Which bike? High MPG commuter

I average 10K on the rears, but then again I ride with a fairly heavy wrist up to the speed limit.

I agree with the tire guys. Sticky tires will last about 5 - 8k depending on how you ride. Racing or fast street riding? Much less. But keep in mind, sticky bike tires are like race slicks on cars. They're adhesion levels are tremendous.

If you go with touring tires you'll get a lot more wear out of them. Most touring tires also use a dual compound these days. The center portion is harder, for distance. While the outer portion on the edges is stickier for performance. The thought being you need more grip when you're leaned over and riding on the outside edges of the tire.

I rode a TL1000S, conservatively, with a touring tire. Worked great. I never found the adhesion limits of those tires and they lasted quite awhile under a 100+ hp sport bike.

You seem mostly concerned with mpg. A good rule of thumb is the smaller the engine, and to a lesser degree the lower the rpm's, the better the mileage. Here's that motorcycle MPG guide you asked for.

On a slightly related side note - I followed that mpg guide link and discovered that Honda makes a "sporty" 150cc 1cyl called the Unicorn that averages 129mpg. I'm not super-knowledgeable about bikes, but that seems pretty good even if isn't a highway gobbler. Too bad they don't sell them in the states. Anyone know if they're available in the western hemisphere?

former520 wrote: If you want to get a $$ saver commuter bike, forget anything with a chain or sporty tires. The maintenance time and cost out way any savings. If you do it yourself, tires 5k - ~$220 (watching for sales), 10-12k chain ~$150, do it yourself after buying $80 chain tool, 2500 oil changes ~$30 with moto oil and filter.

Sounds like you had a lemon or bad experience. A EX500 or GS500 doesn't have super-sticky tires (its not an R1), you should get 10-15K miles out of them easy. Chain: keep it cleaned, lubed, and adjusted and you're good to go.

2500 oils changes ~$30? I don't understand what you were implying here? Are sport bikes the only kind that require oil changes? Do theirs cost more? I used to change the oil and filter once a season with a high-quality synthetic, and never had a problem. My EX500 and now my cruiser both recommend changing the oil every 4000 miles, and I run the same brand/type/amount of oil in both.

In reply to Xceler8x:

Awesome, thanks for the link. So from this site, and your rule of thumb it sounds like the Ninja 500 and GS 500 should have a worthwhile economy advantage. Is there anything between the two I should know about, or should I just go test ride some?

I'm looking at a 100 mile a day round trip for at least one summer internship and the 4Runnner gets around ~21 mpg, so I think good fuel economy is fairly important, though I guess general operating costs overall are more important. This is why I'm concerned about 5k mile tires and whatnot.

Will I be able to find long-lasting touring tires for a GS500 or EX500? I don't plan to be dragging pegs all over the place.

You'll be able to find touring tires in the sizes needed for either of those bikes. You'll most likely see 40 - 45 mpg on those bikes I'd imagine. I haven't owned one so can't speak from experience. Other's on this thread would have more definitive info.

Why limit yourself to those two? You might see a Bandit600, a Vstrom650, etc that might fit the bill. I do think that the GS or EX will be the least expensive for purchase.

Let's think about the miles you'll be racking up too. 100 miles a day for 5 days a week. You're looking at 2000 miles a month for 3 months. Lots of riding but just about any bike that's low(ish) mileage and well maintained can do that.

One other thing we haven't talked about would be gear. Get some gear man. The minimum gear I ride with is helmet, armored jacket, EXCELLENT gloves. If I'm riding for any distance, or over unknown territory, I wear armored pants and boots. Go to Motorcycle Gear.com. Great shop there and the closeouts are awesome. They also have an RSS feed so you can have the close outs sent to your email box. Since it's summer you'll get hot so you might want to buy some mesh gear to cool off on your way in.

Just checked Dayton CL. Whoa. Big market there. You'll have no trouble finding a bike if you're willing to drive.

You have to consider whether this is a real economic decision, or an excuse to buy a motorcycle that happens to get you good gas mileage. $2000-$3000 gets you between 10,500 and 15,750 miles at $4/gallon at 21 mpg.

Say you spend $3,000 on the bike. You will break even with a motorcycle that gets 50 mpg after 27,173.91 miles on the bike instead of the 4Runner. This only covers the initial cost of $3,000 and not any additional costs incurred for either vehicle.

In reply to MitchellC:

Oh no, I want a bike because I want something fun and I won't have parking for a beater miata, CRX, MR2, etc. I just want to keep my costs as low as possible.

I've got a helmet I use for autocross, I am hoping to re-purpose some old combat boots (I have a lot, thanks taxpayers!) and I was planning on getting a cordura jacket, any advice on gloves? None of this stuff has ratings like SFI or Snell, right?

I didn't realize the GS500 is air-cooled, I'm not sure it's enough of an issue to worry about this far north though. I just moved back from Germany last year, so I'm trying to remember how often it gets above 90F around here...

I don't think gloves have any sort of ratings. I have summer gloves which are perforated leather with minor padding, and retain most of my dexterity. I have winter gloves which eliminate just about all feel for the controls, but the cold will do that anyway in a matter of minutes. At least my digits stay toasty.

