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Are you thinking about buying a motorcycle but are wondering what other expenses come with owning one? Motorcycles can be fun to ride but they can also be expensive to insure and maintain. Depending on where you live you likely won’t be able to ride a motorcycle year-round, so you will also need a car or truck to get around in the winter months.
Is buying and owning a motorcycle worth it? It depends on where you live and how much you plan to ride it. If you can ride a motorcycle year-round where you live then you obviously will be more use out of it than someone that lives in the northern United States. With that said you need to think about your lifestyle and where you live.
I can tell you from experience that riding a motorcycle in stop and go traffic is not fun. Do you plan to commute on your motorcycle to work or would you just be riding it in the afternoons and on weekends? These are all questions you need to ask yourself before buying a motorcycle. If you don’t plan on riding a motorcycle all that much then I would stay away, it doesn’t make sense to pay for something that you rarely use.
1. Insurance Isn’t Cheap
Depending on how old you are your insurance rates to insure a motorcycle could be expensive. The costs to insure a motorcycle will also depend on how much the motorcycle costs and if you have taken a motorcycle safety course or not.
You can decrease the costs of your insurance by taking a motorcycle safety course or by bundling your car and motorcycle insurance through the same company. You can’t really do much about your age but the cost to insure a motorcycle should go down as you get older.
My insurance costs on my motorcycle have dropped year by year as I have got older. Yours should do the same especially after 25 years old.
2. The Number Of CC’s Matter
One of the main considerations you should take in purchasing a motorcycle is how many CC’s the engine is. The more CC’s an engine has the more power it will output. If you are just learning how to drive a motorcycle you should probably start on a lower CC motorcycle and work your way up from there.
It’s not the smartest idea to buy a motorcycle over 1000 CC’s unless you have experience already riding motorcycles. One reason for this is that higher CC motorcycles tend to also weigh more. If you are just learning to ride a motorcycle you may not be able to control the weight of the motorcycle.
With a lower CC engine, you will be better able to control the weight of the motorcycle and the throttle to allow you to safely learn how to ride a motorcycle. Once you become comfortable riding the lower CC motorcycle then you can start considering purchasing a higher CC engine.
Think about it another way, when you first started to ride a bicycle were you able to do tricks on your bicycle? You probably started learning the fundamentals of how to ride a bicycle. Hell, you may have even started with training wheels.
Over time as you became more comfortable riding the bicycle then you decided that it was time to advance and take your training wheels off. Starting off riding a motorcycle is the same concept. You want to learn to crawl before you walk.
3. Cruiser Or Streetbike?
Another big consideration you need to make is buying a cruiser such as a Harley Davidson or a Street Bike like a Honda CBR. This really comes down to your riding style and how you plan to ride the motorcycle. Do you want to take your motorcycle on long trips with your friends? Then you would probably be better off getting a cruiser style motorcycle.
Do you want to be able to go through turns and twisties with your buddies on short rides? Then you would probably prefer going with a Street Bike style motorcycle. The main differences between both types of motorcycles are the riding position.
With a cruiser type motorcycle, the riding position is more upright which allows you to sit on the motorcycle for longer stretches without becoming fatigued. Street Bikes have a more forward riding position which is a good position for going through turns but will ultimately leave you feeling fatigued earlier.
I have a street bike (pictured above) and I can only ride it for about an hour or an hour and a half before I start to feel fatigued in my back. If I wanted to take a longer trip with some buddies I would likely need to take rest breaks to be able to get through the trip.
4. Motorcycle Gear Isn’t Cheap
Before buying a motorcycle you should plan on buying motorcycle gear, at the very least you should be riding with a helmet. While you may see people out riding around with no protective gear while riding a motorcycle those people are putting themselves at risk. Motorcycle gear is not that cheap depending on which brand you go with.
While I will admit that I don’t always wear full protective gear while riding a motorcycle, but I will say that I always wear a helmet. If I am going to the gym from my workplace which is just across the street I will typically not wear my motorcycle jacket, however, I always wear protective gear when riding to and from work.
Motorcycle gear can get expensive depending on what brand of gear you get. Dainese makes very good quality motorcycle gear but is one of the most expensive brands out there. I prefer Icon or Alpinestars for a lot of my motorcycle gear. They seem to offer the best bang for your buck.
Another thing that you need to keep in mind is that the motorcycle gear that you will buy will not last forever. It’s not that uncommon to have to replace your motorcycle gloves every couple of years, obviously how much you ride will definitely have an impact.
