Actual cost of running a commuter bike

[oyster]

In the other thread I used hypothetical figures for bike running costs, so I thought I'd put in the real costs and see how they compare. This is since purchasing my current commuting bike.

Distance covered: 6300miles
Total spend: £1273. So 20.2p a mile.

Bike £750
Batteries £21
Brakes £5
Pedals £22
Chain £21
Cassette £50
Service/Repairs £110
Lights £52
Bottle £5
Cleaning/Oils £6
Clothes £111
Tyres/Tubes £66
Cables £4
Wheels/Spokes £50

I shall update in a year and see how much the pence per mile cost has come down.

[TRB]

This'll be interesting to watch, I'm at the stage where I've bought my bike and a load of kit and done 0 miles so far! Cheaper to get a taxi!

[kiethton]

For me:

Distance covered: 4500 miles
Total spend: £903. So 20.1p a mile.

Bike £699
Batteries £0
Brakes £0
Pedals £24
Chain £0
Cassette £0
Service/Repairs £0
Lights £126
Bottle £0
Cleaning/Oils £0
Clothes £42
Tyres/Tubes £12
Cables £0
Wheels/Spokes £0

It is in need of new tyres, brakes and cables now though!

[MysteryLemon]

Not had my current bike all that long but so far...

Bike : £230
Spoke repair : £15
Water bottle and holder : £10
Chain Lube : £4

Everything else (clothing, lights, tools etc) I had before from my previous bikes.

So £259 on which I've done around 350 miles. £0.74 per mile so far

[ewenm]

Any increased food/drink costs to be added too?

[NISMOgtr]

£21 for a chain on a commuter bike?

Bit expensive i think (as some of the other costs also seem)

[Jimbo.]

ewenm said:

Any increased food/drink costs to be added too?

If you're going to do that, factor in petrol savings

[Kell]

Hmmm

I wonder how much mine has cost over the years.

I've gone through 5 bikes* since 1997, but have cycled pretty much most days since then. (You'd think I'd be thinner.)

1. 1994 Orange P7
2. 2000 Orange P7
3. 200X Rabbit Folding bike
4. 2009 Dahon Matrix
5. 2008 Dahon Matrix

With the exception of 2. and 4. they were all second hand, so in total the bikes have cost me £1,950 (the first Dahon was 50% off on the ride to work scheme). I bought the second P7 because I wanted front suspension (and just wanted a new bike - n+1 rule).

I bought the third one because I had to have a folding bike. Got knocked off that - driver sped off. It was going to cost more to fix than it was to get the Dahon new, so I bought new.

Then the frame's just cracked on the 2009 one, so I spent £150 on the 2008 model as an interim bike.

The first two years I was doing 20 miles a day (x5, x48, x2) so 9,600 miles.

Currently I do about 6 miles a day - but this sometimes goes up to 12 miles depending on the time I have available. Average probably works out about 8. And I've done this for about 9 years. So, 17,280 miles.

Total mileage 26,880.

Over that time, I dread to think what I've spent on clothing, servicing, tyres etc but would use the OP's initial list as a guide.

So, initial purchases:

Batteries £21
Pedals £25
Lights £52
Bottle £5
Cleaning/Oils £6
Clothes £111
Wheels/Spokes £50
=£270

Plus annual spends.

Chain and Cassette £50
Service/Repairs £150
Tyres/Tubes £66
x15 = £3,990

So by my reckoning, a very rough estimate would be £6,210 total expenditure over 15 years.

Divided by 26,880 miles gives:
23p per mile.

Jimbo. said:

If you're going to do that, factor in petrol savings

I agree with the above, as all the time you're on your bike, you're not spending money in other areas.

SO, by not parking at the station and getting the tube, I've saved an additional £9.60 every day for nine years and about £4 a day for six years.

4 x5 x48 x6 = £5,760
9.60 x5 x48 x9 = £20,736.

Total saved = £26,496
minus total spent (£6,210)

Equals a total saving of £20,286

So in actual fact, it's free for me - by a very large margin.

Obviously these are very, very rough figures. I've had long periods off my bike following accidents. Or when the weather has been truly st, but the potential to make huge savings is there. And even if I've spent double what I've estimated, I've still saved over the years.

I just wish I'd put all the savings into a bank account.

