I find it surprising that a typical new motorcycle seems to cost several thousands, comparable to a used car. Well, are there cheap (let’s say $1000 or thereabouts) motorcycles? By “motorcycle” I mean something that is legally allowed on a highway, which may or may not rule out mopeds and similar.
If the answer is no, does anybody know why that is? What are the main, irreducible costs inherent in making a functional, no-frills motorcycle?
It costs a lot to tool up, whether for a shiny beast or something basic, so all that happens if you market low end machines is that your profit margin goes down.
The motorcycle manufacturers have decided they prefer the higher mark up, the joker in the pack though is the chance of low cost machines from China,which hasn’t taken off yet.
In engineering terms there isn’t aything oo difficult to justify the cost, in fact there are some serious saving to be made in terms of crash design etc.
My take is that motorcycles are overpriced, yes the scale of production is much lower than for cars, but when you start examining the cost of replaceable components such as brake pads, clutches, brake discs and tyres you can only conclude that there is a lot of profit in bikes nd their paraphanalia.
I think expecting a decent road-worthy motorcycle for under a grand is not realistic-- even just small gas engines in the 35hp range (which I’d say is arguably the low end for a roadworthy bike) are in the $2,500 range.
Really, if anything, I’d say your observation about the price of a new motorcycle versus a used car is more a result of how stupendously cheap used cars are in this country.
$1,000 is awfully cheap when you consider the cost of not just the materials involved, but in assembling the pieces correctly and using quality parts that are QC’ed (quality controlled) to the point where you’d trust your life on these things. Put another way, is this really an area where you want to skimp money?
Leaving that issue aside, if you’re willing to go with no-name imports from Asian sweatshops assembled off the boat by who knows who, then yes you can get a brand new, highway riding bike for around $1,000. Strictly speaking, 200cc is enough to take one rider of up to 200 lbs. at the highway speed limit of 65 MPH on a lightweight, small motorcycle. I know because I used to do it on a Vespa GT scooter, when I weighed 240 lbs. to boot. And a 150cc bike could take you 50-55 MPH with no problem, maybe even up to 60 MPH if you’re small enough (I know a few riders of Vespa LX150s who ride on the FDR drive and other NYC parkways with no problems keeping up with traffic that usually doesn’t go faster than 60 MPH).
You can certainly get new motorcycles and scooters at that level of performance. One Google search turned up the “BMS Pathfinder 200cc scooter with 16" Wheels - High Quality!” for $1,150 that includes a top case! And for 150cc, you can get scoots for under $700.
If you want to shift gears on a standard motorcycle there’s Evo, selling 200cc Enduros for $1,450. Cheaper than that and you’re looking at a “mini-bike”.
You should know that it’s not a very happy experience riding at the limit of a motorcycle’s power just to keep up with the slowest traffic on the highway, plus having to deal with the wind forces both from riding and from passing vehicles (especially trucks and large SUVs). Riding at speed already tends to lift weight from the wheels, it can feel very “floaty” and a good gust of wind, combined with a passing truck, can require you to do quite a bit of wrestling to keep from flying into the next lane. Not Fun.
The cheapest, most reliable new small motorcycles would probably go for around $3,500-$4,000, such as the Honda Rebel ($4,000), Kawasaki Eliminator 125 ($2,800) or Suzuki GZ250, or their newest retro small bike, the TU250 (both about $3,800).
What I find amazing is that something like a Honda Goldwing costs more than the SUV I drive!
I would also think that, at least some, of the reason cheap motorcycles are more expensive than you would like is because there are some areas you really can’t skimp that far on. Unlike in a car a catastrophic failure on a motorcycle would more likely result in some type of injury.
That being said good quality, not so expensive used motorcycles are not that hard to find. Depending on when you are shopping for them.
I dont see why not. Tata Motors makes a $2200 car. In the US a motorcycle is a vanity item, its not something thats sold as aggressively as cars, trucks, computers, etc.
Some scooters are sold at reasonable prices. Sure, they cant do expressway speeds but they can get you around town. Depending on the motor you can do 35-45mph or so.
robardin: I’m surprised there are still motorcycles that cheap in the U.S. I thought that Royal Enfields were cheap at around five kilobucks (new).
Johnny L.A., I don’t think that link goes where you think it goes.
Whoops! (Can you guess what I had with lunch today? 
)
Here’s the Royal Enfield site: http://www.enfieldmotorcycles.com/
How much do dirtbikes cost?
