Car to Motorcycle

kevinswan007 said:
im just worried about insurance costs since I dont yet have a bike license (even though I drove bikes alot when in school)
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Well I was quoted R600 a month for a 250cc and I am 32 years old. I worked out that it is cheaper to keep driving 45km/day to work than it is to get a bike, and I drive a 4litre SUV.
So if you are getting a bike to save money on petrol then you may be in for a suprise, I know i was!
 
sadly, insurance here in SA is a way to make more money out of you...
 
Well I've certainly been making more use of my CBR900 (95 model) to try and avoid the high cost of fuel.

I don't particularly keep tabs on it, but 50 bucks in the bike certainly gets me more mileage than in the car (199 Golf 4 1.6l).

I think where you save money on the bike is that, you spend less time in traffic.
Also its lighter and with regards to dam's post, its going to come down on your driving style.
If you drive the bike hard, you'll be using more fuel :)
 
Shake&Bake said:
I think where you save money on the bike is that, you spend less time in traffic.
Also its lighter and with regards to dam's post, its going to come down on your driving style.
If you drive the bike hard, you'll be using more fuel :)
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You are right, it depends how you ride although I am not saying that a bike will use more fuel than a car, I am saying that once I added the monthly payments and the insurance etc. it ended up costing more than I would save on petrol.

I could get a second hand bike, pay cash and ride it without insurance then it would work out cheaper, I could save about R800 month on petrol that way.

Good point regarding traffic, that would save time although I start work at 9:30 so it's not too bad for me.
 
dam said:
I could get a second hand bike, pay cash and ride it without insurance then it would work out cheaper, I could save about R800 month on petrol that way.
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Yea, you can get some pretty decent older bikes...
Last year I bought a Yamaha FZR 750 Genesis 89 model..
Bought it for R11000 and spent about R2500 fully overhauling it (I did it myself) it hadn't been used for like half a year (according to the previous owner) so it did need some attention, but nothing serious..
Insurance is a bit less than R250.00 a month..


It's still a really awesome bike though.. - the only thing I don't really like about it is the custom "Virgin" spray job - Virgin is not my favorite company.. :o


The amazing thing about bikes though is that even really old bikes can still totally outperform modern cars .. even modern supercars.. :cool:

Have a look here (my FZR's specs): http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/model/yamaha/yamaha_fzr750%2087.htm
Standing quarter mile in 11.2 seconds.. :eek:
The Ferrari Enzo does the quarter mile in 11.1 seconds.. .. :eek:

Yea so the latest greatest Ferrari's standing quarter mile performance is only 0.1 of a second faster than my 89 Yamaha?? :cool:

Oh and before someone points out the obvious, yea I know that after reaching 220 km/h the Ferrari Enzo is going to come flying past me... but seriously how often do you get to go much faster than that anyway? ;) (If even that fast at all)..

Now isn't that a good reason to have a bike? I mean don't get me wrong I'd love a Ferrari Enzo, but how many of us can afford that kind of machine? And yet for < R20000.00 you can pick up a second hand motorcycle that'll give you all (and more) of the exhilaration of the Enzo.. - Just not the attention.. ;)
 
I have quite a few friends who bought bikes, every single one of them have been in accident (although most of them have/had been driving for almost 2 years or more), from minor accident to 2 of them who died. There is no way I'll drive a bike, the statistics don't quite favor you. But fuel wise it's pretty good, no doubt about that.

redarrow said:
The amazing thing about bikes though is that even really old bikes can still totally outperform modern cars .. even modern supercars.. :cool:
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The reason for that would be that those cars aren't built for quarter mile ;)
What makes a supercar a supercar is it's overall performance not just standing pull away, and by that I mean handling, braking and safety features also, bikes aren't exactly safe (or handle anything like supercars). Cars purpose built for quarter mile perform 7s and lower....
 
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get a good commuter (EDIT/ HEHEHEHE I said "computer" EDIT) bike and keep the car for rainy days when you dont feel like getting wet.

My bike saves me hours and alot of gas money.

Juat dont go buy a friggin Busa to use to work and back, Its a bugger to ride stop start.
 
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I am planning on purchasing a MTB so I can cycle to work and back, but I don't trust you bloody drivers... you guys ride like asses in the morning, the afternoon is better, but I still wanna live to see my kids ;)
 
dam said:
You are right, it depends how you ride although I am not saying that a bike will use more fuel than a car, I am saying that once I added the monthly payments and the insurance etc. it ended up costing more than I would save on petrol.

