Cycling Costs versus car ?

[J4CKO]

Was just pondering my overdraft and where all my salary goes, have made a commitment to keep cycling and not use excuses like the showers at work being out of action, might be icy etc etc. Main reason being is a calculated my round trip commute in the car, for fuel only costs £3.91 as my car is a Petrol Saab and only does about 20 mpg on a short run like that.

So, was wondering as a comparison how much the bike costs to "run", I am working on it costing zero compared to the massive cost of fuel these days, I am ruling out the CTW payments as whether I ride it I have to pay those, I have already got all the gear and have no inclination to change the bike or buy any more unless absolutely niecessary so am ruling that out. So to ride 14 miles what should I include, Chain, Cassette, Tyres, brake blocks and the additional food to fuel me which to be fair, I eat anyway, just means I end up using it.

Not going to really use it for anything, just interested to see what it comes out at.

 

[fossyant]

Bank on:-

2 x chains a year,
1 x cassette
2 x brake pad sets (possibly 1 on your rural commute)
1 x set tyres/tubes

And £xxxx on kit you'll probably just buy anyway

 

[J4CKO]

Probably due a chain and cassette, not sure when to change them though as its working fine.

Have no desire to buy any more gear as I have all sorts now that covers all weathers, most of it still reasonably new.

Have a few spare tubes and tyres and a new pair of pads, like you say, with it being rural, rarely have to brake, so should be able to operate from stuff I have in already.

I suppose the biggest costs are the unforseen ones like buckling a wheel or falling off, have a brand new spare rear wheel.

Batteries for lights, possible replacement of rechargable Hope unit.

 

[Arch]

According to Ato B magazine, a conventional bike costs between 3 and 7 pence per mile to run, as opposed to between 80p and £1.45 for a small car. That bike figure was apparently for depreciation over 10 years, at 2000 miles a year - so I don't know if it includes chains etc.

But bearing in mind that I haven't spent a penny on my winter hack (hub everything) in about 3 years, bar batteries for the back up lights (it has a dynamo), you can run the right bike very cheaply indeed.

 

[BSRU]

The only things I have "needed" to buy are a chain, cassette, spare inner tubes and in my opinion my Marathon Winters.

Everything else I have bought is either something I wanted but could manage without, e.g. more lights, or impulse purchases, e.g. 5w LED MR11 bulbs, still not used them yet.

 

[HLaB]

According to the AA, 2010 (An organisation which may be biased to making figures appear smaller/ the car more attractive) on top of the initial purchase cost; a car will cost you between £2,000 & £11,000 before it even moves (VED+Insurance, etc) and between 20 and 31p per mile there after (fuel, maintenance etc). When compared to my commuter bike (Ridgeback Velocity); £300 to buy; VED for low emissions vehicle £0, Insurance, CTC £36; fuel (1 bottle of lube iirc £5, bananas, choc bars ?), maintenance (iirc a couple of new tubes and a p'ture repair kits; gestimate £6), (new chains/ cassette, guestimate £25)(Lidl tool kit, one off 3 years ago £15) plus free advertisement of Lidl/ Aldi (guestimate £15 on average per annum) (lights one off £50); the bike is a lot cheaper and this recent year with bike/clothing already having been bought the cost is lower. Even when compared to my more expensive road bikes where initial outlay is slightly dearer and kit and maintenance is greater; the bike is still far cheaper than the car.

 

[Mike!]

Bank on:-

2 x chains a year,
1 x cassette
2 x brake pad sets (possibly 1 on your rural commute)
1 x set tyres/tubes

And £xxxx on kit you'll probably just buy anyway

My 'maintenance man' says to keep my rims in very good order to replace pads bi-monthly

But back to the original posters issue, not sure on bike running costs as i'm still less than a year into this commuting by bike lark but it costs me somewhere round £230pm to run my car and a bike obviously doesn't touch that kind of figure. Tis why i thinking of selling the car (it's the second car in the family)....

 

[ACS]

Based on some rough figures for last year, my first full year of commuting.

Milage 4500

Fuel cost for commuting estimated at £600

Total spent on replacement parts for commuter £120 (as above chain, tyres etc)

Other expenditure specifically for commuting Ay Up lights £190 + Hi viz reflective vest £20

Saving £270

This year I estimate the fuel cost to increase by £100.

