scotsbikester
Über Member
Mine might be too. I get 4.5 miles per Kwh, and charge at home for 7p per Kwh.
Cycling more expensive per mile than driving?
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Mine might be too. I get 4.5 miles per Kwh, and charge at home for 7p per Kwh.
Punkawallah
Veteran
Have you remembered to Include the purchase costs, maintenance etc in those figures?
scotsbikester
Über Member
No. Because the statement I made was:
"Mine might be too. I get 4.5 miles per Kwh, and charge at home for 7p per Kwh."
If you read that statement very very very carefully, you might be able to see that I am describing:
1. How many miles per unit of energy the car travels,
and
2. How much each of those units of energy costs me.
I hope that's clear.
Milzy
Legendary Member
Same here. It’s a great feeling!
classic33
Leg End Member
I've seen it used on chains, but only as a temporary measure. It's messy, attracts dirt(which builds up into an ideal grinding paste) and can get "smelly".
https://anerleybc.org/chain-lubes/
Punkawallah
Veteran
Then I’d suggest it is not a fair comparison against the cost of cycling?
scotsbikester
Über Member
You can "suggest" all you like. It's how much it costs to add the energy that powers my car.
It might be me but you do come across a bit Rottweiler ish if anyone questions your thinking.
scotsbikester
Über Member
"Woof-woof"
Punkawallah
Veteran
In that case it would cost nothing to power a bicycle, because you don’t have to fuel it?
Also, depreciation on EVs being the facking enormous elephant in the room that likely eclipses any savings on energy cost.
In order to make a comparison, how are you quantifying the energy cost of running a bike?
I've never tried but am now intrigued. Let's say I do 120 miles per week at 40kcal per mile which is 4800kcal per week.
Let's say I have a BMR of 2000kcal / day for 14000kcal per week with the riding on top, for 18800kcal total per week, or rounding to around 40000kcal per month. Assuming a monthly food spend of £300 and 25% of my energy output going on cycling, this is £75/month on fuelling the bike or around £75/500=£0.15/mile... which in terms of pure energy costs is comparable to the car.
Of course this is based on all manner of assumptions and variables that may or may not be correct and will vary significantly from one person to the next (dietary requirements, poor executive function and expensive tastes make my food bill significantly more than it might be, for example), however suggests that the cost of fuelling either is at least of a similar order of magnitude.
This doesn't take into account other factors relative to the upkeep of the vehicles themselves. My Fuji owes me around £600 total for about 8.5k miles covered, so about £0.07/mile, while over six years / 40k miles my battered old £500 Civic has cost me probably £1000/year in non-fuel costs, so about £6k total or £0.15/mile.
So... adding all those up we're looking at a total cost per mile of £0.22 for the bike and £0.30 for the car. Of course factors relating to each are going to vary enormously; especially for the car if considering the potentially huge differences in the cost of taxation, fuelling and maintenance between different vehicles and use cases.
It's also worth considering this situation for the bike - my Fuji being bought used and having had a lot of miles piled upon it... while at the other end of the spectrum my Ragley MTB (granted hardly a utility hack) has covered £300 miles with a retail cost of north of £2k - which would give an eye-watering cost of around £7/mile
Finally there's the fact that none of these calcs factor in the the potential value recovered if either of the vehicles were sold.. the inclusion of which is really the only true way to assess total cost per mile over the entire lifespan of the vehicle.
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