Wow, vja4Him, you are an inspiration. How old are your sons? And do I take it their mother doesn't live with you? If you're interested, send me a private note, and I'll connect you with a whole lot of custodial fathers. I'm one, too, though I'm now remarried.

Anyway, what is life like when you have to transport your boys? Surely you must need a car occasionally. I've thought that renting cars could save money. I have a station wagon now, but if I had a motorcycle or a tiny economy car, I could rent a minivan on weekends and for family trips.

Why 5 years on the car? Although I guess that will help me when I go to replace my current car, as I'll be able to afford a nice used 2007 model when I go shopping in 2012. Otherwise, my 1996 model is going strong and I don't expect to replace it...ever? Of course, I'm lucky (or smart?) in that I live close to work and have since 1993, so even after 13 years, my car still has less than 95k on the clock. Now that I'm using my bike to get to work (as much as possible), my yearly mileage will go down even more. Modern cars go 200k without breaking a sweat. My biggest concern on this car is the ravages of time.

Of course, YMMV.

I've never replaced a car in 5 years in my life. I've taken a few hand-me-downs when my wife gets new cars (her dad worked in the industry and used to buy her a new car once in a while) but by my own choice, I don't get rid of cars until they aren't safe or don't move anymore. My current car is 12 years old and still totally fine. My daughter will take it to college, and I told her I want it back if she graduates and gets a new car, since I fully intend to still have it on the road in another 8 years when it's 20 years old.

I find I don't eat more when I commute by bike. Weird! But then again, I normally loose my appetite when I see a psycho yellow cab trying to cut me off. :lol:

Lets see..... I sold my 95' F-250 Powerstroke last summer. It got about 8mpg in town (I bought it to tow, and then sold what I was towing.... it made no sense to keep it). I bought a good used TREK 750 for <$200.... Diesel was over $5/gal for most of the summer...... (600 miles/8mpg)*$5/gal = $375 + $200 registration + $500 in maintenance that was due + $250 in saved insurance + $1000 in monthly payments = $2325.... and that was for only about 3 months..... The bike more than paid for itself... I also lost 35 pounds and my wife thought my Butt was VERY cute.... Then winter came to Chicagoland..... sigh. Is spring ever going to show up?

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert A. Heinlein

Like the sig quote, devildogmech. And the car-free math. Bike commuting has been a plus to my marriage so far, and it's only been a week.

Anyway, I can't butcher a hog or set a bone, but I like the philosophy in that list. Summer jobs have done me good. I should also read some Heinlein books, I guess.

Me neither. I overeat regardless.

You too, huh?

I don't do it for money. I enjoy riding my bike. I also like to eat.

But to answer the question if I don't put excessive amounts of money in to bikes my commute saves me at least $100 a month. My vehicles are not gas savers.

No point letting a perfectly good obesity epidemic go to waste when there are Oreos left.

You guys have $2.00 a gallon gas?:eek:

It's not our fault you live in the land of perpetual sun and socialism...... Just sayin.....:thumb:

Well I don't actually commute on my bike (Too long of distance, on very bike hazardous roads at too early of a time, with ~50 lbs of books. I just like this forum) but I read somewhere else on the internets that with the same 30,000 calories in a gallon of gasoline, you can travel about 500 miles on a bike. And also that vegetable oil has the same calorie content as gasoline. So just start drinking that stuff and you should be set! :D (JK)

That sounds about right, Zullwick. I suppose if I rode 100 miles a day, my appetite would go from 2,000 calories a day (that's the average recommended intake, right?) to maybe 6,000. 6,000 calories and five days is 500 miles, so yup. Maybe I wouldn't quite eat 6,000 calories, but it's in the all park, anyway. I don't actually know how much I eat. But my point was that the cost of energy per mile seems to be more for cycling than for driving because of the differences in costs of fuel.

Starship Troopers.

Only at the expensive stations by the expressway. $1.85 to $1.89 elsewhere. Up from about $1.58 as the low that I can remember, a couple of months ago.

I live in southeast Michigan. This area has a chance of tanking BAD in the next year. If gas goes back to $4/gal again AND GM tanks, I expect to see a HELL of a lot of bikes on the road, all from Wal-Mart or garage sales. I may actually have to start locking my bike - part of the reason I don't bother locking now is that the vast majority of people around here wouldn't be seen dead riding a bike.

