Cost per mile

porlyworly

Prior to cycling I drove a silly japanese import which returned 14mpg and got the idea from the car forums about logging what I'd spent on the car and translating that into cost per mile.

1st of November 2011 I committed to cycling to work most days and a year on I am now commuting on my bike 99% of the time, I only take my car if I need to transport something I can't carry on my back.

I've kept a spreadsheet of everything I've spent and have used strava/endomondo most of the time from day one. Biggest outlay was a second hand Genesis Equilibrium 20 but taking into consideration all of the clothing, tools & accessories, a year in I am in for a total of £1,333. I've only spent £60 in the last three months (£40 of which was on a full service to overhaul the running gear replacing all cables etc.). I have all of the gear I need to get through winter, only thing I might need is some winter tyres!

I've done 1965 miles so far and will hit the magic 2000 before 1st Nov. Estimating the resale value of my bike and gear at a conservative £650, cost per mile for the first year is £0.34.

Here's to the next 2000 miles!

TheStone

Bit geeky, but I've been logging this for 7 years.
Managed to spend £15.5k and ridden nearly 41k km .... which is nearly 60p/mile.

But then I must have £5k worth of stuff and have saved over £4k on tube fares.

rubertoe

This is something that I should consider doing so SWMBO can see why i need new things all the time!

bompington

Bike, £120
Clothes, shoes, lights, tools etc, £300
Replacement parts, £500
Consumables, £100

Miles 15,000

About 6p/mile not including extra food

depends how much you spend on your bike, innit?

daviesee

I did a rough calculation when buying the Fratello and I should break even by the end of the year.
As I have all the gear that I need (plus a lot extra) I will be saving money by cycling in 2013.

BigLights

I don't keep a full spreadsheet, but in London you're saving £112 (£1340 a year) a month on public transport if you commute by bike. Thereby totally justifying any expenditure on bike stuff entirely.

essex-commuter

BigLights wrote:

I don't keep a full spreadsheet, but in London you're saving £112 (£1340 a year) a month on public transport if you commute by bike. Thereby totally justifying any expenditure on bike stuff entirely.

Depends on where you cycle in from surely? I assume you mean living within a certain zone...not being a London worker I need to ask what is maybe obvious, for that I apologise.

rubertoe

BigLights wrote:

I don't keep a full spreadsheet, but in London you're saving £112 (£1340 a year) a month on public transport if you commute by bike. Thereby totally justifying any expenditure on bike stuff entirely.

I wish I lived in Central london with a travel card that costs that.

Mine would be £190 monthly or £1992 annually.

essex-commuter

rubertoe wrote:

BigLights wrote:

I don't keep a full spreadsheet, but in London you're saving £112 (£1340 a year) a month on public transport if you commute by bike. Thereby totally justifying any expenditure on bike stuff entirely.

I wish I lived in Central london with a travel card that costs that.

Mine would be £190 monthly or £1992 annually.

I think an annual season ticket from my gaff into town is circa £3.5K.

wyadvd

just as far as food costs are concerned (working not shown) last time I calculated it, based on the average person's calorie intake and the national average spend on food (just under £5 per person per day), and assuming 50 kcals per mile, it costs about 11p per mile in extra food (fuel) costs over and above a sedentary food requirement (ie not including Base metabolic rate) to run a bike assuming a decent mileage per week (100+?)

lets assume the average serious cyclist spends about 3 times more on his bike than the average motorist spends on his car!

Bordersroadie

Good thread (okay, so I'm a geek).

I've not worked mine out (I daren't!), but I justify my 12 mile commute by the fact that the alternative, taking my VW Transporter van, costs about £4.40 for the return trip, just for diesel, so after a few commutes I've racked up some savings.

Truth is the "savings" are spent on shiny bike stuff but, hey, I'm fit and healthly so what's the value on that?

daviesee

wyadvd wrote:

lets assume the average serious cyclist spends about 3 times more on his bike than the average motorist spends on his car!

Why assume that?
Seriously curious. My spending was the reverse.

sketchley

I'm saving upto £140 per month on travel card (if i cycle every day) plus £60 a month on gym membership. I have no idea what I've spent on bikes etc but I suspect I'm at least cost netural since I started in sept 2008

wyadvd

daviesee wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

lets assume the average serious cyclist spends about 3 times more on his bike than the average motorist spends on his car!

