Claiming business mileage on a bike or motorbike
Published 14th October 2026
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Most mileage advice is written around cars, and the 55p rate that applies to them from 6 April 2026 gets the attention. If you ride a bicycle or a motorbike for work, different rates apply, and a few details work in your favour. This article covers those rates, what they include, and how to record the rides in the form HMRC asks for.
The rates
HMRC's approved mileage rates for the 2026 to 2027 tax year are:
- Motorcycles: 24p a mile
- Bicycles: 20p a mile
- Cars and vans: 55p a mile for the first 10,000 business miles, then 25p
The 10,000-mile step down applies to cars and vans only. Motorcycles and bicycles are paid at the same rate for every business mile in the year, so there is no point at which the rate drops. The car and van rate was 45p before 6 April 2026, while the motorcycle and bicycle rates did not change.
Passenger payments, the extra 5p a mile for carrying a colleague on a journey that is also a work journey for them, are listed under cars and vans, so they do not apply to a bike or a motorbike.
Try the figures yourself with the calculator. As an example, if you ride 2,500 business miles a year on a motorbike, the claim at the approved rate is 2,500 x 24p, which is £600. The same distance by bicycle is 2,500 x 20p, or £500.
What the rate covers
GOV.UK says the approved rate is meant to cover the cost of owning and running your vehicle, and that you cannot claim separately for things like fuel, vehicle tax, MOTs or repairs. That works for bikes in a plain way. A new chain, tyres and a service are all part of what the 20p is meant to cover, so they are not claimed again on top.
If you are an employee, there are two situations. If your employer pays the approved rate, you do not need to claim anything. If they pay less than the approved rate, or nothing, you can claim tax relief on the difference. For example, an employer paying 10p a mile on 2,000 business miles by bicycle leaves a shortfall of 10p a mile against the 20p rate, so relief is claimed on £200 of unpaid allowance.
If you are self-employed, GOV.UK's simplified expenses guidance includes a flat rate of 24p a mile for motorcycles. It is not available for a vehicle you have already claimed capital allowances on, and once you start using flat rates for a vehicle you must carry on while it is used in the business. The page does not mention bicycles, so if you ride one for a self-employed business, check how to claim the cost before relying on a flat rate. Parking and other travel costs can be claimed on top of the flat rates.
Which journeys count
The rate is for business journeys. GOV.UK says that this does not include travelling to and from your work unless it is to a temporary place of work. A courier riding between jobs, or an engineer riding from home to a customer site, is making business trips. A ride to a permanent workplace is commuting and is not claimable.
What the log must show
For employees, GOV.UK says to keep records of the dates and mileage of your work journeys, add up the mileage for each type of vehicle, and subtract any mileage allowance your employer pays you. To claim, you send HMRC copies of your mileage logs, and each entry must include the reason for the journey and the start and end postcodes. If you have more than one job, you need a log for each. You can claim for the current tax year and the four before it.
That tells you what a usable log looks like:
- The date
- The start postcode
- The end postcode
- The distance in miles
- The reason for the journey
Write it up straight after each ride, since a log reconstructed from memory months later is hard to defend. The article on keeping a mileage log goes through the method in more detail.
Where an employee claim goes
GOV.UK says that if you complete a Self Assessment tax return, you must make the claim through the return instead of the separate online service. If you do not, the online service checks your eligibility and walks you through the claim. Either way the evidence is the same mileage log, which is why it pays to keep it in the form described above from the first ride of the tax year.
Because you can look back four tax years, a log that has been kept properly also lets you claim for earlier years that you did not claim at the time, provided you have the records for them. A year with no log is a year you cannot easily prove.
Kit that makes recording easier
Distance is the figure that matters, and it is easy to estimate badly. A Ad GPS cycle computer records the distance of each ride with a date and time, and it saves you comparing an odometer reading with a map afterwards. Distance recorded this way still has to go into your log with the postcodes and the reason.
If you prefer to use your phone, a Ad handlebar phone mount keeps it where you can see it. A Ad motorcycle phone holder does the same for a motorbike. Make sure the phone does not obstruct your view of the road, and set up any recording before you start moving rather than while you are riding.
For anyone who prefers paper, a Ad waterproof pocket notebook survives rain and a back pocket. A Ad mileage log book has the columns already ruled for date, route, purpose and miles. A Ad pencil or pen that writes in the wet is more reliable than a biro on damp paper.
Keep a page or a spreadsheet for each tax year, since the 20p and 24p rates are claimed against the year the rides were made in.