Fuelling a bicycle

PasturesNew

Angry_Bear wrote: »

Hmm, but "getting healthier" is not the same as "losing weight" and I'd wager that someone who controlled their weight mostly through exercise is likely to be significantly healthier than someone who controls their weight mainly through food.*

* Please note I said likely, and there are a number of assumptions I can't be bothered to put down. Please don't bother starting to point out the risks in extreme sports and so on, as we all know that's not what I'm getting at

I've no use for a healthy body; this one's fine for sitting on the sofa
I weigh about 8½ stone (although I suspect less than that right now, but I only weigh every 3 months).

I get exercise - I walk to the toaster and back

Norman_Castle

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've no use for a healthy body; this one's fine for sitting on the sofa

:rotfl:..........

custardy

Even worse. With that exercise you may live longer and have to feed yourself for longer!

SailorSam

Could you get yourself an electric bike. Then you wouldn't be using up all those calories that you need to eat an extra meal, and it will be cheaper to run than a car.

Angry_Bear

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've no use for a healthy body; this one's fine for sitting on the sofa

Fair enough , I guess I just don't understand why someone would worry about managing their weight if their health wasn't a consideration :rotfl:

brat

Scrimps wrote: »

You spend on bikes what it costs me to run my car for the year - all in :eek:

Is the ideal number of bikes N+1 (Where N = number of bikes you currently have?)

If you were just using a bike to replace a car for commuting and travel etc, the typical user would not spend as much as you surely?

In the 3 years since we moved (when I started using my bike more) Ive probably spent about £700 on kit (mostly bike lights, lid and decent lock) and repairs. That said, I trying to be quite minimalist (read: tight) with outgoings and buying stuff I have to find a place to put..

I dont cycle nearly as much as you though, if it were that embedded in my whole life, I would happily spend as much.

Truth be told, I dont even like cycling that much - I really wish I did. I did recently get a new saddle thats made a massive difference which means I dislike it less , but then I crashed/injured before I could go on any long bike rides to properly test it out.

I like nice bikes. I enjoy quality gear. It makes me want to ride more. I commute about 800 miles a year and cycle 7,500 miles a year for pleasure, so my bikes are much more for pleasure than necessity.

You could get a pretty good road bike, or an excellent hybrid for £1000 and have it last 20 years if you looked after it, at a reasonably low cost. I'd imagine you could commute a couple of thousand miles per year for less than 10p per mile, including sustenance.

If you have a tendency to eat more than you should, cycling can be a great way of keeping your weight steady rather than rising remorselessly. My years cycling has used the equivalent of approximately 7 stone worth of calories.

Perhaps if more people took the plunge and bought nice bikes and enjoyed the feeling of riding a quality bike, they would get out more for pleasure and be more encouraged to commute, The health benefits could be quite significant.

Scrimps

Nasqueron wrote: »

The ideal number is N+1 < S-1

That is to say the ideal number is one more than you currently have, but 1 less than would cause your partner to leave you

Yes, thats the snippet I was thinking of

Scrimps

brat wrote: »

Perhaps if more people took the plunge and bought nice bikes and enjoyed the feeling of riding a quality bike, they would get out more for pleasure and be more encouraged to commute, The health benefits could be quite significant.

Ha! Yes, I do recall having a very naff/cheap mountain bike with full suspension and the seat so unbelievably low to cycle only 5.5 miles to work each way.

I HATED it and so rarely cycled in even though driving though traffic was horrible and I thought: 5.5 miles is hardly anything, Im fairly young and fit, this should not be such a hassle!
It was only when my husband had to use it on a longish Purbeck bike ride (his broke at the start so I dropped mine off for him) that he conceded that getting a new bike was absolutely required. I cycled much more after that.

Ive had one nice road bike, I sold it as I wanted something in between a mountain bike and a road bike for the majority of my riding and decided (was told, see formula above) that I cant have more than 2 bikes. It did me for a 17 mile commute a few days a week for a while - wish I knew the value of a decent saddle then though! I only did one 50 miler....enjoyed the first 30 miles. Never did one again.:rotfl:

Johnmcl7

I did see an approximation that someone worked out for an equivalent mpg for cyclists based on the food and energy required and it was something like 1500-2500 mpg although there's so many different factors that's very rough but thought it amusing anyway.

When I started cycling I found myself quite hungry and eating more then when I stepped it up with MTB and road group rides I was left starving but it quickly settled down and now I have rarely anything more than I'd normally eat aside from an extra mars bar or similar.

In terms of a bike, it's certainly possible to do cycling on the cheap although I agree with Brat about choice of bike. When I decided to start cycling the primary reason was to stop using my car for short journeys due to it being equipped with a DPF and turbo, since both are pricey parts to repair I set a fairly high budget to get a nice bike I'd use. So I bought a £1000 hybrid with disc/drum brakes (no rubbing v-brakes), a gear hub and a carbon drive belt plus a rack, fairly thin tyres and a reasonably light bike. It was the first time I truly enjoyed cycling and it's completely changed my view on cycling.

I could still be running that bike day to day and pretty cost effectively as it very rarely needed anything done and when it did, it was cheap - I think the biggest expense was a £35 tyre as I wanted a decent puncture proof one. As it happens I've kind of fallen into the same trap as Brat and since bought six more bikes none of which I need but I've had a heck of a lot of fun going out cycling socially, night riding, 24 hour endurance racing, Cyclocross racing and Audax's. For what I get back from bikes I actually think they're great value for money.

John

Richard53

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

I did see an approximation that someone worked out for an equivalent mpg for cyclists based on the food and energy required and it was something like 1500-2500 mpg although there's so many different factors that's very rough but thought it amusing anyway.

Richard Ballantine (in the original Richard's Bicycle book) estimated 1500 mpg. The other phrase he used which amused me was that 'bikes are great because they run on cornflakes'.