Why assume that?
Seriously curious. My spending was the reverse.

That wasn't intended as a serious remark sorry about that, it was a ' many a true word is said in jest' type of thing! I have calmed down a bit myself, but in my first few years of cycling addiction, my wiggle and CRC accounts got a serious going over ! Lol

I would also say that the extra cost of fuel (extra food) is a cost of cycling reasonable distances that is often convieniently left out of the equation. The cost of an average calorie of food in the uk is £5/2200 kcals. Excluding base metabolic rate, it takes 50 kcals to cycle a mile. Therefore average fuel costs for a mile of cycling is 11p. This compares with a small car according to the AA.

rubertoe

Do Drivers not eat?

wgwarburton

wyadvd wrote:

daviesee wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

lets assume the average serious cyclist spends about 3 times more on his bike than the average motorist spends on his car!

Why assume that?
Seriously curious. My spending was the reverse.

That wasn't intended as a serious remark sorry about that, it was a ' many a true word is said in jest' type of thing! I have calmed down a bit myself, but in my first few years of cycling addiction, my wiggle and CRC accounts got a serious going over ! Lol

I would also say that the extra cost of fuel (extra food) is a cost of cycling reasonable distances that is often convieniently left out of the equation. The cost of an average calorie of food in the uk is £5/2200 kcals. Excluding base metabolic rate, it takes 50 kcals to cycle a mile. Therefore average fuel costs for a mile of cycling is 11p. This compares with a small car according to the AA.

Umm, nope... I think you are experiencing a perspective failure, here: Eating more isn't a cost, it's a benefit, unless you're actually too close to the breadline to be able to afford shiny bike stuff... :-)

Cheers,
W.

wyadvd

WGWarburton wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

daviesee wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

lets assume the average serious cyclist spends about 3 times more on his bike than the average motorist spends on his car!

Why assume that?
Seriously curious. My spending was the reverse.

That wasn't intended as a serious remark sorry about that, it was a ' many a true word is said in jest' type of thing! I have calmed down a bit myself, but in my first few years of cycling addiction, my wiggle and CRC accounts got a serious going over ! Lol

I would also say that the extra cost of fuel (extra food) is a cost of cycling reasonable distances that is often convieniently left out of the equation. The cost of an average calorie of food in the uk is £5/2200 kcals. Excluding base metabolic rate, it takes 50 kcals to cycle a mile. Therefore average fuel costs for a mile of cycling is 11p. This compares with a small car according to the AA.

Umm, nope... I think you are experiencing a perspective failure, here: Eating more isn't a cost, it's a benefit, unless you're actually too close to the breadline to be able to afford shiny bike stuff... :-)

Cheers,
W.

Have to say, I'm in the same boat as you. I'd far rather be eating my fuel bill in the form of extra chips at the canteen and my egg, bacon and black pudding butty I'm the morning than standing on the forecourt ! My colleague are eternally jealous of my capacity to totally pig out whilst maintaining a six pack and being sub 70 kilos! That said , if we are being geeky about the cost of cycling, the cost of the food used to fuel it should not be left off the spreadsheet.

wyadvd

rubertoe wrote:

Do Drivers not eat?

They do but the average male driver who commutes 20 miles a day needs to eat 2200 calories to cover their base metabolic rate plus the calories required to sit at a computer all day. A cyclist uses at least an extra 1000+ kcals on top of this base calories. Cycling uses 50 calories per mile roughly over and above base metabolic rate.

I cycle between 100 and 150 miles a week and need to eat around 4000 calories or I start to loose weight and there's nothing of me as it is!

Have a look at this links and YouTube this guy:
http://www.messarchives.com/messville/FOODTAX.HTM

samsbike

Provided I keep on cycling till March 2013, I will be cost neutral. However I am struggleing wifh motivation. The biggest benefit I hope is just being healthier.

bompington

wyadvd wrote:

daviesee wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

lets assume the average serious cyclist spends about 3 times more on his bike than the average motorist spends on his car!

Why assume that?
Seriously curious. My spending was the reverse.

That wasn't intended as a serious remark sorry about that, it was a ' many a true word is said in jest' type of thing! I have calmed down a bit myself, but in my first few years of cycling addiction, my wiggle and CRC accounts got a serious going over ! Lol

I would also say that the extra cost of fuel (extra food) is a cost of cycling reasonable distances that is often convieniently left out of the equation. The cost of an average calorie of food in the uk is £5/2200 kcals. Excluding base metabolic rate, it takes 50 kcals to cycle a mile. Therefore average fuel costs for a mile of cycling is 11p. This compares with a small car according to the AA.

