GeraldF

Ever calculate how much money you spend over time on bicycle purchases and maintenance?

Over the past year I've kept a detailed log of all my bicycle related purchases. Everything from new tires to the cost of replacing batteries for my blinky lights. I rode roughly 2,500 miles and spent $500 on bicycle-related purchases. This averages out to about $0.20/mile. So if I make a six mile round trip to a grocery store, that's $1.20 in transportation costs.

Some of the $500 I spent this year was for items that won't need to be replaced every year ($40 for fenders; $60 on tires; $40 on tools, etc). It'll be interesting to see what my costs add up to over the long term, say five years. Perhaps some years I'll only have $100 to $200 in maintenance, but then again, there are up front costs like purchasing a new bike. I suspect that $0.20/mile is in the right ball park, at least for me.

What do you pay per mile ridden?

bragi

I don't know, it's hard to tell, because a lot of my expenditures on bikes are purely discretionary, bike-geek type purchases. I spent $120 on a Brooks saddle I didn't actually need; I have a USB bike light that is very nice, but the $30 Cat Eye that it replaced was perfectly functional; when I did a wheel re-build this year, I could have gone cheap, but I went with $200 wheels instead, just because I could. Yes, it's totally unnecessary and self-indulgent, but compared to the cost of even a modest used car, it's still a bargain. Including insurance, fuel, licensing and maintenance, my last car cost me about $200-250/month. Most months, I drove the car about 20 miles, so that's about $10.00/mile. In the last year, including my many self-indulgent purchases, I've spent about $900.00 on my bike, or about $75.00/month. Very conservatively, I ride about 3,500 miles a year. So, that's about $0.26/mile...

prathmann

The last time I kept track of this the most significant cost was for fuel at about $.06/mile (I eat more when I cycle) with other costs coming to about $.04/mile (tires being the biggest contributor).

daihard 

This is my first year, so the cost will naturally be pretty high. Including the bike itself, I've probably spent nearly, if not more than, $3,000 on bike-related purchases. I've ridden about 1,000 miles since I began in July, so it's $3/mile.

B. Carfree

I indulge myself on my bike spending. Did I really need another custom touring tandem or another set of Dinotte lights? I don't bother keeping track of the cost because I'm not choosing to use a bike for economic reasons, those are just the cherry on top. Heck, 95% of my miles are ridden purely for the joy of riding.

However, if one is going to consider the costs, it would make sense to do an estimation of the costs of the medical procedures that are avoided and subtract those from the cost of cycling. I suspect such an analysis would show that most of us are making money by riding, just like, on average, cyclists are adding years to their lives in spite of the few whose lives are cut short by scofflaw motorists.

gerv 

Yes... very similar here. Still, even with the discretionary spending, I'm running under $50 a month, which is the price of a monthly bus pass.

gerv 

I think you are confusing capital costs with operating expenses. Most of what you bought with that $3,000 will last you a very long time. I bought a bike in 2006 for $850. I rode it to the store this morning and I expect it to last another 10+ years. You will have some operating expenses, but they are pretty minor compared to the initial cash outlay.

GeraldF

Another major thing to consider is the unpredictability of bike theft. In urban environments I know numerous people who have had more than one or two bikes stolen over the course of several years. Then there's also theft of wheels and other components. Vandalism, such as bending of wheels, is another not uncommon happening in cities.

Ekdog

+1. I bought a Trek mountain bike back in the late 80's which I'm still riding.

wphamilton

roughly 5 or 6 cents per mile over the past year, normal maintenance and apparel replacements.

gerv 

Yes... I forget this. I've never had a bike stolen. But I spent 8-10 hours this summer working on a bike for a relative. That was was stolen off the veranda where it was locked up.

Theft is a major cost item.

