First off, sorry if I'm rehashing here, I've read pretty much every thread in the forum already and I don't see any comprehensive answers to my question. Hopefully some people on here can help me out.

I'm trying to use the gas crunch to rationalize getting a bike. My wife has always been against it, but she is actually buying into the idea now! Anyway, I know I can get a bike for 3k or less, and the fuel economy is better than a car, I'm just wondering how much better. And will it be enough to make up for the higher maintenance costs? How much does it cost to ride a 600cc bike in things such as:

fuel (how many mpg? approx)
How long do the tires last? Can I get more than 4k out of em?
I do my own maintenance on my civic - everything from spark plugs, to rebuilding the bottom end - how difficult is it to work on a bike? And how expensive/often is the maintenance schedule?
What else do I have to worry about paying for (I can figure insurance myself)?
And how long do they last if maintained properly? I look for at least 2-300k out of a car, will a bike easily hit 100k or am I dreaming?

TIA

 

Id say bikes are alot more money to run than say a honda civic....however if your driving a escalade then yes, cheaper...

Fuel on most 600's your looking at between 32-45 MPG depending on riding habits...

tires...your looking at 4k if you use for commuting and thats all...if you ride hard and do silly crap (wheelies and burnouts) your lucky to see a tire last 3k miles...

Working on a bike is preatty striaght forward as long as you know what your doing, you said you rebuilt the bottom end of your civic, as long as you get a full service manual for your bike you can probably do most of the work yourself...

Insurance, depends on where you live, were i live, my car insurance on my honda accord is about 4x cheaper than my bike...but if your in california your insurance could end up being next to nothing...

If maintained properly and ridden nicely, they can last forever, My dad has a 73 harley that has over 200,000 miles on it...however if you buy a full on sportbike and ride it like you stole it you'd be lucky to see 30-40k before major repairs are needed...

Hope this helps.

 

Yeah, thanks for the input, that's kind of what I was afraid of. So my rationale is going right out the window. What about a smaller bike, like a Ninja 250? Would that bring the cost of things like fuel and maintenance down? Oh yeah, and pretty much all streetbikes require premium fuel, right?

I think a 250 would be plenty of bike for me to get started with - Less money up front, and it's better than what I've got now! I'd be happy for awhile at least, and probably wouldn't loose much money in it when I resell, at least as long as I don't wad it up. Would it be any cheaper to run though?

 

Yes it would be cheaper to run...plus you won't have the tendency to ride the **** out of it...it won't go through tires anywhere near as fast because there is next to no torque at all so you could ride tires for probably 10k miles..

Your also going to save big time on insurance...

Not ALL bikes require premium, and some premium is differnt that others, If you get an older ninja 250 you can run it on 86-87 octane...go newer and your prolly going to have to use at least 91...as far as gas mileage goes. I can't say what kind of mileage to expect because ive never owned anything that small but i imagine it would be as good if not better than 35+ mpg but i don't know for sure.

250 is a great bike to learn on, as long as your just using it for commuting it would be perfect...however if you using it for highway rides its going to be tedious because your civic will have more get-up and go, plus you'll be riding at like 10,000 rpms on highway, just something to consider...

 

Get a 250 ninja. You can get over 60 mpg and there are tons and tons of parts for them. The haven't changed in like 15 year so even if you do brake something its easy as hell to fix because there are sooooo many used parts.

 

I was thinking that, but the previous comment about highway rides kind of scared me off a bit. I was getting it primarily to drive for work, which involves long periods of time (.5 - 2.5 hrs) on the highway. Sounds like maybe the engine, or I won't be able to take that for long. Is a 250 really slower than a civic? Anyone know what speed they top out at? My avg highway speed is around 65-70...

Thanks for all of the advice.

 

The top out at around 100-105 mph.

They are faster then civcs in the quarter mile.

http://www.ninja250.info

That site has all you need to know.