I love it - that's great :lol:

 

Trying to make an honest comparison is so huge a subject that I doubt it can be done accurately, and the factors involved will vary greatly from individual to individual. For example, how much safety/riding/foul weather gear is being bought? I have over a grand in mine, and still have two major items left to buy. Plus, consider that as things turned out I was unable to ride long distances until I added a $600 Corbin seat and $150 Givi windscreen. I also had to add a $300 (counting mount and install) Givi topbox in order to create enough luggage capacity for my personal needs.

Then there's insurance, depreciation on the vehicle you've left sitting, and you have to factor in how many months of the year you actually ride the Burgie. (I use mine all year except for a few really bad weeks in December/January, but am in a tiny minority.)

I bought my Burgie because I was tired of seeing my money go to Islamic nations to pay for oil imports. However, I did so in the full knowledge that the scoot was probably going to _cost me several times as much as it saved_. So far, it has lived up to this to this expectation in spades despite the fact that I put almost 10k miles on it my first year. My wallet is _much_ lighter than it used to be; the only good news is that, as planned, the shieks' wallets are a tiny bit lighter, too.

 

You sold me, MrGreen. Please don't expect me to hire you as an investment advisor though. <g>

 

Interesting logic but flawed.

I bought my Burgman for enjoyment not as an alternative to my car.

In your case it cost $5,500.00 for the B400.

Gas gavings over the truck is $500.00 per year. It would take you eleven years to break even. Now this assumes that you retained the truck.

 

Lapine Rider, you've left out the FUN factor! :wink:
Surely, that is worth something.

Hard to measure in monetary terms though I guess. :?

 

lilleyen" wrote in part, "... you've left out the FUN factor!"
____________________________________________________________
I agree. Except in very circumstances two wheelers are pimarily for fun. We all like to rationalize our purchases and that's OK in my opinion so long as we don't convince ourselves. <g>

 

Exactly!
Rationalization is for convincing others. "Gee honey, we'll save hundreds of dollars!"

You can't really put this into investment terms. Since your spankin new Burgman will depreciate pretty stiffly in the first years of ownership.
Plus you have to factor financing costs into the mix, as well as all of the other things mentioned.

But it is fun to try and run the numbers.

 

I use the same logic to justify my purchase, at least partially. Even if you don't "cover" 100% of the cost with logic, you still can cover at least part of it. I save my truck wear and tear, maintainance, as WELL as gasoline cost when I ride my scooter the 52 miles round trip during the week.

Not to sound like a tree hugger, but I also use as little natural resources as I can while accomplishing the same thing which is "gettng my body to work." In the US, as a society, we simply don't need to drive these 15MPG monster SUV's and vans just to take one person to work and back. If we all rode scooters, gasoline would be about a buck a gallon.

Just my opinion.

 

I justify some expences by taking the money out of "Hobbie" reserve. I budget a certain amout ea month, for "entertainment/hobbies". The number is larger than one might think, and by going out to eat, 1-2 less times a month, can pay for quite a bit.

I also budget for "Vehicle Maintance", for 1 truck, and 2 autos, 1 motorcycle. I do my own Oil changes, brake jobs, sensors etc. . Doing 1 brake job on an auto, or truck, can save me over $100 in labor. The money saved, could be called extra, and spent elsewhere.

I think it's intresting, we "power shop" necessities, (gas, milk, food) but hobbies are less of a concern.

 

I save over $100/month ($1200+) in gas alone. Add to that $300+/month for a note on a vehicle ($3600+/year) and additional insurance (around $400 more for a cage) and it amounts to the price of a 400 (but not all the extras like gear, shield, seat, etc.). This, of course, assumes you don't buy both. I bought my 'pre-loved' 400 for $3400 and have prolly dumped an additional $1500+ into Givi, tires, gear, airfare, MSF and assorted schtuff and I've put around 9K on it since May.
I figured mine will be very close to paying for itself within 12 months!
Of course, mine is a commuter vehicle and I don't use it as much for pleasure riding as the majority. Your mileage very well may vary!

