I used to think of dollars per mile, not dollars per hour. It seemed easier to justify a new bike that way.

Hey honey, the investment is like $.20 a mile....

Ha! I did the same thing, but it wasn’t relatable to other forms of entertainment.

But would definitely use $ / mile to negotiate a new purchase :)

The math really gets scary when you have "race only" equipment like a disc, wetsuit (in many cases), aero lid, etc.

I log the supermajority of miles on my roadie, so my Shiv probably only gets a few hundred miles per year and the hourly cost is insane.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Yeah i have two tt bikes, the race one doesn’t see the road but gets used on the trainer. Same with wheels, race wheels go on the day before a race for a test.

I've had road bikes that get down to $1 per hour.
My tri bike might have dropped out of 3 figures per hour now. I hope so, that is depressing to think about.

Helps to buy quality stuff that doesn't require frequent replacement of consumables (campag chains) and then ride a lot. Changing things often and not riding much are terrible for this calc.

9,000 miles should be maybe 1-2 cassettes and 2-3 chains. If consumables cost more than the $1,200 bike after just 9,000 miles, that's awfully high.

I only ride my tri bike so it get's a lot of use, but the math is even worse if you look at marginal cost/benefit over something like your old $1,200 Slice!

I am in the $$$ per mile grouping. Tri stuff ends up being way cheaper than car stuff since cumulative mileage in most years between bike+run+XC skiing is around 1.2-1.3x of what I drive. Having said that I have a cheap base model VW Jetta that will last longer than a bunch of my tri equipment. But when I throw in consumables (tires, mainetance, gas, insurance), sport gear is waaaay cheaper.

If you want to feel a bit sick, don’t do $/hour for the bike.

Do the $/hr on an IM branded event versus a run race or criterium.

IM events are about $60/hr. Fondos, crits, cyclocross, 1/2 marathons? Usually about $15 to $20/hr.

People spend often in a year on just IM entry fees what some people spend on an entire nice bicycle.

The cost to ride for me is more one of time and energy since I've owned my equipment for quite a while and have no real plan to upgrade. If I had to do the math, figure I'm into my tri bike which I built up 10 years ago for about $2k including low-end race wheels. It suits me fine for as little as I race and train on it. Say I ride it maybe 500 mi/yr on average, at an average speed of 16 mph (I mostly do hilly riding). That puts me at about $6.50 per hour over the life of the bike. Road bike is probably lower than that since I put closer to 2500 miles/yr on it. At maybe $3k invested, about 5 years old, that's below $4/hr.

The ROI in terms of improved fitness, sense of accomplishment and satisfaction is high. I can't begin to compare it to any expense I incur for other forms of leisure or entertainment.

Yep - 2 tri bikes, one for racing, one for training. Airline "broke" the frame on the race bike that had less than 500 miles on it. Couldn't prove it as I didn't unpack it right away (not sure it would have mattered). Miles per dollar for that bike was bad. Miles per dollar on the training bike is a great return.

I just spend $50 on a masters swim event where i did the 100 fly, 100 back, 100 breast, 100 free, 50 fly, 50 free and a 50 fly and 50 free in relays. If I added all the racing time up, it was barely 10 minutes....so it was like $300 per hour of actual race time...although I was on the pool deck and in the warmup lanes for 4 hours in total so the $50 did not seem that bad.

Honestly I don't really care how many $$$$ it costs to do sport. I'll go cheap on equipment, but it's like downhill ski lift fees. If you want to be a skier, you just pay whatever the rate is. You control the costs by choosing how many days you want to ski to get your fix! At the end of the day it's about getting that personal fix that allows you to live the way you want.

Now I do want to get a VW eGolf to replace my Jetta. Which economically does not make a ton of sense, but it will make me happy owning that and driving it.

Dev

I’ve got $800 in my Cervelo P2 with Rolf wheels and around 2500 miles on it this year so I feel good about my investment.

I have a friend that is into drag racing. The amount of money he spends to shave tenths of a second off his quarter mile time will make any triathlete blush. Of course, he wouldn’t have it any other way like many of us.

Do what you enjoy. Life is too short to be bored.

this

It's a lot until I remember that half my family is diabetic and my grandfather had a triple bypass. I'm honestly probably saving money hand over fist.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

If I would care, I would just add everything up into one big number, and divide it by the total number of hours spend enjoying my hobby. That way, you can justify the expense of the Shiv.

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Citizen of the world, former drunkard. Resident Traumatic Brain Injury advocate.

Interesting perspective, since I ride my roadie so I can race my Shiv.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Diamond DA40 $180 per hour. So yeah.... My Shiv is a bargain.

Clearly you have never owned a boat.

For the bike I just add up everything I spend in a year and it’s part of the cost of doing triathlons just like my gym membership or entry fees.

Damn! That's dirt cheap. Ran some quick numbers on what I spent and due to upgrading and moving stuff I only have financial data back to 2013. So here are the numbers:

• Spent ~$37,000
• Sold ~$6600
• STRAVA Hours ~1500
• Real Hours are probably closer to 2100 and possibly could be higher (I don't trust my STRAVA data).
• So either $20/hr or $15/hr

Now, that includes all bike purchases and anything related to riding my bikes (e.g. shoes, kit, tires, etc). So, if you're getting out at $6/hr then you're doing pretty damn good.

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My YouTubes

That is great data!

I keep telling myself I will track all the spend, but I keep reverting back to plausible deniability for when I get asked how much I spend in a given year. :)

I still think it’s all pretty cheap entertainment and a healthy addiction.

Running and swimming are waaaaaaay cheaper in comparison. Maybe I need to roll up all the numbers into one meaninglessly low figure that makes me feel better.

I hear everyone say life is short... cannot take to with you, etc...

I’m getting there.

My race bike is cost per hour is going to be awful! Prefer not to think about it.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

9k is about 1 year worth of solid riding. Why sell after just 12 months?

I was challenged to get the reach I needed on it and couldn’t get narrow enough. Plus, I told myself I would reward myself if I hit a certain FTP threshold.

I could have rode it longer, but I had buy-in from spouse. So, I pulled the trigger.

When I sell a car and get a new one I do some quick math to tell me if I would have been better off leasing. I was curious what the math on the bike was....

 To get cost per hour I would have to add on the many hours of cleaning, adjusting brakes and derailleurs, changing parts and just piddling around which is something I really enjoy owning my bike. I still don’t want to know the number it might be as much as going out to dinner