full update tonight!
The English roads are quite tough and made out of different materials than I have seen in Sweden, Germany and the US. It seems that often transitions in the road surface are quite tough on bikes/cars.
Today I hit one of these surfaces quite hard (30kph) with a Schwalbe Lugano 23-622 at 110psi.
I heard the hiss and knew it was over.
I walked back to the store.
New tire was put on at 1406km and had a slice all the way through about 1 cm long at 1597km. They were surprised that I was able to slash the tire at 191km and gave me the money back for the tube and tire.
I used that toward 3 new tubes, so I can change my own next time, and a Conti Ultra Gatorskin (23-622) and some cheap handlebar plugs as one was lost due to a crash during the winter and a drop this morning. I'm usually somewhat careful with my stuff, but when I'm commuting and is in a rush in the morning, I seem to abuse those items more that usual, probably due to sleepiness as well.
In all, it was 28 GBP for the new goodies (47 USD).
So let's update the costs to £509/$807 total.
stats:
1597km/992mi
£509/$807 total
£0.31/km
€0.38/km
$0.81/mi
photos:
breaking even update:
£507 / £4.50 bus fare round trip = 112 trips or roughly 2240km ... so I still have a ways to go. Will be roughly 1 year of commuting to recoup the cost of the bike/maintenance/lock/lights/speedo (I already had a helmet and clothing for my other bike ... but realistically ... it should be roughly another £150 or an additional 30 RT bus fares if I was starting from absolute scratch ... or about 150 days of cycle commuting!)
opinions?