Oh, I have about 9000 miles in 6 months so far commuting. That's around 1500 miles/month. At $2.50/gallon and even assuming only 50 MPG that's $75/Month in gas compared to almost $200/month for a truck or car (other than an economy vehicle). If I did get another vehicle the lower mileage and longer lifespan of it would greatly contribute to cost-assessment and justifying having the scooter. Having 5 kids I thought this out pretty well before doing it.

 

I got mine partically in response to gas prices, but I was looking at it as an alternative to a second automobile. At 6300.00 out the door, there was no brand new automobile I could buy for that price, much less one that would get 60 mpg. The biggest unknown is how much will I be able to use it during the winter. Our winters here generally speaking aren't really severe, so I hope to be able to ride at least some of the time.

I do recognize the original posting as being somewhat "tongue in cheek" though, and the "logic" works for me.

 

I got mine because I can ride in the "High Occupancy Vehicle" lanes in the morning and evening commute. In other words "traffic". I HATE traffic.

I did the math based on gas mileage, cost of safty items (helmet for instance), maintenance, insurance, etc. Payback? Fuhgettaboutit, you would have to drive the wheels of these things to realisticly break even.

I sure do like the savings, but theres got to be more to it than that to make it an "investment". I guess I should consider how much I'm saving on a shrink because I'm not going "mad" about being stuck in traffic. Hmmm, figure that in and it's all ready paid for itself. :lol:

 

About the non-obvious value of a scooter:
Excaliber noted the ability to use HOV lanes. Consider what your time is worth (or just use your hourly salary) and mulitply that by the time you're not spending in gridlock.
Also count in the time saved in not having to search for parking spaces and walk in from Outer Mongolia because the motorcycle parking is often in the near side of the parking lot (deduct, of course, the time it takes to put on and remove your protective gear).
Compare the time spent out joyriding to what it'd cost to go to a movie, rent a DVD, or whatever else you do for fun.

Just doing my part to put a dollar ($CN/pound/$HK/whatever) value on the Burgman Grin

Rusty J
[blinky bunny thingy]
AN650K5 -- "Wild Blue"
[/blinky bunny thingy]

 

Here in highly taxed Europe and UK in particular gas prices are so high that the economic argument should hold more sway. However, the price of gas is so high (and has been for some time) that it can change your mindset when it comes to motoring. You lucky people in the US think nothing of driving say 350 miles to attend a 'whatever' - when you fill up at either end of the trip filling the tank does not hurt too much BUT here you get in the habit of screening out those sort of trips to 'essential' only the days of lets go for a drive are to a large degree - in the past - not just the cost of fuel but also the almost permanent gridlock, speed cameras whatever - the joy has gone out of motoring.

So where I am going with this - so how much do I save by having a bike?
Absolutely nothing - diddly - bugger all! Why? Because I have discovered the joy of motoring again and 'invent' reasons to go out on the bike doing trips I would not even consider in the car - so I spend more on gas! Go figure.

 

This works if you sell the B400 after a year of savings, and sell it for exactly what you paid for it. Otherwise you are still out ~$5,000 over what you'd have been if you had kept riding the truck and paying for it's gas. Investments are only worth what you can cash them in for at the end.

Need a way to justify buying a scoot?? Try this:

Investment B400 = $5,500 total

Convert 8,000miles/yr FROM truck at 25mpg TO scoot at 65mpg & assume $2.50/gallon fuel cost. Assume added insurance for scoot is offset by cheaper oil changes, etc.

8,000/25 = 320gal x $2.50 = $800

8,000/65 = 123gal x $2.50 = $308

Savings on gas ~ $500/$5,500 investment = 9% return on investment

Beats the heck out of buying a Certificate of Deposit at your local bank if you have some loose change.

....a little ammo for those amongst us who have doubting significant others.

 

Need a way to justify buying a scoot??
_____________________________________________________________Mr. Greenfield,
I didn't know there were so many creative writers on this Board, did you? <BBG>

 

NormanB, I and the other USA folks are finally getting a taste of those REALLY HIGH gas prices your talking about. Yup, I've cut down on driving my Cobra (10 miles per gallon) choosing carefully what car show or car meet or joy drive I'll take.

