Cost per mile

meanredspider

wyadvd wrote:

Spare tyres are worth real money to cyclists you know! I don't have the benefit of one , I just have a measly six pack poor me.

You'll just need to buy more clothes. As I've got lighter (and fitter, I guess), I've felt the cold far more.

wyadvd

I'm off to the canteen for egg bacon and black pudding. And I'm not even cycling today! But I just love black pudding!

porlyworly

Update on this for those interested, nearly 3 years in and still commuting daily come rain or shine and now up to 3 bikes!

Amount spent - £5360
Amount sold - £400
Mileage - 8300
Cost per mile - £0.60

Resale value of bikes and gear (conservative estimate) - £2200
Cost per mile inc. resale - £0.33

We have a cycle to work reward scheme at work where you get a £1 voucher per day (£2 per day over busy periods) but not factored that into the above.

Have recently moved house so am now commuting approx. 20 miles per day rather than 11 so those numbers should start to come down however with winter coming soon will inevitably splurge on gloves / lights etc. and maybe even a winter specific n+1...

wyadvd

I wish to revise my opinions re:the cost of food for commuting (as a fuel cost) since adapting my diet to a 80% fat ketogenic diet (by calories) . Its a game changer as regards the food/ mileage equation . I now frequently do my morning (15 mile ride) in a fasted state and still do not feel hungry enough to eat any lunch. Often have one big fatty meal per day in the evening and that's it after 30 miles of cycling. No ravenous hunger and piles of chips. weight static at 72kg.

surrey_commuter

PorlyWorly wrote:

Update on this for those interested, nearly 3 years in and still commuting daily come rain or shine and now up to 3 bikes!

Amount spent - £5360
Amount sold - £400
Mileage - 8300
Cost per mile - £0.60

Resale value of bikes and gear (conservative estimate) - £2200
Cost per mile inc. resale - £0.33

We have a cycle to work reward scheme at work where you get a £1 voucher per day (£2 per day over busy periods) but not factored that into the above.

Have recently moved house so am now commuting approx. 20 miles per day rather than 11 so those numbers should start to come down however with winter coming soon will inevitably splurge on gloves / lights etc. and maybe even a winter specific n+1...

I make your net costs £1k per year which seems reasonable and close to what I roughly calculate mine to be. As I spend less money on lunch when cycling (pasta cheaper than sandwich) then the biggest variable is miles ridden. I calculate my cost per mile to be £0.25 which amazed me it was that high but still means that I am saving a net £5 per day on PT costs.

london-red

Oh, God. I'm going to have to work this out - I've often wondered what it would be. I have two bikes and go through a seemingly never ending volume of gear (chains, casettes, tubes, tyres, overshoes, blah blah...)

But then 4,000 - 5,000 miles a year through London does take its toll.

cookeeemonster

So I worked out how much I'd spent on cycle related stuff since march 2012 when I started...including bikes, spares, accessories, clothes (including an ever expanding rapha collection...actually that was what convinced me to do this) and so on. Included stuff I needed and stuff I didn't of course

It came to a suprisingly large amount...especially the clothes (and no I dont have that much rapha).

Then I worked out what I'd saved by not using my Vespa so much. Now the thing is running a Vespa, while more expensive than running cheap japanese scooters is still a lot cheaper than public transport and running a car, so it wasn't gonna be so easy to make things balance out. Anyway I included petrol costs, servicing, replacement tyres and exhaust and so on. I still have and occasionly use the Vespa so couldn't add the sale money or saved insurance costs etc to that...

Anyway, it's cost me £900 in total so far...and should I decide to give up cycling tomorrow and stick everything on ebay I'm confident I'd actually make a profit And of course I'm 2 and a half stone lighter and a lot fitter, which is what this is all about (at least originally).

