DAMN Riders - No rules, Just ride!

Riding the Duc in to work today, I am seeing more and more MC's, not just because of the time of year, but obviously it is cheaper to drive, especially for commuting than most cars. Couldn't help but wonder, how many people have a bike and wasn't really riding it much and probably were thinking about selling it before the gas prices climbing like they have in the last 6 months especially.

40ish MPG on the Duc at commuting speeds, so ~35 bucks a week to drive it vice ~80 or better to drive the van. Wonder how much MC sales have picked up in the last 3 months or so relative to last year this time?

Anyway, glad I have that MC option. Makes driving to work more fun and definitely cheaper!

My son has appropriated my GS for his commuting. He is glad to be riding to work. I wish I was riding it, but he needs it more right now.
I've been on the hunt for another street /ds / adv bike.

I agree that I see more bikes than usual out and about.

My GS only gets about 39 mpg on average. Heck, the Miata gets 35 even driving the snot out of it. However, my wife thinks I'm an idiot because 3 months ago before it got really bad I ordered an X5 M50i - just picked it up yesterday and it's telling me that it's 13 mpg thirsty. No commute for us old retired folks so ask me if I care.... Giddy up.

I picked up a used EV (13 fiat 500e) back in Oct. I got it to save my truck from tiny trips (lots of <5 miles round trips for me) so one day I can be the old guy driving his old truck really slow on the back roads. It turns out this fiat is crazy cheap to drive. So cheap that I'm hardly riding the street bikes. The 30 mile round trip to Frederick costs about $0.75 in "fuel". The 690 is several times more expensive (admittedly I don't ride that bike gently). Even the versys, which uses regular gas and gets over 50mpg, costs a fair bit more. I need to make a point to take the street bikes out. The novelty of the fiat hasn't worn off yet...

I hear ya on the little car thing. Have a Mini Cooper S that will give 40 mpg if I kiss its ass or low 30's if I smoke the wheels off it. Street bike has not been inspected in 3 years.

The Miata after a trip trying to destroy the tires and brakes on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Deals Gap:



1800 mile trip, maybe about 400 miles of interstate, 35 mpg avg.

Boom Boom wrote: ↑Thu Jun 16, 2022 9:43 am I hear ya on the little car thing. Have a Mini Cooper S that will give 40 mpg if I kiss its ass or low 30's if I smoke the wheels off it. Street bike has not been inspected in 3 years.

Those are pretty cool little cars. I thought about getting one for my teen driver but decided she (and my finances) would be safer in the 2013 X5 with 110,000 miles instead of trading it.

Oh I have a very good local euro shop or I would not own one....

I drove one of the "Abarth" 500's a few years back. It was a hoot. Always loved those Mini's after watching that movie "Italian Job"-

This thing will not operate like an abarth. It does have an abarth steering wheel though. The low rolling resistance tires are not grippy at all. Except in the colder months I'm getting 4.5 mi/kwh which is supposed to be "equivalent" to about 180mpg. It's like having a car with crazy good fuel economy, a half gallon gas tank, and you've got to put the gas in using 0.5mm ID tubing. You can't be spontantaneous, that's for sure. Somehow I haven't had to pay at work to plug in there so I'm spending about $1.20 for my 110 mile round trip commute. On the same commute the ktm costs about $15 (premium gas) and the 1500 about $20 right now.