Environmental Cost of Producing a Bicycle

[Fab Foodie]

How much have you been drinking? I've never seen a green horse.

It was the Pink Elephants later-on that got me ....

 

[asterix]

What about the environmental costs of the paid work you have to do in order to afford the bike?

Obviously more expensive bikes will be less environmental.

My Greenest bike is a 24 year old steel one - £50 off ebay. (It's purple, actually..)

 

[mgarl10024]

Hi all,

What a variety of responses! I've got some who are taking my question seriously, some who are taking it a little too seriously, and some who are not taking it seriously at all!

To try to clarify a few things
- This question can run and run, so I'm trying to keep it simple as it's just an idle thought I had whilst applying GT85 to the frame.
- I already own the car, and would be driving it to work
- I'm still planning to go to work (thanks asterix)
- The road network will still be there even if I didn't buy a bike. My one bike is not going to significantly reduce the number of cases of lung cancers, the cost of cleaning buildings, or the power used by traffic lights! (thanks deptfordmarmoset, dellzegg, Davidc)
- I'm overweight, and would been more likely to be so if I didn't cycle. I'll not be upping my eating, nor will I be altering to a more vegan/vegetarian diet, so CO2 from food, or the miles it travels, shouldn't need to be counted (thanks jonesy and Arch)
- If I cycle and get a couple of extra years, I agree that it'll likely mean that I produce more carbon overall. However, as Arch states, I suspect I'll also place less burden on the NHS, and if my weight goes down I'll be breathing a lot less I'm gonna discount this one (mainly as it's too complex), but thanks for the input Davidc.
- I'm not planning to buy a horse! (thanks Fab Foodie)
- If I were to walk ("shank's pony") I expect that my emissions would actually go up. I'm thinking that running uses many more calories per mile than cycling. (thanks mcshroom)
- I'm not worried enough to get a bamboo bike. It was just an idle thought of mine. (thanks Yellow Fang)
- I'm not going to factor in the carbon scrubbers on the crematorium. (thanks (I think) to slowmotion!)
- Cyclechats servers and my home PC are likely to still be there even if I didn't get a bike (thanks to Fab Foodie and DavidC).

My calculations came up with a figure of 380miles for sea freight (which I think is the most likely), however we'd need more miles because the boat can't take a direct route. I've also calculated the cost of extracting the materials, but not the cost of putting it together (which should be much smaller).

I'm gonna stick my neck out and say that it's *about* 500 miles, and will hold this figure unless someone points out a giant flaw in my workings.

At 500 miles, I'm quite impressed. I expected it to be much more (if you remember at the start, I was thinking of replacing chains etc.).

 

[darth vadar]

Thanks for the replies - very helpful.

I'll simplify the question so we can come to a relative answer.

- The car is already owned
- The bike is new
- I'm overweight, so will not need to up my eating. So we'll remove the extra cost here. We'll assume I'm already eating, and would already have been eating, enough food, so cycling incurs no extra cost here.

Cost of Bike Production
Average weight of a bike:
http://wiki.answers....e_bicycle_weigh = 30lbs (30/2.2 = 13.6kg)
http://www.last-word...ee_id/2878.html = 35lbs (35/2.2 = 15.9kg).
I remember weighing my bike on the scales and it came in at about 16kg.

CO2 from the metals.
http://www.bikeradar...-it-seems-28911 says "According to Trek, the extraction of a single kilo of the raw steel, aluminium or carbon used in their frames releases 1.3, 4.6 and 5kg of CO2 into the atmosphere respectively. "
http://www.tenerife-...-frame-produce/ says 6.8kg for 1kg aluminium.

Now, I know that my bike isn't made completely of aluminium, but most of the bikes on it should either be alumiunium, steel, plastics or rubber.

Rubber and Plastics are horribly complicated and most of the bike isn't made of them as far as I'm aware, but http://timeforchange...s-CO2-emissions says 6kg per kg for the plastic, and I'll assume the rubber is around the same (I can't find a resource for this).

That would make the average cost per kg (4.6+6.8+6+6/4 = 5.85kg per kg, and assuming that the bike is mostly aluminium/steel this estimate is probably not in favour of the bike.

Therefore, total cost = 16kg of bike at 5.85kg each = 93.6kg cost.

Given Arch's figure of 262g/mile, that means (93.6/0.262) = 357 miles.


Getting The Bike Here - Sea
http://timeforchange...-shipping-goods says that it costs "10g to 40g" to transport a metric ton of freight 1km.
http://www.mapcrow.i..._Taiwan_TW.html says Taiwan is 6117 miles away, which is (6117*1.6=9787km). I know the boat would take a roundabout route, but this is about the best I have.
My bike is 16kg, which is 0.016 metric tonnes.
Cost (higher end of range, 40g) = 0.016*9787*0.04 = 6.26kg or 23.9 miles.


Getting The Bike Here - Air
http://timeforchange...-shipping-goods says that it costs "500g" to transport a metric ton of freight 1km.
http://www.mapcrow.i..._Taiwan_TW.html says Taiwan is 6117 miles away, which is (6117*1.6=9787km)
My bike is 16kg, which is 0.016 metric tonnes.
Cost (500g) = 0.016*9787*0.5 = 78.3kg or 298 miles.


Total Mileage
Sea Freight: 357+23.9 = 380 miles.
Air Freight: 357+298 = 655 miles.



How does that sound to people on here? Is my working correct and my assumptions not too generic?

I' ve just painted the skirting boards in my house if you'd like to come and watch them dry.

 

[mcshroom]

Worryingly it looks remarkably like the sort of calculations I do for people at work. Now where's that drying paint

 

[mgarl10024]

I' ve just painted the skirting boards in my house if you'd like to come and watch them dry.

So you were painting skirting boards when you could have been doing fun maths challenges like this one?

What is wrong with you?