Cost per mile of cycling

[ChrisEyles]

What a job!

I'm very fortunate that I've never had to worry about my weight (having an active outdoors job helps a lot), though I guess I might possibly succumb to early onset diabetes... Of course these comments are tongue in cheek, and definitely agree that clocking up the miles is not enough by itself to make for a healthy lifestyle. I know I feel a lot better on the bike and enjoy my cycling more when I'm generally in good shape.

 

[Drago]

I selected 20+p per mile, on the basis that I do a lot of consequential damage as I lumber about the place.

 

[Jaykun85]

i dread to think what mine works out at as i have spent far too much on the bike so far that the parts are worth more than what i actually bought the bike for. But i do love it dearly

 

[Jaykun85]

would you have to include all the money you have to spend on flapjacks and high energy bars also ?

 

[ChrisEyles]

Nah, just parts and other consumables, labour at the LBS, and (optionally) the cost of the bike itself.

 

[Levo-Lon]

A lot..

 

[DCLane]

I've worked out since 2011 I've done about 37,300 miles and spent £8020 in the process (I keep records!)

But ... my entire set of bikes and kit's worth about £5600 still AND I've saved £7270 in commuting costs.

So. I'm either in profit. Or it's cost me 6.48p/mile. Or it's cost me 21.5p/mile depending upon whether it's everything I've spent and if any retained value/savings are included.

 

[growingvegetables]

Over two years? Including full bike cost, "maintenance consumables" (brake blocks, tyres, tubes, chains, cassette etc), plus estimated cost of replacing STI setup with bar-end shifters and two new rims - about 8p a mile. Take out the cost of the bike (aye - it's going to last a LOT longer than 2 years!), drops to under 3p a mile.

 

[subaqua]

just get on your bike and ride . as somebody famous once sang in a song

 

[mjr]

just get on your bike and ride . as somebody famous once sang in a song

And they still are...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmdqAfmTlzo

 

[mustang1]

Mmmh 98p per mile.

http://www.cycletoworkcalculator.com/

might make it easier

 

[mustang1]

Technically it's more expensive for me to cycle commute than catch the train.

Yes, I was also like this until recently.I cycled purely for the enjoyment (and quite frankly sometime I got pretty sick of it!)

 

[Phil Fouracre]

Entertaining post :-) but, does it matter? Can you put a price on the pleasure? Not going to spoil it by even trying to calculate it!!

 

[Soltydog]

Not sure how much it costs me, I dare not keep tabs on all I spend If you factor in costs of cycle clothes too then that would bump it up a little more.
But last year I rode 10k miles & probably spent a similar amount on chains, tyres etc to previous years when I only cycled 3k miles. It was quite surprising how many miles I actually got out of components when riding every day Some years I've had less than 1k miles out of a chain & one pair of tyres did less than 600 miles once, before they needed binning

 

[ChrisEyles]

Interesting spread of answers in the poll! I'm particularly surprised that it can work out cheaper to commute by train than by bike!

Of course it's important not to confuse what cycling costs with what it's "worth", as several others have pointed out... impossible to quantify that, but getting out on the bike is very often the best bit of my week, and it'd definitely be one of the last things to go if my expendable income were to disappear.