Calculating Money Saved via Cycling

naked_draughtsman

On Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:36:04 +0100, "jim" <flopflips wrote:

> That means I think I've saved us about £2290 by cycling instead of driving.
>
> My wife was saying that the government allowed about 42 p per mile for tax
> purposes, and that it's about 49 p per mile now. That's once you build in
> paying for insurance, Tax, MOT, garage bills etc.
>
> Even going on the 42 p per mile rate that's a saving of approx. £9,600.
>
> Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by cycling
> instead of driving?

Is the 42p rate correct? I thought it was 40p for a personal vehicle.

The less miles you do in the car, the more the annual
service/MOT/insurance/tax costs as a per mile rate. Most parts which need
replacing wear out in proportion to the amount of miles done rather than
with time, but it may not be that if you do 2x as many miles it will last
half the time.

It is interesting to work out though. A quick sum in my head (and
possibly wrong) suggested that the maintenance costs for my bike would
roughly equal those for the car (which I don't use much) if I'd had all
the work done by a bike shop rather than by me.

peter

naked_draughtsman

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:51:59 -0700, POHB wrote:

> I don't look upon it as a saving, more as an excuse to spend money
> indulging my hobby without feeling guilty.

A colleague 'collects' classic cars as his hobby which means he can
justify spending lots of money repairing/tuning them before selling them
on.
It just so happens that it doubles up as a convenient form of transport,
although he does come in by train quite often to save money.

It's a nice way to think about such things and one to remember when
someone is moaning about how much it cost to have their car/bike
serviced/repaired!

peter

Ekul Namsob

"jim" <flopflips<removethespam> wrote:


> Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by cycling
> instead of driving?

I've been trying to work out potential savings of late. I drive a
Mercedes C180 fairly sedately to and from work which is about 20 miles
away.

I'm highly unlikely ever to cycle both to and from work but did,
yesterday, take my bike on the train to the nearest useful station to my
school and then cycled home. I certainly saved money on the deal as the
conductor never got as far as my carriage so I wasn't able to buy a
ticket. I wouldn't, however, expect that to happen on a regular basis.

My regrettable conclusion is that, with rail travel coming in at around
5.50 GBP / day, I save money by driving. I probably don't need fuel to
become much more expensive for the alternative to start saving me money
but that relies on train tickets not rising in price.

Cheers,
Luke


--
Red Rose Ramblings, the diary of an Essex boy in
exile in Lancashire <http://www.shrimper.org.uk>

Bartc

"Tom Crispin" <kije.remove@this.bit.freeuk.com.munge> wrote in message
news:cpd0645ejjq8d4m889ahb9rpf3s07am1k6@4ax.com...

> Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.

The figures I've seen suggest about 300kc per hour. That would make it about
30kc per mile.

Ten years ago a mars bar had 300kc and cost about 30p, making the extra cost
of food for cycling about 3p per mile. At the time my small diesel car was
costing about 4p per mile in fuel.

However 2 people cycling somewhere would have used up together 6p per mile
instead of 4p per mile for the car.

But the 300kc/hour for cycling is usually quoted as the /total/ energy
expended, not the /extra/ amount. Since just sitting around (or in your car)
probably uses 100kc every hour, the extra for cycling is nearer 200kc
bringing the cost of the extra food down.

So cycling /would/ have cost some 2p/mile instead of 4p/mile by car ten
years ago. Now it's more like 3p/mile instead of 10p/mile. Although it
depends on what you like to eat; if you insist on caviar then cycling is
going to be expensive for you.

> And that is before you have taken into account the additional cost of
> all the extra toilet paper you will need having scoffed so many Kit
> Kat bars.

I'd think you will need a lot less...