So of course I'm now planning to spend loads more on a new bike so it doesn't look such good value

wyadvd

bompington wrote:

wyadvd wrote:

I spend 100 a week for a family of 3

Well, for a start, I spend £90 a week for a family of 5. But the most serious mistake you're making is to assume that every calorie costs the same.
Your statement a while back (sorry if I'm quoting wrong, CBA to look) that "60% of most cycling energy comes from fat" kind of implies that 60% of the calories in your diet are fat, a quite dangerous figure if you actually managed it. (I just looked it up and "a well known cancer-fighting website" said that USDA guidelines, whatever they are, said up to 30% should come from fat).
Most of the energy in my diet comes from the cheaper bulk carbs - pasta, potatoes, rice. The things that cost more are the little luxuries that make it all more palatable. If I need to eat more, I eat more of the bulk things - and very little more of the luxuries.

You need to be aware that the USDA does not have your health at heart when making dietary recommendations . They are designed solely to keep American corn farmers' bank balances healthy.

Have a watch of this:

http://youtu.be/evcNPfZlrZs

veronese68

London-Red wrote:

Oh, God. I'm going to have to work this out - I've often wondered what it would be. I have two bikes and go through a seemingly never ending volume of gear (chains, casettes, tubes, tyres, overshoes, blah blah...)

But then 4,000 - 5,000 miles a year through London does take its toll.

NO! Step away from the spreadsheet. If you really must work it out make sure the Mrs never finds out.

london-red

Veronese68 wrote:

London-Red wrote:

Oh, God. I'm going to have to work this out - I've often wondered what it would be. I have two bikes and go through a seemingly never ending volume of gear (chains, casettes, tubes, tyres, overshoes, blah blah...)

But then 4,000 - 5,000 miles a year through London does take its toll.

NO! Step away from the spreadsheet. If you really must work it out make sure the Mrs never finds out.

You're right - good advice. I spend approximately what I would otherwise spend on something else similarly pointless, so it's all irrelevant. Case closed.

cookeeemonster

Veronese68 wrote:

London-Red wrote:

Oh, God. I'm going to have to work this out - I've often wondered what it would be. I have two bikes and go through a seemingly never ending volume of gear (chains, casettes, tubes, tyres, overshoes, blah blah...)

But then 4,000 - 5,000 miles a year through London does take its toll.

NO! Step away from the spreadsheet. If you really must work it out make sure the Mrs never finds out.

I actually told the missis and she asked me why I need to justify things all the time.

That was me told.

New bike time

rower63

Just noticed this thread for the first time.

PorlyWorly wrote:

i]from original post years ago[/i...I've kept a spreadsheet of everything I've spent ... taking into consideration all of the clothing, tools & accessories, a year in I am in for a total of ... i]etc etc[/i

Based on this I pronounce that you are an extremely sad individual. In fact, you remind me very much of myself .

Wheelspinner

This is a competition, right? You lot are amateurs..

This year (so far), I have spent $7,032 on frames, wheels, parts and associated stuff, which is roughly equivalent to 3,600 Pounds.

Thanks to ongoing problems with neck and back I have managed the grand total of 276 km, or 171.5 miles, including the MTB outings (or attempted ones anyway).

That gives me a Cost Per Mile of about 21 *Pounds*.

Still, a bargain. What price sanity, eh?

meanredspider

I've actually had a good year this year and, after a mad splurge of buying bikes for NL (Foil, Brompton *shudder*, Paddy Wagon) I've calmed down a lot. In fact, so much so, that I'm beginning to wonder if I've got everything I need ( clearly preposterous!!)

Sewinman

Rather than cost per mile, I track 'avoided SW train tickets'. Living in Twickenham this is about £9.50 a day. It quickly racks up and allows me to justify buying new kit. The Ayatollah tolerates this as my justification is that if I would have only ended up owning lots of bits of paper (tickets) if i didn't cycle, but instead I own essential bike things, so it is a net zero expenditure in the end....amazingly she accepts this logic!

daddy0

At my current mileage I'm saving about £2400 a year, as I have spent £400 this year and I forecast I will cover about 8500 miles this equates to a saving of 23p a mile.

Am I doing it wrong?

surrey_commuter

Daddy0 wrote:

At my current mileage I'm saving about £2400 a year, as I have spent £400 this year and I forecast I will cover about 8500 miles this equates to a saving of 23p a mile.