Good (perhaps above average, but nowhere near high-end) bicycles can easily cost $1000.
Brian
China is producing a lot of cheap motorcycles. Apparently they are being gobbled up by the huge market for them in Asia. They have had little need to expand distribution to the United States. It will happen eventually.
Exactly. In China or elsewhere where small, cheap motorcycles are a staple of transportation, you can get a good inexpensive bike. But then again they don’t do much highway riding. They’ve got their fenced-off bike/moped lanes where you have a much lower chance of dying.
Again, it’s because they’re not ridden much in the States, and also because the manufacturers impose price controls on dealers, etc. The “inexpensive” bikes you find in Sears for $150 will cost $30 in a Chinese Wallmart. The $600 Specialized (which, for one thing, can actually shift gears) should cost $70.
You’ll also have a hard time finding battery-powered bikes in the states. They’re excellent city vehicles (although they don’t go on the highway).
Actually, a cursory search reveals a LOT of mopeds for $700-$1500.
Question - doesn’t this $150 vs $30 price difference on something as small as a bike constitute an invitation for smuggling? Why don’t people buy this stuff in China, whether in Walmart or from a corrupt factory official, ship it to here and sell on ebay/craigslist/etc? Or is this in fact happening? Where do I get me one of those? 
If they’re not legally imported, how are you going to title them? With exotic european sports cars, it may be worth finding a loophole (hence the term grey-market). With cheap bikes, not so much.
Using Yamaha as an example, a YZ85 (a highly tuned 85cc motorcross bike) has a suggested retail of $3,349. A TT-R110E (a lower-performance four stroke) runs $1,949.
You can get a PW-50 for $1,199, but that’s a very low performance bike for elementary school-aged kids.
The thing with getting any sort of foreign market vehicle imported here is having DOT and EPA certifications on the vehicle. From what I understand, getting a motorized vehicle (whether truck, car, or motor bike) EPA certified can cost thousands of dollars and take time. DOT/NHTSA has strict standards on the equipment outside of the engine, too. If you were to import a vehicle from overseas that did not already meet standards, there are a few businesses that are registered importers that can get the vehicle up to US standards. BUT it’s extremly pricey and time consuming to do so.
I’ve seen some Chinese made ATVs and such, and they are just CRAP. Cheap, plasticy things that barely passed the regs. You truly get what you pay for.
A thought about motorcycle prices vs. car prices. It’s easy to find a $20,000 bike and say, ‘Criminy! I can get a new car for that!’ But then, there are a few cars I can find that cost as much or more than some new airplanes. My '94 Yamaha XJ600 cost $4,000 new. It’s a standard 600cc. If it were a car, what would it be? Probably a low-end import costing around $15,000 to $20,000. Of course the Seca II lacks the weather protection and carrying capacity of its car analogue, but it’s faster, gets better fuel economy, is cheaper to insure, and is a lot more fun. ISTM that a comparable car cost four- or five times what the bike cost.
My 2002 YZF-R1 had an MSRP of $11,000. (I happened to live near the one dealer in the country that will actually sell a bike for less than the sticker price, and it was the last year’s model so I got it for $500 less than the discounted price of a 2003. As a data point, a 2010 YZF-R1 has an MSRP of $13,290.) Eleven kilobucks is getting close to car-price range. But what kind of car would you get for, say, $17,000? Your basic econobox. Four seats and no performance. If the R1 were a car, it would be more like a Porsche Boxster or maybe a 911. Last time I checked, a Boxster cost about $45,000. So again, four times the cost of an analogous motorcycle.
What I’m getting at is that you can’t just look at the price of a given motorcycle and compare that price to the cheapest car you can get. You need to look at the price of a motorcycle and compare it to the price of a car that is its closest four-wheel analogue. I think the gap narrows toward the lower end. As has been stated earlier in the thread, a motorcycle has to be safe enough to ride. There’s a point where, when materials and workmanship, cost of development, cost of production, transportation, profits, and so forth are such that a motorcycle cannot be any cheaper than it is.
Take the Royal Enfield (second link, please! :smack: ) mentioned earlier. Same basic engine for half a century. Same frame design that has been used for the same time, and which has to a large extent been retired by everyone else. Cheap labour force. Low performance. (Until recently, they had a top speed of 70 mph.) The cheapest 500cc model runs a bit over $5,000. There’s not a lot of room to lower the price. By comparison, a Honda Fit runs about $15,000 – only three times as much for a more-or-less comparable car, instead of four or five times as much.