--
Bartc

Adam Lea

"Jim Ley" <jim@jibbering.com> wrote in message
news:4860df3e.581166734@news.individual.net...
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:29:49 +0000 (UTC), Dylan Smith
> <dylan@vexed3.alioth.net> wrote:
>
>>On 2008-06-24, Tom Crispin <kije.remove@this.bit.freeuk.com.munge> wrote:
>>> Cycling at a modest 11mph burns up about 50 kilo calories per mile.
>>>
>>> A two finger Kit Kat contains 106 k cals.
>>
>>Sure you're not getting kilojoules and kilocalories mixed up?
>>
>>My round trip cycle commute is 25 hilly miles. On the days I cycle, I eat
>>*one* extra banana (at a cost of around 25p).
>
> But that's not sufficient calories for making up for everything that
> you expend cycling (unless the alternative is also pretty physical, or
> your journey very short) So you're presumably just using the stores
> from previous days, I expect you'll feel it a lot if you tried to do
> it every day.
>
> Jim.

You are forgetting that the human body will adapt to an increase in exercise
by becoming more efficient in utilising those calories which will at least
partly offset the need to take more calories in.

Adam Lea

"naked_draughtsman" <usenet3@petereverett.co.uk> wrote in message
news:wPSdnUaMZLEjq_zVnZ2dnUVZ8qGdnZ2d@pipex.net...
>
> It's a nice way to think about such things and one to remember when
> someone is moaning about how much it cost to have their car/bike
> serviced/repaired!
>

In my case it is not the cost but the time taken to get it serviced. Why is
it that I can book my car into a garage and I can get a service and MOT done
in one day, but there is a week long waiting list to service my bike, which
is a far simpler machine?

Clive George

"Adam Lea" <asrl07@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:QvKdnWTu3NJKGfzVnZ2dnUVZ8s7inZ2d@bt.com...
>
> "naked_draughtsman" <usenet3@petereverett.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:wPSdnUaMZLEjq_zVnZ2dnUVZ8qGdnZ2d@pipex.net...
>>
>> It's a nice way to think about such things and one to remember when
>> someone is moaning about how much it cost to have their car/bike
>> serviced/repaired!
>>
>
> In my case it is not the cost but the time taken to get it serviced. Why
> is it that I can book my car into a garage and I can get a service and MOT
> done in one day, but there is a week long waiting list to service my bike,
> which is a far simpler machine?

Coz there's hundreds more car mechanics than bike mechanics?

From a servicing point of view, cars are also simpler than bikes - changing
oil and filters, checking levels, etc is actually very easy. Changing a
cable on a bike requires more skill, as does adjusting bearings and brakes.
Changing the speedo cable on my car involved rather less fine work than
changing a pair of pads on one of the bikes last night - ok, the former
involved a certain amount of contortion and getting hands mucky, but
ultimately it was pull a rubber plug, pull cable out, untwist other
connector, reverse. And I'd say that was harder than any normal servicing
operation.

cheers,
clive

Daniel Barlow

"Adam Lea" <asrl07@yahoo.co.uk> writes:

> In my case it is not the cost but the time taken to get it serviced. Why is
> it that I can book my car into a garage and I can get a service and MOT done
> in one day, but there is a week long waiting list to service my bike, which
> is a far simpler machine?

You need to find a busier garage, maybe. That would do it.


-dan

POHB

On 23 Jun, 22:36, "jim"
> Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by cycling
> instead of driving?

There's also the savings in gym fees. If you cycle plenty then you
don't need to pay to sit on a stationary excercise bike.

Patter

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:36:28 +0100, Adam Lea wrote:
> In my case it is not the cost but the time taken to get it serviced. Why is
> it that I can book my car into a garage and I can get a service and MOT done
> in one day, but there is a week long waiting list to service my bike, which
> is a far simpler machine?

In any town, you'll probably notice there's a vast difference between
the number of garages and car servicing places (from main deallers to a
bloke with some spanners) and the number of bike shops.

In Leeds, there's only about a half-dozen or so bike shops (all a fair
way from the centre, out to Bramley, Headingley, Sheepscar, Harehills)
but probably hundreds of garages.

