Very rough numbers but i was bored and downloaded my paypal transactions. Roughly allowing for cash buys and sales I've spent around £7k on bikes and bits in the last 2 years, but sold around £5.5k. Diesel probably £2k based on £20 a week, so 3.5k net spend, or £35 a week. Less than a smoking addiction that's for sure!
Probably 4k a year?
My dignity,self respect and will to live.Vgfm really.
MTBing can certainly be quite expensive, especially if you need to travel to the trails. Depending on what sort of riding you're doing; it can be quite easy to wreck several hundred pounds worth of gear if you cock something up. OTOH, about seven or so years ago, the only MTBing I really did was round the Grizedale area, so fairly gentle stuff, and it was within riding distance, so it cost nowt really.
These days I don't mtb at all; my current road bike (only worth a few hundred pounds) I built on March and since then the only thing I've changed on it has been a chain and the pedals. It rides great and should probably just crack on with it, but I ordered a custom disc braked frame in February and have been buying bits to build it up with, so it's been an expensive year really.
An obscene amount.
It's worth every penny.
This year?
A new bottom bracket, a new top, set of panniers and a rack for Mrs S, two sets of pedals and a Surly.
🙂
I have never worked it out and I never will.
It's not a cost, it's an investment in my continuing sanity and will to live.
Also I don't want to think about it. I've kept pretty much every bike-kit-related receipt since about 2010 so I could actually work it out pretty accurately, but the sheer size of the pile alone scares me. 😯
If it puts a smile on your face and you can afford it it's worth it.
This year's been a pricey one though...
Road:
Gloves
Sportful jersey
Ultegra chainset
Ultegra calipers
Conti GP2000s tyres
Charge Ti seat
MTB:
Reverb
Revelation full service
New shock bushings
Gloves
Grips
A week in Morzine
Oh...and a Cannondale Trigger!
(new tyres and 1x10 to come)
All good stuff 😉
Less than the cost of my sanity and cheaper than the medical bills of climbing
It's not a cost, it's an investment in my continuing sanity and will to live.
I like that.
Don't want to work it out, it's my only vice and reason for going to work.
The theory is it saves me money as I pedal rather than drive between work and home. In reality it would take a long time of saving £30 a week in fuel to pay for the bike. But I try not to think about that.
This year? 6k - 8k I think. It is my biggest expense after rent and bills.
Of course, I count the car as bike related (as it is the only reason I own a car)
I should add a pile of broken tools building trails too! What surprised me was the cost of stuff i sold, mainly a few larger items. If i kept everything I'd be forced out of home already
Not even going to add it up. Lots. And yeah, like yacoby the car is a biking cost too.
I probably average about £100 a month, and a lot of it isn't on bikes. I'm not a big spender and don't go out buying all the new top of the range gear. Things like clothes, GPS, lights, tyres, lots of little things that add up. I've probably spent 2.5k on buying bikes and parts in 10 years.
All in all though, my bike helps me get to work, and that saves me well over £100 a month. So the way I see it, I'm saving money 🙂
+1 for it being an investment rather than a cost. Look at the state of your typical non-cyclist.
It also reduces my transport costs by riding to work/the shops etc.
Since I reduced how often I rode MTB and now pretty much gone 100% road, the spend is negligible - my summer bike still has original brake blocks after 6 years and chain only had to be changed last year
I have no idea what it would add up to, but petrol is by far my biggest cost. I've made a few upgrades this year but they've been mostly covered by selling the bits they replaced (converting to 1x made me money because I bought less parts than I sold).
As my Mrs knows, my Scalpel Team cost £200 and I spend about £20 a year on tyres, drivetrain, clothes, Alpine trips and the rest.
Ahem.....
C
Dunno, don't care either.
As long as I can pay my bills and have a bit of emergency money I will spend my money on my cycling.
I don't drink, smoke, gamble ( much ) spend on Coke and hookers so my cycling is my sanity.
It helps when all the costs are tax deductible through BikeAbility though.......
I mostly just ride road now so not much. Unlike regular MTBing stuff just don't get trashed the same way. I tend to keep clothes and stuff for quite a long time; things rarely get replaced just because I fancy something new.
This year I've bought some knee warmers and new overshoes, a new tyre, and replaced a lot of the drivetrain whcih makes it a relatively expensive one at, I dunno, maybe around £300?
Big outlay this year was my road bike and kit for commuting 3-4/5 days a week
Allot of my stuff is traded for parts or made cost back by reselling old which lowers overal total allot
outlay this year about 2k
not nearly enough given that, as others have mentioned, it is the main thing that keeps me sane. I think it's time to up my spending a bit as I don't think I get outside low hundreds a year normally
This year around 10k, s-works enduros are bloody expensive, after the bike the other big ticket item was a weeks guided holiday.
Next year I have three guided holidays planned and with other bits and bobs will I would expect to spend 6k+
I make sacrifices in other areas to afford it all.
La la la la la..............
Not thinking about it
Whatever I've got, used to be thousands a year, this year it's a few hundred. Next year will be more.
I don't hang onto stuff I don't use, selling it here, FB etc. I reckon outwith bikes probably £100 a month, sometimes less, often more. But it's a healthy pursuit, so I don't grudge it.
income +n
Not much on the bikes, just really replacing a few worn out and broken bits and pieces. I did splash out on the full set of bikepacking gear and then made a lot of use of it. So my other expense was train fares to start of rides and the amount of food I need when I ride all day and don't want to have to cook my own (because I want to ride all day).