5. Countersteer Helps You Corner
Before buying a motorcycle you may want to learn how to steer one.Countersteer is something that a lot of people that don’t ride motorcycles don’t know about. Countersteer happens when you get your motorcycle up to about 30 MPH. At that point you don’t turn the front wheel in the direction that you want to go, you actually push the handle of the motorcycle in the direction that you want to go.
While this might seem counterintuitive there is actually some science behind what is happening. As you bring the motorcycle up to speed the amount of centrifugal force on the wheels of the motorcycle begins to increase. The more centrifugal force acting on the motorcycle the less control you have over the steering inputs.
As you bring the motorcycle back down to a slower speed the centrifugal force is lessened and you then are able to turn your motorcycle through corners by pointing the front wheel in that direction. This same sort of concept can be seen while riding a bicycle.
When you increase your speed while riding a bicycle you become more stable on the bicycle and can actually let go of the handlebars while still traveling forward. This same procedure becomes more difficult the less speed that you maintain. As you decrease in speed the centrifugal force on the bicycle is lessened.
6. Tires Aren’t Cheap
When researching motorcycles one thing I didn’t take into account was the price to replace my motorcycle tires. I was thinking that it only had two tires so it shouldn’t be that expensive to replace both tires. Boy was I wrong.
First, you need to check your existing tire sizes to make sure that you are buying the right size replacement tires for your motorcycle. If you look at the sidewall of the tires you will see three numbers that look something like 180/55zr17. Your front tire is typically not the same size as your back tire on a motorcycle so make sure you get both tire sizes.
Once you know both the front and back tire size you can then begin your search for replacement tires. Just make sure that you buy replacement tires that are the same size as the ones you are taking off your motorcycle. Otherwise, they may not fit.
Motorcycle tires are continuously being improved because of this the latest tire technology usually isn’t cheap for the consumer. I actually tried buying an older model of motorcycle tire online and was disappointed when the tires that showed up on my doorstep were pretty close to being 10 years old.
I thought that I may be saving myself some money by buying the older model motorcycle tires and will end up having to replace my motorcycle tires sooner than I anticipated. With that said your best bet is to buy the latest model of motorcycle tire that is on the market.
If you can buy them in a local motorcycle shop do that, this way you can check to see the expiration date on the tires before you buy them. Motorcycle tires like car tires have a date that is stamped on the side of them to indicate when they were manufactured. After 10 years most tire manufacturers recommend replacing the tires with new ones.
That is why you want to check the date when the tires were made before buying them if you can. If you don’t have a local tire shop where you can buy motorcycle tires you would want to buy them online from a reputable motorcycle tire dealer. I purchased my last set of tires off of Amazon which was a bad idea.
I had no way to check to see if the seller on Amazon had been storing them in his garage for years. You want to buy your tires through a dealer that sells a lot of tires. That way you know that they likely aren’t going to have a lot of older tires sitting around waiting to be sold.
7. Your Front Brakes Do Most Of The Braking
Another thing that most people don’t know before buying a motorcycle is that your front brakes on motorcycles provide 70% of the stopping power. If you have ever compared the front and back calipers and brake pads on a motorcycle this may not surprise you.
On most motorcycles, the front brakes will have two large floating rotors on both sides of the forks. These rotors are accompanied by calipers on both sides to be able to grab hold of the rotors, which produces friction to bring the motorcycle to a stop.
Rear motorcycle rotors are usually not that large and may only have one brake caliper to help bring the motorcycle to a halt. This is why it’s recommended to always use both front and back brakes to help stop the motorcycle.
Using one or the other may lock up the front brakes or not provide enough stopping power from the back brakes. If you use both the front and back brakes at the same time it should provide even stopping power to be able to bring the motorcycle to a safe stop.
8. Fairings Can Be Replaced
Let’s say that you are planning on buying a motorcycle off of craigslist and show up to inspect the motorcycle only to find that the fairings have scratches all over them. You should know that if it has plastic fairings that those fairings are designed to be able to be replaced with minimal effort.
Motorcycle manufacturers designed them this way to make it easy to make the motorcycle look like new again if you accidentally manage to lay the motorcycle on its side. When I first started riding I hit a gravel patch while coming to a stop and accidentally laid the motorcycle down.
I was able to buy Chinese fairings on eBay for about $350 and replace them myself. The fairings I bought off eBay have even already painted in the same color scheme and pattern as the old fairings I ruined. All I had to do was remove the old fairings and then put on the new ones, most of this process involves clips and tabs that hold the fairings on the motorcycle.
Before replacing the fairings I watched a youtube video of a guy that replaced his fairings. Doing that was able to give me step by step instructions on how to go about replacing the fairing on my motorcycle.
