$$$ sucking bikes!

[Gremlin]

apples with apples... you're trying to compare a normal car against a sportsbike. Compare a sporty car (if there is such a thing) with the bike.

And no... never calculate how much its costing you, it would only make you cry. Small bikes are generally good, on gas, servicing, tyre cost, tyre life, etc. 600cc+ bikes, its all about more tyres, more chains, more pads, eats gas at a decent rate... etc.

The fun is priceless

[Highlander]

We drive a Honda Odyssey, a Mitsi Galant and my CB 750.
Cost of owning / Running these is within a few cents per Km of each other and the bike is smack in between the cars.
That is all fuel, maintenance, Reg,WOF's & Insurance divided by the Km travelled by that vehicle.

At a guess, I'd do about 2/3 of the km on my bike commuting the rest is having fun..

[Coyote]

I feel your pain

I'm a teenager, still at school. Earning $60 a week on an underpaid after school job (but it's at a bike store so it's worth it). Luckily parents are paying for insurance and rego but I have to deal with everything else which is hard to do when $20 goes to the loan and another $20-30 goes into the weeks petrol. I'm seeling my old bikes to pay back some debt after my new second hand sportsbike brought privately initially cost me $3800, $300 to get from Christchurch, $200 for rear cylinder shims, $200 for a new ignition, $60 for oil and I'm looking at spending $500 for new disks, $400 for a new rear tyre, $200 to get front shims for it, etc. I should've got a $5000 bike with low k's, but I went for cheaper with high k's but it ends up costing just as much and you get less for it.

[Taz]

I feel your pain

I'm a teenager, still at school. Earning $60 a week on an underpaid after school job (but it's at a bike store so it's worth it). Luckily parents are paying for insurance and rego but I have to deal with everything else which is hard to do when $20 goes to the loan and another $20-30 goes into the weeks petrol. I'm seeling my old bikes to pay back some debt after my new second hand sportsbike brought privately initially cost me $3800, $300 to get from Christchurch, $200 for rear cylinder shims, $200 for a new ignition, $60 for oil and I'm looking at spending $500 for new disks, $400 for a new rear tyre, $200 to get front shims for it, etc. I should've got a $5000 bike with low k's, but I went for cheaper with high k's but it ends up costing just as much and you get less for it.

And you could have bought a brand new scorpio Z and had change in your pocket. It's all about choices. Buy an old clapped out bike and expect repair bills. even a 5000 sportsbike would be over 10 years old....
Andy.

[phoenixgtr]

What happened? I've had reasonable service from them

I'm guessing you took a 15 year old imported never sold new in NZ bike to them for what you expected to be minor fixing, and there was more was wrong with it than you expected?

Not exactly. We took it there knowing it had real issues in the carbs asking them to get it running properly and expecting it not to be cheap. They replaced the sparkplugs and that seemed to be about it, even though they gave us a long list of things they apparently did. Got it back a week later and it was barely any better, so naturally I took it back and said "you didn't do what I paid you $500 to do." and I got this exact quote back "thats what you get for buying a cheap import."

So a couple of weeks ago the bandit was worse than ever so we decided we had to take it in again (it was beyond my spanner skills), so we took it to Norjos, the Kawasaki store where my bikes been. They replaced the seals in the carbs, new sparkplugs, new air filter and oil change for $300. Now the bike's running the best it has since we've owned it.

We will never go back to Sportzone

[Coyote]

And you could have bought a brand new scorpio Z and had change in your pocket. It's all about choices. Buy an old clapped out bike and expect repair bills. even a 5000 sportsbike would be over 10 years old....
Andy.

Why not get a Toyota Corolla instead?

I knew the bike was old, but I didn't expect it to be clapped out. I bought a lemon, all my bikes have been lemons

[Wasp]

Not exactly. We took it there knowing it had real issues in the carbs asking them to get it running properly and expecting it not to be cheap. They replaced the sparkplugs and that seemed to be about it, even though they gave us a long list of things they apparently did. Got it back a week later and it was barely any better, so naturally I took it back and said "you didn't do what I paid you $500 to do." and I got this exact quote back "thats what you get for buying a cheap import."

So a couple of weeks ago the bandit was worse than ever so we decided we had to take it in again (it was beyond my spanner skills), so we took it to Norjos, the Kawasaki store where my bikes been. They replaced the seals in the carbs, new sparkplugs, new air filter and oil change for $300. Now the bike's running the best it has since we've owned it.

