If you can ride a bicycle, they can get you from there to a competent motorcycle rider, no need to get a scooter.
It's a good course, well worth the two and half clams.
I was thinking about taking a riding class this spring, any suggestions? It can be had for $250 bucks, and the when you pass you automatically get the endorsement on your license. from what I hear the test is way easier than the test they give you at the dmv.
Should I get a cheap ass scooter to practice on first?
No, there is no need to do this. If you can ride a bicycle you can take the MSF course. Buy a bike after you pass the course and get your license.
Ok cool, I will look into when they ahve classes available. I always hear its easier to ride a motorcycle then a moped, is that true?
Ride because you want to, not because you want to save gas.
Terrible idea given your motivation. You're getting some marginal gas mileage and giving up safety. Especially 9/5 rush hour highway commute; I'd never even consider something like that.
DO NOT listen to this guy. LOL
I've always wanted a motorcycle and one day found one locally for sell so I bought it (2009 Ninja 250R). At that time i know nothing about bikes or even how to ride. I had the guy delivered/ride it to my house and leave the bike there. Contrary to all the internet keyboard, you CAN learn how to ride on your own. You don't need to pay someone $300 for a class. It's like riding a pedal bike and if you know how to drive a manual transmission car it's even easier.
Of course buy something small to start (250cc) so it won't hurt your wallet when you drop it, and you WILL drop the bike. I dropped it twice going 5mph while practicing u-turns, I scratched the fender just a little bit but touch up paint took care of it. Took me about 2 days of practicing in a local middle school parking lot and i'm up and running. YouTube how-to helped out tremendously.
As for gear, just get a DOT approved helmet and wear some thick clothing such as jean and leather jacket. It will protect you from road rash at low speed crash or when you drop the bike (i dropped my bike at a stop light, it was embarrassing as hell lol) No need to go out and buy some ridiculous $300 helmet, $400 jacket, $100 gloves, etc... Although after riding for some time, I wanted to look snazzier by buying an Icon leather jacket/boot/gloves (Icon = $$$) Looking back at it, I don't really need to buy all those expensive gear and should have bought something cheaper.
The Ninja 250R is faster than 50% of the cars on the road today, it can out accelerate pretty much most of the cars you see. The only thing it won't do is go over 105mph LOL, it can sure get you from 0 to 80mph in no time. Don't worry about it being able to take you on the highway. I cruise on the highway at 70mph easily and if wanted, i can overtake/pass cars easily.
The honda rebel on the other hand is a little bit slower, it maxes out at about 80-85mph. I recommend you buy the new Honda CBR 250R. It's leap and bound better than the Current Ninja 250R due to it being fuel injected. It doesn't have any starting problem due to the weather usually associated with carburated bikes.
As far as fuel economy, I get an average of 60mpg on the Ninja 250R with me being hard on the gas accelerator. If I ride normal, I can get 65mpg.
The Honda CBR250R is rated at much higher MPG due to the efficiency of fuel injection. I have no doubt I can get 70mpg with it.
Since upgrading from a Ninja 250R (after riding it for 3,000 miles) to a 2009 Ninja ZX6R, My mpg dropped to 39 with mixed driving. But 39mpg and the ability to hit the 1/4 mile in 10 seconds is pretty good to me. The 600cc class is a beast, people couldn't ride it to its full potential at any given day but yet they are so eager to buy a 1000cc.
Maintenance on the bike is not much different from a car, if anything breaks it's cheaper to replace and you can do most of the work yourself. Trust me bikes are so much easier to work on than a car. You don't need an insane amount of tools required to work on a bike compare to a car. some basic screw drivers, a 10mm & 12mm socket, and hex screws and you can pretty much tear the entire bike down and strip the engine off the bike.
Last but not least, I don't know where you ride where tires only last 5k miles. That is absurd.
Don't listen to all the negative people on the internet, people have been learning how to ride by themselves for years before the MSF safety course was introduced, they ride long before $400 leather jacket, power ranger boots/gloves, etc...
Just take your time learning and start out slow. Rushing will get your hurt.
Happy riding
3. Gas savings are minimal. Factor in buying a bike, insurance, gear, and gas (total comes out to roughly $3k for the first year) and even a bike getting 60mpg takes 3 years before your experiencing cost savings vs. a car getting 30mpg (assumed 30mi roundtrip, 5 days a week, 52 weeks, $3.50 in gas costs, 3.5gal fuel tank, 60mpg). If you don't believe me I'll send you my spreadsheet (bored at work).
Ride because you want to, not because you want to save gas.
Most people on the internet just want to point out all of the negatives about riding a motorcycle.
The OP is looking at getting another vehicle and is interested in a cheap mode of transportation. Motorcycles are cheaper to maintain and get better fuel mileage than most other vehicles. This isn't about making up the money of the initial purchase; it's about buying a vehicle that will be cheaper to drive in the long run. Not to mention a whole hell of a lot more funI'm sure there are situations where having a motorcycle can save money, but it's a pretty insignificant amount. If you live in a year-round warm climate and if the motorcycle is your only vehicle, then sure it's cheaper. But if you still have all the sunk costs of a car, then tack on the thousands of dollars that the motorcycle costs you, the savings just aren't there. Even at $5/gallon, and assuming you only spend $5000 over the life of the motorcycle (which assumes you totally cheap out on the bike), that's still 1000 gallons of gas which in a typical car that's 20,000 or more miles worth of driving.
Anybody saying you can save a lot of money by having a motorcycle as a second vehicle is simply bad at math.
I love riding, but how about being realistic about it and tell people that riding is an amazing experience without lying to them about all the cash they're going to save?
Great post! :thumbsup: Most people on the internet just want to point out all of the negatives about riding a motorcycle. There are a lot of positives, including cost of maintenance and fuel mileage. My RF600R averages 50MPG compared to my Jetta's ~32MPG. Like you said, motorcycles are very cheap to maintain, and even when a major repair is required, it's still relatively cheap in comparison to what a similar repair would cost on a car/truck.