Have your gas savings outweighed ebike cost?

[pdf]

Still amazed that some of you drive 11mpg cars, I have a 2,000cc Diesel estate that does nearly 60mpg and pulls like a train...well not mine but the other half's.

What is a Diesel estate?

[flexy]

What is a Diesel estate?

Read diesel station wagon.

[cal3thousand]

Still amazed that some of you drive 11mpg cars, I have a 2,000cc Diesel estate that does nearly 60mpg and pulls like a train...well not mine but the other half's.

What is a Diesel estate?

I think he means diesel "wagon".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_wagon

[neoplasticity]

My costs:

Bike $160
Kit $240
Batteries + charger $250
Tires + tubes $50

total cost in the past two years $700


Miles ridden = 7000
Cost to drive that in gas on my Ford Ranger =$850 dollars in gas only.. not counting wear and tear

I get $60 a quarter so $240 dollars a year for commuting by bike to my work so that's an added bonus for me that is probably not available to everyone.

So without my bonus i've saved AT LEAST $150 and that number continues to go up.

With my bonus I've saved $530 dollars!

[SamTexas]

Miles ridden = 7000
Cost to drive that in gas on my Ford Ranger =$850 dollars in gas only.. not counting wear and tear

Something's wrong with your calculation:
$850 / 7,000miles = 12.1 cents/mile
Assume $4.00/gallon (California)
400 / 12.1 = 33 miles/gallon for a Ford Ranger?

[REdiculous]

Give yourself a reasonable wage and you've probably spent a lot more than you think you did, especially if you hung out here on ES for a while, reading up.

I'm not worried about saving money - I figure it's cheap entertainment that happens to be kinda healthy.

[flexy]

This is true, but I don't regret a minute, and posting it all saves others time when trying to accomplish the same result.

[REdiculous]

I'm only counting the R&D, not the time spent going into detail so people can follow your build(s). If you were reading ES for 3 months before you started buying parts, I think that time counts as an expense, to some degree.

It's just one of those things to consider, I think....it's a personal thing though, so it's gonna vary a lot...

If I count *everything* and give myself $25/hr, I've spent at least $3500 on ebiking. If I ignore my time, and only look at the parts on the bike..$500.

I think my point is that we shouldn't be so worried about the dollar amount that we've spent or saved - if your time is worth anything, you've probably spent a lot more than you think. Besides, it's a health thing....how do you put a dollar amount on "I probably avoided a heart-attack"?

[Quajochem]

And after x replies, what's the simple answer to the question

Have your gas savings outweighed ebike cost?

YES

or

NO
+1


Can we make a poll for this?

[REdiculous]

And after x replies, what's the simple answer to the question

Have your gas savings outweighed ebike cost?

No.

I'm a recreational rider, so I've spent more on gas than I would've had I just sat on my ass at home. My kid likes to ride the trails in town and the safety of a dedicated path is worth it to me - it's easy to justify the $6 it takes to get there and back, and the $500 I've got in my ebike is nothing.

[Ham549]

NO

[captain387]

The girlfriend ,,, "Are you on that stupid bicycle site again." (She doesn't really mean it )

In relation to the upper comments about time spent learning this hobby, and keeping on top of the new revelations,
I was curious if there were such a clock that keeps track of all time use on this site per member.

It would be a great response to say "Yes dear I'm on the bicycle site again, but I've only spent 7.2 (This part really fast)x 10^2 hours this year looking at the site"

I've spent

$1450 for kit and batteries

I have around 85km racked up.
I think I have a little way to go yet, luckily the weather is getting nice.

[REdiculous]

If you go to the User Control Panel and look at the Overview tab, under Your Activity it shows how many posts per day you have. I'm at 1.29 and I've sorta been trying to bring that down closer to 1....it's not working.

[E-racer]

I've got 12,000 miles to put on my electric motorbike before it breaks even with gas for my car. It broke even on fun factor on the first ride though!

[deronmoped]

I look at it this way.

The investment is done and over. That is money that I don't care much about anymore. It's what is going to come out of my pocket at the moment that concerns me. The thinking here is to reduce my living expenses. If things get bad in the future, how much is it going to cost me to survive. Right now I have everything paid for and all my yearly expenses are like $6,000.00. I could probably reduce it another grand if I took my cars off the road.

I made the investment in my E-bike and now I just try to use it instead of car. This allows me to go at least a month without buying gas.

Basically what I'm doing is, using today's wealth to secure tomorrows survival. You can be flush with money today, so why not invest it in things that reduce your overall expenses. That way you have more freedom, less stress, more time to yourself...

[Toshi]

I had net savings of almost $4k over a 15 month period thanks to my electric bike.

How, you ask? Was I driving an 18 wheeler? Hardly, but I did use the e-bike as an excuse to sever the car umbilicus. I sold it outright and went car-less for my last 15 months in Seattle (before moving to NY in 2009), and the savings were largely from avoided costs of car depreciation, insurance, and, yes, fuel.

At the moment I'm selling my car once again, after owning one from 2009 through the present day, and will commute exclusively by my $3.5k used motorcycle (that gets ~46 mpg) or by bumming rides off of my wife.

[jkbrigman]

I have a Scion XB right now that gets ~30mpg around town. I'm spending ~$2000 on my ebike ($200 bike, Kit from Cellman, shipping from China, etc..). So at $4.25/gallon of gas it'd be ~14k miles before I make up for the price of the bike. That's assuming all of the miles were miles that I would have driven anyway.
So it's hard (in my case anyway?) to look at getting an ebike as a "money saver". There are other things like fun, being green, having something different, and the learning experience that make it worth it for me.
Obviously most people here have justified having an ebike in some way.. Does it save you money? What's your reason?

