What does it really cost to operate a bike?

[klaviator]

I decided to sit down and analyze the cost to operate some of the bikes I have owned. I was curious as to the total cost as well as what went into the total cost. I took 7 bikes I owned as well as two I still have. I estimated the cost of the following: Gas, tires, depreciation, and service. I left out insurance and tags/annual taxes but I will talk about those.

The bikes I looked at and the cost per mile in cents:

89 Kawasaki EX 500: 17 (used)
84 Yamaha FJ1100: 19 (used)
00 Yamaha XT350: 28 (used)
05 Kawasaki KLR650: 20 (new)
09 Kymco Super 8 150: 16 (new)
83 Yamaha Venture: 20 (new)
95 BMW R1100GS: 36 (new)

Bikes I still have. Costs are estimated:
12 Kawasaki Versys: 30 (new)
18 Kymco Like 150i: 19 (new)

Tags and annual taxes vary greatly by state and how many miles you ride. Insurance varies greatly as well and you pay by the year, not the mile.

For my current bikes those costs are (tag&taxes + insurance in cents):
Kawasaki Versys: 4 + 12 =16
Kymco Like 150i: .7+1.3=2

The biggest factor in the cost difference is that I put about 4 times as many miles on my Like than my Versys. Last year I rode my Versys more so the costs were lower.

So are the individual costs?

Starting with gas. I assumed $2.50 per gallon. at 40 MPG the cost is 6 cents per mile. 80 MPG works out to 3 cents per mile. Of course if gas were $5 per gallon those costs would double. For the bikes I used, gas mileage varied between 40 and 80 MPG. Bottom line is that the cost of gas was only a fraction of operating costs.

Tires. This varied greatly from around 2 cents per mile for my Super 8 to 10 cents for my Versys.

Depreciation. This varied from 4 cents per mile for my Kawasaki EX500 to 15 cents for my R1100GS.

Service. I really had to guess at these costs because I didn't really track these costs. They varied from several bikes at 3 cents per mile to the BMW at 8 cents. For my early bikes I did my own oil changes and simple servicing but let the shops handle the complicated stuff. Now I do most of my own servicing. I would think that if you bought a modern BMW, Ducati or other expensive bike the service cost could easily get up around 20 cents per mile or more.

There have been many threads comparing the cost of a bike to a car. I took a look at my current truck, a 2002 Chevy Avalanche. I bought it new for 24K. I came out with 35 cents per mile. Tax and ad velorum is next to nothing because it's so old but insurance comes out to 18 cents per mile because I don't put that many miles on it. The good news is that depreciation will be very little from now on bringing the cost per mile down. On the other hand fuel will continue to be the highest cost at only around 16 MPG. Interestingly the service cost has been lower than any of my bikes at around 2 cents per mile. So far it has been super reliable.

So how can you lower operating costs? The biggest cost in operating my bikes was generally depreciation. Buying used can lower that cost but in my bikes that was not always the case as some of my new bikes had pretty low depreciation (Venture @ 6 cents per mile) while some used bikes were fairly high (XT350 @ 13 cents per mile). If you buy an expensive new bike and sell it after not may miles then don't be surprised to see depreciation costs approaching a dollar per mile. Buying a small inexpensive bike won't always lower depreciation costs because small bikes will generally wear out faster than bigger bikes.

Tire costs, while generally lower than depreciation do vary greatly. You can save a lot here if you mount your own tires.

Doing your own servicing saves a lot.

Getting a bike that gets better mileage doesn't make that much difference when the price of gas is only $2.50 per gallon. I'm currently paying around $2.25

Financing can also add to the cost per mile but I payed cash for almost all my bikes so I didn't factor that in.

My conclusion? My bikes cost between 16 and 36 cents per to operate.  Total cost to own and operate were from a little over 20 cents per mile to over 40 cents. I am not saving money because I have multiple bikes as well as a truck. I own those bikes because I love to ride! It's just nice to have an idea what it's costing me. The good news is that the more I ride, the lower the cost per mile ;D

[LawnmowerRG]

Nice thread Klaviator.
I haven't sat down and figured mine up but I figure my results may be the opposite of yours. Primary reason being that I drive expensive operate diesel trucks because of my lawncare business and I do all my own service on my bikes. I do tend to keep bikes and trucks a long time though.

Thanks for posting this. If I can find time I will figure up my cost to operate.

[klaviator]

Nice thread Klaviator.
I haven't sat down and figured mine up but I figure my results may be the opposite of yours. Primary reason being that I drive expensive operate diesel trucks because of my lawncare business and I do all my own service on my bikes. I do tend to keep bikes and trucks a long time though.

Thanks for posting this. If I can find time I will figure up my cost to operate.

It's not that hard to come up with an approximate cost.

Gas is easy.  If you get 40 MPG then it will be  around 6 cents per mile.

Tire cost.  Take the cost of the tires + mounting if you don't do it yourself and divide by how many miles those tires cost.

Depreciation.  Take what you paid for the bike - what it's worth now and divide by number of miles.  If you currently own the bike you can estimate how many miles you will ride it and what it will be worth when you sell it.

Maintenance costs.  I pretty much guessed on this because I didn't keep accurate records of the costs even though I do log all the servicing I do. 

Insurance, tag and Ad Velorum taxes are paid by the year not the mile so I consider those ownership costs, not operating costs.  Whether you ride one mile or 100,000 those costs will stay the same.