--
Stephen Patterson :: steve@patter.mine.nu :: http://patter.mine.nu/
GPG: B416F0DE :: Jabber: patter@jabber.earth.li
"Don't be silly, Minnie. Who'd be walking round these cliffs with a gas oven?"

Mark T

Adam Lea writtificated

> In my case it is not the cost but the time taken to get it serviced.
> Why is it that I can book my car into a garage and I can get a service
> and MOT done in one day, but there is a week long waiting list to
> service my bike, which is a far simpler machine?

1. Fixing bikes is seasonal - bike shops are a lot busier in summer than
winter.

2. They'll be a bike shop without too much of a waiting list somewhere.
Find a different bike shop or bribe a mechanic with beer.

Mark

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:36:28 +0100, "Adam Lea" <asrl07@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

>
>"naked_draughtsman" <usenet3@petereverett.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:wPSdnUaMZLEjq_zVnZ2dnUVZ8qGdnZ2d@pipex.net...
>>
>> It's a nice way to think about such things and one to remember when
>> someone is moaning about how much it cost to have their car/bike
>> serviced/repaired!
>>
>
>In my case it is not the cost but the time taken to get it serviced. Why is
>it that I can book my car into a garage and I can get a service and MOT done
>in one day, but there is a week long waiting list to service my bike, which
>is a far simpler machine?

And can you find anyone that does a decent job of servicing a bike? I
can't.


--
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Mark

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:56:53 +0100,
notmyaddress.1.ekulnamsob@wronghead.com (Ekul Namsob) wrote:

>"jim" <flopflips<removethespam> wrote:
>
>
>> Does anyone have a going rate for how much they think they save by cycling
>> instead of driving?
>
>I've been trying to work out potential savings of late. I drive a
>Mercedes C180 fairly sedately to and from work which is about 20 miles
>away.
>
>I'm highly unlikely ever to cycle both to and from work but did,
>yesterday, take my bike on the train to the nearest useful station to my
>school and then cycled home. I certainly saved money on the deal as the
>conductor never got as far as my carriage so I wasn't able to buy a
>ticket. I wouldn't, however, expect that to happen on a regular basis.
>
>My regrettable conclusion is that, with rail travel coming in at around
>5.50 GBP / day, I save money by driving. I probably don't need fuel to
>become much more expensive for the alternative to start saving me money
>but that relies on train tickets not rising in price.

But train tickets will rise in price. Partly because of the increased
costs and partly because they can get away with it.

--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Owing to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
See http://improve-usenet.org

Rob Morley

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:03:44 +0100
"Clive George" <clive@xxxx-x.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:

> From a servicing point of view, cars are also simpler than bikes -
> changing oil and filters, checking levels, etc is actually very easy.
> Changing a cable on a bike requires more skill, as does adjusting
> bearings and brakes. Changing the speedo cable on my car involved
> rather less fine work than changing a pair of pads on one of the
> bikes last night - ok, the former involved a certain amount of
> contortion and getting hands mucky, but ultimately it was pull a
> rubber plug, pull cable out, untwist other connector, reverse. And
> I'd say that was harder than any normal servicing operation.
>
I agree that bike mechanicing and car mechanicing are very different -
mostly with cars there's none of the fine tuning required with bikes[1],
you just place a component, fasten it to the specified torque and it's
done. Even car hydraulics seem to be easier than bike hydraulics
despite their greater complexity. Some of the car bits are rather harder
to get to than any bike bit - the last time my starter motor died it
took about half a day to get it out and in again, but only 20 minutes
to fix the problem with the brushes. The one problem that can be a
nightmare with cars is intermittent electrical faults, just because
there are so many wires and connectors, often bundled together in
pretty inaccessible places, but that's not something you encounter very
often and many mechanics just won't want to know you if you take it to
them anyway.


[1] With the exception perhaps of some of the more complex
carburettors, but who has carburettors these days?