I ride regularly on a Thursday night with a group of mates, starting at 7pm.
Some weeks the missus has to go to London for work which means she's not back in time for me to go for a ride, therefore the kids are left with a babysitter. This is proving expensive!
The evening goes like this.
Set off at 6, drive 35 miles = £5 fuel
Ride 7 'til 9 then in the pub for a few light refreshments = £15 depending on number of rounds and how many packets of crisps/nuts etc
Leave pub a 10:30, drive 35 miles = £5 again
Get home at 11pm pay babysitter = £25
Total = £50
Does this sound reasonable?
How much would you spend to go for a ride?
£25/hr sounds quite high.
I'd ride from home and get 5 hours riding in thus dropping the price to £5/hour 🙂
If you enjoy it, why not? There's plenty of people spend double that in a poncy nightclub at the weekends.
To ba fair though, a 70 mile round trip for a night ride? Is there nothing closer?
Don't go to the pub, or go and have a pint of coke and some crisps? £10-£15 cut out straight away.
As you're driving I assume you're not 'drinking' anyway, surely you don't need £15 worth of soft drinks?
Problem is I'm billy-no-mates where I live and the riding isn't as good.
Thats a cheap 2 hrs in the pub 🙂
Because I don't own a car I have been known to hire one for a days ride up north - so could be a weekend hire. Maybe up to £200 including petrol, camping and food. However I do make sure thats an epic mountain ride not a couple of hours in the woods and that is for two of us
50 quid! I'd take up running!
A couple of shandys plus nibbles for me and I'll probably get a round in for 2 or 3 others.
£50 isn't that bad.
Add up what your bike costs, how much maintenance/upgrades cost you and divide by how often you ride... scary numbers.
(unless you ride a shed of a bike everyday. But I bet most on here have (several?) nice bikes and ride maybe once or twice a week?)
Anyhow in your case it's not "just" a ride, it's time off looking after your family etc. gives you a break and so on. After all, half that cost is the sitter.
Funny that i was just thinking this last night...I try to get to Cannock quite often which is much the same:
Drive 75 miles up the M6
Through the toll £5
Ride the trails
Back through the toll £5
75 miles home
round trip of about £35-40....and then i get the ear bashing from the wife about the time etc.
Still bloody worth it though 😆
I once drove from Glasgow to the mid-west coast of wales (7 hours), camped a night, rode and drove back next day. I like riding with my mates.
That was £70 in fuel alone. £10 camping, £20 BBQ food. £100 for a days riding and an evenings camping isn't bad.
For me to go riding in the lakes (lets say coniston)....
Fuel (there and back) £10
Pub afterwards £5
so £15 before anything goes wrong!
I reckon with parts wearing out/breaking that goes up to £20+ a ride!
Not a cheap sport by any means, unless you are really lucky to have decent trails out your door. Regardless, still not tempted to take up road biking instead.
coffeeking
I've done something similar earlier this year:
Home (Doncaster) to Castle Douglas to Glentress to Caslte Douglas to Kirroughtree to home in one w/e
just over 600 miles = £90 fuel
digs, food and beer = £70
£160 for probably no more than 6 hrs riding!
I hope the miserable lot I call my mates appreciate this, the bast**ds! 😉
This afternoons ride at Swinley............
Permit - £20/number of rides per year
Fuel - 20mile round trip ~£2.50
Car parts, depereciation, insurance ~ about the same as fuel
Washing powder ~ £0.20
Lost overtime from work - £15
All in, probably £21
Reminds me of that Mint Sauce cartoon where they're all wandering round a field tearing up money.
"Hey, is that the new £100 note? What's it like?"
"S'quite stiff, quite light. Feels nice".
If you factor in everything mentioned above, like wear and tear on bike and car, spares, washing powder, energy gels, clothing etc etc etc. It must come to freaking fortune!!!!!
That's it, I'm packing in riding and taking up something cheaper. How about motor racing?
week night ride cost me £0 ride from home and there is a huge forest plus trails 10 mins away
away day can be more expensive £20 quid in fuel £10 lunch £10 "refreshments"
£40 quid aint bad
earn money to enjoy yourself. Ride while you can you never know when you won't be able to
earn money to enjoy yourself. Ride while you can you never know when you won't be able to
Well said that man! 🙂
>Does this sound reasonable?<
Nup...
By comparison: just organised a long weekend up the West coast of Scotland for 6 (in one vehicle): 300 miles road return, 3 hour ferry return, 3nights bunkhouse, 2chippie meals, 2evening meals, 3lunches, 3 breakfasts and 3nights on the lash. We'll knock in 60 miles of riding get a days hillwalking (with a very high chance of seeing sea eagles / whales / basking sharks / otters for free) and still expect to be back with change out of £140 per skull
Perfectly reasonable apart rom the babysitter bit. You'd be paying more to head for Xscape or Tamworth for snowboarding, or a tenner spent on a climbing wall over in Sheffield. Do you think there's mileage in a STW Doncaster local evening rides group?
Edit: Thursdays don't work for me, Tuesdays sometimes don't.
DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE.
Most of my rides cost less than £5 and thats if we go for a pint and dont break anything.
Assuming nothing breaks and I ride from home and we dont drink then they are free.
Although I did go to Dalby the other week and that was about £50 in fuel and my bro paid for the food. But I rarely go for all day rides that involve driving some distance.
