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What does it cost to run your bike?

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Andre Jute:

--- Quote from: Andre Jute in another thread on another topic on May 02, 2017, 09:15:59 am ---....it seems to me like out of every dollar you paid for that Rohloff box, you're not using 50¢ worth...

--- End quote ---

That raises another question.

Assume, somewhat unrealistically, that your bicycle is totally depreciated in ten years, zero residual, just to make the arithmetic easy. So what did it cost you per kilometer? Count all the components you fitted to it, all the replacement and service parts you bought, regardless of whether any of them are left.

On those sweeping terms my bike cost about 50c a kilometer. However, if I count just the replacement and service parts, the bike cost less than 10c a kilometer to run.

I'd guess you high-milers would have much better numbers.

RobertL:
Depreciating the RST to zero and estimating conservatively a total of $2,500 in servicing (some components every five years plus the usual hub oil/chain/tyres/brakes/cables), and around 4,500 km per year, this works out to 9c per kilometre.

Not sure when the Zac 19 rims wear out, haven't provisioned for these, they look as they should last more than 45,000 km. The same goes for the Alfine 8 hub. With a Rohloff you might need to add 2c per kilometre, for the extra depreciation.

Am guessing that after 10 years the bike will be worth a few hundred dollars more than zero.

Pavel:
my Nomad has cost me a lot more than that. It buying a ticket to Los Vegas. It's not the tickets that gets you, but what it leads you into.  In my case that dang Thorn has made me buy tents, bags, matts, down sleeping-bags, Awful and awfully expensive Garmin devices (five so far) and other such necessities of the glamorous bicycling lifestyle.  OH, and lets not forget my wool clothing. One would not amortize a car over ten years without counting in the extras, any more than getting a horse cheap and forgetting about the high costs of stabling and feed.

Lastly, speaking of feed, my appetite's expectations are completely different when traveling by thorn vs traveling by Miata.

After exchange rates, shipping, import duty, the cost of the Nomad and all the needed bit for my first tour - the upfront costs were somewhere in the 11,000 range.  Mind you I got cheap on several items and had to learn the hard way that when you go cheap - you buy twice.  But that is something all go through as they purchase and learn, what suits them in gear.  I got about 5000 km in that first year, and since then perhaps another 3000 km.  I haven't been able to ride for major chunks of the last five years.  Food that I consumed extra due to pedaling and water bought in desperation from little stores selling little bottles for grand prices, I can't even begin to guess, but they would. be quite substantial.

But it's really all completely uncountable. But really the only thing that comes close in reality to costing 50c (is that US dollars?) a kilometer to operate, is sitting in my chair, walking to the fridge for beer and then to the bathroom.  No come to think of it, beer costs are pretty high.

So I think smiles per mile are really the only sensible way to even bother to count.

jags:
Havent got a clue.

Andre Jute:
Actually, Robert, if the bike is depreciated to zero, the rims on it when new were written off as included in the original cost, and if you haven't replaced the rims in the meantime, you can't count them again.

Pretty rough accounting of course, not the sort the IRS will let you get away with. But... What is striking is that your numbers match mine pretty closely, when one takes into account that you've done 45K in ten years and I've done 10K because, like Pavel, there were some years when for health reasons, though I strove mightily to be out as often as possible, I rode only a few hundred klicks.

Pavel, I think I pretty much match you for waste on Garmins with waste on BUMM lamps. And I burned out an electric motor and had to scrap the whole front hub system because I decided to go for a centre motor next. But that's all in the calculations, depreciated to zero.

Yo, Anto, of course you haven't got a clue. Ask your wife if you want a clue about arithmetic. I did, which is how come I have a clue. NO! On second thoughts, don't let her find out how much you spend on your bike(s).

***

Through all this my absolutely best added component purchases were, all equally valuable and receiving the full "recommended rating":

*Brooks B73 multi-rail, three helical spring leather saddle. (Thanks for the adaptor that lets me use it with micro-adjustable seat posts, Julian!)

*Chainglider to save on service, especially when I couldn't bend over the bike, and keeps my trousers clean.

*n'lock Swiss lockable stem, special handlebar with locking cable inside, and riser steering tube extender; saves my back, secures my bike against thieves.

*60mm Schwalbe Big Apple Liteskins tyres  and T19A Extralight tubes for comfort

*8FUN hub and centre motors that let me keep cycling in very hilly country after heart surgery. I haven't had a car for a quarter-century and wasn't tempted to buy another one.

*Basil's Cardiff pannier basket (I have two but normally use only one), deep but open topped, for just chucking stuff in; impossible to imagine a utility bike without something like it.

*First series BUMM Cyo lamp, first adequate (barely but still) dynamo lamp for bicycles, lets me ride at speed at night.

*BUMM Line Plus, first adequate popularly priced adequate dynamo rear lamp. (Actually the BUMM D-Toplite of earlier vintage was adequate but it was ugly as sin.)

*SKS Renkompressor, a famous full-length racing mechanic's pump that saves my back.

*BBB's low-torque wrench kit that stops me overtorqueing delicate parts on my bike.

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