My summer gloves are shorty, but whenever I get a new pair, I'll have them full gauntlet. Supposedly they offer better protection, but I just like how the glove feels over the jacket, rather than butt up against it.

In reply to ShadowSix:

Motorcycle gloves don't have ratings but always consider that if you go down in no gloves or gloves with minimal protection you will need to ask someone to wipe your arse while you are recovering. To me, the prospect of having to suffer that indignity keeps my in full gauntlet gloves from Alpinestars. I have a set of SP1s and a set of GP Plus. I got both on closeout online for less than 50% of retail. The GP Plus is the more protective glove but also flows more air than the less protective SP1. I found this interesting and the opposite of what I anticipated.

bastomatic wrote: I'm buying a Honda Pacific Coast

Funny, I just happened to see one parked in front of the local motorcycle dealer on the way to and from lunch today. Looks like it was for sale.

MitchellC wrote: You have to consider whether this is a real economic decision, or an excuse to buy a motorcycle that happens to get you good gas mileage. $2000-$3000 gets you between 10,500 and 15,750 miles at $4/gallon at 21 mpg. Say you spend $3,000 on the bike. You will break even with a motorcycle that gets 50 mpg after 27,173.91 miles on the bike instead of the 4Runner. This only covers the initial cost of $3,000 and not any additional costs incurred for either vehicle.

Well, that assumes that the bike is worth zero after 27K miles and the 4runner is still worth exactly what it is right now after an additional 27K miles. Factoring for that would make quite a difference.

Buying a motorcycle has nothing to do with economics except to justify the toy to your significant other. Get a midsize bike and ride safely.

That's actually not quite true - even if you figure in some of the higher running costs (tire costs. mainly), if you pick the right bike it can easily work out cheaper to commute on the bike than in a car.

Lace-up boots can get......annoying, when you come to a stop and put your foot down....and the laces catch on some of the bikes fiddly-bits.

I can help you get a Canadian CBR 125 for under $2k. Maybe well under.

Water cooled, and fuel injected. They're not fast, but about as reliable as gravity, and can get 100 MPG.

I paid $1000 for this one with 8000 km (4800 miles)

Scott wrote:

MitchellC wrote: You have to consider whether this is a real economic decision, or an excuse to buy a motorcycle that happens to get you good gas mileage. $2000-$3000 gets you between 10,500 and 15,750 miles at $4/gallon at 21 mpg. Say you spend $3,000 on the bike. You will break even with a motorcycle that gets 50 mpg after 27,173.91 miles on the bike instead of the 4Runner. This only covers the initial cost of $3,000 and not any additional costs incurred for either vehicle.

Well, that assumes that the bike is worth zero after 27K miles and the 4runner is still worth exactly what it is right now after an additional 27K miles. Factoring for that would make quite a difference.

Your logic assumes that someone would ever want to sell a motorcycle, which is just unfathomable . I realize that my formula was extremely simple, with the mileage serving as the only variable.

Man, it took me way longer than I thought to find this article, I read it a couple years ago when I was debating the same thing, and meant to post it in this thread earlier.

Motorcycle Article about GS500 vs. EX500:

http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/model_eval/NinjaGScomparo07a.pdf

As I've already mentioned, I ended up with an EX500, but my roommate preferred the naked GS500E, and we've both ridden each other's bikes, and like them. You really can't go wrong with either as a first bike, which is why they're so popular.

An SV650 is very hard to beat. I would also check out the Naked Ninja 650 (can't remember the name...ERN650 or something.) You're buying a toy to ride to work on, and a Ninja 500 will get boring in about a year.

I always push what I like, so I'll push the Buell. You can probably get a pretty new-ish Lightning City-X for your price range. It's naked, comfortable, and I am pretty sure I got 65 MPG on the highway a few times. I got 53 last Sunday with mostly back road riding (somewhat aggressive throttle application) and some highway. I get mid 30s on my commute through the Lincoln Tunnel, through Manhattan, and into Queens during rush hour and I don't die doing it (even when I get hit by vans).

It's reliable, decent on unpaved roads, sufficiently fast, and I got 17,000 miles on the front tire (15,000 on the rear) and replaced them before they got dangerously-low. The only major repair items were replaced under warranty (the blown rocker cover gasket) or paid in-part by Harley-Davidson when the charging system malfunctioned.

In reply to Zomby woof: Still figuring out what I need to do to get one registered in Virginia... When I figure that out, you shall be contacted. I want one, and a Goldwing to tow it with :p

I want one too. When I get the car situation figured out, I may sell the MB to get a CBR...

The DR650 isn't a particularly tall dual sport. Knobby-type tires don't last as long as full blown touring tires, but they're cheap ($60-160 for a set on my WR250R) and you can replace them at home easily. Tend to last 3000-5000 miles depending. You can always throw on cruiser or touring tires of course too.

Anything in the 500-750 range is more than enough power for what you want to do. Hell I've been just fine with a 250 thumper for 2+ years and 40,000+ miles all over the eastern 2/3rds of the US, just fine on the highway up to about 75mph and still fun in the woods. I'm thinking I might trade out for a street bike towards the end of this year just to change it up for a while, but otherwise it does everything I want and need. Depending on how soon you're looking too, mine will likely be right at your $3k price cap.