| I like to think of myself as being fairly green and environmentally
friendly and since I live only 10 miles away from I work I cycle to work.
I've already posted real data on how much it costs to run a car, or to be more precise, the costs based on a statistical sample of 1 car, motoring_costs.htm now lets see how much it costs to run a mountain bike. I bought a new bike for commuting exactly 12 months ago and I've logged every journey made and every penny spent on it. I therefore have very good data on how much it costs to run a bike. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cost per mileData is presented on the basis of actual cost and depreciated cost. The actual cost is simply the sum of everything I spent. This is OK over a long time but if you were to spend £400 today on a bike, ride it back 1 mile from the bike shop, the cost would be £400/mile, i.e. it doesn't take into account the life of the component. I therefore assigned a life to non-consumables and the depreciated cost is the fraction of the purchase cost based upon its current age. If a component cost £300 and I assigned a life expectancy of 3 years then the depreciated cost would be £0 on day 1, £100 after 1 year, and £300 after three or more years. So after 12 months, here are the data.
i.e. it cost me 23.47 p/mile to run a mountain bike over a 12 month period and covering 3114 miles. If a meteorite was to hit the bike and destroy it, then the cost would increase to 48 p/mile. I know this is not a politically correct thing to say, but it can be cheaper to run a car (~20p/mile) than it is to run a mountain bike. That's not based on any assumptions or anything, its based on my own actual data.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cost breakdownHere is a breakdown of the costs and the assigned life of components.
You might think that £110 for a helmet is excessive but I do like light weight and comfort. This is in any case balanced by what's not in the list: tools, existing clothing, existing lubricants and service items. Also, I had a really nice set of wheels from my old bike which I transferred to this bike, no cost appears for this (nor does a credit for the cheap and nasty wheels the bike came with). You'll also see quite a few service items in there, chains, sprockets, bearings etc. take quite a hammering, I fully expect to have to buy another new set of chains and sprockets in the next month or so. The costs are further reduced as I do all my own maintenance. This is a non-trivial task. The chain needs stripping off the bike, degreasing and re-lubricating preferably every week but as a minimum every two weeks - mud, sand and oil make an excellent grinding paste.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spend profile per month
![]() Mileage profile per month
![]()
Non-commuting (e.g. going to the shops) miles per monthNote that the big jump in May 07 was when I raced this hardtail bike against my full suspension bike to see which was faster. See hard tail or bouncer comparison page (click for link)
![]() Cost versus miles
![]()
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home page |