Cost of biking for youngsters

[Sadie]

This is inspired by Thet's insurance thread.

I just saw what Alliamc pays for her insurance, and I've got to ask - how do you youngsters do it?

I certainly wouldn't not have been able to pay out that kind of money when I was 20, and thankfully didn't have to.

My first bike (that I owned as opposed to rode) was a Kawasaki KC100 which cost me £200 and £60 for third party insurance (this would have been in 1989).

I find it incredible that any youngsters are coming into biking at all, given the prices now.

I appreciate that some scooters and small bikes come with the first year's insurance as part of the cost, but how do you manage it after that?
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With experience comes age.

[BikerBen]

Yea, its an expensive world out there! I just got myself a ZXR 400 which is going to cost me over a grand to insure. I just take a loan from my mum as I have a job
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My NSR --> https://members.boards.ie/instinct/Diagonal.jpg
Now proud owner of a 1999 ZXR 400

[Sadie]

But you still have to pay her back, I assume, although probably with no interest!

What age are you?
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With experience comes age.

[Pat172]

im 19 been riding since i was 16,

my first years insurance came free with the bike - i saved up almost 2grand out of my own money by working my socks off to pay for that

then i got a Gilera Runner 125, that was £330 TPO (17/1yrs ncb)
then i got another Runner 125, that was £230 TPO (18/2yrs ncb)
then i was quoted £180 on another runner but im paying £740 TPO on the Bandit 600 (19/3yrs ncb)

all paid for wiht my own money i sold both my favourite scoots to pay for the bandit/insurance/licence fee, no way wud my mum give me a loan!!!! lol
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- Suzuki Bandit N600

[alliamc]

I still live at home and therefore waste a lot of spare money. I bought my bike on a loan and pay my insurance monthly by direct debit. I wouldn't be riding if I didn't have good credit and I've used plenty of credit cards to get that, but I wish I hadn't now!! Money is given out too easily and so many of my friends are trapped with debts, but I still love biking and forget how much it costs when I get to go out for a ride.
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Alli x
https://www.bikepics.com/members/alliamc/

[BikerBen]

[Claud 14.7 to 1]

I was 18 when I started out, I worked very hard to save and pay for everything. (parents wouldn't give me any money for machines )

Anyway, these young 'uns either have very generous parents, they slaved their ass off like me, or got a loan (bad idea IMO).

Also I might add that if you're a student, living at home and working part time, you can earn a fair amount of money. I was getting just over £300 per month at one time, (although they were overpaying me) But I made a lot of sacrifices: long working hours (mainly in the holidays) and a lot less going out and getting drunk.

Was worth it though.

[jay12329]

i'm now 20 been riding for 2 1/2 years, i live with my rents and dont pay rent. I also work. I saved up and bourght my bike, £4k, and i used my credit card to pay for kit and insurance. I paid it off at the end of the same month when i got payed.
J

[carvell]

[Sadie]

Well, you all have my respect for working so hard to indulge your biking lifestyle.


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With experience comes age.

[instigator]

Never used a credit card myself, although do have student loans.

I don't believe in taking money off my parents and never have, desp[ite my other brothers and sisters constantly doing so. They've offered. But no, I just can't. They spent enough on raising me, I prefer to stand on my own two feet. Independence means a lot to me. I needed it.

Had a 125 at 17, cost me £900, and £250 for the insurance. Had a part time job and was in college, took no money from anyone, only the money I earnt.

Bought a 500 at 19 as I had a full time industrial placement in the summer so could afford it. £1150 for the bike, £500 for the insurance. Now buying a £2.3k bandit within the next 2 months, after only having the 500 for about 7 months.

I've never found it particularly hard to get money, but that's probably because I've got the right mentality to go and find work. I also have rent to pay (left home at 17) and numerous bills, so outgoings are large.

[Craggles]

I chose biking over getting a car.

Even though I'm now considering driving lessons, I still have no intention of buying a car.

I'm in a lucky position whereby I've got two jobs, both of which will look ace on my CV, and pay quite well too. My grandparents have also given me quite a bit of money, but I'd perfer to spend that over uni years, not on biking now. Parents have also given me money to get started - Dad feels that with me on a bike he has more time/petrol as he isn't taking me everywhere. I also couldn't do a lot of the work I do without the transport (I work till 4am at times!).

