THE COST OF BIKING FROM THE COST OF SCOOTERING.

[sepia]

after driving scooters for 25 years.the running costs were £6 petrol a week,£4 2-stroke a month,a new clutch cable @ £2 once a year,new inner tube @ £5 twice a year,3 tyres @ £50 for 3 lasting 2 years & once i needed clutch plates £7,road tax £15 @ start upto £32,insurance £90.had about 10 scoots in my time.
all repairs done myself.so to run a year £500 tops(more going rallys but just doing it on general running)

spent 20 years doing rallys up & down the country.closest english one morecambe round trip 700miles 5 times,great yarmouth round trip 1000miles 3 times,various rallys north wales round trip 800miles 8 times,scarborugh round trip 700 miles 3 times etc to many to mention.

not once did i ever breakdown & never had AA or anything.no choice but to go full throttle all the time.spare tyre as standard & spare clutch cable was all i carried with me.wore jeans,trainers,t-shirt,jumper & flight jacket.no waterproofs.not very sensible when up in kendal @ 3am in freezing fog.to be young again,lol.

so i then get a proper bike,lol.i knew nothing about bikes & when went to buy storm i had one day in the break between snow & ice @ new year to pick it up.didnt get to test drive because of weather.bike looked spotless & though big bikes were reliable.i didnt know what to look for when buying.it starts & has new tyres sounds good to me.

buying @ £1150 it looked a bargain.now know its prob the going rate.wish i looked @ this site 1st to get some background on storms for good & bad bits.i know most things that went wrong with mine were common faults & didnt help not knowing water in electrics also general running repairs.

so far on bike spent £50 starter motor,£150 on 3 battries as had to buy from local shops ok was down to water in electrics,£150 chain & sprockets fitted,£40 on cush drive rubbers,£20 on solinoid which didnt need,£15 on r&r,twice in garage for breaks getting done with back disc @ £130,£15 on 3 chain lube,ccts £40,now need back tyre,oil filter & oil,mot & road tax next month,£78 insurance.£700 @ £25 a week on petrol(ok i do the miles 5000).

so far cost in 7 months is a grand total not inc bike price £1600.will be over £2000 when i hit a year.not including £700 on a zzr600 that blew up after 4months.it was just a shock to what i use to have to pay.i dont have a high paying job & i had to sell alot of my rare soul music records to paykfor all this.it broke my heart as took years collecting & searching these records.

i know your saying shouldnt of got a bike then but im just showing the difference in costs between the mods & rockers,lol & views from both sides of the two wheeled world.yes i jumped in with both feet & had a wee bit of bad luck with storm @ 1st.

i could write a book with the storys & experiences that happened most weekends & week days being a scooter boy.im lucky still to be here as was set on fire @ a rally when i got petrol poured over me by mistake 30% burns & leg skin grafts was the outcome.didnt stop me as 4months later was on back off 125 cutdown vespa with small un padded chipboard made seat on route to morecambe rally with heavily bandaged leg hanging off the side.ive had to put up with so much stick of my m8s for buying a bike.i was the last person they thought would turncoat.i wouldnt change a thing & loved my years scootering(also done a few biker rallys in my time & they came to our scooter weekenders on borrowed scoots).it changed with to many clingons,to many so called scooterist turning up to rallys in cars with kids in tow.it wasnt why i got into it anymore.no one cant say i didnt do my bit.
e0A
so now i have a bike.was never into speed but always fancied a bike for a shot.

SO DO I STILL LOVE MY STORM,YOU BET I DO.

ps yes i am on pc & bored.just thought you would like to read something a bit different from the norm on here.

[benny hedges]

set on fire lol - ouch!

[Furrybiker]

Interesting you saying that you never had the AA, I used to work for them and bank holiday weekends were stuffed full of scooters in the early 90's.

