Is my bike a money pit?

Richard1972

OK, so I ride about 1000 miles each month - maybe a bit more.

Bike is 3 years old and was £1,000 new. Trek 5000 / ultegra / 105 mix.

I'm 100kg and on a good day can put about 1,900 watts through the Wattbike, so the drivetrain gets a fair bit of stick.

As of this morning, only the frame / forks / seatpost / saddle and stem are original. Every last bit has now been replaced and a full set of 6700 Ultegra is being strapped on as we speak.

Sound like a reasonable level of 'consumables'? 2009's bill has just gone over £1k.

Thoughts? anyone else running a money pit out there?

JohnnyAllez

I thought "bike" was another word for money-pit :roll: that`s what my dictionary says anyway also connected with "upgrade" and "bling" 8)

softlad

you ride 1000 miles per month and you are 100kg..? Do you mind me asking how tall you are..??

Richard1972

Sure - I'm 193cm - 6'4" in old money.

brownbosh

Well im surprised anyone doing that kind of volume has only one bike fella. Im a similar height was much heavier but now a bit lighter. All of my 5 bikes get a lot of use and im usually repairing something! For the price you got the 6700 for you could have bought a training bike!

will3

Hi, I do similar milage and probably weigh a bit more (not sure how that's relevant...

Yes things wear out quite quick on bikes, but you can mitigate this somewhat by servicing your wheel bearings properly and getting rim friendly brake pads etc etc

Try doing 1000 miles a month in a car and then see what kind of money pit you have!

owenlars

So your bike has done 36,000 miles over 3 years if your 1000 miles per month is accurate. I would expect commuting at least the following over the three years.

10-12 chains
2-3 new chainsets (plus at least one or two extra cassettes) (inc BB etc)
2-3 sets of wheels (probably a repacement hub or two)
8-10 sets of tyres
10-12 new sets of brake pads (I don't know if you use discs or not)

Don't know about headsets etc but probably at least 1

How much does a 100 mile a day return commute cost you a week but I bet it is a lot more than £1000 per year. You are seriously bashing your bike at that level of use in, I presume, all weathers.

Having said that respect for your obvious commitment!

Escargot

Crikey, £1k this year :shock:

That sounds incredible to me if it's just consumables/repairs/replacements and no added bling but you seem to be racking up a fair few intense miles each year.

If you've been spending that kind of money consistently then I'd be inclined to take out 0% finance each year and buy a brand new bike !! Either that or start riding more gently

Richard1972

An excellent point, and wisely made out of earshot of my girlfriend, who would probably stick an umbrella up your bottom, and open it.

The single vs multiple bikes is an interesting one. Logically, dispersing the wear and tear across multiple machines will net you out in the same place, i.e. one bike ridden to death for 25,000 miles is probably comparable in maintenance cost to 3 bikes getting 8.3k miles each.

I do also own a Ridley Noah with every last mincing posh bit of kit you've ever seen, and a hand-painted frame by Lucien Freud. OK, the last bit is a fib. But I only use that to race, and on the Queen's birthday.

I'm in the process of building up 'Noah 2' on a lower spec, but I guess logically having an extra £2.5k tied up in bikes feels like a slightly false economy to me. I figure that I only need one to train on and another to race.

I guess the only reason for the post was that my bike habit has just eclipsed the cost of my car / motorbike habit, so I was curious about what everyone else was paying.....

FOAD

No C2W scheme?

Get a new job with one.

owenlars

I have four bikes and do about 7000 miles per year. having just posted above I have suddenly realised that adding it all up is a bad policy!

I have just had a new chainset, 2 new tyres, 2 new chains, two new wheels in the last three months and I don't want to tot it up.

Best policy look put it all down as safety critical expenditure.

Richard1972

Cheers all

In fairness, before this recent glut of stuff the Trek had been fairly durable, and I guess in some ways I should be grateful that it's done so well. It's had some hideous punishment including a few instances of 500m+ in 3 or 4 days on weirdy beardy charity rides, and whole stack of Etape training. Then there's the 100m a week to and from work.

Appreciate the advice on the maintenance. I need to get disciplined.

All academic really - wouldn't give up my riding even if I was down to my last cent as I f*cking love it.

(BTW, that £1,000 is parts only.....we have an on-site bike shop with free labour!)

Richard1972

By the way owenlars, your ready reckoner estimate on the consumables cost over 36k miles is spookily accurate......

dennisn

Aren't ALL bikes money pits?

STEFANOS4784

Richard1972 wrote:

on a good day can put about 1,900 watts

:shock: :shock: :shock: A fair bit of stick you say, reckon you could power my house 8)

huuregeil

That sounds entire plausible to me. Some back of the envelope figures to put this all in context.

12000 miles for £1000 is roughly 8.3p per mile.

If you were simply to commute your 400miles a month by car... it's very hard to run a car for less than 25p a mile, all in (fixed costs, servicing, depreciation, interest, fuel, tyres...). So, simply your commute by car would cost you £1200.

Your 8.3p per mile can be broken down a little. Now, obviously all this depends a little on your maintenance regime and component choice, but the money burners here are:

Wheels. 8000 miles for £200, maybe? 2.5p a mile.
Chain. 2000 miles for £30. 1.5p a mile.
Tyres. 4000 miles for £50. 1.25p a mile.

That's already 5.25p a mile for starters! Plus, if you're 100kg and strong, you're going to be heavy on components.

Entirely reasonable your £1000 a year, imo!