Edited by Kell on Thursday 12th September 16:39

[GT2CS]

surely you cant just write off 100% depreciation on the bike - you can sell it for say 50% of original value after 1-2 years. As the bike is the largest component this really distorts the figures.

[GT2CS]

surely you cant just write off 100% depreciation on the bike - you can sell it for say 50% of original value after 1-2 years. As the bike is the largest component this really distorts the figures.

[Gizmoish]

1500 miles.

Including all clothing, tyres, shoes, maintenance, and the £1k bike on CTW - so total cost under £1k.

66p/mile... but future expenditure would have been essentially zero for another 1000 miles or more.

[Kell]

GT2CS said:

surely you cant just write off 100% depreciation on the bike - you can sell it for say 50% of original value after 1-2 years. As the bike is the largest component this really distorts the figures.

True, but the only bike of the 5 above I got rid of is the that got run over. I still have the other 4.

[Justin Cyder]

Not had it that long but:

Bike £460
Cables £5
Inner tube £7
New pump £16

Miles: 900

= £0.54/mile.

[numtumfutunch]

Rough sums as follows

Commuter originally bought as second hand blinged MTB for £750
Used hard as MTB for 4 years
Assumed worth after 4 years of being thrashed off road by me approx £400

Commuted since then to present day - approx 8 years
Assumed worth now bugger all

Consumables - rough cost for tyres, cassette, chain, pads and lube ????? £400 over 8 years
Lights, clothes, locks, helmets all used on several other bikes for "fun" therefore cost neutral

Total cost over 8 years something like £800 or £2 per week

Man maths flattered by this bike being a long term keeper which was bought second hand

[Mr Will]

For my commuter tank

Bike - £100 (brand new!)

Parts:
New rear wheel - £25
1x new tyre - £18
2x inner tube - £10
1x freewheel - £8
4x brake pads - £15

No special clothes, no batteries or lights (has built in dynamo ones), just a small amount of oil.

Total: £176 (call it £180 including the oil and cleaning sprays).

Mileage so far? Don't have a computer on this bike so difficult to calculate. I've had it 18 months, my commute is just under 10 miles per day but there are some days I don't commute or commute on my road-bike. It also gets used for pub-runs, shopping, cycling with my daughter so this adds some miles back on. Let's keep it conservative and go for 30 miles per week, which gives 2340 miles total.

The result? ~7.5 pence per mile.

If we include the residual value of the bike (guess £75) then this drops even further, to 4.2 pence per mile.

Can't complain about that!

[S10GTA]

If you commuted by car you wouldn't factor in the full cost of the car, so why do it with the bike?

[Kell]

S10GTA said:

If you commuted by car you wouldn't factor in the full cost of the car, so why do it with the bike?

Depends whether the car was bought for the sole purpose of commuting, how much it cost, whether you paid that cost upfront and how long you intended to keep it.

I guess you'd factor in depreciation more than purchase cost but essentially all of the five bikes I've used for commuting have cost me their full worth. One was chucked as it was uneconomic to repair and the the other four I still have.

Of course they all have *some* value, but the reality is I won't sell them and they'll either get chucked or just pushed further back into the shed.


As an example, I'm toying with the idea of a motorbike to commute. To factor in how much that would cost me, I'd have huge set up costs in the first year (lessons, test, bike, helmet, riding gear) but then would expect to just have running costs after that.

Edited by Kell on Friday 13th September 10:39

[garrykiller]

S10GTA said:

If you commuted by car you wouldn't factor in the full cost of the car, so why do it with the bike?

This.

Yearly running costs of a car are always calculated by fuel, servicing, parts, mot etc. not the price of the car or even monthly finance costs for it.

[Justin Cyder]

Well, what you'd do if it was a strict accounting exercise is amortise it over the period you expect to keep it, but since it's a bit of fun, let's bung it all in at the start & see who wins!

[Soop Dogg]

If I was putting these figures together, I'd expect the bike to last at least 3 years, and so I'd only include 1/3 of the purchase price when calculating each year's expenses. (In truth, I'll be expecting my bike to keep going for over 5 years, bringing the cost down further)

The other thing I notice is batteries - £21?? I buy a set of decent rechargeables and they last me at least 2 years at an initial outlay of about £10, costing me £5/year. There you go - just reduced the cost to under 1/4 the cost of the OP. (I charge them up at work, so that costs me nothing)

Don't go throwing money away!