Know anyone who's bought a motorcycle/scooter for MPG reasons?

[Arminius]

I know 3 people who bought scooters to get better mileage, but they all bought their scooters last year.

[Ryland]

I bought my tomos arrow so that I could park on sidewalks, ride with the local moped gang and of course it gets about 105mpg, the friend who I bought it from became a dealer awhile back after i suggested it and has been selling hem faster then expected and the wear house is apparently empty with a 3 week waiting list for dealers.
these are still two stroke engines with an injector pump and a catolitic converter in the exhaust, my next one will most likely be a Sachs Madass with a 4 stroke engine.

[MoeDeeB]

I bought the MadAss 125 4 stroke, 2 months ago. Have been averaging 80 mpg, 35 kml or 2.88l per 100km great bike, although expect that to get better, had aproblem with speedo cable, it has adigital readout so could not accurately get distance travelled, all fixed now. Replaced a 50cc 2 stroke scooter, MadAss is much better, to ride! Decided a car was a waste of money only doing about 6000km/3700miles a year. Gets a lot of interest when out riding. Fuel economy, I think is pretty good. I love it!

[PA32R]

Originally Posted by groar

In France a lot of people are buying scooters. This is a must for teenagers, as smoking when I was young. This is to save time for older people in cities.

The probability of accident and the insurance taxes are so high that I gave up twice to buy one. Also because I can't replace a car by a scooter.

Anyway, scooters are big generators of CO2 and I'm saving gas to save CO2 1st, save €uros 2nd.

Denis.

How, in an internal combustion engine, can rate of generation of CO2 and rated of consumption of fuel not be linearly related? If the combustion is less efficient, I could understand proportionally increased production of CO (not a good thing, obviously) but perfect hydrocarbon oxidation would yield CO2 and H20. So it seems to me that there's no way to minimize fuel consumption and not minimize CO2 production.

[PA32R]

I've been contemplating the Zapino. I've figured it would pay for itself in about 10 months, but the downsides (longer commutes on city streets, hassle of plugging it in at each end of my commute, difficulty in carrying cargo, danger, wondering if the charge will take me up that last hill to my house, etc.) are daunting.

[AndrewJ]

A fellow merchandiser recently sold his 8mpg pickup truck for a Kawasaki ZX6R. He claims that he gets at least 35mpg on his new bike (he's not exactly the featherfoot-type.)

Another merchandiser who drives a F250 diesel is considering a motorcycle...
Though she has mentioned that she "just feels safe" in her truck.

I've also noticed that people around the warehouse have stopped driving their trucks & SUV's to work. There are suddenly a lot of smaller cars in the parking lot. Seems like energy prices are finally having an effect.
About time.

[groar]

Originally Posted by PA32R

How, in an internal combustion engine, can rate of generation of CO2 and rated of consumption of fuel not be linearly related? If the combustion is less efficient, I could understand proportionally increased production of CO (not a good thing, obviously) but perfect hydrocarbon oxidation would yield CO2 and H20. So it seems to me that there's no way to minimize fuel consumption and not minimize CO2 production.

I don't know how gasoline and CO2 are related.

I know that scooter's weight and speed are far smaller than car's, but consumption isn't far smaller. Why ???

Ex: my car weight 1120Kg and I weight 80 for a total of 1200Kg. My friend's scooter weights 120Kg and he weights like me so it's a total of 200Kg. I'm consuming less than 6l/100km while he's consuming more that 3l/100km. Why is the scooter consuming 1/2 of the car and not 1/6 ?
From technical data he's emitting more CO and HC than me...
His scooter is a couple of years old while my car is 11 years old.

In Europe 2-wheelers' efficiency is far smaller than cars' efficiency.

In the absolute you reduce consumption, but not as it should be reduced for the reduced speed and weight.

Scooter's insurances are high : my friend is paying the same amount as I do for my car. You may not save money because you may keep an old car or regularly rent one.

Accident risks are higher for scooters : road are narrower in Europe so when a car is passing over you it's dangerous. I will not change my car for a scooter because I don't want to have an accident with (or without) my 14 months old son.

Denis.

[bryn]

i bought a honda rebel 250cc in april for $400. after about a thousand miles, i averaged 70 mpg. top speed is about 80 mph, more than fast enough. it was great transportation. but i broke the bike and my ankle as soon as the first animal ran in front of me. no real savings in the long run. even with a safety course and all the right equipment its hard to change gut reactions.

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted by bryn

i bought a honda rebel 250cc in april for $400. after about a thousand miles, i averaged 70 mpg. top speed is about 80 mph, more than fast enough. it was great transportation. but i broke the bike and my ankle as soon as the first animal ran in front of me. no real savings in the long run. even with a safety course and all the right equipment its hard to change gut reactions.

Hope you heal quickly, that is the trouble with 2 wheeled transportation, I used to ride on the backroads all the time with my dirtbike and got used to running over small animals and birds but I never hit anything bigger than a squirrel. I don't know what would happen if I had hit a raccoon and I don't know if I could train myself now just to hit it without trying something extreme to avoid it.
Anyways, I keep posting that people need to practice practice practice on motorbikes or pedal bikes because thats your only defense to kissing the pavement or worse. If I had the climate to ride a motorbike all year I still don't know if I would even with 100's of hours playing on a dirtbike, will I do the right thing in an emergency situation?
The high grip tires also scare me, the difference in traction between clean dry pavement vs wet or sandy pavement is hard to compensate for in all situations... Semi knobby tires on a dualsport bike is what I would start with as everything about that setup is forgiving, you are up right, high enough to see and be visible and a patch of sand isn't going to affect the bike as much.
Just my 0.02,
Ian

[bryn]

thanks IndyIan, still haven't decided wether i will fix the bike and ride again, or not. the dualsport does sound like a safer ride.