(SUVs are hiking up their tires at the price hike)
Gas prices send commuters to motorcycles and scooters
About two months ago, Coy Wells began leaving his truck at home and riding a new Honda 919 motorcycle to work.The economic downturn and rising fuel costs pushed him to buy the black motorcycle for about $5,000, said Wells, a Whole Foods employee who commutes 54 miles round-trip each day from his home in Cedar Park.
He still drives his Ford F250 diesel truck in bad weather and when he’s with his family but said he generally saves about $92 each week by using the motorcycle he bought at Woods Fun Center as his primary vehicle.
“They’re predicting gas to be at over $4 by mid-year,” Wells said. “If you don’t make a decision to purchase a motorcycle in advance to combat the ongoing price increase, then the cost and demand of motorcycles within itself is going to go up.”
Wells is not alone. As gas prices continue to rise, an increasing number of Austin-area residents have been making the shift from four wheels to two. Austin-area gas prices held steady at $3.17 a gallon this week, according to AAA Texas. Michael Marks, executive director of the Texas Motorcycle Dealers Association, said high gas prices have boosted sales at Texas motorcycle dealerships.
Click on the title link to read the whole story from the Statesman or visit your local scooter shop to make a grudge purchase of your own. (Don’t forget the helmet!)
8. April 2008 at 6:35 pm
How the heck is he saving $92 a week? A month sure, every two weeks maybe, but per week? He’d have a hard time burning $92 of diesel in a week on a 54 mile round trip.
8. April 2008 at 6:54 pm
What a whimp! When it’s “bad weather” he drives his truck to work. Psch! Don’t he know how to ride in the rain? As for me… I don’t have that luxury… so come rain or shine or typhoon… I’m riding my scooter to work!
(It can be quite comfortable, if you’ve got the right gear.)
8. April 2008 at 7:02 pm
If diesel is $3.99/gal here in Austin and he spends $92 a week that means he’s buying about 23 gallons of diesel per week. If he travels a distance of 54 miles, five days a week, then he’s traveling 270 miles (assuming he stays home on the weekend)… so, 23 gallons goes into 270 miles about 11 times giving him about 11 mpg. That’s pretty bad gas mileage, but not impossible for a big ol’ duelly. If he goes 54 miles on Saturday and Sunday then he’s at 16 mpg.
If his scooter gets 80 mpg then 270 miles puts him at just about 3.5 gal of gas per week. Premium here is about $3.50/gal which totals $12.25 in gas per week spent riding on the scooter. So, if he is SAVING $92 per week it means he was spending about $105 per week on gas… so that’s 26.25 gal/week divided into 270 miles gives him just over 10 mpg. So, maybe he was driving a big V-10 before.
I think I’m more surprised by the lifestyle change. From big man-truck to tiny two-wheeler. Way tah go Tex!
9. April 2008 at 4:42 am
I have a friend who stopped riding his motorcycle to work a few years ago because the cost of tires was too expensive. I wonder if that’s still the case or if the tire price v. gas price equation has changed.
9. April 2008 at 5:52 am
Hrm, that’s an interesting study. If I hadn’t just gotten back from giving some friends the tour-de-6th-street, I’d run the calculations. Right now I’m off to bed.
10. April 2008 at 3:09 pm
The article states he was driving a diesel F250. He should get around 20 mpg with that on diesel ($4/gal). He’s switched to a Honda 919 sportbike which gets around 50 mpg ($3.5/gal).
If you do the math, to save $92 a week, he would have had to be able to put about 700 miles per week on the bike instead of the truck. And that isn’t including the cost of additional insurance and the motorcycle maintenance expenses.
Now his work commute is only about 270 miles per week. If he’s like most guys I know, his driving at night and on the weekend involves the family. And he said that he doesn’t ride in the rain. But lets assume he’s on the bike 60 miles/day all week. That’s still only 420 miles. He’s still really short.
I don’t think Coy Wells is very good at math.
16. April 2008 at 2:08 pm
I used to work with vespa Atlantic City And yes we got a few people looking to save fuel cash with a scoot. Since parking is nuts in shore towns, and the top speed really doesn’t go past 50, it brought a bunch of people in. I even have a coffee shop owner who uses it to get to work and as a display in front other shop ( until the town asked her to stop. Stupid ocean city). Also people came in mentioning it was saving miles with leased vehicles. And a remember actually a small handful mentioning that they wanted a motorcycle that handled a lot more smoothly then most motorcycles. We sold a LOT of gt’s.