Scooter or motorcycle?

[cat0020]

Originally Posted by toniportray

I tell this to everyone who thinks about getting a scooter over a motorcycle. Scooters are WAY overpriced. Motorcycles are too, but scooters are really bad. Most scooters cannot go on the freeway (often for legal reasons) and if you ever develop a love for riding (most do), then you WILL want to go a long distance at freeway speeds. I can't do 90% of the things I do on a motorcycle on a scooter. My theory is if your commute is short enough for using a scooter, then you can bike it on a bicycle (which I love doing except my commute is 46 miles hence the need for a freeway vehicle). Scooter mpg isn't that much better than small motorcycles. My Buell Blast is a 492cc Harley Davidson that gives me 87mpg city/freeway combined when I ride aerodynamically by putting my feet on the rear pegs and laying on the bike. It's not uncomfortable. It'll take me just over 100mph and has no trouble up hills. My huge increase in mpg largely comes from the fact that motorcycles unlike cars are terribly un-aerodynamic. By riding out of the wind, I've boosted my mpgs by 33%. No joke. 67mpg up to 87mpg. That's at a steady riding speed of 60-65mph. Not bad eh? I bought the bike used in 2004 (2 years old) for $1900 with 1850 miles on it. Buell Blasts are cheap for resale because most people don't like them because they accelerate slowly compared to twin and four cylinder equivalents. Get a motorcycle. You'll thank yourself after you've gotten your riding skills up to par.

I guess you don't ride much in bumper to bumper traffic, that's mainly the reason I switched from motorcycles to scooter. I have been riding motorcycles since 2001, combined approx. 265,000 miles on many different bikes. When you're crawling along in traffic at 5-15 mph, the clutching and shifting on a motorcycle gets tiring really easily.
My 250cc Chinese scooter cost $1699 shipped to my driveway, I put little over 2600 miles since I received it, it gets over 90 mpg. I ride it on the freeway once in a while but no longer than 20 miles at once. Most of my commute is between 25-50 mph, which is about 40-70% of its engine capability. Longest single day distance I've traveled on the scooter is about 220 miles in little over 5 hours.

Just an FYI, you should change the category of your Buell Blast GasLog from "gasoline" to "mototcycle", some members are sensitive of this common issue.

[toniportray]

Actually about 1/3 of my commute is bumper to bumper traffic. The San Francisco bay area has some of the worst traffic backups of any city nationwide. Problem is the state officials don't make much of an effort to fix it. You're probably not aware that in California, lane splitting IS legal. That's a primary reason I ride my motorcycles everywhere here. I can just pass by all the cagers on the freeway and in town. So I definitely do have to slow down in heavy traffic, but I don't have to sit there like everyone else. I usually don't have to go below 25mph depending on how gutsy I want to be dodging cars that decide to change lanes without looking in their mirrors for motorcycles. I think California is the only state that allows this. There are lots of reasons for it, and thank God there isn't really any opposition to it from lawmakers/politicians. In fact, here in California we motorcyclists get away with a lot of things. I don't have to pay bridge tolls ($4+ per crossing) and I don't have to do smog checks like all the cars do. It really pays off to ride motorcycles in California. So bumper to bumper traffic isn't really an issue for me. Yes, I have to slow down, but I'm not constantly shifting around because of it. I just haven't found a real love for scooters because for less than what I would pay for a scooter, I can get something that'll last forever and can break speeds of 100mph. Not to mention the distance range is a whole lot better on motorcycles. Some scooter guys here buy those small scooters for $5k+ and they only go 45mph max. I could buy two motorcycles for that price that have equivalent gas mileage (IF you drive economically as I do).

I just think scooters are way overpriced for what you get. I would get bored with a scooter real fast. They're just too weak for my tastes. The biggest factor is cost and usefulness, but for others not in my situation they may not need a vehicle capable of maintaining highway speeds. Still I think a MC is a better buy for what you get. I'm not sure how motorcycles compare with scooters in terms of longevity, but I've never heard of a scooter approaching 100k miles without complete engine/transmission replacement. Motorcycles on the other hand greatly exceed that value.

[djenyc]

toniportray - when buying NEW - Chinese scooter go for $2K-$3K, or ~$1700 shipped if you shop around, where as a new Buell is around $5K. You got a good deal, but doesn't mean that I will.

In my area (CT) used stuff is often listed for more then you can buy it new if you look for a sale. I try to save and buy used whenever I can (all the cars I ever bought were used ...but I had to look around A LOT and go out of state to picke them up LOL). With used stuff it seems like you always have to WAIT, WAIT, WAIT and spend all the time looking in to classifieds and driving around looking at other people's junk. Sometimes it's worth it, but it's really apples to oranges.

Ross

[cat0020]

Well, for your usage in California.. where highways are 4-6 lanes wide each direction, traffic easily flow at above 60 mph regularly that's differnet than bumper to bumber traffic on a two-lane highway crawling at 10 mph for 10 miles.
I lane split all the time whether it's legal or not, and I passed by LEOs while doing so, never had a cop pull me over for going 20 mph when traffic is at 5 mph or standstill.

On the operating cost of motorcycles vs scooter, from my experience:

For 20,000 miles usage, a motorcycle would require at least two sets of tires ($100-$300 a set),

4-6 oil/filter change (4 qt. of oil and a filter, about $20-30 each oil/filter change)

one set of chain/sprokets, ($60 chain, another $40-60 for sprockets)

one or two sets of brake pads ($15-30 a set of pads),

one valve adjustment (4 hour job, shop rate about $150-200),

maybe a clutch (6-8 hour job, shop rate $160-300 depending on # of cylinders).

For a scooter, two or three sets of tires will cost 1/2 to 2/3 of motorcycle tires at $20-60 each.

Engine oil requirement about 1/3 of motorcycles. (only 1 qt. per oil change, no filter)

CVT belts ($30) at 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of a motorcycle chain,

brake pads about the same,

I do my valve adjustment in 5 minutes while engine is running at operating temp.

Clutch replacement on scooter is a 2 hour job (shop rate $80-100), I can do it in my garage with less time.

BTW, I doubt very much that a Buell Blast would last 100,000 miles with its single cylinder engine. Once you get used to operating a motorcycle, you would likely move to bigger displacement, more cyclinder motorcycles.