PeteinSQ

The way I look at it is this:

as someone who lives and works in London I would have to buy a travel card to get to work, this alone costs over £1000. If I didn't cycle I would need some alternative form of excercise and I can't really run any more due to knee trouble so I would join a gym, this would cost another £480 a year.

So that's nearly £1500 I'm not spending, plus I enjoy cycling, I enjoy buying bits and pieces for my bike, I get my excercise done during time I would otherwise be sat on a train. All round it's a winner.

ex-pat scot

Bikes (esp nice ones) = money pits.
Hobbies = money pits.

Offset = your commute costs.

You can reduce the costs in a few ways:
1. lower spec stuff. Not ideal on a "nice" bike, but bars, chainset, front mechs, pedals, brakes, shifters all offer diminishing returns for the extra costs of nice bits
2. get a decent winter bike with full 'guards and keep the drivetrain and brakes well maintained. That will sort out the higher wear from poor weather
3. go fixed. No gears, shifters etc to wear out. Stuff lasts a lot longer as it's simpler and not forced to shift at angles

will3

Perhaps you would be better running a cheaper spec bike for winter/commuting work so that when riding in poor/salty/wet conditions you're only wearing out cheaper parts? That way your ultegra bits will last more miles.

Escargot

LOL @ umbrella

Personally I think the term 'money pit' is very harsh and makes it sound worse than it is. Admittedly £1000 is a lot of cash but if, as you say, it's come in late over your 3 year ownership then it's extremely good value considering it keeps you in tip-top shape.

Funnily enough a mate's grilfriend is interested in buying a new Audi A4 but is moaning over his intention to buy a new roadie for £3-4k. Yet the Audi will drop £4k just moving off the forecourt.

Bikes ≠ money pit

Richard1972

All useful advice and info, and the fixie idea has got me thinking.....

I guess that part of the quandary is that price / lightweight and durability are tough (and in a pro-racing environment) un-necessary to reconcile - hard to imagine Contador worrying that his four figure groupset only lasted a few thousand miles...

If you want nice stuff then maybe you need to accept that indestructability probably wasn't part of the brief. Similarly, if you are 100kg you're probably 50% harder on the components than a pro rider.

All kinda moot in a way, however interesting. I'll give up my bike when the coroner prises the bars out of my hand. Not before.

Charlton

simonaspinall

will3 wrote:

Perhaps you would be better running a cheaper spec bike for winter/commuting work so that when riding in poor/salty/wet conditions you're only wearing out cheaper parts? That way your ultegra bits will last more miles.

My thoughts exactly - Why are you running ultegra? For the commute you can do a great run with low spec and non-branded shimano kit.

Leaves more money for your sunny day bike!!!

Richard1972

I should probably qualify 'commute' - 6 miles to Richmond Park, 3 laps, then another 3 to the office......so mostly enjoyable riding and useful base fitness training rather than 30 miles of running the homicidal white-van-man gauntlet....

Still a fair point you've made on the cheaper components argument though.

Nuggs

If you want to talk about hobbies being money pits, I ran a TVR for five years. I spent about £4k pa in the first three years (mostly on upgrades rather than repairs!).

By comparison, a bike is super cheap. You should be well chuffed with 8.3p/mile; that's incredible value for money. It's great that your spending some cash on some nice kit too (like the new GS) as you're really going to enjoy it and get the most out of it doing those kind of mileages.

I spend far more that you on cycling per annum and only get to ride at weekends! Compared to me, you are the embodiment of Scrooge-like efficiency!

Pross

My bike must have covered around 40 or 50,000 miles in total over the first 6 years I owned it. From memory - a long time back - all that I have changed is the chain and brake blocks a couple of times (possibly the cassette). It has been out in all weather as it was my only bike used for racing and training. I did use 2 different sets of wheels but really only used the one set for 3/J racing as it had a 15 up cassette on. Just starting to use it again after a long rest and the chainrings and rear mech jockey wheels could do with replacing but overall I would conclude that either:- you are very heavy on equipment or I should have changed my stuff more often or the quality of components is far worse these days than it was 15 - 20 years ago (all my stuff is Ultegra 600).

Richard1972

I'm pretty sure I once read about that bike in the bible......

Pross

Dragged out of the shed after 12 years, chain oiled and it's going fine but seems to have developed a fault in that the cranks and wheels don't turn very quickly anymore !

dennisn

Pross wrote:

Dragged out of the shed after 12 years, chain oiled and it's going fine but seems to have developed a fault in that the cranks and wheels don't turn very quickly anymore !

Needs more oil. Not for the bike, for you.

salsarider79

My Langster has covered about 7000miles and has cost £86 in parts, if my maths right. One new front cog @ £30, two chains @ £11 each and two freewheels @ £17 each (Though I do need another. The current one sounds like a bag of spanners).










Mind you, it has had two new sets of wheels (1 handbuilt set), two new cranks (Including one Dura Ace), various bar/stem, seat/seatpost, pedal and BB upgrades. But they were upgrades so they don't count

Richard1972

Do those miles include its initial journey from its country of origin...?

If not you have the deftness of touch of Mr Miyagi himself!

Lunar Tick

Richard1972 wrote:

I'm 100kg and on a good day can put about 1,900 watts through the Wattbike

Good grief - that's pretty impressive! I was at a presentation by British Cycling's coach Shane Sutton last month; according to Shane, Jamie Staff who led off for the Mens Team Pursuit gold in Beijing and who is the fastest man ever around the Velodrome from a standing start, can just about muster 1,700 watts at peak power output. I think you should give Shane a call