It seems the way to go to a rally was to ride there then disable the bike usually by fiddling with the carb, and ringing up for a ride home in a nice truck or more often head home on the train and get the bike delivered home. We killed this one stone dead in a couple of bank holidays.

When the bikes were collected together at a depot for transfer to a flat bed truck the depot mechanics would go round them and sort the carbs and short the spark plugs, so of course lots of fun was had by people with a whole new fault!

Happy days

[sepia]

you are spot on furrybiker.they were doing it from the mid 80s tho.they use to pull the a wire out of the electrics & say it wouldnt start.

i never got the AA when on my scooter.i did have to get AA twice on my mates scooters.once coming back form great yarmouth 1987 i was 2's up on my mates 200 & got 100 miles out of yarmouth & the clutch went.we had to wait 7 hours to get picked up.there was 12,000 @ that rally & AA said we are busy with the rally on,i bet,lol.while waiting we seen 3 guys & there scooters stop @ side of road & do what you said tampered with scoots so they could get home from AA.they only had under 100 miles to get home.

on way down to yarmouth,the guy who i was on back of bashed into his best mates brand new custom scooter.when guy in front braked suddenly.
so mate said will pay for it when get home.they never spoke all weekend.while wating for AA my mate just remembered having to pay for damage.he said to me as a joke would be nice if he crashed on way home & then he wouldnt have to pay for repairs.when we did get home very late.my mate rang me to say,you wont believe this but the guy did crash his custom scoot into a lampost on way home,15miles from aberdeen.he & guy on back both fell asleep.funny thing is the scooter he crashed was his new one that just replaced his other new custom scoot he crashed coming home from another rally,15 miles from home from falling asleep.

was some weekend that yarmouth.not only did all the above happen but the same rally the year before was just as bad.4 of our club members went down in the snow to,lol.they stopped in kings lynn for petrol when 4 guys jumped out of a car @ the station & started laying into them.was all caught on camera tho.they went down to court months later & all four guys got put away for 4months over xmas.found out they were leicester city football casuals.was about 50 of there mates @ court gunning for there blood.my mates were in aroom @ the guys were pretending putting a knife against there own throats @ the window to scare them.was only one copper with them.they had to go out back door & run to there car.so when we went to the next yarmouth(one @ top),we met all the other scottish clubs in the pub & they said there was a group of casual looking guys looking for us.cause of the long drive down we didnt get there till late friday.we couldnt think who they were until we got home,then it clicked it was the guys who beat up our mates.they must of thought if we werent down by time when looking for us,we wouldnt be there.all they had to do was go to campsite & see this big tent @ front with aberdeen scooter club on it,lol.

only other time got AA was leaving bridlington rally.got 10 miles out of brid & got puncture.i was on back.tyre goes flat in about 20 seconds.lucky mate guided bike into gravel @ side of road.so put on spare that was a bit flat.thot would do till get to next garage to pump up.got 2 miles & it went flat but mate couldnt control it & we crashed.was told an arctic missed us by inches.scoot was mangled.so called a very nice man.i know this is hard to believe but it was the same guy who crashed his other scoots above & yes it was a new custom scoot aswell.funny thing was with this crash he said,sh1t happens & made a joint.you couldnt write it could you.

back to the AA.they got wise to scooterists trying to get free rides home.so they ended up putting an AA van on site @ the rallys.we always drove home unless scoot was knackered.

steve.

[chi kung]

Here is a long story shortened.

Had a bike and a scooter. The scooter was used for work due to short journey. Anyway sold bike and scoot to move house as i needed the funds.

Moved house and the got another scoot for £350. Someone pulled out in font of me on a roundabout and wrote it off. £1310 payout for scoot and £2100 for injuries (minor).

Total payout was £3410. Got a storm for £1400 leaving me £2000 profit and a nice bike.

So all in all my experience is the opposite to yours. Hope this makes you feel better because i feel great.

I havent mentioned the scooter costing £6 pound a fortnight to run verses £15 per week on the storm.