CodyDog

My hobbies are cycling, golf, fly fishing and shooting. Good equipment is a large up front cost for all of them, For me, golf is the one with the highest continuing cost (membership, cart fees, balls, lessons). Shooting is second (reloading supplies or ammo). Fly fishing (flies) and cycling (maintenance items) are third in continuing cost.

All give me great pleasure.

Cycling is the only one that offers me huge health benefits. A huge ROI!

Jim from Boston

Kedosto

After sailing, fishing, water skiing, motorcycles, RVs, and horses, bicycling is by far the least expensive activity I’ve ever engaged in.

Snow skiing was indirectly profitable in that we bought a condo in the Sierras which we later sold for an obscene amount of money.

All things considered, cycling’s pretty damned cheap.


-Kedosto

Jim from Boston

While cycling is an expense, cycle commuting (vs auto or mass transit) can be a significant deduction.

For example to take the Commuter Rail 14 miles one way, to and from work is $13.50, whereas round trip by bike is just the cycling expense …certainly much much less for the cost amortized over the life of the bike plus maintenance, by mile, for 28 miles.

Throw in the cost of an equivalent cardio work out at a gym as a further deduction, which I would not be inclined to do anyways.

errymo

If you just specialize in it.

FlMTNdude

downhillmaster

Lemond1985

If you wanna do it right, it's expensive, but it doesn't have to be. And it can actually save you money if you commute on a bike instead of driving.

luevelvet

Kapusta

Compared to my other lifelong passions - snow sports and playing music - cycling has been a LOT more expensive, but that is due entirely to the mountain biking part of it.

My road riding expenses have always been pretty reasonable. My road bikes have never been very expensive up front, and I ride them for a long time without feeling any upgrade bug. Other than feeding my $162 per year Compass Tire habit, it is a pretty inexpensive, low maintenance passion for me. Maybe even less than the snow-sports and music.

Mountain biking is an entirely different story, and I shudder to think how much I have dropped into that sport over the past two decades Many, many times more than all of my other passions combined.

rayooo

For me, being an Audiophile is considerably more expensive than Cycling, Depending on how deep ($$) one wants to dive into a given hobby, many can be hideously expensive.
High End audio and Photography come to mind in my case. I own three bicycles and maybe have spent total $15k in recent years.
As a card carrying member of the "Lunatic Fringe" Audio/Music world, I've spent 10 times that amount over the years on "hi-fi".

The health and well being benefit of Cycling (on and off road for me) far far far outweigh the monetary costs.

DrIsotope

The type of hobby isn't expensive, no matter what it is. Value is relative. So unless your spending on cycling is far beyond your means, it's not expensive. You want expensive? Try home ownership. Without contest, I spend more money annually on cycling than I do on anything categorically "non-essential." Video game costs per year, including mobile apps, console/PC games, replacing equipment, at the absolute most $200 a year. Woodworking stuff can get expensive. A new blade for the table saw-- shopping as economically as I dare-- is still $80. If something is starting to feel expensive, then maybe it's time to step back and take a look at things. I've already purchased 3 tires in 2019, and it's just now March. That's about $140 right there. Cycling for me is easily $1,500 a year. Which probably seems like a lot to non-cyclists. That's $125 a month, $4 a day. I have more than my fair share of bills that are more than $125 a month. But there's a dude out there smoking a pack a day, spending double my cycling budget on cigarettes. IMO, that is an expensive hobby.

Garfield Cat

Its more about time being the most valuable thing to compare the different activities of one's life. So hobby versus hobby is the small question and points to the bigger question.

Quality time? One aspect is how one spends it with others as a giving rather than a taking.

Evaluating hobbies over other hobbies based on some kind of cost/benefit approach? Or stated in other terms, which toothpick is better? The round ones or the flat ones?

OBoile

First I just want to say it's really interesting to hear about all of the different hobbies people have.

