I've seen some people say that the amount of money you save from gas doesn't equal all the gear you have to buy. Not that you can't get great deals on the cheap but...

It's about not turning your money into something that give you almost no benefit.

Every little thing that goes on your bike can make you safer and ultimately healthier. Every dollar that goes into a car is just a tax on something that saves you a little time but makes your life worse in the end.

I'm not saying this to justify spending sprees, but people really do look at it backwards IMO.

HECK YEA IT IS!!!!!

Bike: $125 (Well used, but still servicable from CL)
Gas: <5gal in two months!
=
Bike has paid for itself!

People have no concept of this life and the value of it.

The amount of money I save not having a car for one month equals what I spend on bike stuff in a year.

I could drive if I want, but enjoy commuting for the exercise, diversion, challenge, and novelty. I think I've definitely gotten more regular, daily exercise this way. I have to make a few more purchases I think soon, to enable me to maintain the bikes (now need a repair stand). Well, it helps keep the bike shops going. It's not bad saving gas too. I can lend my car to my kids (their schedule, with work and school, is more complex than mine). So far so good.

As i have said before i started to cycle because i wanted to i continue for the same reason. i use the figures of car versus bike cost to convince others at work well and to justify that new bike as well.

1. I commute for fun.
2. I have $250 in my commuter
3. I no gear other than the bike
4. I have commuted every day for 3 years straight to my volunteet job
5. I commuted 50% of the time in the last 18 years

For me it didn't start as a way to save on gas but it sure has turned into a nice benefit.

I know what you are saying though. From the studs to the lights to the fenders and racks and packs and clothing etc. I always buy cheap but whatever the cost, the mental and physical rewards are immeasurable.

You're right, fundamentally, it's the joy of the ride,

That said, When I first arrived in Little Rock, I spent 2 years on a freebie old mountain bike, that I added fenders, and a rack and took lights off another bike. In that time, I had the rear wheel trued, patched a flat and paid off all my credit cards. Before Little Rock, my ex did the math and figured out that I was spending $6.00 a month to run my 30 year old 10 speed on an 18 mile round trip commute. The money you save doesn't hurt, and if you are spending it all on the bike, you just aren't trying to save money.

And then after the credit cards were paid off, I saved enough to buy a nice recumbent.

Getting to places awake, refreshed, stress-free, and overall feeling great beats gas savings anyways.

For the past 35 years, using the bicycle to save money on gas has been the top reason for me. Over the last several years, bicycling has also extended the life of my personal vehicle long enough for me to save enough money be able to buy a newer one outright, avoiding any payments and interest, not only that, but my fleet of bikes have also paid for themselves several times over, including all the extra gear on them. Years ago, it took a few years to pay off a bike with gas savings, now with five dollar gas here in my area, now it's only a few months, making bicycling much more economically viable.

You save the most money biking if it allows you to manage with one less car. Also if your goal is to save money, there are many ways to economize on bikes. If your goal is to have a blingy bike it can cost an awful lot.

I commute on a 1985 tour bike or a 1990s mountain bike, both bought second hand. Even after ongong maintenance, and accessory purchases, I save $500-$600/year compared to the next cheapest mode of commuting - public transit - and several thousand a year compared to owning and using a second car.

Here's a gigantic estimate, maybe you guys can tell me where I'm significantly off.

Bike: $1000
Replacement wheels: $120
Replacement tires: $25 * 24
Replacement break pads: $100 (a large alotment)
Weather shell: $100 * 4
General athletic clothing: $100 (I use athletic clothing to get wet in)
Bike accessories (fenders, rack, computer): $200

Total: $2,520
Miles: 30,000

Cost per mile: $.08333

Less than 9 cents per mile to cover the bike, which should be quite nice at that price, and the accessories and replacement parts.

Did I miss a major accessory category? I didn't mention lighting, but that should fit within the accessory budget.

Then there's food.
30,000 * 50 = 1,500,000 calories

At $.25 per 100 calories, that's $3,750 dollars. Or, $.0625 cents per mile.

I ripped stuff off this guys blog for food costs, $.25 per 100 calories is fairly high (I picked the point that you see fast food items). And we're not even counting the extra calories we were going to consume anyway. Heck, with commuting, and recreational riding, I still have a hard time keeping the weight off .
https://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/...f-obesity.html

Biking, with eating and a decent bike, is still cheap. But if all you're saving is gas, it might not even break even.


