Bicycles aint Cheap

My weekend away was a bit of a disaster in one way, first up the saddle broke. That I guess was the bad news, the good news was that it broke right outside a bicycle shop that was open. That was AUD$40



Then on the trip back, the bike shifted off its mounting a couple of inches and the tyre was placed at the cars exhaust, it melted the tyre and the the tube. That was $AUD50




And finally with all the downhilling, I thought it best to replace the front pads, and that cost AUD$15





In fact, I have been trying to work out the running cost of a bike. Over a five year period and say 40,000 Km, my guess is something like this.

Item	Quantity	Cost
Tyres Tubes Chains Cluster Locks/chains	6 (1 front, 5 rear) say 6 5 @ $20 1 @ $50	$240 $ 30 $100 $ 50 $130
Repair items spokes Bottom bracket Pump	Glue etc 30 off 1 off 1 off	$ 20 $ 30 $ 50 $ 40
Insurance Computers Lights Batteries	Through Club say 1 say 1 head and 1 tail say 4 NiMH	$400 (5 years) $ 40 $ 60 $ 10
Clothing Unnecessary Junk	Mainly shirts Coffee etc	$200 $200
Total		$1500

That's $300 a year, and I haven't added the capital cost of the bike in there, say another $100 per year, that makes it $400 pa or about five cents/Km.

Still cheaper than a car I guess