Re: Cost of bicycling: $0.54/mile, $6.94/hour
- From: Robert Uhl <eadmund42@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 10:56:47 -0600
"Brian Walker" <shadowrider34@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
>>> The $50 - $100 here and there that I'm putting into this bicycle is
>>> what I'm *not* putting into my gas tank.
>>
>> $50-$100 worth of gas is 17-35 gallons; at 35 mpg that's 595-1,225 miles
>
> Your vehicle gets quite a bit more economy than mine does. If I put
> $100 in the tank, I'm lucky if I make it 500 miles. Generally, it's
> about 425 - 450 miles. These gas prices are killers!
>
> My motorcycle does good to even get 35mpg. What kind of vehicle do you
> have?
'91 Toyota Tercel with 125,000 miles on it. Has been getting 35 mpg for
the last five years or so; back at school in Texas it got 40 mpg.
Numbers figured every time I refill the tank. And I treat it like dirt:
for the whole time I've owned it I've spent all of $3,600 on
maintenance, and I only put oil in every 5,000 miles or so. It gets me
where I'm going, and does it cheaply.
> Out of the 1500 miles I've rode in the past 3 months, I've spent about $150
> in upgrades, not counting the wheels that haven't come in yet.
Sounds like you're ahead of the game.
> I'm also not counting the initial cost of the bicycle since that was
> just an initial cost. It's like counting the price of your car when
> figuring the per mile expense.
I believe that it's appropriate to include that when calculating total
cost of ownership. Better is to include purchase cost less current
value.
> I'm also not counting the clothes since I don't count the clothes I
> wear in a car as a per mile expense.
A car does not generally require driving clothes; in many climates bikes
_do_ require cycling clothes. These clothes are also quite expensive
and are very specialised; few of us can wear cycling clothes all day at
work, or to church &c.
> I have invested in my bicycle a total cost of $1,176 with wheels,
> maintenance and upgrades.
>
> Now, if I buy a car for $20,000, pay insurance of $1500/year and gas
> to run it....plus adding the expense of putting wheels on it, car seat
> covers and those little dangle things from the mirror....will I *ever*
> be able to get a per mile usage as low as my bicycle has been?
My car cost me $4,300 or $4,800 six years ago; insurance is less than
$1,000 a year. Meanwhile, over the last three years I've bought two
bicycles, pedals, shoes, jerseys, racks, lights, cycloputers, panniers,
tyres, tubes, pumps and a lock. I'm not at home, and thus don't have my
figures, but over six years my cost per mile for the car has been 34c
(and was significantly lower a year and a half ago, before I did any
maintenance on it); my cost per mile for my most recent bike has been
$1/mile. The car cost will probably go down slightly; the bike cost
will go down quite a lot as I put more miles on it. Now that it's
getting to be winter, though, I'm thinking of buying new wheels to mount
snow tyres on...
>> I ride anyway, because I like it.
>
> Not me, dude! I ride because I enjoy people saying "damn, you look
> good....no one would ever be able to tell you're as old as you are at
> 24"! :-)
I don't ride enough to get a real physical benefit from it, but it's
enough that I've not filled my gas tank in almost a month--since before
Katrina hit, as a matter of fact.
--
Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl>
Take responsibility for your own actions. You made decisions, and you
live by 'em. People always want to blame somebody or something. It's
always somebody else's fault. But it's your own damned fault.
--Mojo Nixon
.
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- From: Brian Walker
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