Motorcycle for gas saving commutes?

[dcb]

Wow.

Anyway, a bike can save you a bundle, if you can keep it running. It is also a pretty good "learn how to wrench" platform, being comparatively simple and inexpensive to purchase/insure/register/fix/mod.

Of course working on bicycles is an excellent precursor to working on motorbikes, and a bicycle can handle a whole lot of jobs as well and get gnarly mpg (though food calorie btu well-to-colon wise it aint so good, but health wise fuggetaboutit)

[taco]

How much you drive?

I have a 130 mile commute.
This month I work 23 days.
My truck gets 20 mpg and uses 6.5gal a day at 3.60 a gallon. That's 23.40 a day.
The bike gets 55 mpg (driving faster) uses 2.3 gallons a day that's 8.50 a day.
So 538.20 to drive the truck all month or 195.50 on the bike. 342.70 savings just this month.

Bike tires for mine cost about 100 each plus tubes. And should last a season.

But I enjoy the ride rain or shine alot better on the bike.

[Ryland]

Motorcycle tires cost alot more, good touring tires will give you the best mileage but could cost you $150 each or more, insurance can be really cheap or it can cost 3 times more then your car insurance, it all depends on the size of bike you get so check before you buy a bike, if you can get a fuel injected motorcycle then buy it! otherwise you will have it in the shop getting the carb rebuilt every year or two, helmets are a must, but they need to be replaced every 6 to 10 years as the plastic ages, padding wears out and they become less effective.

[cocolos]

I think I am going to get a scooter. It will better suite my needs.

[user removed]

Originally Posted by Ryland

Motorcycle tires cost alot more, good touring tires will give you the best mileage but could cost you $150 each or more, insurance can be really cheap or it can cost 3 times more then your car insurance, it all depends on the size of bike you get so check before you buy a bike, if you can get a fuel injected motorcycle then buy it! otherwise you will have it in the shop getting the carb rebuilt every year or two, helmets are a must, but they need to be replaced every 6 to 10 years as the plastic ages, padding wears out and they become less effective.

Does that mean your CB 125 carb has been rebuilt 17 times ?

regards
Mech

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Does that mean your CB 125 carb has been rebuilt 17 times ?

Gasoline goes bad while sitting over winter.
I've rebuilt that carb twice in the 7 years I've owned it but I do take it apart nearly every year, but if you are having carburetor issues and take it in to a repair shop it's cheaper for them to rebuild it then to take it apart clean it, cross their fingers that it will work find out that it doesn't work right, take it apart a 2nd time and replace jets, I'm cheap, it's a single carb bike that I like because it's super easy to work on.

[jkv357]

Originally Posted by Ryland

Gasoline goes bad while sitting over winter.
I've rebuilt that carb twice in the 7 years I've owned it but I do take it apart nearly every year, but if you are having carburetor issues and take it in to a repair shop it's cheaper for them to rebuild it then to take it apart clean it, cross their fingers that it will work find out that it doesn't work right, take it apart a 2nd time and replace jets, I'm cheap, it's a single carb bike that I like because it's super easy to work on.

Are you using Ethanol-free gas in it? For older vehicles Ethanol causes problems IMO. I avoid it in almost everything except my daily driver.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by Ryland

Gasoline goes bad while sitting over winter.
I've rebuilt that carb twice in the 7 years I've owned it but I do take it apart nearly every year, but if you are having carburetor issues and take it in to a repair shop it's cheaper for them to rebuild it then to take it apart clean it, cross their fingers that it will work find out that it doesn't work right, take it apart a 2nd time and replace jets, I'm cheap, it's a single carb bike that I like because it's super easy to work on.

Try some Sta-Bil in the fuel before you put the bike up for the winter. Make sure you run it long enough for the Sta-Bil supplemented fuel to get down into the carburetor.

[roosterk0031]

I have a 120 mile commute, almost all bikes I've had got 45 mpg, 650cc singles to 1000cc 4's. My cars get 30 mpg or better, 4 gallons cars/day 2.5 gallons for the bikes. 1.5 gallon saved or $5 that barely covers the daily cost of the tires.

If you have a car that gets 30 mpg or better it's hard to save enough money with bikes or scooters to justify the purchase (atleast until gas hits $5-6 a gallon).

On the other hand if your commute is too short, you don't use enough gas even with a 10 mpg SUV with 10 mile daily commute, you only burn 1 gallon, so the most you can save is less than 1 gallon a day, 20 gallons a month, $70 dollars saved per month will take a long time to pay for even a $1500 scooter. Roughly 22 months(riding it every day) to pay for the investment, and it would have 4200 miles on it. Will a $1500 scooter last that long?

If you have to pay for parking a car and don't for a bike/scooter that might be the biggest saving potential.

[Patrick]

Originally Posted by roosterk0031

I have a 120 mile commute, almost all bikes I've had got 45 mpg, 650cc singles to 1000cc 4's. My cars get 30 mpg or better, 4 gallons cars/day 2.5 gallons for the bikes. 1.5 gallon saved or $5 that barely covers the daily cost of the tires.

I don't understand your math here. $5/day / 120 miles = about 4 cents/mile for tires.

Lower-cost scooter tires from Amazon are about $37 shipped. Amazon.com: Shinko SR429 Front - Rear Scooter Tire - 130/60-13/--: Automotive

$37 X 2 = $74. 74.00/0.04 = 1850 miles.

Do you really expect the tires to only last 1850 miles? That seems kinda low to me.