Still, I recall the New York fashion photographer Bill Cunningham (a longtime car free rider...) who claimed he had 17 bikes stolen over the years. "I never buy new", he said.

mrodgers

I thought biking was suppose to be cheaper than cars? I don't commute on a bike, I commute by car. I drive 20,000 miles a year, bought my Jetta for $7000 with 74,000 miles on it. I will drive it to 200,000 miles which will take me 6.3 years. I figure I'll put 2 sets of tires on it and 3 sets of brake changes. I will change the oil every quarter and will pay insurance for 6.3 years. I average 28 mpg and use premium fuel, so I will use $3.75/gallon. My car will cost me $0.12 per mile as long as I don't have any unexpected repairs, which I expect being that it would be unexpected (where as "unexpected" repairs for something like a Ford or Chevy to me would be "expected".)

Where are cars so expensive?

GeraldF

I think you need to redo your math. At $3.75/gallon, and assuming your averaged 28 mpg, gas ALONE costs over $0.13/mile. Also, in suburban or rural areas where transporting long distances is necessary, bicycling for transportation doesn't make much sense. However, in URBAN areas, where most of one's destinations are within a few miles, and where car parking often costs quite a bit, biking is much, much cheaper than driving. Biking in cities is also much faster than driving.

Roody

How much does your bike cost, if you have one?

Roody

These lowball estimates almost always use dubious math and very optimistic estimates of various costs. There could be many other inaccuracies, but mrodgers doesn't give us the data. Of course, mrodgers drives twice as much as the average American, so his per mile fixed costs will be lower as a result.

The average cost of a small car is somewhere around 60 cents a mile, according to AAA and the IRS.

timvan_78

I'm doing pretty well on most of my bikes, EXCEPT my higher-end mountain bike:

-Expensive bike ($1700 used),
-expensive complicated, unfamiliar components (hydraulic brakes),
-hard use (more crashes, riding over roots/rocks, jumps, etc),
-shorter distance rides,
-more infrequent rides (i.e. not daily).

It's fun though.

Roody

I think it would make sense to put these expenses in the recreation budget rather than the transportation budget.

wahoonc

My costs range from $400 a mile to less than $0.002 a mile. The higher price is on a bike that have been working on but haven't ridden yet. The low price is on a 1970 Raleigh Sports Standard that is still rolling along after tens of thousands of miles (35,000 documented, probably over double that for total mileage) it has had nothing but basic routine maintenance done to it using the least expensive parts available. Typically what could be found a the local hardware store, K-mart or Wal-Mart. I basically tripled the value of the bike this year by installing a new basket and some dyno lights, all of which were pulled off of other bikes.

Aaron

Nightshade

To find the true cost of utility cycling one must remove all "discretionary" cost.

daihard 

Okay. I assumed the "cost" included the purchases of those items that last long (including the bike itself). You may not need to replace a repair stand for a long time, but if you didn't own a bike, you probably wouldn't own the stand either. Same can be said about bike gear, which tends to be expensive. I don't plan on buying new jerseys every year, but they are still consumable items.

tjax

I have thought about cents per mile. Than I try to equate it to how much joy per mile I get out of the ride. Than I realize there is no mathematically fiscal justification that can relate to how much fun I am having, so to me the price is irrelevant.

mrodgers

Yikes! Ignore me, I divided instead of multiplied, LOL.

$99 bought in 2005 plus two $4 tire tubes. No way I could commute or live only with this bike though. It is a junker to get me started with exercise and get me to income tax return season. Was bought just to ride with the kids while they learned on their training wheels then put away until this past July/August before ridden daily.

longbeachgary

I only calculate for my bikes and tires. Seems like anything else I buy is fluff and not necessasary.

gerv 

And that's OK. Just that you need to depreciate the cost over the life of the equipment. So if you spent $250 on a stand that should easily last 20 years, this would work out to an additional $1.04 a month. And $850 bike depreciated over say 15 years would be about $4.75 a month.

Roody

And don't forget residual value. If you sold the 15 year old bike for $100, the cost would be $750, depreciated to $4.17 a month.

If I put a $5 bill in a jar every month, by the time my new bike got old, I would have enough money for a new one--even accounting for inflation.

hmmm... $5 a month for a great new bike, or several hundred for a mediocre new car... It's a no-brainer for me. YMMV.