Absolutely. Even factoring in the PITA that is safety gear, riding the bike is just so much more fun than driving the car, even in Arizona heat.
I completely agree. I still have some problems at low speeds if I’m not careful. I’ve had my bike for ten years and I’m a fairly big guy.
And I can’t stress enough the ABATE (or similar) Motorcycle Safety Course. There are advanced courses for the bigger bikes, but you have to bring you own bike. My instructor also did an advanced Goldwing/cruiser course.
Some of the beginner courses supply the bike. The one I went to had Honda 125’s and 250’s.
I would think about a motorcycle, but my drive to work is on a rather aggressive interstate and I like the comfort of a lot of metal around me.
Maybe if I get something closer.
They had all 250s at the course we took. Each rider was given a bike they had to use for the entire three days. It was great
There is definitely a scooter in my future. Something cheap and utilitarian, like a 50cc Honda or something.
I bought a Honda Shadow Sabre 1100 a few months ago and I’m loving it. About a thousand miles at 40 mpg. (That’s a thousand miles on 25 gallons of gas for those that don’t feel like doing the math.)
My SO bought a Honda Elite scooter that she’s tooling around the yard in until she’s comfortable enough to go on the road. Should be getting about 70 on it.
No regrets.
And another fervent endorsement for a motorcycle training course.
I’ve got a retired police Electra Glide - see here. I do try to ride it to work as often as I can.
Even at about 38 mpg though, there’s no way I can even pretend to rationalize the cost of it. But the fun factor is enormous.
I’m leaving on a bike trip to the west coast at the end of the week. I’ll be going through the Rockies and taking the sea to sky highway through Whistler down to Vancouver. Then to Vancouver Island and back through Washington, Montana and so forth.
Think of how much gas I’ll save.
There does seem to be a much larger number of motorcycles and especially scooters on the road the past couple of years. I will echo those who have commented about safety. MSF course is an excellent idea. Understand, respect and ride within your own limits. Ride defensively - like other drivers can’t see you. And while you can’t be overly paranoid about it, dress appropriately to address the potential danger of the sport.
I’m considering getting at least one scooter, maybe two. The SO doesn’t drive and isn’t going to get a license, ever, but he bikes and would probably be open to a scooter because of the extended range and speed over his mountain bike. I figure that for minor errands and suchlike it’d be a good compromise, use the car for longer trips or more people or more haulage, scooter for dinky stuff. Portland isn’t a terribly motorcycle friendly town in winter so I don’t feel comfortable going with an all out cycle (plus, I like things that go fast too much to get into that–I’d like it WAY too much I fear!) but I have to say those maxi-scooters look BADASS!
My wife bought a third-hand scooter several years ago (50cc), but then never used it. It sat there, rusting, but last month I said “That’s it!” and walked it down to the local scooter shop for repairs. Our rainy season is starting to lessen, so I’ve been scootering the 6 miles to work (and back, of course) almost every day. I’m going to do the motorcycle safety class when the weather gets cooler, and I’ve been keeping an eye open for a used Honda Rebel as well.
I started out on a 50 cc scooter before getting lessons and getting myself a full-size motorbike.
My usual advice: Wear all the gear all the time, even on a piddly little scoot. That road is gonna hurt if you fall on it.
If the gear is too hot, get mesh gear with armour.
For your first ride, go second-hand, and go light. Under 500 cc engine, and under 400 pounds wet (ie. full tank of gas). You can always sell it in six months.
Is that save or spend $200/month on gas? How much do you drive/ride in your commute?
For me I log about 4,000 miles riding my daily commuter in mostly in-city riding. If the difference in mileage between my motorcycle and my car is, say, 60 MPG versus 15 MPG (a very slightly exaggerated difference), that’s 45 MPG I’m saving over 4,000 miles, or 88.89 gallons. Rounding that up to 90 gallons at $4.50/gallon is $405/year, or $33.75 a month.
To reach $200/month in savings, you’d have to be driving well over 20,000 miles a year just to commute! Is that for real? Ouch! Better get a motorcycle or maxi-scooter then, even a 200cc a scooter typically maxes out at around 60 MPH!
For me, the real savings come in the form of time. Driving to work in Midtown Manhattan is simply not an option, and living where I do in NYC, riding to work saves me six dollars and five hours a week compared to taking mass transit (bus and subway), or $37.50 and 2.5 hours a week compared to driving to the subway and parking at a Park-n-Ride lot.
I drive 10 miles one way to work, so a minimum of 20 miles a day, 100 miles a week, about 400 miles a month. With leisure driving, it’s usually more like 450-500 on average. So 450 a month, my car gets 20 mpg on a good day, so 22.5 gallons a month. At $4/gal, which it is here, that’s $90/month in gas. The car’s not in the best condition, though, and is only getting 15 mpg, so that’s 30 gallons a month or $120.
My bike gets 50 mpg. At 450 miles a month, that’s 9 gallons, or $36. Round up to $40 since it needs higher octane gas. That’s $50-80 a month I’m saving, or $600 a year minimum.
My commute is by far the least intensive, too. There’s plenty of people around here who drive 20 miles to work, and some crazy people commute daily from Tucson, which is about 100 miles. :eek:
Oooh, I see that I made an algebraic error there in comparing the cost savings of the car vs. the motorcycle. It’s not right to compute off the difference in MPG since the motorcycle actually uses fewer gallons than the car (of course). D’oh!