:lol:


I've had to teach myself to eat. Seriously. I forget all the time. So I've taken to reminding myself to actually EAT something. Anything.

Care to share those left over Oreos? :D

Hands have been lost over less...

Uh, I just spent $500+ on car tires today. Gonna stop complaining about the high price of bike tires.

Bike costs: $.05-$.10 per mile
Food costs: $.05-$.50 per mile

Cost to operate a very economic car: $.35 per mile (and you have to drive it into the ground)

If you use any sense about what you eat you'll always come out cheaper riding a bike. With two bikes, verse one car, you might break even if you don't count health and independence as a benefit.

It also depends on how overweight you are. You can drop 20lbs and ride 5 miles a day without changing your eating patterns significantly.

Also, it's hard to cost food when it tastes so good.

This is a little old but it's recent enough to get an idea: http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/...f-obesity.html

The top box is under a nickel a mile. Some of that stuff is plausible: The peanut butter, wheat buns and french roll. The second box is a nickel to a dime and that's stuff you're pretty likely to grab.

A lot of people try to factor in the amount of oil that goes into food. Michael Pollan claims there's around 10 calories worth of oil in every calorie of the American diet. That estimate might be too high or low but it's quite true that we use oil to grow lots of our food. Then we use oil to ship it. Then we use oil to keep it cold, and we may even use oil to heat it up and eat it.

Vegetable oil is one of the cheapest sources of calories though.

For me it depends on the cost of gas. The more expensive it is to fill a tank, the more I am saving just to spend some place else. /rant Like kid clothes, did you guys/gals know a 5 year old grows like a weed? I mean what's up with that? /rantoff

As long as you plan it correctly you can save money. For the summer, I have 5 shirts and 5 shorts, in the winter, I have 4 pairs of pants (2 cold, and 2 chilly) and 3/4 long sleeve shirts (2 are basically a sweat shirt that wisks) and the winter stuff I wear 2-3 days in a row since I don't sweat nearly as much. I still do the same amount of laundry as before I was commuting. It is all in how well you plan and prepare.

Edit - I forgot the most important part for me, at 730am it takes me 20-30 minutes to drive. It takes me 20-30 minutes by bike going a more direct route. Also, by riding, I haven't considered the idea of joining a gym since I am getting about 5 hours of cardio a week.

I hear you, but have you noticed how bike tires cost a heck of a lot more per pound?

My commute is about 60 miles each way. Taking the train with my folding bike costs $24/day, plus bike maintenance; that's less than parking in Manhattan. Add to that the cost of a car and maintenance ... insurance... gas... NJ Turnpike toll... Lincoln Tunnel toll... oof! To answer your question: I have no idea. I can't do the math.

I'm with its just me.

Year one is expensive, but since I purchased a dedicated commuter kitted out to meet my commute needs, I barely buy any bike stuff. I bought an ipod player, shorts, 2 tires and 2 tubes last year.

In summary, year 2 it started to pay for me.

$24/day? My commuter train ride costs $60/Month to go from New Haven to Bridgeport and back.

Some things make me very glad that I moved out of NYC, no matter how much I miss it. What an expensive place to live!

more commuting... more exercise... better health/shape... fewer health problems... lower healthcare bills in the future

+1

I started logging my commutes in November 08, but I started commuting in March, 2008. Here are the stats according to my North Central Texas Council of Governments:


Since November 2008, you've logged 2600.00 miles and prevented more than 1855 pounds of pollution from entering the air. The table below shows how much you've saved by using an alternative commute:

• Trips Reduced: 73
• Total Miles Saved: 2001.28
• Gallons of Fuel Saved: 95.3
• Money Saved: $1,044.67
• Calories Burned: 42640

Emissions Reductions:

• VOC:1137 grams
• NOx:927 grams
• CO:27 lbs
• PM:20 grams
• CO2:1823 lbs
• SO2:143 grams

Fantasminha, pretty amazing logging!

Now, with those 42,640 calories burned, did you "replenish" them in your diet, or did you lose weight?