I guess the things I do regularly are:
basketball - quite cheap
Lifting - quite cheap now as I'm not doing any competing, but my home gym set-up cost ~$5000. When I was doing contests, the costs could add up between hotels, meals, flights and entry fees.
Cycling - as others have said, can range widely. Between my wife an I we've probably spend close to $10,000 on it. But costs should be lower going forward as neither of us will be buying a new bike any time soon.
Computer games - ~$3000 for a new laptop every few years. Could be a lot cheaper if I used a desktop instead, but I like having a laptop. Maybe $200 on games a year.

livedarklions

Baloney. One can be a "serious" cyclist and spend very little money. During about 9 months of the year, I average about 250 miles a week riding, I have never spent more than $620 on a bike, I do not wear expensive bike gear. None of the stuff you describe is NECESSARY to do a lot of riding.

deephate

NoWhammies

I'm taking the stance that cycling IS expensive. There always seems to be something that needs purchasing or replacing or what have you. Tyres. New bib shorts. Shoes. etc.

I did a quick read of the thread and people are saying that the hobby does not have to be expensive. And I agree with that. Just like owning a car doesn't have to be expensive, eating/making dinner does't have to be expensive, etc.

But I also think you get what you pay for. Pay nice or pay twice is a saying I adhere to. And if I'm bombing down a hill at 70 ~ 80k an hour, I want confidence in my gear.

Milton Keynes

If I bought the former, I'd probably have to also pay for the latter.

mrodgers

I read that as something I thought I might want to do, underwear photography, LOL.

Then again, depending on the model, I might not want to do underwear photography....

Hobbies are as expensive as you want them to be. Some people need to have the best of the best of the best and constantly be buying stuff, others get buy with a $400 bicycle. I read someone mention road riding and the initial "starter" cost of $1000-1500 for a road bike, then add a list of crap. I road ride on a $600 bike and that is the top tier of my bike. I could do it on the lesser model and do it for $350. I also don't need special shoes, pedals, upgraded tires, clothing, etc. I don't have special pedals or shoes, replaced the tires when they wore out not to upgrade. I do have specific clothing I bought for on the bike, but they are $5-7 t-shirts, not $150 jerseys and shorts.

There are things you need to expand the hobby, sure. If you want to tour, you need a way to carry stuff, thus a rack and pannier setup is needed, or the bikepacking stuff, whatever gets you carrying your loadout. I use the same bicycle I used on daily riding a flat bike trail to moving to riding on the road to moving to all day riding with the group I ride with. It's all the same $600 bike and as I said, I could do it on the lowest tier of my bike at $350ish. You can get into cycling with a $250 Diamondback at Dick's Sporting Goods.

Compared to photography, I certainly could get into the hobby with my old $200 camera, but my knowledge and skill outgrew the $200 camera within a month. You just can't do the things you need to do with a $200 camera as you can with a dSLR and lenses. Unlike I can ride on the road without the best of the best of the best 4 ounce carbon magic framed road bike and just use my bike that I already have.

jefnvk

Like every hobby, just because one chooses to make it expensive, doesn't mean it must be. Like most hobbies, it can be done as cheap or as expensive as one wishes.

jadocs

Yep and the inverse is correct as well. Just because someone takes a frugal approach, it doesn't mean it's a cheap hobby. So we are right back to it can be as expensive as anything else.

livedarklions

No, this is illogical. "It can be an expensive or cheap hobby" is an answer. Obviously, it is theoretically possible to make any hobby astronomically expensive--I believe John Travolta flew around in a hobby 707, for example. I think there are some hobbies that would simply defy being cheap (collecting flyable jet planes would definitely be an example), and bicycling just isn't one of those.

BTW, I think my biggest ongoing bike expense is tires.

caloso

Cassettes and chains for me.

jadocs

What's illogical? We just said the same thing. It can be as expensive as any other hobby depending on how far you want to take it.

BTW I want to get into Eroica now and that stuff is not cheap unless you have a source and build it up yourself.

fietsbob

OK compare with: Fishing at Buoy 10 for salmon.. on the Columbia..

Buy Truck , Boat, Trailer , licence the 3 of each, & buy a fishing licence .

poles , bait , Tackle, foul weather gear, Safety gear required by USCG , Fuel for boat & Truck & if not driving home that night ...

Hotel, Food, Drinks ,+ taxi (after those drinks)..


"a Nice Little Drinking Town, with a Fishing Problem"





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