commuting is the $9/day Amtrak ticket. I'm not in it for the money, I'm in it for the exercise, lack of stress, and predictability compared to the traffic nightmare that is I-76 outside of Philly.

If you have a car anyway, then the saving on insurance is minimal. Would also be interesting to compare bike vs car injury statistics per mile driven.

Yes, I realized that. Biking is good for you. I wish I would bike as much. ;-)

I know factually that I am saving $360 / year on my insurance based on driving <5000 miles 'pleasure only' versus 12000 miles including commuting.

We enjoy a similar discount.

Congrats on making it 5 years! That's determination and commitment! Most of us could learn a thing or two from you...

When I'm commuting, I think of it in terms of efficiency as well. I work out nearly daily, and when I commute, I can get a 1hr 10 min workout in (that's round trip) at the cost of 40 minutes (it would take me 30 minutes RT to drive).

I'm confused. How did you not drive 42,135 miles by biking 6,758 miles?

Amtrack?

Driving it's 53 miles roundtrip.

Biking it's 1 mile to the train station, take a 25 minute Amtrak ride, then bike about 3.25 miles to work. (plus the reverse).

Actually, you also need to account for the time you'd be working out if you weren't commuting on your bike. I'd bet it would be more than 40 minutes, so you are actually ahead!

here's a neat bike to car cost/saving calculation:

https://secure40.securewebsession.co...tor/index.html

this may be true if you bike the whole stretch of your commute. in my case if i bike the whole 120 miles round trip, i will be saving almost $10,000 dollars. and i will have burned 1,032,610 calories a year. WOW. i wish i could bike 120 miles roundtrip......ha, ha, ha..

+1 well done, look for pic

can we put a dollar amount on being in good health because of daily cycling

the impact of cycling is beyond money

Even without reducing the auto insurance, the reduction in depreciation on my car (fewer miles versus the purchase cost, plus gas) comes out to a good chunk -- I ride between 60 and 200 miles a week, but once I did some math I realized: wow, I should have bought a MUCH more expensive bike :)

I wish my wife would think the same way :)