BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Motorcycles Motorcycle for Saving Gas?

Hi Everyone!

Let me say 1st off - I know nothing about motorcaycles. I crashed into a tree on a minibike when I was 12 and have not been near anything with 2 wheels and a motor since then.

But my husband commutes to Atlanta every day for work - about 50 miles (1 -1 1/2 hours depending on traffic).

With gsas prices, this has been nuts. He really can't commute, because he keeps such odd hours, he is the emergency goto guy when something goes wrong with the network/internet.

So he's considering getting a motorcycle to cut back on gas prices (he hasn't ridden one since high school)

What do you guys think? WOuld the price output (bike, helmet, gear, etc.) be worth the amount of money we would save on gas?

Don't forget when tallying up the costs to include insurance!

There's some things to consider when looking at costs. For me, a motorcycle would be too expensive to counteract the savings. I only have 5 miles to go, I own a bicycle and all of the equipment, and should really ride 10 miles/day on a bike.

Things to reduce motorcycle costs:

Get the smallest bike that will do the job. A 250cc engine will get him there just as well as a big Harley or a 1000cc speed demon, but will cost much much less, both in purchase price and in gas efficiency.

Talk to your insurance company about classes. He's going to have to get a motorcycle endorsement for his license, but if a motorcycle safety class is offered by the DMV or the county or city, jump on it. A documented safety class can reduce insurance rates as well as provide reminders of what to look out for on the road.

50 miles is a long way. Depending on the difference in milage... If your savings in gas money is more per month than the purchase price payment plus insurance plus pro-rated gear, it's a good deal.

Got any concrete ideas on what you're looking at? I love to run numbers, so I'm fascinated by the idea.

I believe he was looking at Hondas, yeah I know there's a bunch - but I just dont know that much.

He did say he didn't need a (pardon the term) "crotch-rocket". He'll be carrying his computer and stuff, so needs a heftier machine, not a faster one. Besides, Atlanta traffic tends to only go about 45 mph half the time anyway when it gets clogged up (or worse)

Of course he will be able to use the HOV lane if he rides a motorcycle. That's the lane reserved for carpoolers and energy saving vehicles (motorbikes, hybrid cars, etc.) and buses. So it will shave a little bit of time off his commute.

I am thinking we need a scooter. street legal. We have the one car now and that works MOST of the time. but when one of us is on a trip, the other is stuck at the house unless we set aside a whole day to walk to town.

We manage fine but still think a scooter, as a back up vehicle, is a smart idea. Great gas mileage and very convenient, right?

I have no idea how to find one.

I'm afraid that the original outlay of cost, even for an economical 250, would be high enough that it might be a loooooong time before any savings on gas would be seen, but by all means, run the figures and see for yourself.
I look on my 250 Suzuki as a big toy because I don't put enough miles on it to make up for the $200/year insurance, much less the original purchase price. (about $3000) But, a 50 mile commute does use up a lot of gas!

If he is in IT, can't he figure out/negotiate a way to do some of the work from home? My son manages a number of office computer networks and can access them from his home computer and fix whatever has screwed up except for hardware problems.

As for scooters, I guess it depends upon your state laws, but here in Indiana they are considered to be in the category of big bicycles. No special licenses needed, and they aren't covered by auto insurance, which is both good and bad. A friend of mine has an electric one, it cost as much to buy as my motorcycle but only goes 30 mph maximum, which is fine for his short neighborhood commute but wouldn't be useful if you had to go on a highway.

Claybird, the way I was looking at it was in relation to my vehicle, which is a (admittedly not high on mpg) Jeep. A 250 will get, what, 50 mpg compared to the Jeep's 20 mpg max. A 100 mile round trip commute would use 5 gallons of gas for the Jeep, and 2 gallons for the bike. In today's $4/gallon prices, that's $12/day savings, $60/week. The purchase price of $3000 would be paid off in approximately a year, and then the annual insurance would result in a net savings of just under $3k/year. Unless gas prices do a nosedive, (and I doubt they will) a bike would be more economical. Of course, that is assuming you can drive it year-round, which is not the case in most of the country. In addition, a sudden rainstorm (which is common in GA) is either very dangerous, or strands you on a bike, or forces you to drive a car of some sort.

Your figures show that it might well make sense for your DH to have a motorcycle, especially since he could ride it for many more months that I can up here in the snowbelt.
But... however short my riding season, and however uneconomical my bike is in the long run, I LOVE riding it, and you can't put a dollar value on that.

Yeah, He was talking to one of the other guys at work who does regularly ride a bike to work, and he said thsat with as insane as some of the drivers are in Atlanta, it really takes an experienced driver to be able to handle rush hour on a motorbike- so he's sort of given up on it anyway - sigh. It seemed like a good idea.

He does try to do telecommuting as much as he can, but his company is so old-fashioned, and so many people took advantage of it in the past- that they only allow 1 day a week -and thast is if there are no meetings planned.

He is somehwere between IT and mgmt. He does security for the network and internet and handles the firewall (and anything that goes wrong, he's basically on call 24/7).

So it's a pain, but the insurance for our child with autism is so good, he is hesitant to look for a job anywhere else.

Claybird, we do both work at home, but sometimes someone takes a trip to see family, or has to show up for a conference or something, leaving the other person stranded for a few days.

It's all small town roads here, no highways to worry about on our mountain. So a scooter would work fine. We don't even have a single stop light.

Oh, and it's about 2.5 to three miles into town. very steep road.

Michelle, I drive past Atlanta on I-75 around 7 AM once a year, and that's enough to tell me that there's NO WAY I would ever want to take a motorcycle on that road during rush hour. It's bad enough in a car!
"Insane" pretty well tells it all!