Thread: Riding for Fuel economy

I saw one of these in the city last week and thought is was a freak concept bike. Well there you go, it's main stream...
MP3 400

One point nobody has mentioned - the major running cost of almost any car is capital cost and depreciation (typically over 50%), and then insurance (especially if comprehensively insured), with the things so far discussed coming after that. I have no idea how these costs compare with those for cars, but it seems to me that if you are looking at costs compared to a car, this is the first thing you should be looking at.

Coming back to the original post on riding style, the best advice I can give on fuel saving is to drive (or ride) as if your brakes don't work.

John

There is a heap of variation in types of bikes as well as engine configurations and sizes. Not all are good for commuting, some absolutely suck at it but if you use the bike recreationally as well, then you compromise.

My SV650 (which is now my race bike) would get between 4.5-5.5L/100km of mixed hwy/city riding. It is capable of doing a little over 200km/h and as it is a light bike I would get about 12K Km out of a softish sports tyre. Put on touring tyre and you're talking double that. Reliable as anything with chain and sprockets lasting about 30K km between changes. Insurance on mine, I laughed the last renewal I got, about $120, comp. The bike is flexible enough to commute on, go for a fang, tour and now race (with a few appropriate mods). Horses for courses.

So, depending on what you're looking at you can get a bike that is comparable to a small-mid sized car but will save you a heap of time. How much is your time worth?

Originally Posted by PeterM

you're looking at you can get a bike that is comparable to a small-mid sized car but will save you a heap of time. How much is your time worth?

Having ridden to work for years I would dispute this.

The actual travel time may be less but by the time added I added how long it took to change clothes, put on wet weather gear (in summer to keep dry and in winter to keep warm), or protective clothing and boots, etc., there was virtually no difference in total elapsed time between Paddington and Emu Plains (60km) for afternoon and midnight shifts - noting I could park in the basement at work with either car or bike.

Originally Posted by Signal1

BTW, want the R1200RT for the upright riding position (read: bad back) and I like to cruise, not necessarily race.
Your thoughts? Thank you.

I find the upright riding position is harder on the back than the racers crouch as the weight is not spread on your wrists and feet but that could be just me.

When I bought my GSxR people said you could buy a car for that price, but they forget it is Ferrari performance for a Hyundai price. I dont know L/100k but I get 25 k per litre if I ride gently but if you do it to ride cheaply you would buy a cheap bike. Like people who trade their big 6 sedan on a little hatch to save a little on fuel but lose heaps on trade in.

I like the convenience of parking and I hate sitting in traffic, in Sydney we can use the Transit Lane to pass the cages. Mostly its fun, ever wheelied a car?

Jeff



PS this has taken ages to write as this laptop has a few letters that dont work so I need to either think of words without those letters or copy and paste.

Originally Posted by Jeff

PS this has taken ages to write as this laptop has a few letters that dont work so I need to either think of words without those letters or copy and paste.

Started 1.35pm Tuesday?