How much does cycling cost?

[Downward]

£800 per year
£1100 on bikes
£500 on clothes, helmet,pump,cycle computer, gps, shoes, pedals, lights, batteries.

 

[marinyork]

£500 on other stuff! Is that made up mostly of GPS?

 

[Cubist]

MTBing takes it out of the bikes a bit more. Since last November between the twins and me we have wrecked a front mech (£25), three saddles (c£20 a pop), gone through four pairs of brake pads (£15 a pair if you're daft enough to buy oe) something like 6 innertubes (£4 a go) two sets of wheel bearings (a few quid) about 20 to 30 batteries for the torches/lamps (plenty of good deals at Asda last winter on Duracell).
Add to that a couple of pairs of ruined shorts, a pair of SPD shoes grown out of, at least two jerseys and a pair of Bikesters washed and bobbled to oblivion, a pair of torn gloves, another pair worn out completely,bandages, plasters, a tub of Zinc Oxide, four cans of GT85, two bottles of wet lube, one bottle of dry lube, two helmets..............Love it!

 

[Downward]

£500 on other stuff! Is that made up mostly of GPS?

£90 GPS. £150 - £200 clothes, £70 Shoes inc cleates, Lights £40, Computer £10, Gloves, Helmet, Pumps £90.

Actually add in locks, Child Seats, storage stuff and Total spend for me is £1200 in a year. Take off the cyclescheme and it's £1000 ish I won't include the bike I am buying next month !!


I started with nothing though and can last another year without buying (excluding Lidl tmoz and Bday, Christmas pressies)

Not spent any money on bike parts or repairs yet.

 

[Plax]

It cost me far more than I had anticipated, but then I've been bitten by the n+1 bug and I'm starting to get into touring.

My excuse is that unlike some people (my sister for example), I have no interest in buying loads of clothes & shoes and going out drinking every weekend. My step dad made me laugh a few weeks ago. My sister was going on about how I must be loaded as I'm always buying new bikes etc (this was after I'd told them about my tour and how much it costs) and how she never has any money. My step dad said "that's because she's sensible and doesn't spend all her money on going out". Made me giggle anyway.

Consumable wise according to MS Money, excluding the bike, last year I spent the following on bike related stuff;
£219.73 on accessories
£159.52 on clothing
£56.97 on maintenance (new chain, cassette, gear & brake cables, brake blocks etc)
So £436.22 all in (but £1,456.22 if you include the bike .

So far this year I have spent the following;
£334.95 on accessories (succumbed to a Garmin Edge...)
£59.84 on clothing
£88.75 on maintenance (new tyres, new chain, wheel truing at LBS etc)
So £483.54 (£713.53 if you count the MTB I bought at the weekend and even more than that if you include the cost of the tour I'm going on.......)

 

[simon_brooke]

OK slightly revised question ...

How much does your bike cost you in consumables; chains, tyres, tubes, etc.?

Actually not very much (and would cost a lot less if I bought cheaper bits).

The following bits typically last me about 5000 miles or one year's worth of riding:

* Tyres (I typically budget £30 each but you can get reasonable ones for half that)
* Chain (cheap chains are a poor economy: About £25-30)
* Cables (cheap ones are probably equally good but I buy Campag at £20 a set)
* Brake blocks (£12 a set)

The following last about 2500 miles:
* Bar tape (about £10)
* Tubes (£2.50 each in reasonable quantity)

Additionally a £5 bottle of chain lube lasts about 5000 miles.

I'm going to go slightly into the realms of guesswork here and guess lifetimes:

* Cassette: 15,000 miles;
* Chainset: 30,000 miles;
* Rear derailleur: 30,000 miles;
* Front derailleur: 50,000 miles;
* Bottom bracket: 100,000 miles;

Based on that guesswork, and Campagnolo current pricing for Centaur level components that comes out at just over 4 pence per mile or £42.11 per thousand miles. Obviously you don't need to buy Centaur level kit, in which case you could probably halve it (or you could buy Super Record, in which case you could more than double it).

So my consumables budget is probably no more than £200 per year. I still spend more than a thousand pounds a year, on average, on my bikes!