9. You Need A Place To Store A Motorcycle
One thing that you may not be thinking about when buying a motorcycle is that you are going to need somewhere to store it. Motorcycles are not really made to be stored outside in the elements. If you are planning on having to store your motorcycle outside you should definitely invest in a cover to help protect it from rain, UV rays, and snow.
If you own a house with a garage you can likely clear out some room to be able to store your motorcycle when you are not using it. However, if you live in an apartment then you may need to get creative. If your apartment complex has an awning or covered parking spaces then you may want to look at purchasing a parking spot there to keep the motorcycle out of the elements.
Another option would be to buy a storage unit where you could store the motorcycle until you are ready to ride it. The obvious downside here would be that you would need to drive over or walk over to the storage unit every time you wanted to ride the motorcycle.
If you are able to keep storage trailers at your apartment complex you could also look at purchasing a storage trailer that you could keep your motorcycle inside of while you aren’t using it. Just be aware that you are going to need somewhere to store your motorcycle out of the elements when it’s not in use.
10. You May Need to Buy A Truck And Trailer
Depending on how you are going to use the motorcycle you may need to look at purchasing a truck and a trailer. Most trucks will have a bed long enough to put a motorcycle in the bed of the truck but the loading angle may not be ideal, especially if you have a lifted truck.
If your truck bed is long enough to store a motorcycle then you could buy loading ramps to allow you to load the motorcycle into the bed of your truck. Your other option would be to buy a trailer that you could put your motorcycle on to then tow around to where you need to be.
I personally don’t own a truck or a trailer because I’ve not needed to get the motorcycle places that I couldn’t already ride it. I usually only ride my motorcycle around town in my local area. However, if you plan to take your motorcycle on trips where you may not be riding it the whole distance then you would want to look at a way to transport it.
If you have a car like me you could also look at investing in a hitch for your car. Motorcycles don’t weigh that much so it shouldn’t be that much of a strain on a car to tow a motorcycle. You would still need to look at purchasing a trailer that you could then tow behind your car.
11. Fuel Costs Are Low
If you are planning on using your motorcycle to commute back and forth to work one thing you should know before buying a motorcycle is that your overall fuel costs will be lower than commuting in a car. Motorcycles will typically get better gas mileage when compared to a car or truck, this is mainly because of how much lighter they are than a car or truck.
When I commute using my motorcycle I can usually make a tank of gas last about a week. Obviously, that is going to depend on how much I ride it that week and how I’m riding it. But with all of that said it takes less than $10 to fill it up with a tank of gas and that will usually last about 5 days.
This makes commuting using a motorcycle a smart option if you are looking to save money on fuel costs. However, as I mentioned above there are other costs like insurance that will likely negate the money that you may have saved by commuting using a motorcycle.
12. Motorcycles Take Premium Fuel
While we are on the topic of fuel you should know that motorcycles (at least Japanese) will take premium fuel. Even Harley Davidson advises owners of fuel injected motorcycles to use premium gas in their motorcycles. With that said the cost of premium fuel should not impact your wallet that much because of the small gas tanks on most motorcycles.
My motorcycle gas tank has a capacity of about 5 gallons, you can expect this capacity on most motorcycles. Motorcycles are designed to be light so having a smaller gas tank will help aid in keeping the motorcycle light.
Most gas tanks are also positioned up high on the motorcycle which is bad for balancing the motorcycle, you want the weight of the motorcycle to be as low as possible. This is another reason why most gas tanks on motorcycles are small in capacity.
To learn more about octane ratings and why you should always put premium fuel in your motorcycle check out my other article all about octane ratings of gasoline and what they mean.
13. Oil Changes Are Infrequent
If you live in a warm climate such as Los Angeles you may be able to ride your motorcycle year-round, but for most people, they will only be riding it half the year if they are lucky. With that said unless you are riding it all the time you likely won’t be putting that many miles on it, or at least how many you are used to with a car.
The oil change intervals on my Honda CBR 600rr are 8,000 miles and I will likely never hit that point in a year. That means that I only have to change my oil every season. You likely will only need to change the oil in the motorcycle once a year if you can only ride 4-6 months out of the year. When I was riding it a lot I only put 5,000-7000 miles on it in a season.
If you are going to be changing the oil on your motorcycle yourself I would recommend buying a set of motorcycle stands like pictured above. They allow you to get your motorcycle in the air to be able to slip an oil pan underneath so that you can drain your oil easily.
Motorcycle stands also allow you to easily do other maintenance tasks like cleaning and lubricating the drive chain of the motorcycle. To check out the current prices on Amazon of the venom sportbike motorcycle stands that I went with click here.