Am I doing it wrong?

Not at all - unlike normal maths you start with the answer that you want and then do the workings to get the "correct" answer.

Stag on

I need to commute more but my "maths" is that I've saved 1500 miles off the car, plus about £150 in petrol this year. Bugger all really.

Unfortunately most of this is also wiped out by spending on bike kit, which this year has only included a new chain, a couple of new lights and a pair of bib shorts.

I am probably turning in a profit of £50, that might be pushing it.

There is also the motivation that my cash is going to UK businesses, rather than fossil fuel multinationals.

And 3-4 hours of fun at the weekend is only the cost of energy gels. Plus wear and tear, new components....

Life's too short.

surrey_commuter

Stag on wrote:

I need to commute more but my "maths" is that I've saved 1500 miles off the car, plus about £150 in petrol this year. Bugger all really.

Unfortunately most of this is also wiped out by spending on bike kit, which this year has only included a new chain, a couple of new lights and a pair of bib shorts.

I am probably turning in a profit of £50, that might be pushing it.

There is also the motivation that my cash is going to UK businesses, rather than fossil fuel multinationals.

And 3-4 hours of fun at the weekend is only the cost of energy gels. Plus wear and tear, new components....

Life's too short.

HMRC allows £0.40 per mile to allow for petrol, wear and tear and depreciation so getting your saving up to £600 which can of course go straight into you bike kitty

daddy0

Surrey Commuter wrote:

HMRC allows £0.40 per mile to allow for petrol, wear and tear and depreciation so getting your saving up to £600 which can of course go straight into you bike kitty

I believe it went up to 45p a mile in 2012. You can also claim back 20p a mile for cycling on work business which gets me about £20 a month :-)

porlyworly

PorlyWorly wrote:

Update on this for those interested, nearly 3 years in and still commuting daily come rain or shine and now up to 3 bikes!

Amount spent - £5360
Amount sold - £400
Mileage - 8300
Cost per mile - £0.60

Resale value of bikes and gear (conservative estimate) - £2200
Cost per mile inc. resale - £0.33

We have a cycle to work reward scheme at work where you get a £1 voucher per day (£2 per day over busy periods) but not factored that into the above.

Have recently moved house so am now commuting approx. 20 miles per day rather than 11 so those numbers should start to come down however with winter coming soon will inevitably splurge on gloves / lights etc. and maybe even a winter specific n+1...

A couple of years later and despite dropping £500 on an Asgaard bike shed last month (which is amazing by the way) cost per mile continues to come down! Need to resist that Stages power meter my mate is selling...

Amount spent - £7,998
Amount sold - £770
Mileage - 16350
Cost per mile - £0.44
Rough estimate on resale value of bikes and gear - £3000
Cost per mile inc. resale - £0.26

bigmonka

After reading this thread I just worked mine out:
Dating back to Jan 2013 when I bought my hybrid (then bought a road bike Jan 2016) I'm running at it costing me 10p/mile.
However if I take into account the bus fare saved (as clearly I should) then I'm current saving 20p/mile. Time to up my cycling investment fund!

tgotb

Only just spotted this thread, but I worked the numbers out a few years ago.

Around 10p per mile for commuting and recreational road riding on reasonably decent kit. This includes consumables (chains, brake pads, disk rotors, cassettes, chainrings etc) and depreciation of the capital cost of the bike over about 30,000 miles (I got more like 50,000 out of the last commuter before selling it on).

Racing kit is separate, and I don't think it makes any sense to lump them together. CX equipment (two pretty good bikes) probably costs me ~£20 per race (assuming I allocate all the costs to races rather than training). That's in a similar ballpark to the entry fee, and less than the cost of getting to/from races, so equipment probably accounts for ~25% of the cost of competing. This is how I justify using hand-made cotton tyres; even if I switched to the cheapest option available, the total cost of racing would probably only drop by 10-15%.