But the Burgie? Never crossed my mind to cut back on anything! :lol:

 

In a perfect world those numbers might fly, but hopefully the significant other wouldn't think through the other factors. Such as do you ride everyday? What about bike depreciation? If you finance the bike consider the interest costs, license, registration, inspections(if you have inspections), classes(MSF), riding gear, and of course the additional gas and maintenance expenses due to all that riding your sure to be doing outside of the normal trips to work... But heck who is going to mention all of that stuff to your better half when talking your way into a bike?

Longsnowsm

 

Not having a "significant other" to share financial decisions with - and having the money to pay cash for my scoot, I guess I've never felt the need to justify buying it.

However, while I don't mind putting out the money for things I want, there is just a tiny bit of skinflint in me, in that when I do put out the big bucks for something, I want to get a bang for my buck. So, I have to admit I've done a few for-fun calculations myself. When I bought my Burgman 400 in late June, I kind of thought I would just boot around on the back country roads on the warm summer weekends. Ahem - now that we're heading into the second week of November and with almost 9000 kms on the odometer, I have reworked my game plan somewhat (its just such a handy little commuter vehicle - not to mention my only vehicle).

So - out the door of $8300.00 (Cdn), plus insurance of $630 a year, plus two service check-ups already at $275.00 a pop - gear - well 2 helmets - $300.00, leathers - $700.00, boots - $120.00, heated gear - about $600.00 - not to mention rain gear and assorted gloves (oh yeah - I have to put gas in it too - the lowest part of the equation) - well lets say a total - hmmmmm....$14,000.00 Cdn so far. Take away public transportation costs and taxi fares saved - probably about $2,000.00.

So cost of running the scoot to date- about $1.30 a kilometer.
Not having to depend upon anyone else to get to go for a ride - PRICELESS :lol:

 

Some additional justifications for purchasing /riding these scoots. We have to also figure in the tax savings for having less public parking garages, less road repair, fewer traffic jams wasting fuel sitting in long lines, fewer gas stations required, fewer refineries, read less money going to foreign countries that do not like us, and the list could go on and on. You get the picture. You might say it's almost the Patriotic thing to do.
Mike

 

You might say it's almost the Patriotic thing to do.
Mike

It's not just Burgmans....

8) 8)

 

It's all lies, **** lies & statistics! And I think good clean fun if it makes us any happier with our rides. BTW I do have a graduate minor in statistics.

KEN, ....I note you're in AdaOH. Been there many times. Got loads of family history in Logan/Hardin Counties, ....Ridgeway, MtVictory, Rushsylvania, etc. Give a yell if/when you have a chance!

 

Ah - Statistics - one of my favourite subjects!

Did you know that approx 47.782% of statistics are entirely made up! :lol:

 

I'd give 1.2453:1 odds Norm made up that (numeric value of that) statistic!

 

I read this post with interest, as I went through the "cost savings" analysis before buying my scooter.

What seems to have been omitted in the post and the responses is what represents one of the biggest savings of all, assuming the scooter is used for commuting and a person's commuting miles are somewhat significant.

If you replace around a third of the annual miles once driven on your car/truck with "scooter miles," all other things being equal, you are deferring the date by which you will need to replace your car or truck. Generally a car's life is dictated by the number of miles driven (although here in New England, the winter's road salt is a big factor), and anytime you can extend the life of a $20,000+ vehicle by purchasing one for $6,000 or so, you have made a move in the right direction. Instead of replacing the car every 6 years, for instance, perhaps you can replace it every 9 years instead.

Yes, the safety gear and cost of additional insurance and maintenance drag down the savings, as does the cost of riding just for the fun of it. But if you produce a spreadsheet with two scenarios, one with the full costs of a car for around 10 years, and the other with the costs of both a car and a scooter for the same period, with a portion of the car's miles being transferred to the scooter at a much higher MPG, you will be surprised at the difference in annual costs and at how fast the scooter pays for itself - in full.

This analysis will not work, obviously, if your commute is limited to a few miles. If that's the case, the "you only live once" line will serve you better in your efforts to convince a significant other . . .