As most of you know school has started up once again.  Considering that I am so close to ASU (about a mile one-way) I thought it might make sense to forgo driving to school in favor of either walking or riding my bike.  It turned out, however, that my old bike (which had been sitting in the Arizona sun for four years) was in need of serious repairs.  Rather than spend about $180 to have it repaired I decided to go ahead and pick up a new bike for the same price.  With accessories and tax I spent a grand total of $242.03.  This is what I got:

As far as bikes are concerned it’s a pretty decent ride.  It’s quite comfortable, actually.  It’s a Sun Rover.  For the price it’s amazing, actually.  I think.  I got it on sale for $100 off the sticker price.  That was exciting.  The reason that I decided not to drive to school this year is because I did not feel it right to pay for a parking pass when I live so close to school now.  So why not start riding my bicycle to school, I thought.  I figured I could save myself a decent amount of cash, get some exercise and even cut down on my Co2 emissions.

The RoI On This Thing Is Fantastic!

I ran some numbers on my bicycle “investment” and came up with a Return on Investment of 71%!  I spent a total of $242.03 and I should save somewhere in the neighborhood of $343 over the next two semesters, until graduation.  To figure out my savings I looked up the cheapest parking pass at ASU ($280) and figured out how much in gas I’ll be saving by not driving to school over the next two semesters (about $63) and added the two together.  Not bad eh?  $100 return on a $240 dollar purchase.

Does anybody out there bike to work, school or anywhere else as part of your daily commute?  Leave a comment, I’d love to find out!