TT kit doesn't get enough mileage for things to wear out (maybe 500-1000 miles in a good year), most of the cost is probably attributable to depreciation and obsolescence; if I were to work out a cost, the most meaningful way to do so would probably be on a per-annum basis (regardless of whether or how much I ride it).

bigmonka

TGOTB wrote:

Only just spotted this thread, but I worked the numbers out a few years ago.

Around 10p per mile for commuting and recreational road riding on reasonably decent kit. This includes consumables (chains, brake pads, disk rotors, cassettes, chainrings etc) and depreciation of the capital cost of the bike over about 30,000 miles (I got more like 50,000 out of the last commuter before selling it on).

You did 50,000miles on your commuter bike ? :shock:
And you managed to sell it on afterwards? :shock:
Legend!

ugo.santalucia

TGOTB wrote:

Only just spotted this thread, but I worked the numbers out a few years ago.

Around 10p per mile for commuting and recreational road riding on reasonably decent kit. This includes consumables (chains, brake pads, disk rotors, cassettes, chainrings etc) and depreciation of the capital cost of the bike over about 30,000 miles (I got more like 50,000 out of the last commuter before selling it on).

Racing kit is separate, and I don't think it makes any sense to lump them together. CX equipment (two pretty good bikes) probably costs me ~£20 per race (assuming I allocate all the costs to races rather than training). That's in a similar ballpark to the entry fee, and less than the cost of getting to/from races, so equipment probably accounts for ~25% of the cost of competing. This is how I justify using hand-made cotton tyres; even if I switched to the cheapest option available, the total cost of racing would probably only drop by 10-15%.

TT kit doesn't get enough mileage for things to wear out (maybe 500-1000 miles in a good year), most of the cost is probably attributable to depreciation and obsolescence; if I were to work out a cost, the most meaningful way to do so would probably be on a per-annum basis (regardless of whether or how much I ride it).

Let me see... that means about 800 quid per year in my case... it sounds about right... although I suspect there are folks on here for whom the 1 pound per mile is a closer estimate...

corriebee1

I did some rough calculations and got to about 26p per commuting mile for the 3 or 4 years i've been commuting.

Factoring in the fact that i still own a decent bike with decent wheels and an upgraded groupset, along with a few unworn bits of kit, i still have much of the value intact.

Looking at the sale value of the bits i still own, my cost per commuting mile comes down to about 14-16p. Less than if i were driving in and out of Cambridge every day (traffic hell).

wolfsbane2k

Decided to work this out.
Going from an empty garage to a bike, rack, bag, tools, and suitable (all year) wardrobe has cost me £765, and I've covered 1260 miles over a year, so £0.60 a mile, not including use of my old garmin 705, compared to my "maximum" attainable commuting mileage of 3500 miles, mainly scuppered by incidents/accidents.

Of that, £430 is specific for the bike - £350 bike/tyres, £70 lights, + a service and new pads. in that time.

So, er, to date, even assuming a £.40p a mile estimate for the car and cost of the bike & "useable parts" i'm at £0.38 a mile.
Don't show my OH that!
(Yes, I've got a spare tyre, inners, and brake pads included in that distance), but will likely be paying the LBS £40 to check the bike shortly...

Not including the effect of insurance claims within the same time period.

gbsahne001

Without the insurance then I'm still running at about 11p / mile but I suspect if you factor in the insurance, then I'm probably about even, as none of my bikes or kit have really eaten in to it that significantly....must be time for a new bike then

mtb-idle

I haven't read the whole thread but surely you can offset this against the cost of gym membership?

someone with more patience than me can work it out. (I'm an ideas man)

twist83

Well this year I have done 4244 miles thus far. I have bought a new best bike, carbon wheels, power meter, other stuff and a load of kit. Just bought my winter bike as well.

Currently running a on or a little over £1 a mile. Should hit 6000+ for the year so will dip well below that

To be fair I cycle because I love it. Commuting 3-4 times a week is a cherry on the top. I don't however do it to save money. I also don't need to justify it to the other half as she cycles a lot as well, plus it is my cash, we have no kids. So I shall do as I please with it.