Replacement parts by £15 and I will need a new set of wheels £120

Projected saving £445.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I forecast 5 pence a mile for bike maintenance during the months I commute excluding the cost of buying the bike in the first place. The actual costs have never come near that (so far)

But I do wonder what part of planet Daily Mail the AA are on. Fully comp insurance costs me £127 pa, VED is £125, breakdown cover comes free with my bank account and my car couldn't depreciate if it tried.(it cost less to buty than any of my bikes) MoT £50 plus parts labour to get a pass what £200 in a really bad year. one annual service £150 max fixed price.

Cheap motoring is possible you just need a reliable old banger.

speaking of the missus she has taken to driving my old fiat chunkychicken in preference to her 20-odd mpg SAAB 9-3

 

[Davidc]

I don't commute but use a bike as general transport. The variable (mileage related) costs are way below my car.

The car, a diesel which averages 52 mpg, costs 14p/mi fuel, and I worked out that tyres, brake parts, wipers etc. plus non-routine maintenance cost another 6p a mile. That comes to about 20p a mile. Depreciation and all the other costs aren't affected much by mileage, but I did get a reduction in insurance for reduced mileage last year, or is that a plus for the bike?

The utility bike uses oil, about £5 a year so 0.25p/mi, tyres - Marathons usually at about £35 a pair which last me about 5000 miles, so 0.7p/mile, a chain every 2000 miles at £10 is 0.5p/mile, cassette and middle chainring every 6000 miles is another 0.6p/mi. Lighting costs me about 4p a month plus an occasional new rechargeable battery, so I'll ignore that. Brake pads last about 2 years

So excluding clothing and any other bits that wear out the bike costs me well under 3p a mile. That's a saving of 17p a mile, or just over £100 a year on the 600ish miles of journeys where bike does a straight replacement for car. The rest of its journeys might or might not be by car but must contain some saving. If I can get rid of one of our two cars at some stage the saving bcomes over a thousand a year but that's a different game.

 

[dellzeqq]

I reckon I spend 20p a mile on cycling (including the extra cover on the house insurance which I think is a must). And that is caning it - although the larger items are at trade. So if car driving costs £1 a mile then there is no way that cycling is more expensive.

One small thing not mentioned by the AA - if your car mileage drops below 3000 a year you might well be able to get cheaper insurance.

 

[Moodyman]

I run a car (Mrs MM) and a commuting bike for me.

In 2010, I kept a spreadsheet of all the costs for each mode of transport. Here’s the breakdown:

Car:

Fuel: £1408

MOT fee: £40

Sorting faulty brake cable: £35

New wipers: £9

Insurance: £345

VED: £190

Windscreen wash: £2

Oil: £12

No notable depreciation as car 11 years old.

Total: £2041

New bike bought end of 09 (with new chain in late 10), every imaginable tool, lights, spares and full range of clothing:

Total: £982



Points to note:

Car mileage is local and for school run. Her mileage is similar to what I would do if I drove to work.

Bike costs are the initial outlay, expect it to be a fraction of £982 in future years. Cars costs are same every year.

 

[szygy]

It is an obvious point, but it always seems to be missed; the cost of food. Energy has to come from somewhere, and I eat a LOT more when I have been cycling more than usual.

 

[vorsprung]

If I don't take the bike but take the car instead then it is £5 petrol, £2 parking = £7

Number of times I commuted last year = 193

savings due to not using the car 193 x 7 = £1351

Cost of new bike specially for commuting back in Jan £900
new blocks £12
new chain £15 (SRAM 1/8")
snow tyres for last months activities £77
bottom bracket £20

Bike total costs 900+12+15+77+20=£1024

Difficult to take into account the savings in running costs for the car as it has MOT/Servicing etc etc even if it is not being used. But the miscellaneous running costs for the car as you can imagine run into hundreds of pounds

So I think the bike runs at a small profit as far as commuting is concerned

 

[vorsprung]

It is an obvious point, but it always seems to be missed; the cost of food. Energy has to come from somewhere, and I eat a LOT more when I have been cycling more than usual.

1) if I didn't commute I would ride the bike anyway
2) my commute is an hour 10 each way so about 1000kcal a day. Difficult to measure exactly how much food and what the additional costs are