"Phil Holman" <piholmanc@yourservice> wrote in message
news:
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>
> "Clive George" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> "Phil Holman" <piholmanc@yourservice> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>>
>>> Well, say a mile of cycling consumes 50 calories. Where can I buy 50
>>> calories for 20p?
>>
>> 1kg of flour provides about 3600 calories.
>>
>> IIRC it costs about 20p for 'value' brands, and still under a quid for
>> others.
>>
>> So that's up to about a penny for your 50 calories.
>>
>> A Mars bar is 230 calories or 294 depending on where I look.
>>
>> Costs about 50p in an expensive newsagent, rather less in multipacks.
>>
>> That's up to 11p, worst case.
>>
>> I could probably show similar numbers for fatty foods - they'd come out
>> the same. Even decent food doesn't cost very much.
>>
>>> Economically, cyclists are underpaid.
>>
>> Calories are cheap (see eg the classic overweight poor diet person).
>> You've got to eat anyway, just eat a bit more.
>>
>> Granted, trying to sustain cycling mileage on truffles is likely to prove
>> expensive - but there are other foods
>>
> The point I was trying to make is that the fuel cost is probably (on
> average) not a 2:1 ratio. For a car that does 35 mpg, the fuel cost is
> probably less than 15p per mile. Of course this isn't the only expense for
> driving a car. While you could find food this cheap to power your bicycle,
> I don't think it's realistic to expect the cyclist to limit themselves to
> it. I won't be carrying a supply of flour on my next long ride, more like
> a $1.50 power bar.
I think I've pointed out that it's easy to find food much cheaper than your
15p per mile - way, way cheaper. Just because you choose to use an expensive
power bar to source your calories, doesn't mean that's the only way.
For business-length trips, which are likely to be short, you won't need any
special extra food - just a bit more pasta, maybe a couple more potatoes
with the meal?
And no, I wouldn't carry flour - instead, I'd use it as the ingredient in
other food to eat. Pancakes, scones, cake. You'll notice I mentioned a mars
bar too - a standard off-the shelf pre-packaged product.
Beans on toast - a cyclist's staple - comes to 2.5 - 3.5p per mile. (there's
a reason it's a cyclist's staple
)
You may be confusing cycling for recreation with cycling for transport - the
20p/mile is for the latter, not the former. And there's no point in using
overpriced energy products for transport cycling - use real food instead.
(This all ignores the fact that food should be a pleasure. Burning calories
allows you to indulge that pleasure more - which means any extra money spent
is part of your personal leisure budget, not the transport one.)
cheers,
clive