This is not a very well thought-out calculation. It might be reasonable to assume that you could get most of your extra cals from carbs, which come in (tesco value pasta) at 60p/kg: that's about 40p/2200 kcals.
Moreover, your 50kcals / mile is a bit much - a fit rider going fast might just use that in total, but for most it will be quite a bit less.

So in fact, food-wise it would be less than 1p/mile. A bit different I think.

Torvid

From what I've read, unless your a bit of a fat chap, estimating more than about 600-800kcals an hour on the bike is pushing it, that's riding around the PE level of 7 or 8.

rubertoe

wyadvd wrote:

rubertoe wrote:

Do Drivers not eat?

They do but the average male driver who commutes 20 miles a day needs to eat 2200 calories to cover their base metabolic rate plus the calories required to sit at a computer all day. A cyclist uses at least an extra 1000+ kcals on top of this base calories. Cycling uses 50 calories per mile roughly over and above base metabolic rate.

I cycle between 100 and 150 miles a week and need to eat around 4000 calories or I start to loose weight and there's nothing of me as it is!

Have a look at this links and YouTube this guy:
http://www.messarchives.com/messville/FOODTAX.HTM

I eat nowere near 4k calories a day. I dont lose any weight.

daviesee

wyadvd wrote:

That wasn't intended as a serious remark sorry about that, it was a ' many a true word is said in jest' type of thing! I have calmed down a bit myself, but in my first few years of cycling addiction, my wiggle and CRC accounts got a serious going over ! Lol

Smilies help to cover that.

wyadvd wrote:

I would also say that the extra cost of fuel (extra food) is a cost of cycling reasonable distances that is often convieniently left out of the equation. The cost of an average calorie of food in the uk is £5/2200 kcals. Excluding base metabolic rate, it takes 50 kcals to cycle a mile. Therefore average fuel costs for a mile of cycling is 11p. This compares with a small car according to the AA.

I eat the same whether I cycle or not. The difference is that I lose weight when I cycle. I need to lose weight. Dieting without exercise doesn't work.

Kieran_Burns

rubertoe wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

rubertoe wrote:

Do Drivers not eat?

They do but the average male driver who commutes 20 miles a day needs to eat 2200 calories to cover their base metabolic rate plus the calories required to sit at a computer all day. A cyclist uses at least an extra 1000+ kcals on top of this base calories. Cycling uses 50 calories per mile roughly over and above base metabolic rate.

I cycle between 100 and 150 miles a week and need to eat around 4000 calories or I start to loose weight and there's nothing of me as it is!

Have a look at this links and YouTube this guy:
http://www.messarchives.com/messville/FOODTAX.HTM

I eat nowere near 4k calories a day. I dont loose any weight.

muttermutter... it's fecking LOSE not loose muttergrumblemutter

rubertoe

Kieran_Burns wrote:

rubertoe wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

rubertoe wrote:

Do Drivers not eat?

They do but the average male driver who commutes 20 miles a day needs to eat 2200 calories to cover their base metabolic rate plus the calories required to sit at a computer all day. A cyclist uses at least an extra 1000+ kcals on top of this base calories. Cycling uses 50 calories per mile roughly over and above base metabolic rate.

I cycle between 100 and 150 miles a week and need to eat around 4000 calories or I start to loose weight and there's nothing of me as it is!

Have a look at this links and YouTube this guy:
http://www.messarchives.com/messville/FOODTAX.HTM

I eat nowere near 4k calories a day. I dont lose any weight.

muttermutter... it's fecking LOSE not loose muttergrumblemutter

Corrected.

craker

.... I too keep a geeky spreadsheet (to control / justify my spending urges)

Last year was 30p / mile (4800 miles) but I did get most of a new road bike.

This year I'm at 26p / mile.

Most of the cost is on the road bike which does relatively few miles. If it was just commuting miles and commuting bike costs it would be more like 5p / mile. Luckily for me I have to spend £6 per day to get my car into England and that justifies me a whole lot of bike accessories.

wyadvd

bompington wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

daviesee wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

lets assume the average serious cyclist spends about 3 times more on his bike than the average motorist spends on his car!

