Annual bike and kit spend?

Don't ask, don't tell.

I don't want to ask myself and I don't want anyone to tell me.

No way am I spending 5 digits though.

£0.00p

Sits back to wait for the 'Fake Poor' of STW to show up. 😉🤣

Are we counting mountain biking holidays and trips too?

#AskingForAFriendWhoWouldBeWellIntoFiveFiguresIfWeDid

I built a bike, so excluding that. I spent £876.99 according to my super-accurate* excel.

*not very, probs missed some bits and bobs, but then I did donate a roadie (2014 carbon Ribble) and a Cannondale commuter thingie to my local Bike Charity.

Edit: thats just for the bike, probs into 5 figures if there's kit as well.

I bought a £2.5k road bike via C2W a few months back. other than that probably £200-£300 on kit, parts, tyres, etc

I won't be buying another bike for a couple of years so 2024 will be cheap once i've finished the C2W period.

If you're not hitting 5k per annum then you're not trying, look at the sales stuff just now, you can pick up a spesh ebike for half price, or a santa cruz the same, we're not even diving into cheap Rapha gear at John Lewis this week, or electric shifting and finishing kit, then throw in the weekly trips to BPW with all the add ons and you're supporting the industry!

I prefer not to know in honesty. I know I can't just spend endlessly but I ride a bike for enjoyment and to get me outside, there is a side benefit of being healthier too. If I knew that it cost me £x per mile or hour then it would suck a lot of that enjoyment out of it.

I bought an eeb within the last year, and have done over 2,000 miles on it (fork & shock services, 4 sets of tyres, numerous brake pads, chains, chainrings etc plus a set of Saints & rotors) - that along with all my other bike consumables (gravel, HT/bikepacking and FS) & clothing spend must get me near/past 5 digits.

Anyone who says £0, either doesn't ride or has light-fingers...

My friend is just under five figures including holidays. However I he has had two new bikes (out of three) in that time.

This year

£1800 building the Ragley

Around £2k upgrading the ebike (forks, wheels, drivetrain, a few other bits)

Somewhere shy of a grand on lights and riding kit.

All driven by the fact that my riding has increased massively this year over previous years. Previous to that it's 5 years since I had a big spend (ebike on finance). Some years I'll spend virtually nothing

Under a grand, Inc a new frame and bits for one of the kids (loaded with my old 26" stuff).

Have prioritised a wardrobe revamp and affording fuel to get to work.

I prefer not to know in honesty. I know I can’t just spend endlessly but I ride a bike for enjoyment and to get me outside, there is a side benefit of being healthier too. If I knew that it cost me £x per mile or hour then it would suck a lot of that enjoyment out of it.

This is more or less my thinking. I'm generally pretty tight, and try not to spend excessively, particularly on stuff I don't need. But bikes, and kit so I can't ride them (relatively) comfortably, make me happy, so I don't make myself feel too bad about the odd luxury.

make me happy, so I don’t make myself feel too bad about the odd luxury.

Echo my thoughts, so as long as I'm paying the bills each month, then my conscious is clear really. 

I bought a new bike earlier this year but it's still fresh and enjoyable so not costing any money. Just bought a discounted Garmin as a treat. Booked a week in Malaga for January but didn't go anywhere nice in 'summer'.

This time next year though. I'll be ready and waiting. I'm gonna send it.

I bought a Frame and Fork on C2W last year but the monthly payments were mostly in this year, so maybe 1k on that and maybe 2-300 on other bits and pieces, just bought some new brakes for £70, bargain TRP Slates from Merlin and £42 for five tens from Evans.

I did buy my son a new bike but I don't count that in my bike spending.

Er....

not including 2x bike Holidays this year cos its a holiday right!

And when bikes, just mtbs right? Cos a gravel bikes not a bike bike is it.

And when we say mtbs bikes anything with a massive discount isn't included right. cos it was a saving? Right.

So on that basis nothing.

New bike this year and 3 months off work to frig about in Southern Spain to play on it and the gravel bike, makes me very happy so don't care.

Not bought a bike this year, but did spend ~300 on bar & stem (crash damage), bought an AXS upgrade kit (400), two sets of carbon wheels (~800 each) for different bikes, a new light (~300) and some tyres (100)

Am sure there's a few other bits and bobs, and a couple of holidays too. Don't see t a problem, it's my main hobby (certainly the only one i spend money on), I don't to a bunch of drinking or buy new cars or other daft stuff.

and as duncan rightly points out, massive discounts don't count, so the carbon wheels where effectively free.

I did buy a new to me gravel bike this year - but justified it by forcing myself not to commute by tram which means that I only need to go into the office another 45 times for it to pay for itself.

I've bought 2 new bikes in the last two years. These costs will be amortised over the next 4-6 years (maybe even longer for the titanium tourer) so I'm about £800-1000 a year on bikes.

The other bikes are outside of their amortisation period and now essentially free 🙂 

Consumables, clothes, shoes,  bike packing stuff, event fees - I reckon I'm up to a couple of thousand a year. 

Totally worth it. 

They're not expensive if they get used.

Probably about £1,500. Refurbished the 90's MTB at the start of the year for commuting, repaint, new cables etc, probably £400 including a set of extra wheels I built up. 

