New Commuter700
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- Joined
- May 27, 2018
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- Location
- San Tan Valley, AZ
I just completed my first week of commuting to work on my *new* 2015 NC700X. My commute is about 100 miles round trip and about an hour each way. Tomorrow I change the oil for the first time.
First, I would like to talk about why I bought this bike. I have an 18 year old pick up with 190k on it and it is getting to the point that I would need to start putting a lot of money into keeping it running if I continue to run it 4 to 500 miles a week. I decided that I needed a new car so I ran the numbers for a motorcycle, a Subaru Imprezza and a Prius. The Subaru would mean the same commute that I was doing in that I would have to deal with sitting in the parking lot (US60 and I10) in Tempe every day during daylight saving time*. I was taking over an hour and a half to get to work and back home every day so a motorcycle or a Prius had a plus in that I could use the "diamond" or high occupancy vehicle lane. After running the numbers I found that any new car was going to cost me more per mile than my pickup has cost by around double. A Prius was worse unless gas got to $10 per gallon because of the initial cost. The numbers on a motorcycle wasn't much better because either one could get a bike that gets about 35 mpg or red lines around 60 mph. Then I found this forum through fuelly; 65 mpg? That changes the calculations especially as gas hits $3 per gallon. The estimates that I am coming up with is that this bike should run me about the same as my truck has even though gas is more expensive than the last 5 years. I was also pleasantly surprised after talking with my State Farm agent that I could make the motorcycle my primary transportation and change the pickup to low mileage, net increase in insurance cost is only $150 per year. Add to that the smile factor and the choice was clear.
Anyway, the first weeks impressions:
What shocked me most is that people give me a wider berth when I am riding my bike than when I am driving my semi. I get cut off around 100 times a day while driving a truck at work but I don't think I got cut off 5 times all week on the bike. (5 days of commuting is about 500 miles in heavy city driving and one day of work is 400 miles of rural highway and city.) I had two incidents of lane sharing but both cases were Prius's that chose to move across two lanes behind me after a head check and a signal, iow - they both were being stupid. I only had a few tailgaters also, which really surprised me since I was not running over 65 because the bike is actually new and I wanted to make sure that I kept the rpms down for the first 500 miles.
I have now filled it twice and I am surprised that I got over 80 mpg for both tanks. I am sure that now that I will run it a little faster the mileage will go down. I will also be adding the larger windscreen and saddlebags which I am sure will reduce mpg as well.
This bike may not end up being a better value than fixing my pickup but adding the time I save by passing the traffic sure may help.
*Arizona does not do DST but since I meet another driver from Albuquerque every work day I do DST. This means that I go to work an hour later when the rest of the world stops altering time.
First, I would like to talk about why I bought this bike. I have an 18 year old pick up with 190k on it and it is getting to the point that I would need to start putting a lot of money into keeping it running if I continue to run it 4 to 500 miles a week. I decided that I needed a new car so I ran the numbers for a motorcycle, a Subaru Imprezza and a Prius. The Subaru would mean the same commute that I was doing in that I would have to deal with sitting in the parking lot (US60 and I10) in Tempe every day during daylight saving time*. I was taking over an hour and a half to get to work and back home every day so a motorcycle or a Prius had a plus in that I could use the "diamond" or high occupancy vehicle lane. After running the numbers I found that any new car was going to cost me more per mile than my pickup has cost by around double. A Prius was worse unless gas got to $10 per gallon because of the initial cost. The numbers on a motorcycle wasn't much better because either one could get a bike that gets about 35 mpg or red lines around 60 mph. Then I found this forum through fuelly; 65 mpg? That changes the calculations especially as gas hits $3 per gallon. The estimates that I am coming up with is that this bike should run me about the same as my truck has even though gas is more expensive than the last 5 years. I was also pleasantly surprised after talking with my State Farm agent that I could make the motorcycle my primary transportation and change the pickup to low mileage, net increase in insurance cost is only $150 per year. Add to that the smile factor and the choice was clear.
Anyway, the first weeks impressions:
What shocked me most is that people give me a wider berth when I am riding my bike than when I am driving my semi. I get cut off around 100 times a day while driving a truck at work but I don't think I got cut off 5 times all week on the bike. (5 days of commuting is about 500 miles in heavy city driving and one day of work is 400 miles of rural highway and city.) I had two incidents of lane sharing but both cases were Prius's that chose to move across two lanes behind me after a head check and a signal, iow - they both were being stupid. I only had a few tailgaters also, which really surprised me since I was not running over 65 because the bike is actually new and I wanted to make sure that I kept the rpms down for the first 500 miles.
I have now filled it twice and I am surprised that I got over 80 mpg for both tanks. I am sure that now that I will run it a little faster the mileage will go down. I will also be adding the larger windscreen and saddlebags which I am sure will reduce mpg as well.
This bike may not end up being a better value than fixing my pickup but adding the time I save by passing the traffic sure may help.
*Arizona does not do DST but since I meet another driver from Albuquerque every work day I do DST. This means that I go to work an hour later when the rest of the world stops altering time.