Disclaimer: if you use a mountain bike in proper mountain bike conditions, expect things to last very much less long - not because the components are poor quality but because the conditions both in terms of dirt and in terms of the treatment the gear gets is very much more demanding.

 

[swee'pea99]

Disclaimer: if you use a mountain bike in proper mountain bike conditions, expect things to last very much less long - not because the components are poor quality but because the conditions both in terms of dirt and in terms of the treatment the gear gets is very much more demanding.

Absolutely. The moral of the story, children, is if you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big bill.

Stay in the city. It's for people. You know it makes sense.

 

[Stig-OT-Dump]

If you're riding daily throughthe winter on salted roads and don't have mudguards it'll cost you more than if you bike in fair weather.

If you fall off and bend mech hangers, bend your front mech or shag your front forks, it'll cost you more again.

If you want to buy tools, a track pump, a bit of clothing, chain lube (or body lube) it'll cost a bit extra.

And do you know what, it's money well spent.

I've spent around £250 on stuff this year, on 2 bikes, but haven't paid for the new forks yet.

 

[Riverman]

Too much when you join this website lol. Beware!

 

[just4fun]

***Warning***** It will start with a vague idea about making your commute a bit more fun and some fitness benefits, then seductively draw you in and before you know it, you'll be on websites talking about headsets.

That's my experience anyway.

+1

 

[jnb]

So about 4 - 5p / mile seems to be what people are saying

Incremental cost of driving is about 16 - 17 p / mile

So cycling saves about 12 p / mile

So if a reasonable bike and accessories costs upwards of £500 (assuming one can't find something second hand) it won't pay for itself until about 4000 miles! or, putting it another way, cycling might not actually be cost effective!

(obviously figures may vary according to circumstances and if you cycle because you wnt to rather than because it's practical / cheap / etc that's a different issue altogether)

 

[simon_brooke]

So about 4 - 5p / mile seems to be what people are saying

Incremental cost of driving is about 16 - 17 p / mile

So cycling saves about 12 p / mile

So if a reasonable bike and accessories costs upwards of £500 (assuming one can't find something second hand) it won't pay for itself until about 4000 miles! or, putting it another way, cycling might not actually be cost effective!

Depends how much you cycle. I've certainly cycled more than quarter of a million miles, which means I've 'saved' about £30,000 or the best part of a year's salary. However, probably less than a third of those cycling miles were utility miles (commuting, trips to the shops, etc).

 

[jnb]

Depends how much you cycle. I've certainly cycled more than quarter of a million miles, which means I've 'saved' about £30,000 or the best part of a year's salary. However, probably less than a third of those cycling miles were utility miles (commuting, trips to the shops, etc).

Hey I did say it will vary according to individual circumstance.

...I've certainly cycled more than quarter of a million miles, which means I've 'saved' about £30,000 or the best part of a year's salary. However, probably less than a third of those cycling miles were utility miles (commuting, trips to the shops, etc).

So your saving is under £10,000. How much have those quarter million miles cost you? How much did your various bikes come to in total, spares, repairs, accessories, insurance ...

Yes, it's worth it if you choose to do it because you want to but cost effective?

 

[swee'pea99]

I'm curious about this 'incremental' cost of motoring. Does that, eg, take depreciation into account? I mean sure, if you're only counting the extra it's going to cost you to do another mile, then motoring costs might look less daunting. But you do actually have to have a car, and insurance. And if your car loses, say, £3000 value in a year, you have to do 20,000+ miles to call that 16-17p/mile...and that's before you pay for petrol.

For me, the numbers are easy: I either commute or I get a monthly travelcard for £116. I probably spend around £100 a year to stay on the road, so I'm saving £1292 a year. Give or take.

 

[jnb]

The cost after age related depreciation, insurance, tax, MOT, etc are considered. That works out as about 10p / mile for fuel and 6-7p / mile for maintenance. Depreciation is negligible on mileage alone until you get to very high annual milages but at that point cycling wouldn't be an option.

And if your car loses, say, £3000 value in a year

My car's never had £3000 of value to lose! More realistically you could only lose that by having a new car and we're back to the case that unless you can do away with the car completely you will still have to pay that depreciation.