Month: July 2008

The most com­mon semi-smarmy ques­tion I get about rid­ing my bike to work is: “How many MPG do you get with that thing?” So I decid­ed to do more bike math. There are 2080 calo­ries in one gal­lon of 2% milk. Using the calo­ries burned count from last year [220 calo­ries per day [6.6 miles per day]] I get 62.7 miles per gal­lon of milk while rid­ing my bike.

2080/220 = 9.454545

9.5 days * 6.6 miles per day = 62.7 mpg.

If the aver­age cost of milk is $3.50 a gal­lon, it costs me a lit­tle more than 5 ¢ per mile.

3.5/62.7 = 0.0558 $ per mile.

So the next time some­one asks, I’ll tell them that I get 62.7 mpg of milk which is about 5¢ per mile; and secure my nerd­dom for all time.