Drew Eckhardt 

You're forgetting extra fuel for the cyclist which is the most expensive part.

Eating $1.25 230 Calorie energy bars that ran me $876.25 or $0.133 for each of my 6591 miles so far this year.

I keep track of part lifetimes so I don't suffer from surprise failures and can change when things don't last long enough (GP4Seasons were a disappointment at half the mileage of Gatorskins or GP4000s)

I use

• One $40 Continental GP4000SII $40 tire every 4500 miles, for $0.00889 each
• One $25 chain every 4500 miles for $0.00556 each
• One $15 meter of shift housing every 4000 miles, for $0.00375 each
• One $40 bottom bracket every 12,000 miles, for $0.00333 each
• One $4 shift cable every 2000 miles, for $0.002 each
• Brake hoods for $25 every 14,000 miles, for $0.00179 each
• Cleats for $12.50 every 10,000 miles, for $0.0012 each
• Bar tape for $10 every 14,000 miles, for $0.000714 each
• Two $1 PowerTap batteries every 3000 miles, for $0.0006 each

for $0.0278 per mile or another $183.23 this year.

Brake pads last a very long time. Front shift and brake cable/housing do too.

As of January I'll have 20 years on my frame and fork. While I moved on to 9 cogs with new freehubs and index cam, and 10 with new shifters plus derailleurs the total divided by time isn't interesting.

Ty0604

Fair enough. Can't say we have too much bad pavement around where I live. Also don't do any off road riding.

OneIsAllYouNeed

My commuter bike costs around $.045. At 48,000mi, it's on its second frame, 3rd fork, 4th handlebar.... Literally nothing is original on it.
Some of my more recently purchased bikes are still at multiple $/mi.

rydabent

I guess im getting off cheap this year. So far I have spent about $10 on two tubes and have ridden about 2000 miles.

rekmeyata

My commuter is a 88 Miyata 712, in the last year I spent a grand total of zero dollars on it, in fact over the last 3 years other than lube I haven't spent any money on it. Not sure how to classify a tail light I bought 3 years ago since I swap it between several bikes as needed but use it on the commuter most of the time, so $100 over a three year period.

DrIsotope

AFAIC, "time" is a virtually useless metric for measuring anything cycling related. I have my sister-in-law's Scott MTB hanging from the rafters in my workshop. The tires, chain, and everything else are in immaculate condition, because no one has ridden that bike in 5 years. By contrast, my current tires were installed on August 1st, and have 2,350 miles on them. It is unlikely that the rear tire will make it to the end of October. A "year" is an abstract concept anyway. Component life is measured in miles/kms.

Time is immaterial unless you ride so infrequently that dry rot becomes an issue.

Fastfingaz

So what happens when it gets too costly for you,, you start walking? I just don't see the purpose for 12 years precisely,,,,,,what ever,,,,,

jorglueke

katsup

For commuters, are you also tracking how long before the bike pays for itself? This is how I calculate my cycling cost.

~$230 spent on bike, tires and accessories - ~$1.25 in gas a day with 3 days a week commuting = paid off in a little over a year.

There are other cost savers, but I only track approximate cost. As for the mountain bike... the commuter will pay for it in ~3 additional years (bought my bikes used).

DrIsotope

That's uh... a bar every 9.4 miles ($876.25 / $1.25 = 701; 6591 / 701 = 9.4)

Was there a jumped decimal somewhere, or do you really, really like energy bars? I think I probably average 2 bars a week, and that's at ~280 miles a week.

CompleteStreets

Counting maintenance, replacement parts, and all accessories like lights, racks, and even clothing such as wool socks and rain pants, I've been spending about $0.10/mile or about $400 to ride 4,000 miles per year. I do most of my own work.

wphamilton

It's true, even without eating energy bars. Getting calories from bulk purchased rice, which is about the cheapest you can do for calories, I have it at just under 2 cents per mile the way I ride, which at times is more than I spent on equipment. I eat better nowadays and it's just about equal to what I spend on bikes.

Garfield Cat

Stop riding and just go bowling?

DEW21

My biggest expense is stopping for coffee at the local Biggby coffee shop while on my daily ride

Stadjer

The last 25 years, including the bike I started those out with I've spend 450 on (used) bicycles, corrected for inflation, and I inherented bikes worth about 200. I spend about 10 euro's a year on replacement parts, that's an average because I don't do maintenance every year. I got about 5 stolen, two stopped beeing a means of transport beyond repair, and I lost 3. Two of them are probably stolen also, but that would have been after I failed to remember where I left them. One was surely taken away by the council because I parked it in the wrong place, and I had only a couple of weeks to pay for the cost of the removal and get it back, which turned out not to be enough.