Happy Days
Thats why I get my local maps and try to work out what is possible from my front door. You can have a reasonable mile within less than 35 miles from most anywhere in the UK.
we used to drive from Sheffield to Peebles, stay in a B&B 2 nights, ride GT red and black, have meals out and beers etc so probably £150+ for 4 - 5 hours riding (padded out with another 4 - 5 hours of chat).
Seems daft now I live close to GT, but it was like a holiday then and well worth it.
Do you think there's mileage in a STW Doncaster local evening rides group?
Not a bad idea. Thing is, Thursdays have been in the calender for years so with kids klub, piano practices, gym tots etc almost every other night is full. Monday is possible but not every week 😐
Obi_Twa - Member
DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE.
No need to SHOUT. 🙄
A couple of shandys is hardly drinking and driving ffs.
i drove 120 miles (round trip) TWICE this week for a club confined 17 mile and an open 10 mile TT - because the local club where i now live wont let me ride their confined events without joining - i cant join because they want me to quit my current club . The new club has a rather lacking mtb contingent and since im an MTBer at heart i find the idea of jumping ship to this new club just to ride some mid week tts a bit stupid ...
to balance it out im ridinjoin because they want me to quit my current club . The new club has a rather lacking mtb contingent and since im an MTBer at heart i find the idea of jumping shipg back home this weekend for the ride down there ...
the missus just reminds me that its less than a night in the pub - when i was younger (natch @ 24 now) could tan a weeks wages in 2 nights which was a bit scary ...
hmm. I rarely stop for a beer after a ride (usual night ride is on the way home and a good 40 mile drive).
fuel is factored into commute (plus about 200 yards), so negligible as I was going there anyway.
so for me, effectively free, apart from serial shopping.
whe I ride from home, I ride out my door, and am on trails within 10 minutes and don't need to spend a penny except for when stuff breaks.
Bike bought via cycle to work (which it also is used for at least part of my commute on a regular basis) cost me £500.
Biking is, for me at least effectively free. I tend to spend most on biking clothing and components as they break.
But i'm quite lucky like that.
Day trip to Glentress (90mile round trip)
£30 in fuel
£3 to park
<£10 for lunch
Call it forty quid
Day trip to Fort Bill (200mile round trip)
£60 in fuel
£20 lift ticket
£10 food and drink
Call it ninety quid
I'm sure it less expensive than a other hobbies skiing has a lot more travel, golf has membership fees etc. A more pertinent question is how much would you pay to ride the trails?
rich - question depends on quality of the trails ....
drumlanrig - happy to pay 8 quid or what ever to ride - or at least base my ride there
glentress - grudge the 3 or 4 quid parking because the trails are in such bad state of repair - black hasnt seen much in the way of anything in the years ive ridden there to be honest .... and the red gets so much traffic that its constantly needing repaired - so i just dont go there
laggan - dont mind paying there
fort william - dont mind paying the gondola fee for the dh at all
Plane fair 200£, accomodation 89£, Map surroundings of aviemore about 12£, avon SSS 3£, pubs and other food expenses about 150£.
Quand on aime on compte pas 😀
The weeks when your wife is in London - I'd ride elsewhere and save the £50 right away - ride local - it might be mince but it's riding and saving you money to spend on bike bits.
That sounds utterly mental to me - paying someone to watch the kids so you can go riding when you could go riding later and save the cash...or go riding on a different night...
To me that sounds really high...but then I'm lucky enough not to need to pay babysitters as either the wife is watching our daughter, I am or if we are both out (and admittedly with plenty of notice) we have grandparents who are willing to lend a hand.
And as for paying to ride trails in general - no I wouldn't do that...I don't now so don't see why I would have to or should do in the future. Saying that, I'm willing to get involved with trail maintenance and do my bit rather than hand cash over and watch it get swallowed up in the big machine...
£40 hand brace to support broken fingers so I can ride
£15 petrol for the 120 mile car round trip to Llandegla today
£10 for two snack meals and drinks at Llandegla
£25 to have rarely used bike serviced so friend can ride
£5 drinks to have during drive.
Pedalled half way up the trail from the car park, friend has mahoosive asthma attack completely out of the blue.
£20 on flowers to try and make her feel better because she was extremely embarrassed and worried that my day was ruined - I'm just happy that she's OK, bad things happen, nobody's fault and we'll have a laugh about it.
At least I'll be able ride a little while I'm in NZ and my friend can use her bike again now it's serviced.
Ooh good question, not sure I'd drive to a regular nightride, I'd make do with local/within riding distance, just dont fancy driving thru rush hour traffic. (Dunno what I'd do if I was 35miles from owt decent tho.) But a weekend "away" ride £20 petrol few quid for cakes/pies seems reasonable.
your on shaky ground there (making that statement on here), I wouldn't risk it personally.A couple of shandys is hardly drinking and driving ffs
Nothing at present as I have good riding on my doorstep, however, in a months time I'll be somewhere very hot & sunny & dusty & not nice, then I'll play a Kings Ransom for a day away!
ride to work, work to ride.
It's all about priorities,I believe money's less important than riding. Poisonspider gets to see his buds, have a good blat about on the bike and a socialise after. Gotta be worth it. (Couldn't afford it myself, but I live a lot closer to the local hills - swing meet roundabout)
Glentress (35 miles away each way). £8
Parking £3
Total £11
Pentlands (10 miles away each way). £3
Parking Free
Total £3.