So how do you spend the savings made by cycling?

supertwisted

Being a shallow and materialistic male, I'm motivated to do things by the lure of new shiny possesions as reward.

As such, in an attempt to motivate myself to start riding to work I've totalled the money I'll save in petrol and started fantasizing about what to blow it on - £820odd per year roughly.

After the 5500 miles I'll need to cycle on my hybrid-ised Scott to make that saving I may have to spend mine on a masseuse.

Sensible choice would probably be a new commuter bike.
Not so sensible will be a new plasma tv to hang on my wall.

Anyway - how do you spend yours?

Wallace1492

Savings? I don't save money by cycling, its just a whole new way of spending money!!

Slow Downcp

On bikes and bits, so I don't actually save anything

cee

like others...i am yet to realise any savings.

amnezia

the correct number of bikes to own is always n+1

plonk

Yep, savings my a*se.

Which incidentally will be much less sore now i've gone out and bought myself 4 pairs of Karrimor padding cycling shorts at £10 a pop! Trek and Field are having a wonderful wonderful sale.

jrduquemin

I think the consensus is that we all ride our bikes to save money which we then spend on our bikes :-) It's a vicious cycle ;-)

supertwisted

jrduquemin wrote:

I think the consensus is that we all ride our bikes to save money which we then spend on our bikes :-) It's a vicious cycle ;-)

So it seems, but then you could argue that money spent on the bike is money saved maintaning a car, so the petrol savings still stand... ;-)

wgwarburton

supertwisted wrote:

jrduquemin wrote:

I think the consensus is that we all ride our bikes to save money which we then spend on our bikes :-) It's a vicious cycle ;-)

So it seems, but then you could argue that money spent on the bike is money saved maintaning a car, so the petrol savings still stand... ;-)

Only if you consider a car to be a viable replacement for a bike... Cheers, W.

Wallace1492

I suppose I am saving about £70 every month on train fares and about £30 on petrol. however, I have developed a serious Wiggle habit, and although content at the moment with the number of bikes, I find I seem to collect lots of kit.

Last year i bought a big storage box for my bike bits and bobs - lights, spare tubes, tools, pedals, batteries, and guess what, the dam thing is full :shock:

I really need to go cold turkey from Internet shopping.

I have enough bike stuff...I have enough bike stuff......I have enough bike stuff......I have enough bike stuff....... I have enough bike stuff.......I need more bike stuff.......I need more bike stuff..... :x

Christophe3967

If I do save money, I always make sure its spent wisely. On beer. 8)

amnezia

Wallace1492 wrote:

I suppose I am saving about £70 every month on train fares and about £30 on petrol. however, I have developed a serious Wiggle habit, and although content at the moment with the number of bikes, I find I seem to collect lots of kit.

Last year i bought a big storage box for my bike bits and bobs - lights, spare tubes, tools, pedals, batteries, and guess what, the dam thing is full :shock:

I really need to go cold turkey from Internet shopping.

I have enough bike stuff...I have enough bike stuff......I have enough bike stuff......I have enough bike stuff....... I have enough bike stuff.......I need more bike stuff.......I need more bike stuff..... :x

I think Wiggle put mind altering chemicals in the free packs of sweets that they send with some orders.

CiB

Each commute saves me about a gallon of diesel, a bit more or a bit less but the average is about £4.70 give or take, which my [more detailed) stats show for the 75 commutes that I did last year, so a saving of about £352.50. Well that all went having a major overhaul last Jan (bike not me), plus new tyres, tubes, seatpost, clothing and then a shiny new bike anyway in October at ~£1800 means that it costs a fortune to get to work for nothing. So far this year £25 worth of tubes & stuff plus about £50 on new winter togs.Savings? Phah.

I could waste it on wine & other gadgets I suppose. So I do, as well.

Fireblade96

What savings ?

I work from home and still manage to spend more on bikes, accessories and gear than I do on my car !
:roll:

I suppose I save a fair bit on bus and taxi fares or car parking by always cycling into town, but since those trips are generally to go to the pub, I immediately invest the savings in beer.

jrduquemin

amnezia wrote:

Wallace1492 wrote:

I suppose I am saving about £70 every month on train fares and about £30 on petrol. however, I have developed a serious Wiggle habit, and although content at the moment with the number of bikes, I find I seem to collect lots of kit.

Last year i bought a big storage box for my bike bits and bobs - lights, spare tubes, tools, pedals, batteries, and guess what, the dam thing is full :shock:

I really need to go cold turkey from Internet shopping.

I don't have enough bike stuff...I don't have enough bike stuff......I don't have enough bike stuff......I don't have enough bike stuff....... I don't have enough bike stuff.......I need more bike stuff.......I need more bike stuff..... :x

I think Wiggle put mind altering chemicals in the free packs of sweets that they send with some orders.

I fixed that for you ;-)

supertwisted

So to summarise; after one year of commuting by bike I can expect to be financially worse off, with a garage full of worn out bike parts.

suzyb

Fireblade96 wrote:

What savings ?

I work from home and still manage to spend more on bikes, accessories and gear than I do on my car !

+1

oscarbudgie

-null- wrote:

Fireblade96 wrote:

What savings ?