The inhereted hybrid is for sale, and them I'm left with the desired two bikes, so I'll deduct 100 euro's for that one. So it's 320 in bikes and 250 on parts. 570/25= 28,50 a year. On average I ride 6 km's a day, which adds up to 0,013 euro a km, or 2.4 dollarcents a mile. That's quite expensive actually, because I always experience cycling as free.

I admit that a lot of those bike's main selling points were their unattractiveness to thieves, but I all of them were bought by me from the legitimate owner. And half of them, were actually nice bikes, with round wheels, working brakes, often with gears and fenders etc. firmly attached and not rattling or swinging in the wind. An oma with a 2 speed kickback gear shifter, an 80's Gazelle sports roadsters with a 5-speed derailleur and drum brakes, a beatiful 70's red and chrome Motobecane, a 50's (or 30's, I'm not sure) Gazelle gentlemen's roadster with an SA3 and rod operated drum brakes, which was an extremely good bike, and now a 70's Gazelle Impala with rod operated drums and an SA3.

canklecat

I've chattered with a couplafew folks who are tire freaks. Most of 'em aren't bigger or heavy than I am (5'11", 160 lbs), so it's not just weight. And they don't ride rough. But they ride a lot. And they like to swap tires around for various conditions, or just at whim.

I met a fellow during a group ride last night who liked his Soma Supple Vitesse tires so well, especially after a long tour, he's thinking about buying spares in advance in case they're unavailable later when he actually wears out this set. And those are fairly lightweight for touring and general purpose tires, at under 300 gr for most sizes. (I think they're Panaracers, also sold by Rivendell under another name -- that checkerboard pattern on the tread looks familiar.)

I can understand that. Even though my Michelin Protek Cross Max tires are nowhere near worn out yet I may buy another pair now while they're available for $20 apiece because they're the best bargain around in a heavy duty 700x32 to 40c most-terrain tire.

And I've been swapping tires I already had around on my new-to-me old Univega, just trying to find the right feel. I may end up buying yet another pair and keep the two nearly new sets in the closet for ... whatever.

Gweedo1

For me, I look at anything I buy in pursuit of my passions as "relatively affordable" as opposed to expensive or not. If I can afford it, I'll buy it and not think about the price.

One must examine such expenditures within a a cost-benefit analysis framework. Once viewed that way, the benefits far outweigh the costs, so the investments return huge dividends.

I simply don't keep track of the money I spend on my passionate pursuits. I just try and buy those things I can afford. This is not to say that at times I don't have foolish moments of accounting thinking about where that money could have gone if spent "responsibly", like into retirement savings, because then I would not have had all the miles of smiles I've had and how much is that worth?...more than I invested that's for sure.

Imabmwnut

Wife says. If ya got time to do the math. Ya got time to go for a ride.

Drew Eckhardt 

Yup. I measure 20-35 kj /mile and average 24.5, which is close enough to 24.5 Calories at typical metabolic efficiency and
a bar every 9.4 miles. I usually total 2-3 on either side of my morning 26 mile ride.

That is a lot less expensive than grabbing a sandwich between ride and work. At $8 for 530 Calories (Silicon Valley is ludicrously expensive) I'd spend $0.37 a mile.

I'm at my chicken limit (I refrigerate a few pounds each Sunday), making something myself would take too long, and the time value of money would make it a lot worse.

I eat about half that on long rides and used to have fewer doing my usual route, but ran out of body fat to sustain that.

It's survival, just unwrap and inhale. One of my kids eats whey powder dry and the other drinks it in water, although unfortunately I don't consider it a food substance.

DrIsotope

So this is why I'm pretty much hungry all the time then, yeah? Since I started gathering data with the power meter, I'm looking at an average of ~44kj/mile over 4,000+ miles-- to keep up, I'd have to eat nearly 4 bars an hour.

That is not an economically sustainable model for me.

fietsbob

My LBS has rental cruisers , so that's easy... $5 an hour, $20 a day.

ltxi

For me, this year, maybe a bit north of $4K.

Homebrew01

Time is primary for me from a training-fitness perspective, along with effort.
Mileage matters for component wear.

Doge

To bicycle is cheap. Cycling - that is expensive.

DaveQ24

True!