I could get a second hand bike, pay cash and ride it without insurance then it would work out cheaper, I could save about R800 month on petrol that way.

Good point regarding traffic, that would save time although I start work at 9:30 so it's not too bad for me.
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Aha - well I never took the insurance into account, as mine is not covered - I couldn't be bothered. My car is though.
My logic - if I wrote the bike off, I'd be written off along with it :D

Gnome said:
I have quite a few friends who bought bikes, every single one of them have been in accident, from minor accident to 2 of them who died. There is no way I'll drive a bike, the statistics don't quite favor you. But fuel wise it's pretty good, no doubt about that.
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Hell on my 1st bike, a z1000ST I broke my leg due to an idiot jumping a stop street. 10 months of rehab on the leg, though in the 1st 5months, with 5 steel pins coming out of my leg, I jump started the bike and got back on my pony and drove it around the peninsula.

I love the freedom of a bike.
When I'm in a k@k mood, I'll open her up and when you're just lazy and wanna get out of the house, take her for a nice cruise.

Yeah I lost a brother though to a motorcycle accident.
But that kinda thing is unforseen...
But I never once considered not getting on a bike again.
Though my time for bikes in this country is coming to a close.
I plan on selling mine in the next few weeks as I'm getting my cash flow ready to go to the UK later this year.
 
Gnome said:
The reason for that would be that those cars aren't built for quarter mile ;)
What makes a supercar a supercar is it's overall performance not just standing pull away, and by that I mean handling, braking and safety features also, bikes aren't exactly safe. Cars purpose built for quarter mile perform 7s and lower....
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Well.. I was really just using the quarter mile as an example..
Most motorcycles are also actually not built simply with standing pull in mind.. Superbikes are really the parallel of supercars.. I.e., they are built with superior handling, braking etc.. performance..

Obviously you're quite correct though that a motorcycle can never provide the same safety as a car.. although personally I doubt that supercars are built with safety in mind..


Anyway if my 19 year old 750cc motorcycle is only 0.1 seconds slower on the quarter mile than a Ferrari Enzo.. then do we even need to start contemplating how a modern 1000cc superbike will compare (which would utterly destroy my bike) .. :eek:

As to handling, my brother does motorcycle circuit racing (just local regionals) and something that these tracks highlight is that no car can get near the lap times of the motorcycles - and in this case it's not about acceleration, it's more about handling.. ;)
 
redarrow said:
Well.. I was really just using the quarter mile as an example..
Most motorcycles are also actually not built simply with standing pull in mind.. Superbikes are really the parallel of supercars.. I.e., they are built with superior handling, braking etc.. performance..
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Examples of such bikes? (sry don't know much about bikes)
I was under the impression bikes have problems with traction, which is why it's limited on 0-100km/h pull away speeds. (what is the fastest bike on pull away anyway?)

Also aren't super bikes in the same category as Formula 1 cars? (IE. Super Bike racing?)

redarrow said:
Obviously you're quite correct though that a motorcycle can never provide the same safety as a car.. although personally I doubt that supercars are built with safety in mind..
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Actually they are, many racing cars are made from carbon fiber, feature not only advanced braking systems but advanced traction control and airbags,etc. Take a look at the Bugatti Veyron, to go into top speed mode requires many safety checks to be done,etc. before it is allowed, there are many other examples...

redarrow said:
As to handling, my brother does motorcycle circuit racing (just local regionals) and something that these tracks highlight is that no car can get near the lap times of the motorcycles - and in this case it's not about acceleration, it's more about handling.. ;)
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That may be true for the local scene (where the budget is low and bikes are much cheaper than cars), but on the bigger picture bikes don't compare (at least not when events such as formula one is included).
 
Gnome said:
I was under the impression bikes have problems with traction, which is why it's limited on 0-100km/h pull away speeds. (what is the fastest bike on pull away anyway?)
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The problem is that the bike wants to wheelie if you give it too much power.

Apparently the car is still faster than bikes on acceleration, something like 1.2 seconds for a drag car to get to 100kph, Google search says 2.5 for the fastest bike.

There was something about drag racing on tv a few days ago, iirc the drag cars were doing 5.6 seconds for the 1/4 mile and the Hayabusa (fastest production bike) did it in 9.95.
 
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