We will never go back to Sportzone

sounds interesting, seals you say....... hmmm what seals?!

p.s. the carbs wernt dripping gas were they? (can tell cos discolours the carb and engine metal)

what did your 600 fail its wof on?

pity your down there - would have been good to pull both your bandit and mine apart side by side and see whats up

[Taz]

Why not get a Toyota Corolla instead?

I thought we were talking bikes. If you want a car then a Corolla would be a good choice. Get it AA checked so you don't buy a lemon of a Corolla too.

[vifferman]

Unless you own a ChaosCommuterCycle, a bike is basically an expensive toy, and in fact the design and marketing is geared around this fact, to make it appeal to people's desire to be a "racer" or "tough mofo" or whatever. So the sound, look, feel etc. plays on this.
What bugs me isn't the maintenance costs, but the fact that if you're riding every day, everything needs to be replaced on a regular basis. I'm currently wearing around $2K worth of gear, and it needs replacing every 3 or 4 years. I think it's all worth what it costs, but it's a lot. Currently it's all pretty good, apart from my jacket, which I've had about 6 years or more, and it's tired and looks it.

[Tank]

Like for like - bikes are still cheap.

A old little commuter car will still cost more than a GN250 popping to work and back.

A sports bike will still cost less than a sports car. and yes - cars go thu tires fast as well (if driven properly).

its just part of owning something that requires maintainance love and attention.

Sorry to hear you had problems with the dealer and servicing. Learning how to do it yourself does help and gives you bonding (or Zen) time with your bike.

Useless bit of info: "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" has been listed as the most widely read philosophy book, ever!

[Ocean1]

Unless you own a ChaosCommuterCycle, a bike is basically an expensive toy, and in fact the design and marketing is geared around this fact, to make it appeal to people's desire to be a "racer" or "tough mofo" or whatever. So the sound, look, feel etc. plays on this.
What bugs me isn't the maintenance costs, but the fact that if you're riding every day, everything needs to be replaced on a regular basis. I'm currently wearing around $2K worth of gear, and it needs replacing every 3 or 4 years. I think it's all worth what it costs, but it's a lot. Currently it's all pretty good, apart from my jacket, which I've had about 6 years or more, and it's tired and looks it.

Doood, been AWOL lately?

Market for cars is driven by very similar criteria.
Face it, cars and bikes are both consumer commodities, the biggest mistake you can make is to consider them an "investment". Having said that there's economically sound buying in either, you just have to turn off the bullshit, do a bit of research and add up the numbers.

[phoenixgtr]

Sorry to hear you had problems with the dealer and servicing. Learning how to do it yourself does help and gives you bonding (or Zen) time with your bike.

Useless bit of info: "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" has been listed as the most widely read philosophy book, ever!

I know how to do alot of the maintenance, but I still have to pay for parts, which is what my partners bike needed to get running properly.

As for my bike, it's been running like a dream since I bought it.

The 2 of us have sat down and sorted out a budget so that when these costs come along theres some money there for them.

We have a crappy little Civic that we've been commuting in lately and quite frankly I hate it, but I can live with it. The bike may just become more of an entertainment item than my primary mode of transport. Theres no way I'm giving it up!!

[merv]

We have a crappy little Civic that we've been commuting in lately and quite frankly I hate it, but I can live with it. The bike may just become more of an entertainment item than my primary mode of transport. Theres no way I'm giving it up!!

Now you are starting to understand bikes are entertainment. To those that say compare like for like with a sports car I'd suggest the same applies, you're probably still better to commute in your Civic and save the Ferrari (if you had one) for weekend fun to save the cost and risk of damage to it - jealous people keying it etc.

[phoenixgtr]

Now you are starting to understand bikes are entertainment. To those that say compare like for like with a sports car I'd suggest the same applies, you're probably still better to commute in your Civic and save the Ferrari (if you had one) for weekend fun to save the cost and risk of damage to it - jealous people keying it etc.

Yeah, I've learnt that lesson. The first day I had my bike down here a stupid woman in a 4WD backed into. Apparently a great big bright green bike isn't very visible

[Squiggles]

i ride my wee gn around town and save the tl for the distances, tl is expensive with the set of tyres costing more than the gn did, but its my fun bike, if i run low on money i simply dont get to have a fun ride that weekend, and can still ride my gn till i have got the money