Why assume that?
Seriously curious. My spending was the reverse.

That wasn't intended as a serious remark sorry about that, it was a ' many a true word is said in jest' type of thing! I have calmed down a bit myself, but in my first few years of cycling addiction, my wiggle and CRC accounts got a serious going over ! Lol

I would also say that the extra cost of fuel (extra food) is a cost of cycling reasonable distances that is often convieniently left out of the equation. The cost of an average calorie of food in the uk is £5/2200 kcals. Excluding base metabolic rate, it takes 50 kcals to cycle a mile. Therefore average fuel costs for a mile of cycling is 11p. This compares with a small car according to the AA.

This is not a very well thought-out calculation. It might be reasonable to assume that you could get most of your extra cals from carbs, which come in (tesco value pasta) at 60p/kg: that's about 40p/2200 kcals.
Moreover, your 50kcals / mile is a bit much - a fit rider going fast might just use that in total, but for most it will be quite a bit less.

So in fact, food-wise it would be less than 1p/mile. A bit different I think.

It was thought through on the basis of average figures available from offiical government figures relating to the average national spend on foood per capita (a fraction under £5 per day) and average per capita energy useage to arrive at a cost per food calorie accros an entire average diet. this in multiplied by what my strava and ebdomondo algorithms give as my average energy consumtion per mile. I find it to empirically pretty accurate in terms of my own calorific requirements on my mileage. My cycling tends to increase the volume of food I eat across the board not just one particular food group. Any earmarking of a particular meal to be used for use while cycling is a false way of looking at the way the body handles ans stores energy over a few days in my opinion. If anything to maintain a fit body one tends no need to eat a higher quality more expensive diet.

Any qualified sport nutrition experts out there ? I am not one,

wyadvd

bompington wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

daviesee wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

lets assume the average serious cyclist spends about 3 times more on his bike than the average motorist spends on his car!

Why assume that?
Seriously curious. My spending was the reverse.

That wasn't intended as a serious remark sorry about that, it was a ' many a true word is said in jest' type of thing! I have calmed down a bit myself, but in my first few years of cycling addiction, my wiggle and CRC accounts got a serious going over ! Lol

I would also say that the extra cost of fuel (extra food) is a cost of cycling reasonable distances that is often convieniently left out of the equation. The cost of an average calorie of food in the uk is £5/2200 kcals. Excluding base metabolic rate, it takes 50 kcals to cycle a mile. Therefore average fuel costs for a mile of cycling is 11p. This compares with a small car according to the AA.

This is not a very well thought-out calculation. It might be reasonable to assume that you could get most of your extra cals from carbs, which come in (tesco value pasta) at 60p/kg: that's about 40p/2200 kcals.
Moreover, your 50kcals / mile is a bit much - a fit rider going fast might just use that in total, but for most it will be quite a bit less.

So in fact, food-wise it would be less than 1p/mile. A bit different I think.

There was research one at Harvard on fit cyclists which found that calories used increased substantially as speeds increased please see below from the well renowned website of IMMACULATE reputation , live strong:

The Harvard Heart Letter also took its estimates out on the street, so to speak. Using the same three hypothetical test subjects, bicycling at a leisurely 12 to 13.9 miles per hour burned 480 calories, 596 calories and 710 calories per hour, respectively. Increasing the pace to the range of 16 to 19 miles per hour rated a burn of 720 calories, 892 calories and 1,066 calories, respectively.

So using the middle of the above figures which vary by the weight of the cyclist, it takes 892 calories to go 17.5 miles (I assume on the flat) which =50.9 calories. This was originally calculated using power meters I believe.

In my opinion the average cost of an entire average diet is a not unreasonable way to estimate the cost of a calorie of food. How else should it be calculated?

anton1r

Bordersroadie wrote:

Good thread (okay, so I'm a geek).

...blah blah blah...

Truth is the "savings" are spent on shiny bike stuff but, hey, I'm fit and healthly so what's the value on that?

This*10(9999999999)

bompington

wyadvd wrote:

...please see below from the well renowned website of IMMACULATE reputation , live strong...

Oh where's the irony font when you need it?

wyadvd

bompington wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

...please see below from the well renowned website of IMMACULATE reputation , live strong...

Oh where's the irony font when you need it?

I was trying to smuggle that in undetected . Damn you spotted it!