Then there's the health factor. I have no clue how to estimate that. It wouldn't even be worth estimating, there's no way to tell what heart and cancer medicine will look like in 25 years.

I wouldn't stop biking to work if cars and gas were free. That said, I certainly do save money. I have < $1000 into my bike and haven't spent much for the last year apart from the disc conversion last fall (about $150 and disposables (chains, brake pads). I don't really buy much anymore, after 2 years I had what I needed. The bike has 14000 miles on it, so that's 560 gallons of gas if I drove my car. Even at the $2.20 that gas cost when I started I'd have saved some money by now and it's only getting better as I amortize those one-time expenses over more and more miles.

Also, factor in that I get far, FAR more exercise than I used to, I'm happier, and I'll most likely live longer and have a healthier retirement as a result. How much can you buy THAT for?

For me, the food to fuel me is irrelevant since I'd get my miles (exercise) in anyway. The hidden benefit I get is a 2hour workout in 1hour cost; my ride takes about 2hours and when I drive, it takes 1 hour. Also, when I ride, I'm forced to bring my lunch rather than go pick something up for lunch (wait, this means my 2hour ride doesn't cost me *any* time). For someone who works 50+ hours a week and has 2 young kids, that is worth it by itself.

It's really hard to do a generally accepted complete comparison due to much different lifestyles we live. I know I spend more on extra food when I ride (35-40 mi round trip) than I would on gas in my car, but I tend to eat more yogurt/fruit/energy bars. Heck, even my powdered Gatorade is $.25 per 100 cals and is by far my cheapest fuel.

Your bike and food total is 6270 dollars in 30000 miles, probably about the same total as some new cars depreciation driving off the car lot.

If you eat a reasonable diet already and add a few carbs (eg. an extra helping of pasta every day or two) to your diet to cover biking energy, it costs as little as 2.5 cents of food per mile to bike.

I'm in the same position, I have the bikes/gear that I need to get the job done, and my spending peaked over a year ago, and since has been limited mainly to making small purchases.

Well, I ride anyway so I already own much of the gear. The difference is that instead of riding circles in the park or going out into the country I ride to fulfill a more tangible purpose. Also, the gear gets more use than it would otherwise.

1. I eat no more than I did before i started commuting
2. A car will always need gas
3. A bike while you may spend $100 bucks for maintence this week, next week you won't need to. But your car . . . it'll still need gas.

Why must there be a numeric equation to justify every action or decision?

Just ride your damn bikes, and when you're done. Ride them some more.

It's not just gas, but the overall car wear & tear that I anticipate saving on. If I commute til, say, November by bike I'd guess I'd save $600 on gas, $650 on new tires, and there's always that turbocharger I may need to replace which would run me about $800. Add another $50 for an oil change. Total: $1300-2100.

But mostly I want to bike to get off the highway and get my body moving.

I think you misunderstood me. Even if I didn't commute to work, I'd still find time to ride my bike for pleasure/exercise and would need the extra calories anyway. Triathlon is my hobby.

But, according to this bike calorie calculator, I burn 1800 - 2000 calories on my 35 - 40 mi round trip commute. That's more than "add a few carbs". Of course, everybody's commute is different.

I agree with the OP. I believe that people who don't see the savings are only looking at the immediate gratification based only on dollar amounts (as in only a time period between a couple fill ups) .

When I made the decision to buy a bike to commute to work about 2 months ago, I didn't look at the situation as "saving gas". I looked at is as "how long will it take me to pay off the cost of the bike and gear in terms of the price of gas". After number crunching my averages, I found that commuting at least 4 days a week for 3 months will make the cost of my bike and gear equal to the cost of gas I would have spent during that time period. And this was based on the price of gas magically staying at $4.09 the whole time. So every time gas prices go up, my bike is paying itself off even faster than expected. So, a month from now is when I will immediately see my savings.

I bought my bike for $350 in hopes of saving on gas and in hopes that the bike would pay for itself. In the process I found that I absolutely love cycling and don't really care if the bike somehow doesn't pay for itself. I love riding my bike and can't wait to get more of them to ride all of the time!