Benefits of commuting on your scoot

[Eisbein]

Sounds cool - especially the disk brakes.

Sheez that was one of the things on the Vespa that I thought could have been better on my P150X (especially the front).

Autolube is also cool. Although there was something cool about the ritual of asking the petrol jockey for 5 liters of petrol instead of an amount and then taking out your measuring cup and two stroke bottle out of the storage compartment...

[shark_za]

I always have liters of premix lying around for the offroad bike, so I'll disable the autolube and use that.

I wonder what Maxima Castor 927 will be like out of the 150 sccot!
The price difference is R5k, and the NV comes with a version that does not even have electric start.
So I might go for that.

Also someething about the kicking ritual thats cool.

[michnus]

For the people that like something special to ride.

[Copernicus]

I have looked at this from all angles - I don't see much benefit in riding your bike to work everyday besides the chance to ride your bike everyday. I work 90kms from my house. I live in the east of Pta and work south of JHB in Eikenhof. Which means it is 90kms of the worst traffic in SA.

The facts:

It takes me 15 mins longer by car than by bike - if I lane split with the bike.

Tyres for my large bakkie cost R1200 each - they last 100000kms. (so R1200 / 25000kms.) My bike tyres last 10000km back and 20000 front.

Services on my bakkie is 10000km oil drain and 20000km service (Average R750.) Average service on 12GS every 10000km - R1500.

Yes, the fuel is about double with the car.

My question is - is it worth risking life and limb to save on petrol?

How do you convey this subtly?:  Four tyres for my bakkie: R4800; two tyres for my GS: R2400; the freedom of commuting to work on a bike: priceless...

[Obi -Wan]

Obviously where you live and what time you leave can heavily influence your travel time when comparing the cage to the scoot. Personally I don't care about the cost of running the bike- it's all about time. 3 hrs in the traffic versus less than an hour and the situation is getting worse daily. I read somewhere that greater JHB had 175000 cars in 1980 - now about 1.5 miliion and climbing and there are few new roads being built .

The time thing aside - just great to ride your bike every day.       

[LostDOG]

I have looked at this from all angles - I don't see much benefit in riding your bike to work everyday besides the chance to ride your bike everyday. I work 90kms from my house. I live in the east of Pta and work south of JHB in Eikenhof. Which means it is 90kms of the worst traffic in SA.

The facts:

It takes me 15 mins longer by car than by bike - if I lane split with the bike.

Tyres for my large bakkie cost R1200 each - they last 100000kms. (so R1200 / 25000kms.) My bike tyres last 10000km back and 20000 front.

Services on my bakkie is 10000km oil drain and 20000km service (Average R750.) Average service on 12GS every 10000km - R1500.

Yes, the fuel is about double with the car.

My question is - is it worth risking life and limb to save on petrol?

Firstly, you assume that there are no accidents on the highway, then there probably isnt much to choose time-wise, say 15 - 20min. If there's an accident / blockage a bike still takes the same amount of time as usual.

Secondly, what time to you leave home and also work to go home. I found that I need to leave PTA at 05H30 for it to take me the same amount of time as it does on the bike - no matter what time I leave. In the afternoons I would have to leave before 16H00 for the travel times to be similar, or much later.

Thus for me the flexibility with the bike is nice. I STARTED commuting by bike when my 1st child was born, I have taken alot of lip for this, but my motivation is simple. If I didnt commute by bike I would only see my boys on weekends, eventhough they live in the same house.
I give/make the breakfast before leaving, and get home in enough time to bath the little one and feed the older one. By car this cannot happen.

[Stephan]

Slide you don't say but if the difference between commuting with cage and bike is 15 min, I take it you leave way before 6 in the mornings, becuase the only way that could be true is if the traffic is still very light.  My experience has been that if I leave for work before 6 in the morning and after 7 in the afternoon with a cage I spend about 30 min commuting anything later or earlier I spend 2 hours barring any accidents.
I tend to LDā??s point of view.  I started commuting because it got to the stage where I was spending more time commuting to and from work and at work than at home (leave 05:45, get back 20:00).  Now I leave 07:00 for a 40 min commute in the morning and 16:30 for another 40 min commute and Iā??m back at home just after 5 in the afternoons.  My opinion is that Iā??m saving at least 2 and half hours commuting time every day and that makes it worthwhile. 
IMHO you donā??t save any costs if you commute by bike if you retain the cage as well, at best you break even.  My reasoning is that you end up still having to pay the carā??s instalments, insurance, license, maintenance etc over and above that for the bike.  If you add all of these costs together you may in fact find that it is more expensive than having only the cage and commuting with it. 
For me itā??s a life style choice, using the bike I spend less time commuting and arrive at my destination relaxed instead of stressed out.  And yes, I agree the risks associated with it are higher but I accept them as part of the trade-off inherent in my choice.

[malJohann]

The scoot saves me more than 2 hours every day and the total cost of ownership - which includes initial purchase price, insurance, services, general maintenance, petrol and tires - has been less than R25k in 2 years and 4 months of daily commuting. I get to leave home after my wife in the morning and arrive back there before her each time. Beat that time saving or TCO in a cage!