Then £330 on a used CX bike, and a further £150 replacing cables, bar tape, tyres, extra cassette for it.  £120 on some superstar wheels for the full suspension, set of bearings for it.  Couple of pairs of shoes (discounted), some new bib shorts. Nothing mad, and that's running five bikes and commuting to work. Would have spent more on parking and petrol had I driven to work.

It’s all relative of course. A few hundred £ to one, may require the same value scrutiny to someone spending a few thousand £.

Net spend for me this year is probably a few thousand, including a couple of trips abroad, but there was a couple of new bikes in there, including an ebike. Fortunate enough to get some deals/support, so most of my stuff I cycle out of in 12/18 months at no real cost, apart from the original outlay.

Worth it to me. Bikes make me happy 🙂

I can truly say totally zero, this is the first year I have actually earned more money from cycling than I have spent.

For the first time in 20+ years, £0. But that is with the proviso that my cargo bike is the most used bike and I've done well under 500 miles across 3 other bikes. Basically, cycling hasn't been a priority.

Now if you asked me how much I'd spent on running, shoes in particular, then you'd have a very different answer.

I did buy a new bike this year (£3,000 or so including upgrades), so it's been an "expensive" one for me. Previous new bike was 2021 and before that 2019. I'm not suggesting that's a long-standing pattern, but I'm expecting 2024 to be a bit cheaper.

If we're just talking 2023, then I think the only money I've spent on "new stuff" was a cheap Amazon hammock, bar bag and associated straps for bike packing. Well under a 100 (probably)...

Other than then, probably around a couple of grand on service/consumables/crash replacement (tyres, brake pads, chain, new derailleur) but no new bike and no "upgrades".

Oh, a couple of hundred on clothes (all sale items...no one item more than 50 IIRC!)

But my big spend is on holidays...one road trip to the Pyrenees and one to Utah/Colorado/Oregon (which I'd only count 50% of the cost as they were family holidays I just happened to take my bike along)

2019, by contrast, was somewhat more expensive as I, ahem, somehow ended up buying both a Santa Cruz Hightower AND a Giant TCR (with Di2) within the space of about six weeks....

Now if you asked me how much I’d spent on running, shoes in particular,

Hey Lunge, how much have you spent on running, and shoes in particular?

I have a spreadsheet

It contains all cycling related expenses including trips away

I shall not be sharing it at this time 🙂

But my dad use to fly gliders. Honestly, twice the faff and about four times the expense of MTBs. So I reckon I've dodged a bullet here 🙂

I tend to only buy in the sales or when second hand is too good to miss.

As said above its not what you spend its what you save so I've saved quite a bit over the years 🤣

Thanks everyone for sharing. This is all sounding like an AA meeting 😄

I always thought cycling was a cheap pastime 😬

This year, including races but not including the holiday that surrounded one of them, as it wasn’t really a bike holiday, probs £1500, 900 of which on C2W (drivetrain and brake replacement on gravel/commuter).

Previous years have been 5 figures on bikes and kit. Biggest year was 2014. Meh.

Far too much in relation to how much time I spend riding… 🙄. The only bike/kit setup offering me any value for money these days is my Wattbike, which I use 2 or 3 times a week. Other bikes and ride kit just not getting used as much as it should or could be, which is a disappointing state of affairs. 

no one to blame except myself.. 

But my dad use to fly gliders. Honestly, twice the faff and about four times the expense of MTBs.

My mum used to keep horses. It's always good to talk to her when I need a bit of perspective about how much I spend on cycling.

After some of the above spreadsheet users, I thought I'd put one together for this year.

It didn't take much looking at email order confirmations to remind myself that I've bought the 2 most expensive items of clothing kits I've ever bought this year, a pair of bib shorts for £260 and a pair of winter SPD shoes for £190. Maybe my estimated £2k spend needs a review 😬

I bought (built) two bikes and a bike for my daughter, but also sold 3 bikes.  I also spent more than I should on Chris King stuff and carbon rims...
I'm probably at around £3.5k this year, which is much more than normal.

Some of my friends spend more than me, some a lot less.

Part of me would like to be like the ones that spend less.

But then, they've never been to the Alps, they've not experienced Super Swooper or Willy Waver, so there is that.

I do feel a bit of guilt at how expensive mountain bikes (especially full sus) are, but then I have a lot of fun on them, and I try to get as much use out of them as possible.

I suspect that just as a full sus is a step up in cost from a hardtail, when I finally get an E-bike it'll be another step up again.

Does anyone track cost per mile ridden? I suspect that would be upsetting...

Or maybe cost per hour might be a better metric as road mileage is a lot faster than mountain bike mileage...

If you spent £40 a week on going to the pub and getting a take away you’d be over £2k a year 🤷🏻‍♂️

If you spent £40 a week on going to the pub and getting a take away you’d be over £2k a year 🤷🏻‍♂️<br />

Can’t I do both?

Can’t I do both?

If it makes you happy, go wild.

£700 on a used road bike, plus maybe £300-400 on consumable parts. Nothing on clothes but I will be needing new shoes soon. Few hundred on camping/bikepacking kit.

According to Garmin I've ridden just under 5000km this year and if I've spent £2000 that's £0.4 per km.