All right then, even from a cost basis, a 10-mile-each-way commute like mine is saving me $600/year (if I were in a position to drive to work, which I’m not). Make that a 30-mile-a-day commute and it becomes $1,800 a year, which would pay for a $3,600 bike in two years and a $5,400 bike in three years. Not so bad when you think about it, especially given the fun factor, and if you buy a used bike.
I screwed up my wording here. Don’t know how. :smack: I meant to say “My commute is by no means the most intensive.” I don’t know why I wrote what I did; it makes no sense.
I’ve got a scooter and a motorcycle. My Buick gets around 10mpg, the bike gets ~48mpg, and the scooter gets ~70mpg. They have both paid for themselves several times over.
I fill up at about the same interval except where on the Buick it’s $65 bucks, on the bike the highest I have paid for a fill up was $16.
We just bought a Honda Ruckus a few weeks ago and I am loving it on so many levels that I get all giddy like a school girl.
First is the fact that I get 100mpg on a tank that is a little over a gallon and a half
Really, that alone says it all. It has cost me about $6 in gas since we bought it last month. I have 300 miles on it so far. My truck is usually $125 to fill it up. My last top off cost me .83 .
It goes up to 40, but with a good wind, good road, I’ve had it up to 45mph. And that is not even hell-bent-for-leather leaning over the handle bars trying to reduce drag.
The only downer to this product is the gas guage is just a light. When the light goes on, you have a drop of gas left. You have no idea of just how much gas you have left and eyeballing the open tank is not exactly accurate. And I wish there was some kind of re-settable odometer thing to track miles per gallon.
It is not as foo fooey as a vespa ( those rock, but are not meant for back roads.) and everyone who sees my Ruckus just is in love with my sweet, sweet ride. It is a solid ride that doesn’t feel like it is about to self implode from abuse, like any Italian Made anything. We here at Casa Ujest are all about abusing our products, not pampering them.
It is a one person ride, but one of my BFF wants a ride and we can do a Dumb and Dumber through our little town. She said she’d even pee on me to make it truely authentic movie moment.
My friends are special.
The way I look at it is if I can ride this through most of the year ( we shall see just what it is like as the weather decreases, I am hoping to make it through to at least the end of October. This stiff-nipple weather at 530am om July, even with a sweat shirt on, is an eye opener, too say the least.) It will be a quarter paid for in gas savings and ah-fark it-it-is too-far- to -scoot- to -the -mall- to- peruse- the- bookstore-and-buy-a-few-magazines-that-i-don’t-need.
Today, I had every well intention to roam the back roads picking up returnables, but I fell asleep after I got home from work. So, I’ll do it tomorrow.
The other bonus is all the mentally challenged people at work ( and there are alot) just are enamored with my ride. My imitation of them asking me questions about my ride brings down the house at parties. So, if you like being a rock star to that demographic, a scooter will get you there like a rocket ship.
A friend of mine used to love bikes. Scooters, cycles, all that. He was killed on one when a driver didn’t see him. I just don’t trust them.
Let’s examine this, shall we?
My commute to work is 110 miles a day, times 6 days equals 660 miles per week, times 4 weeks equals 2640 miles per month, times 12 months equals 31680 miles per year, and that doesn’t count using my car for anything else. Taking everything into consideration, e.g.: grocery trips, errands, general tooling around on weekends, etc… even if I subtract for when I’m away on business trips, and other non-commuting days, I’m still at approximately 35000 miles per year.
Now, taking the approximately 21 miles per gallon my car gets, I currently use approximately 1650 gallons of gasoline per year, times an average of $4.00 per gallon, gives me a total yearly fuel expenditure of approximately $6600.
If, on the other hand, I ride a motorcycle (or scooter) that gets 70 miles per gallon for, say, 8 months of the year, or approximately 21000 miles, that calculates to approximately 302 gallons of gas which, at $4.00 per gallon, works out to approximately $1210 per year. If I add the cost of gas for the 4 months I’m still using my car, which is approximately $2010, my new total fuel expenditure for the year is $3220.
If I subtract the $3220 from the $6600, unless I’ve miscalculated somewhere, I get a savings of approximately $3380 for the year. So yeah, I’d say buying a bike to save money on gas definitely makes sense.
It’s funny - since I’ve started scootering to work, everyone’s been real supportive about it. Except the first day I showed up in my helmet, this one gal who is normally as sweet and soft-spoken as anything arched an eyebrow at me and said, condescendingly, “Well, I wish you every luck with that. Have fun on your scooter.” What the hell did that mean?!?
Wait’ll she sees me in my goggles which are coming tomorrow! 
I’ve never understood this kind of comment.
I know people who have been killed or permanently injured in cars, swimming pools, or walking down the street. (guy down the street from me in elementary school lost his leg when hit by a car, guy on my soccer team drowned in his backyard, and co-worker’s child was killed in driveway) I still get in cars, swim, and walk down the street.
I do take all the necessary precautions whenever I engage in said activities. Being on a motorcycle is no different. It is not for everyone – but then again, neither is driving a car.
Oh and Shirley, get a jacket. A sweatshirt is not appropriate gear.