So long as I'm spending more on cycling than driving, I'm happy. Easy enough if you count the van as a cycling accessory, but even without that, I think I'm still ahead overall (many years car-free helped). MOT/VED/insurance adds up to a lot of bike toys though, even before you consider fuel 🙂
Depends where do you draw the line? I chose my car purely on the basis of it's ability to carry bikes (as did t'other half), and is the main reason I am keeping it now I live within a cycling commute of work. Usually our most expensive annual holiday is a "big" riding holiday, and have been to USA, Turkey, India, Morocco as well as the usual European destinations and 'just' weekends away to Wales etc staying in B+Bs.
If cycling is an integral part of your life how do you separate the costs?
Depends on how parsimonious you are generally, I cycle to work, wear mostly cheap kit, my bikes are all sub £1000 and I don't drive to ride because small kids generally preclude it (we are a 1 car family) so I pay buttons.
If I do splash out, it's for something that will be value for money, like a decent jacket or the important bits of the bike like tyres brakes etc
Whatever number I wrote would be lying...I'm not sure I know the truth anymore re bike spending... 😀
Put it this way... IDGAF!
As long as it costs me less than I earn (and have paid my bills in that too), then I'm not too bothered.
In practice, as I also own a bike shop, I do get the benefit of claiming a bike or two as "demo bikes" for myself (so the business pays), but I still spend way more than I should...
It is my biggest expense after rent and bills.
You're definitely doing it wrong... Cycling is definitely my biggest expense, before rent or any other bills!!! 😆
Whatever number I wrote would be lying...I'm not sure I know the truth anymore re bike spending...
This man gets it... Chapeau to you sir!
Buy everything in the sales. That way its not what I spend its what I save.
Wouldnt like to think about it,between bikes, gear, events, travel (which is basically every weekend) the odd biking holiday its a lotta lotta money, way I look at is I dont drink (or very little) and I dont smoke, Ive no kids and a very small mortgage, basically its the only thing I spend money on, enjoy it I say, lifes too short 😀
Not sure money wise but there definitely could be a lot worse things to spend it on. Once it gets ya it gets ya this MTB thing.
What does a divorce cost 😉
Race entries alone are about £60 per month. I normally add about one bike a year; the trike this year, plus an upgraded winter bike (Defy) as teen2 has grown out of it.
Less than the cost of depreciation for the car I do not own :).
Once it gets ya it gets ya this MTB thing.
As my mate says, it's as addictive as crack and about four times as expensive. 😀
Was Less now I've stopped reading PSA's on here, but now I've discovered road riding and the joyful variety of different specific clothing then it's back up to hundreds a month.
I've got this one all wrapped up.
About £69,000.00 in the last 6 months.
Interesting question. The MTB just gets wear and tear items replaced, so probably averages out at £20/month. Bought a road bike for commuting on C2W scheme, that's about £30/month. Also did coast 2 coast, a sportive and Bristol Bikefest. So yeah it's adding up to probably around £80/month.
So far this year it's only been about £1200 in bike/bits. I'll ignore petrol coz if I didn't go out on the bike I'd probably be going somewhere else. Mind you I do have a bit of 'spares' box which has been raided for odds n sods (rim tape, valves, etc). Got a 3x XT boxed groupset from a year or so back lurking there somewhere...
Main problem atm is my soul trans is pretty much shot and I'm eyeing up 1x11. That and my mates about to get a Soul27.5 so the (BR)green eyed monster could come a knocking!
However, whatever else, it's not a patch on motorcycling, that's seriously expensive.
Hmm, well bought a new bike last month so that's pushed the total up by a bit 🙄 I've got three active bikes (plus one that's in limbo) and mostly it's a matter of servicing/maintenance costs.
This year's big spends have been getting lightweight bikepacking kit so although bike related it's not actually bike parts - things like lightweight, compact sleeping bag, sleeping mat. In part these have been replacements for some very old kit I'd left over from my climbing days, things have moved on.
Is biking/mountain biking expensive? If you can't afford it then yes it is, but in absolute terms there are a lot of expensive hobbies/sports around: anything motorsport related; sailing (especially ocean going rather than inland water); equestrian sports.
From a running costs point of view about £100 a year I would guess (chains, BB, etc,.)
Helps that I do all my riding straight from my door and ride a rigid SS.
Actually spend about £1000 a year on unnecessarily changing parts though.....
Do we need to include the money spent on flapjack, jelly babies and post ride beer etc ?
Not bothered since the time I did it at uni' when 2 or 3 years equated to a second hand Porsche 911.
It's just stuff, the experiences are invaluable.
Jeez, quite a bit this year. £3.5k on a new best road bike, £700 on frame and bits for a new winter bike, two holidays, assorted kit, parts, consumables, a couple of event entries.
£8K?
Then there's all the extra food and beer I can have because I'm riding ten hours a week - that must add up too.
Damn good value overall though.
Don't care, it's fun so the cost is worth it.
I have no idea and I'm not going to contemplate it for a second.
What cost for keeping me fit and lowering my chance of life threatening disease and increased life expectancy? Priceless, some know the cost of everything and the value of nothing
The only good thing about this thread is that some of you are worse than me. On the plus side i have only had 6 bikes in 20 years. On the downside i've got a minimum of a £100 a month at crc, endless race entry and i swapped a perfectly good german estate for a knackered van. Basically every disposable penny i have after family commitments
I'd guess £1k a year in wear and tear, depreciation, clothing etc. £2.5k in car running costs for riding trips, £1k - £2.5k on holidays depending on destination. So a typical year can easily be up to £6k.
Not worth thinking about - if I counted I would question the value of something I love. Should I count up how expensive the wife is?
I reckon about £1000 this year,I bought my boys first pedal bike, a few chains&cassettes ,fork bits,bearings,Epo and some necessary clothing.and some 3t lovely bits for the cx.