How much does it cost a mile to cycle

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  • Porgy
    Porgy Posts: 4,525
    bompington wrote:
    Porgy wrote:
    bompington wrote:
    Saffron is pretty much the most expensive foodstuff I can think of*, it works out at £7200 / kg; it has 310 cals/100g.
    So if you cycled on a diet of saffron, it would cost you £120/mile

    You wouldn;t be cycling for long I reckon :?
    Yeah, I'd be skint before I got halfway home

    i think if you tried to live off a diet of saffron being skint would be the least of your problems. :P
  • nick hanson
    nick hanson Posts: 1,655
    bompington wrote:
    My inner geek compels me to finish the job...

    As a rough guess I'm estimating that I use about 50 cals/mile.

    Tesco value rice: 73p for 1kg, 350cals/100g => 60 miles/kg => 1.24p/mile
    Powerbar Performace: £1.35 per bar, 240 calories => 4 miles/bar => 34p/mile

    So it depends what fuel you put in...
    At 50 cals per mile,you must be using as much energy as a TDF rider???
    so many cols,so little time!
  • Mithras
    Mithras Posts: 428
    My bike Cost £370 on C2W...done over 5000 miles since I bought it...so that is about 0.07p per mile so far...not eating any differently to what I did when driving in. So that is around 2.5p a day. :D
    I can afford to talk softly!....................I carry a big stick!
  • Ollieda
    Ollieda Posts: 1,010
    Bike cost £200 and I've done about 80miles on it so far so thats £2.50 a mile! About to shoot up as I've just brought new wheels and groupset, but then my millage will increase as well
  • Special K
    Special K Posts: 449
    edited October 2009
    This is something that always winds me up! Am convinced that most cyclist spend much more money than they think they do.

    The true cost of cycling and monumental costs of consummables (drivetrain, decent tyres, shorts).

    I have owned only two bikes that have GENUINELY cost less than 35p a mile (I choose this benchmark because that is what my last car used to cost)

    1) Fixed gear On One Pompino (because it was cheap to buy)
    2) Thorn Nomad with a Rohloff (because it goes on and on and on without much expense)

    Every other bike I own or have owned has cost a fortune, mostly because I ride in the winter, buy bikes new and get mechanics to do any servicing/replacement of parts containing bearings.

    Personally I'd like to blame Shimano for making parts out of cheese, but I also know that I would get much better value if I actually did more riding and less fettling and browsing on Wiggle!
    "There are holes in the sky,
    Where the rain gets in.
    But they're ever so small
    That's why rain is thin. " Spike Milligan
  • deptfordmarmoset
    deptfordmarmoset Posts: 3,118
    Are we taking simple cost or is it legitimate to offset money saved? For example, all the time you spend wearing gear that keeps you warm, comfy and dry on your bike, you are not wearing out your normal gear - this must represent some kind of saving on the gross costs.

    Can you deduct the public transport costs saved because you're now commuting in by bike? I bought a cheap bike and started commuting, saving a very modest £10 per week on bus fares (other commuters will have a far larger public transport bill) and I haven't had to recharge my Oyster card since April. If I include the multiple short shopping stops that I make on my return journeys instead of the weekly big shop, my bike has almost paid for itself within a year.
    Looking for a cycling buddy?
  • Porgy
    Porgy Posts: 4,525
    I think that's valid - annoyingly since I have free travel in London - I don't make these savings - and since I wear my normal clothes when cycling I can't claim that either.

    If anything I end up spending more on public transport as occasionally I'm not in the mood to cycle home - or it's late and I've had a few drinks - so I get the train home which I have to to get the bike home too and that costs £3/4 wheras the DLR / bus I would normally use is free.

    For me though - it's not about the costs - I do it anyway even without the savings.

    I could argue that I haven't had to join a gym since i've been cycling 25/30 miles daily though - that's £30/40 a month saved.
  • trickeyja
    trickeyja Posts: 202
    about £1000/about 5000 miles = roughly 20p/mile
  • bompington
    bompington Posts: 7,674
    nick hanson wrote:
    bompington wrote:
    My inner geek compels me to finish the job...

    As a rough guess I'm estimating that I use about 50 cals/mile.

    Tesco value rice: 73p for 1kg, 350cals/100g => 60 miles/kg => 1.24p/mile
    Powerbar Performace: £1.35 per bar, 240 calories => 4 miles/bar => 34p/mile

    So it depends what fuel you put in...
    At 50 cals per mile,you must be using as much energy as a TDF rider???
    Good question, seeing as how I've never had any scientific tests done e.g. oxygen consumption (which measures calories burned better than power output), I've looked all over the place to find accurate figures for cycling: everybody confidently spouts different figures, ones I've seen range from 300-1200 calories per hour.
    My commute is 30km with 400-500m of climbing (depending on direction), I average pretty much 30kmh on this, that doesn't make me a particularly fit recreational cyclist never mind a pro, but at that speed and weighing in at 13 stone I figure it puts me nearer the top end of those figures than the bottom.
    Besides, it makes the maths easy to assume 1000 cals / hour and 20mph, which makes 50 cals / mile.

    I may well be overestimating my energy use rate, but then riders in the tdf are usually a good bit less than 13 stone, and they're going at a rate that can be sustained all day for 3 weeks - in a 1-off 1 hour time trial, which is what my commute would count as, I would guess the pros can put down rather more power than the average over the whole tour.

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