I work from home and still manage to spend more on bikes, accessories and gear than I do on my car !

+1

+2

UndercoverElephant

Worse still, I've known for a while that my front car tyres need replacing soon, but find it hard to part with the cash. But if my beloved bike had a patch of rubber even slightly thinning, I'd run to Wiggle in seconds. :oops:

R_T_A

supertwisted wrote:

So to summarise; after one year of commuting by bike I can expect to be financially worse off, with a garage full of worn out bike parts.

Nail and Head.

But if you're justifying it to someone else, you can always add gym membership is a thing of the past, and you're fitter and healthier in mind and body.

And then spending it on clothes because your thighs don't fit anything. :twisted:

supertwisted

R_T_A wrote:

supertwisted wrote:

So to summarise; after one year of commuting by bike I can expect to be financially worse off, with a garage full of worn out bike parts.

Nail and Head.

:

Bugger. Was rather hoping I'd save a few bob.

Will have to make do with the consolation of not dying of heart disease and being fitter for my (once in a blue moon) MTB rides instead.

Bikequin

I'd like to think that commuting does save me a considerable ammount of money - that being on the grounds that I'd buy all my bike kit anyway.

Runoutofgears

Second most expensive pastime I've had, 2nd only to cars.

il_principe

Bikequin wrote:

I'd like to think that commuting does save me a considerable ammount of money - that being on the grounds that I'd buy all my bike kit anyway.

+1 I tend to buy kit that will be used for non commuting as well as commuting. Sensible I reckon.

PT would cost me £1,032 a year so on the whole I've probably saved a little, but not much!

pst88

(bus pass + gym membership) x 12 =
(45 + 30) x 12 =
£900 saved per year
I've probably broken even with the commuting bike (over 2 years), not counting the money spent on my weekend bike!

Fireblade96

I've recently started a new job, and out of my first pay packet I spent almost as much on new cycling gear & bits as I did on a couple of new suits, shirts etc.

:shock:

(I've just opened the credit card bill...)

salsarider79

My commute bike is a Specialized Langster. I got the bike for free, with a few upgrades (I worked voluntarily at my LBS on days off for about 6months, selling and fixing bikes) The bike was half built and had been painted hammerite green. I had to find parts to finish it rummaging in the old storeroom. I was given my saddle (£100 Selle Itilia SLR), seatpost (S-Works) was a present, wheels I built myself (using parts I swapped for a playstation with games). Campag brakes (Present again) with Campag brake/shifters (Warrantied and found in the store room). FSA chainset swapped for old Dura Ace track cranks (Found in store room!). Recent purchase was some Mavic Eclispe wheels with a discount from £400 to £150. With freewheel and tyres. Any wonder why I don't buy stuff from anywhere else?
I ran it without bartape for the first 6months, until the shop gave me some. I put that on after someone showed me how, and it's still there about 2years/5000miles later. I think my bike has cost me maybe £200-£300 over that time.....I think. I'm not counting clothing, as I cycle as well as commute, so I use my cycle kit to commute. A commute bike bike is ment to be cheap and a bit rubbish.
It is possible that you could save a chunk of money over the year. It just takes some thought, and not getting caught up in one-up-manship. Why run XT? Deore is a lot cheaper and not much worse. In fact I run singlespeed, as it means no gears to wear out. With a bit of thought, gearing isn't to bad. You don't need a carbon framed super bike. An old MTB with slick tyres like the bike you have is perfect. I love a cheap, simple commute bike.

p.s. I save £5.40 a day, and work 3 days a week so about £810 a year. I don't spend that on cycling.....
p.p.s. http://www.streetlifecycles.co.uk/ is where I used to work. Well worth talking to. I now work at http://www.cyclearound.co.uk/

SmellTheGlove

plonk wrote:

Yep, savings my a*se.... Trek and Field are having a wonderful wonderful sale.

You just cost me 30 quid!!! Still I needed a new pair of boots for trail related footslogging so a very timely steer on your part.

As for other savings, about £2 a day means new bike on C2W for me this year, paid off, well who knows when really..?

simon_e

supertwisted wrote:

So to summarise; after one year of commuting by bike I can expect to be financially worse off, with a garage full of worn out bike parts.

Not necessarily.

You don't have to buy lots of stuff, it doesn't wear out so fast that you have to spend hundreds of pounds each year. If you like cycling as a pastime then it's money spent on something that you enjoy too (life is short etc etc). At least this way you get to choose what to buy and enjoy it instead of putting another £50 in the fuel tank so you can join the zombie queues sitting there waiting for the 'low fuel' light to come on.

Another benefit is cycling every day means you can eat more cake, which is even better.

the_village_idiot

when i start saving i will let you know

Skippy2309

commuting to bank and home was costing £116 a month!!!! the old full sus I spent money on new grips and slicks and was happy as larry on it,

Now got a nice fixed gear cost a lot more than expected plus all my little upgrades etc, its added up to a lot. but it saves me so much money as I would still be paying out £116 a month over the last 7month (£812). The cost of public transport in london is horrendous. it was only a 40minute ride and thats because of traffic!!!!!


I have a project in mind at the moment. 1 more mod to the current bike, then its time to start saving to build my dream machine