Bike Stuff > Two Wheel waffle for all

Moving 30 miles from work, commuting??

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Waverider:
 
Expecting twins so moving to a bigger house, the missus has found a good one but it's 30 miles from work. The roads are good (no motorways) but I've worked out I'm going to be doing 16k plus miles a year just to work and back. The fuel and running costs are looking quite scary so I've been looking at boring commuter bikes. Things like the honda nc700, yamaha sr400, suzuki dr's etc. The NC700 will do twice the mpg of my ninja and I'm pretty sure it won't eat tyres at the same rate either.

I will be replacing the pirelli rosso corsas with michelin power road 3's on my 10 as I will inevitably want to take it from time to time to relieve the boredom and I've heard they give good mileage but the overall cost of using it daily is too much.

So to my questions,

Does anyone on here do a long commute, if so on what?
Does it do your head in? (I'm currently 15 mins from work, will increase to 45)
Can anyone recommend a bike that is mega cheap to run?

Cheers

arch stanton:
forget any notions of cool or sportiness. The DR should be ruled out straigh off, smal tank and uncomfortable seat would be a mare. TBH, whicever bike you choose you'll be visiting the fuel station every few days, in winter without heated grips you'll be stopping a couple of times on the way home to try and warm hands up. I did it for a few years and the novelty wore off in winter. If you defo want to do it on a bike, id go for an old tourer style, big comfy seat, good weather protection and big tank. Or get a small diseasal car.

michael4012:
commuting year round is hard on bikes i would buy an older fully dressed bike such as a VFR750 or Triumph Sprint 1050 as mentioned above fairing and heated grips are essential dont forget the cost of adding commuting to your insurance.

Waverider:

--- Quote from: arch stanton on May 29, 2014, 08:16:08 PM ---forget any notions of cool or sportiness.

--- End quote ---

Lol. The Suzuki Vstrom 650 looks like a good compromise between cost and enjoyment, reported at 50 mpg ish, has a screen and could easily fit heated grips. The v twin engines are meant to be pretty tough.

Bikes like the VFR are a bit to technical, I will be doing my own servicing and won't something moderately straight forward to work on. A guy at work had one and ended up spending a fortune on it, might have been a lemon though.

A small car does make sense but I hate sitting in traffic so have ruled that out.

docta13:
I've been doing a few trips back and forward to site, thankfully not always on the bike, I'm splitting it between an rsv4 and a zzr1400. maybe get some music in your ears as i get get bored very easy and and my commute can sometimes be 50-60 miles each way if I've got to go into london!!

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