The ferret_imp said:
Cormanus_imp said:
Crikey! Motorcycle.com's got in on this too ...
Why Ride a Motorcycle?
This I disagree with..
"Motorcycles can put hybrids to shame when it comes to economy.... For a couple thousand dollars, and relatively cheap insurance, you’ve soundly beaten the high price of transportation.
....when you factor in tires & mounting, brakes, spark plugs, valve adjustments, air cleaners, chain and sprockets, all just routine maintenance on a motorcycle, and don't forget the expensive riding gear required for a motorcycle.... a car, any car, beats a motorcycle by a wide margin
Ride a motorcycle because you like to ride, not because you " think" it will save you money, because it won't
This I disagree with..
"Motorcycles can put hybrids to shame when it comes to economy.... For a couple thousand dollars, and relatively cheap insurance, you’ve soundly beaten the high price of transportation.
....when you factor in tires & mounting, brakes, spark plugs, valve adjustments, air cleaners, just routine maintenance,and don't forget expensive riding gear required for a motorcycle.... a car, any car beats a motorcycle by a wide margin
Ride a motorcycle because you like to ride, not because you " think" it will save you money, because it won't
I conducted one long-term study for my graduate school masters' thesis. It lasted two years: one year to set-up the study "correctly" and another to actually do the study and draw some signficance from it. Painful. The results depended a lot on statistical analyses. While the stat models used were beyond my comprehension as to why one model vs another was used, the way a study should be set-up stayed with me to some degree.
IF the goal of a comparison between a hybrid car and a motorcycle is: "which is less expensive overall?", the parameters are too broad for the comparison to make any sense, there are too many factors at play: initial cost of each, ability of one mode to take 1-4 people vs the other takes 1 (occasionally 2), maintenance of each, repairs, fuel consumption, insurance, longevity of ownership, resale value at the end of ownership, and likely others.
A meaningful comparison might be: "which is cheaper to commute 30 miles round trip per day, M-F for 48 weeks during the course of one year?" and limit it to just fuel consumption. You'd have to recognize that you're ignoring all the other underlying factors mentioned above, but at least you could come up with a number. As soon as you bring in one mode's advantage over the other not related to fuel, then you've got a biased comparison.
If you wanted to make an overal comparison, then you'd have to have the constant of time and distance and then add up all expenses related to each, and you'd have to control for the hybrid car's abiltiy to carry multiple passengers. Example: 5 years of ownership, 1 driver/rider over 95% of the time, both vehicles travel 40k miles:
1. Total cost for the hybrid purchased new, ALL related expenses, subtract selling price and you have a number...
VS.
2. Total cost for bike purchased new, ALL related expenses, subtract selling price and, again, you have a number.
And then the comparison ought not to be just one car vs one motorcycle, but rather 100 (or 1000) hybrid cars vs 100 (or 1000) motorcycles, all of the same type. The larger the sample number, the greater reliability of the comparison.
If you don't set clear parameters and control for factors that skewer results, the comparison quickly becomes non-sensical. And tests as outlined above are not done that much because it's too difficult to undertake. And what would the results be used for? Therefore, buy a hybrid? Therefore, buy a motorcycle? I think the person reading the motorcycle article referenced has already made up his/her mind.
So, I do agree with most of The ferrets' conclusion: "Ride a motorcycle because you like to ride, not because you " think" it will save you money, because it won't".
I would change the last part to: "not because you "think" it will save you money--it might--but that's not really why you want the motorcycle, now, is it?"
