Alphonsus

Just wonder what people $ per mile is and what their bike cost was? Is there generally a good $/mile for a bike such as a "value"

Korina

Hunh?

Troul 

depends on what i eat.

caloso

On my main road bike I have 23505 miles according to Strava and paid roughly $3000 for it, so that works out to $0.13/mile. Is that what you mean?

friday1970

Well, my Nishiki Maricopa from DSS cost about $400. I've added roughly $700 in parts (Carbon Fork/bars/seatpost, Sensah Groupset, wheels/tires, Chinese crankset). So, roughly $1100 for simplicity's sake
I logged 6176 miles on it using Strava

So, roughly 18 cents a mile?

Germany_chris

tree fiddy

indyfabz

pdlamb

This question comes up periodically, and it always reminds me of the accountant's exam. Q: "What is two plus two?" A: "What do you want it to be?"

Some people claim they can get the cost down to less than $0.05 per mile. To do that, they buy a cheap big-box store bike and ride it until it's dead. Do not count the cost of work pants' seats that wear out, do not replace anything if you can avoid it, get thick, lugged, MTB style tires and put up with the buzz.

Other people want to drive their cars. To justify that, they start with a nice bicycle that costs ten times more than the big-box bike, and include every worn-out tire, chain, bar tape, sunglasses lost, replacement sunglasses, worn out socks, cycling shorts, gloves, etc. And don't forget the cost of the extra food you eat to replace the energy you burn while cycling. Fancy anniversary or birthday dinner with wine? Gee, that may have cost $300 right there, but I had to eat that to replace what I burned up on the road last weekend, and my wife wouldn't let me eat that well without her, so add the entire meal to the cost of bicycling. With that as your cost, you'd do better to drive a car (and forget the cost of tires, oil change, and insurance, because you'd have to pay the insurance anyway since you own the car).

So how much do you want your cost to be?

DrIsotope

This is a road no one should want to go down. Once you start cataloging the wear parts, thinking about the little odds and ends--
and of course the purchases of wants and not just needs, the cost per mile can quickly arrive at a figure that can elicit a universal response...

Mojo31

There are some questions you just don't want to know the answer to.

CAT7RDR

So once you ride that fancy new Trek out of the bike shop how much does it immediately depreciate? Model specific? Market trends? Supply? Economic trends? Country/Region?

If you use bikes as business equipment, what is the generally allowed depreciation in accounting practices?

Reflector Guy

A few weeks ago, I found a $10 bill while I was riding. So for that mile, and for that mile only, I was $10 ahead in the plus column.

Germany_chris

This really leads back to "what does something have to be something else"

I like my bike, I ride it every day, I look back at it when I walk away from it, these are things that you can't amortize. Just ride your bike it doesn't need to be quantified by money, miles, calories, or really any metric if your bike rides don't make you happy just stop there are a wealth of things to occupy you time do those instead.

(sorry internet autism is getting to me)

rydabent

Mine is 12 cents a mile and still going down. My Rans Stratus cost $1200 in 2008, and has 15000 + miles on it.

Money well spent BTW.

shrimp123

USD or CAD?

indyfabz

That is mine. I dropped it while riding, I want it back so I can lower my per mile cost.

Phil_gretz

I've ridden a lot of bikes. All but a scant few have been sold. Most sales are at a margin above my entire cost to acquire and assemble that bike. Profits are plowed back into project bikes, most of which are then sold. And so on. So, positive margins with a few exceptions, like a carbon road bike that I bought new and sold five years later. That one probably cost me $0.15 per mile ridden, net of sale.

My mountain bike must be one of the more expensive per mile, because it doesn't get the number of rides or the strict mileage of a comparable road bike.

I have a Chinese carbon bike that I built up last year. I ride it on special occasions. That one is probably still above $1.10 per mile.

shelbyfv

It's possible there are folks who keep track of the cost of every chain, brake pad, cleat, pair of gloves, etc. over the course of several years. They might be able to give an accurate "cost per mile." Anything is possible....

wphamilton

I budget about $150/year for bike consumables. Tires, chains, cassettes, jerseys etc. Two or three cents per mile.

The bikes themselves, not much more than that (and not just department store bikes 😝 )

Toadmeister

I can't put a price per mile on my happiness

rydabent

That is a great point too!!!!!

Milton Keynes

Back at the first part of September, I bought a used Trek 1100 for $125. So far I've gotten 107 miles on her. So I'm just about at the $1 per mile mark.

taco2ewsday

Bike was $840 end of year closeout
Mileage is currently a little over 2600 per Strava

so $0.32/mile I guess

Mojo31

Expense it in the year it is placed in service. In that case, year 1 = 100%.

Riveting

A quick and dirty spreadsheet shows:

$0.42 (USD) per mile, ALL things considered. But only $0.21 per mile if I just include the cost of the original bikes and nothing else, which means I've spent as much on clothing, electronics, accessories, power meter, and consumable items as I did for the bikes themselves.

Started riding in 2013: 4 bikes (road, road spare for trainer, commuter, mtb), bike computers, summer clothing, winter clothing, indoor trainer, bike rack/hitch, several major repairs, and wearable items (chains, tires, tubes, CO2, brake pads, etc), divided by 37,000 miles gets it down to $0.42 (USD) per mile.