(edited to remove drama... )

I've got about $1200 into my ebike and I have not recouped that cost in gas savings from my 2011 Prius. But gas is such a small portion of the cost of car ownership, that's not the problem.

Today I just took time off from work and paid $30 to get my 2011 Prius inspected. Now I'm mailing in $38 to get my inspection sticker. $70 today and whatever time and trouble it cost me, and that's the car that's running fine. That's two tanks of gas worth of cost that got me absolutely nothing. An ebike doesn't do this.

My other car, a 2000 Honda Insight, needs a new catalytic converter. That's not "future" money, magic numbers on a spreadsheet or depreciation or anything, it's real. Money I have to come up with right now as I type this. If I don't, my state government says I have to give up the license tag and take the car off the road. I've been re-examining what this car has cost me over it's lifetime. My dining room table is covered with receipts from the repairs to this car over the past 10 years. It's not (by a long shot) been the worst car I've ever owned, I've just had it a very long time and these things add up. Laying out the cost records on the table makes me sick to my stomach. You don't have THIS problem with an ebike.

A catalytic converter doesn't buy me one second of joy or compensation for the cost. I'm not one speck healthier, happier or better off after I replace it. No woman is gonna fix me breakfast because she "likes the look of my catalytic converter"....

I've done brake jobs in the pouring rain, swapped out power steering pumps, alternators and starters in bitter cold and blistering sun. I've walked miles to get help when a car has failed on the highway. Riding an ebike in inclement or cold weather is a cake walk compared to that.

Meanwhile, my ebike sits quietly in the garage, ready to go. No license. No insurance. No inspections. No gas. No crazy, insane repairs that I can't do myself for cheap. The most expensive part on this bike, the (LiPo) battery, can fall over and die today. If it did, I can order a replacement, drop it in, charge it up and go. No mechanics, no insurance, no "regulatory stickers". Just buying a battery and waiting for it to get here. Maybe I pedal a little more in the meantime.

Socrates said: "The unexamined life is not worth living..." (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Socrates). I say the unexamined car is not worth driving.

JKB

[techboss]

I think when you factor in savings, you should also consider,

- How much you would have to pay for parking if you drive to work. This could be much more than Gas alone.
- Riding on ebike would encourage some method of exercise, and that would save you from going to the gym. Gym pass saved.

[gdread]

Been 6 months of regular commuting, I reckon that it broken even a month ago

[bowlofsalad]

A lot of the time, this contrast is done poorly. Why is it just the gasoline that you compare? I assume most people who have e-bikes still have their cars. So it's hard to make statements about things like insurance (though, that can be cancelled for periods of time). However, there is still a lot more to the cost of driving a car than gas. Lots more. This contrast is very far from apples to apples. Compare the cost of the ebike to the cost of a car, compare the cost per mile to the cost per mile on each vehicle. When you do that, you'll start to see a much more clear picture of value.

There is no question that ebikes are cheaper to own and operate. Some of us can even accept the shortcomings relating to comfort (weather), safety (questionable) and sometimes speed. Most people don't have the confidence to go all out on ebikes and ditch the car, I can accept that myself. I was reading a thread about transportation discrimination on this forum recently. Some interviewers for jobs were trying to imply that e-bikes are an unreliable mode of transportation. For various reasons, I feel like that is the opposite.

[lbz5mc12]

I've never owned a car so how would I reply lol.

[Trackman417]

No
But it's the fun factor on why I ride my ebike. Driving in my area sucks. I got tired of driving here about 2 months after I got a car and my license. With the bike, I can't wait to ride it. A year later and I still have that EV grin. I don't think riding my bike will ever get old and I don't know why, and I'm not going to complain about that .
I have been told by my siblings I should drop it, that I grew out of riding bikes. After I built it and road it, they want to build one as well.

[jlpmedia]

I probably saved enough money to buy a new car. I spent about $3000 for my trike, electronics, battery, misc supplies(camelbak, mirror, airless inner tube, solar panels, etc). This even includes the cost of building a velomobile shell-$300.
Between the solar panels and my pedaling, it is enough to fully charge the battery after/during every commute. although i do have the option of plugging it in. but it's fully enclosed so i can ride it in the rain and because it has 3 wheels i can drive it in the winter.
I ride at least 260 miles a week.

[bowlofsalad]

I probably saved enough money to buy a new car. I spent about $3000 for my trike, electronics, battery, misc supplies(camelbak, mirror, airless inner tube, solar panels, etc). This even includes the cost of building a velomobile shell-$300.
Between the solar panels and my pedaling, it is enough to fully charge the battery after/during every commute. although i do have the option of plugging it in. but it's fully enclosed so i can ride it in the rain and because it has 3 wheels i can drive it in the winter.
I ride at least 260 miles a week.

You know we want to see pictures. I love velomobiles, and I find DIY velomobiles inspirational. If your serious about solar power, some consider putting a solar panel on a trailer as a solid option. If you do that, I recommend having it attach with a rotating hitch, if it flips, your bike won't go with it. This is actually an idea that I've been working on myself and that is a great solution to a problem that has scared me away from it. The solar panel flipping from wind and tipping me with it. With a rotating hitch, that might be a little less likely.

[xadmx]

Miles ridden = 7000
Cost to drive that in gas on my Ford Ranger =$850 dollars in gas only.. not counting wear and tear

Something's wrong with your calculation:
$850 / 7,000miles = 12.1 cents/mile
Assume $4.00/gallon (California)
400 / 12.1 = 33 miles/gallon for a Ford Ranger?

$4.00/gallon, us in the uk have to pay $10-$11 ish a gallon i'm coming to live over there lol.