- This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 10 months ago by Dead_Ant.
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June 23, 2009 at 11:50 pm #3054Dead_AntParticipant
Hey everyone,
I’m thinking of buying a motorcycle to help cut down on my gas use.
This is all completely new to me so any beginner advice would be greatly appreciated. (i.e. courses I need to/should take and how I go about getting my license)
As far as bikes go, I live in Denver, CO and commute once a week to my parents’ restaurant in the mountains. I don’t need anything with a ton of power, but I do need something that can handle pretty steep grades (~7%) and hold it’s own on the highway (I’ll mostly stay on frontage roads, but there are spots that don’t have them available). I’ll probably use it for riding in the city as well, but not as much because I ride my bicycle a lot.
I’ve done some research and will look around some more, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.
June 24, 2009 at 12:56 am #20102MunchParticipantummm…….sorry I am an ass this way but…….. what style of bike is tickling your fancy at the moment. Have you sat on any yet? MSF or equivalent should be the first thing on your to do list.
June 24, 2009 at 1:01 am #20103zeppelinfromledParticipantYou should definitely take a course to start out. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) offers a course for new riders called the Basic RiderCourse. Check out http://www.msf-usa.org for details on the courses that you can find near you. The course is usually run over a weekend, totally about 15 hours. This course replaces the DMV road test, so you’ll get your license after you pass the course. You’ll probably need your motorcycle permit before then (a simple computer test – read the manual and you’ll be fine).
In terms of bikes, there’s not much on the market that can’t handle your needs. A lot of people recommend starting off on a bike with a displacement of 250 cc. For style, it’s a matter of preference. The four basic types that you’ll want to consider are sport bikes, cruisers, standards, and dual sport. Since I only ride on paved roads, I eliminated dual sport from my considerations. We have mostly sport bike and cruiser riders on here, and plenty of both.
Try to sit on as many bikes as you can. Most decent dealerships will let you sit on a bike (with supervision) without a problem. Finding what style of bike you feel most comfortable on is a huge first step. Narrowing your search to cruiser or sport bike or standard is more than half the battle, I think.
I would definitely wait until after your MSF course to buy a motorcycle and probably wait to buy gear too. If you get into the course and discover that you don’t like riding motorcycles, you’d feel pretty silly with a motorcycle and hundreds of dollars of gear.
In terms of saving money on gas, make sure you do the math before you assume that you’ll save money overall. I just did a quick calculation. If you currently drive 15,000 miles/year in a car that gets 20 mpg and you switch completely to a bike that gets 50 mpg (and also put 15,000 miles/year on it), and if gas costs $3/gallon, then you’ll save $1,350 per year on gas. Now, I used a pretty low car gas mileage, and a reasonable motorcycle gas mileage, but it’s unlikely that you’ll switch completely to the motorcycle. So it’s pretty unlikely that you’ll actually save $1300 on gas. And with the costs of the motorcycle, gear, and insurance, you’re likely to actually be spending more when you have both the motorcycle and the car – at least it will be a few years until you make up the costs. If you’re talking about selling the car and buying the bike, that’s a different story, but I’d imagine Denver gets pretty cold, so keep that in mind.
All I’m saying is to be realistic about the amount of money that you stand to save. I still think that getting a motorcycle is a wonderful thing to do, even if it costs more overall.
June 24, 2009 at 3:39 am #20107Dead_AntParticipantThanks for the replies. I think I’m going to get a cruiser, but I haven’t sat on any bikes yet and can’t say for sure.
As far as the money goes…it’s not just to save gas money, it’s also for fun!
-Ant
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