How do you afford to ride?

[thehollowmen]

Some of you have families to look after, some of you are unemployed or students. How do you afford to ride?

I love to ride, but I'm about to join the ranks of the unemployed next week, and the car and bike services coming up are daunting.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to sell my baby or anything. First I'm going to give up eating or something. I'm curious as to how some of you scrape by with this expensive habit.

[MattRSK]

I have worked out what it generally costs every 6 months for me to be able to ride my bike and have a car. If I was not able to afford this I wouldn't ride, simple as that. I save that amount of money weekly before I piss all my money down the drain (which I am very good at).

[chanceyy]

if you really love to do something you sacrifice something else to do it .. also called living within your means . & being multi talented helps ..

being able to budget & as matt said putting a wee bit aside each week certainly helps

[onearmedbandit]

I just do. Well I do get paid well but I work long hours and have a young family. Money isn't the problem for me, it's time that is a more pressing concern.

[Steam]

I don't have a car, the cost of petrol for the car is the thing which made me try motorcycling in the first place, and now I'm hooked. I think having only one vehicle makes all the difference for poor people like me.

As for running costs, etc, it's not really that much. I do the work myself where I can, read the full workshop manual before I take apart anything too complex. Buy parts from wreckers or scrounge. It's easy if you've only got a crappy old GN.
But then I guess I am a bit of a feral. I don't need much to live on, and once to save money I lived for a few months on the lawn of a friend's house in a yurt I built myself.

[Goblin]

I hear ya! With 3 kids to feed etc. and now a race habit to support I'd like to know how others do it too. I have given up eating some weekends just to go on a road ride. Things like insurance and rego are just unnecessary expense so I just take the risk.

You could always sell your arse.

[Colapop]

It aint easy. I manage to just get by it seems. I've heard of people moving to Oz and earning half as much again for the same work that I do in Australian dollars...
Both my wife and I work (and have 2 teenagers). We don't earn exhorbitant salaries. I'm planning on needing a new back tyre, chain & sprockets, and suspension if I can figure out how to pay for it all. I work for a temp agency on the weekends (when they've got work for me) usually stevedoring which isn't too badly paid. Doing anything less than 12-16 hours @ $16/hr a weekend aint worth it - ya end up paing most of it in tax and the rest on commuting. That's how I do it but it's not easy...

[Hitcher]

I've sold both kidneys, two retinas and my soul. That should tide my riding addiction over until Christmas 2010, or until I win Lotto and can afford my own dialysis machine and seeing-eye dog.

[phoenixgtr]

Some of you have families to look after, some of you are unemployed or students. How do you afford to ride?

I love to ride, but I'm about to join the ranks of the unemployed next week, and the car and bike services coming up are daunting.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to sell my baby or anything. First I'm going to give up eating or something. I'm curious as to how some of you scrape by with this expensive habit.

It's not easy especially when shit happens' like my bike getting knocked over.the missus is putting the pressure on now. Still, I'll never give it up

[Brett]

Well, my fulltime job covers the day to day living, and due to some profitable past ventures, i have a bit of savings that the wife and I sometimes use to play with. My wife is a fulltime student, so once she is stuck into working, hopefully there will be a decent surplus of cash.

[Motoracer]

Student allowance and part time jobs. Technically I can't afford to but somehow I manage, with some help.

[adiddy]

try beign a student and playing sport 6 nights a week during winter

[Oakie]

I get paid reasonably well and Mrs Oakie works (well until her position becomes redundant in 5 more weeks).
I budget stuff and put money away for stuff like annual rego and insurance. (set it and forget it ... the money's there when needed)
I also weigh up the options as a comparison. For example ... $912 on bus fares if I was to bus to work for a year. That's enough for annual rego, insurance and about 200 litres of gas. Also factor in things with intangible value, like me being able to take the bike to cricket yesterday as Mrs Oakie needed the car for her own purposes. Oh, and there's a certain 'value' to the spiritual wellness you get after a ride.

[Colapop]

... try being a parent, paying for the sport, and the food, and the utilities, and carting the kids to their various extramural activities, and ensuring that the house is clean, there's clean clothes to put on and holding down a full time job...

[adiddy]

mmm but having little or nothign given to me by parent s(fair enuf) and then having to drive the cage to sport and skewl while paying insurance etc and trying to fit in 2 part time jobs