It cost me £1000 for my GN125, and I hope to sell it at that. It cost £100 for CBT and I've spent about £350 on gear. Insurance cost me £300 for the 125. Training cost me about £300, and another £50 to retake the test. I then spent about £1400 on the GPZ + accessories (restriction kit, carrier). Insurance cost an extra £300 to add the GPZ to the GN's insurance. I've recently spent another £500 on a full service and repairs after my off.

Right.. I've just added that up and that's £4300 to get into biking. Take off £1000 once I've sold the GN though, but add £600 as my insurance is coming up for renewal!

I have no idea how I've managed to afford that in the last year, and still have a fair degree of my savings intact! That's not counting things like petrol, oil (which, admittidly, I've been nicking Dads ) and other consumables.

Saying that, parents/grandparents have paid for some of those bits, which I'm very lucky for!

Craig
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If this signature is blue, you're riding too fast

[New York Doll]

I throughly agree. The cost of biking is astronomical, I can barely afford to even buy a bike let alone run and insure one.

I have been lucky in the fact that I had about £100 birthday money, upon turning seventeen and have been saving since then on. I have about £500ish now and saving that amount is bad enough, not to mention the lack of cheap 125s locally.

I can feel a bike heading my way now.


</Rant>
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"You know even if I live to be a 100 years old which is highly unlikely I must say, but if anyone mentions 1977 then a crooked smile will come to my lips, I know it will. It was the year that changed my life" - John Peel (1977)

[Kickstart]

Hi

Although it seems a lot, remember how much things have gone up. For example I got my first bike in 1987, a small Honda H100S (a 125 would have cost twice as much to insure). Insurance was £150 TPFT at 18 (living in Northern Ireland, it went down to £53 when I moved to the mainland), yet the summer before when I was working through the holidays I was paid £1.50 an hour). Realistically compared to pay now the costs are about the same.

Similarly there are plenty of people on here who have sports 600s at 17~18. Something that just did not happen back then as the insurance would have crippled you.

I think at 23 on an FZ750 I was paying about the same amount McJamweasal is paying now on a ZX6R, despite 14 years worth of inflation. Tyres are cheaper now than they were. Same for crash helmets. Same for leathers. Pay in that time has probably at least doubled, yet a CBR600 will cost you only about 50% more than back then. An Aprilia AF1 Sintesi was £3000 in 1988, whereas 17 years later you can get a new RS125 for that much if you hunt round.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Sadie]

[numark1]

I think you'd cry if i told you how much i have spent on insurance and bikes at my age. (well my parents)

[Jammy-G]

Most up us still live at home and go to college, so we dont pay tax on our earnings and don't have any real outgoings.

I work 4 hours on Sat, Sun, Mon and Fri. Hardly alot really, and come out with £450 a month. Insurance is costing £70 a month, and the bike was payed for by buying cheap bikes, tarting them up a bit and selling them on for a vast profit !
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RooRoo: just like the time i stuck my finger up my arse with no lube at all and she didnt talk to me for hours

[Kickstart]

Hi

Not so sure. Just saying to Charlotte and she mentioned that her first job as a computer programmer in 1987 paid £4000 a year. She sold her first GPZ500 in about 1993 because she could not afford the insurance (~£500, with 4 years no claims and being 24).

Your £113 was for a 100cc bike. Few on here are on such a small bike, and at the time insurance was based entirely on engine capacity with a 125 costing twice as much as a 100. Think Scotty was paying around that amount at 18 on a 125 (so rather less than you would have been paying at his).

Many things are one hell of a lot cheaper now. My first lid was a Nava polycarbonate one costing about £50. These days I could pick up one for rather less but with rather better quality. A video player these days is about 1/10 a much as it was then. Computers are about the same price (but far higher spec now). Worst was my mortgage which hit 15% interest not long after I bought the place.

Not really sure how they work out the retail price index, but for many things it seems massively out.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[hustler]

My first car in 1993, cost £1,100 to insure 3rd party, fire & theft and it was only a VW Polo 1.3 (more than the car was worth).

So I dont think its changed much in the last 10 or so years.
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As I said to that guy with the crutches and full camouflage gear, you can hide but you can't run.

[Sadie]

[JonB]

Erm, the money. Work and parents. Was a pleasant surprise when I realised they have been putting money back for me since I was born.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[zaknafien]

Semi-decent wage, loan and credit card's.

Now in 8k of debt though.
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02 Firestorm.

[Ric]

i wish my parents would pay for me!!

i started on an Rs125 wen i was 18, paid £700 insurance and just under £2000 for the bike

i gave up drinking for two months to save the cash together!!!

i bought all the gear slowly, mates old helmet, old gloves and bought myself a jacket

that was my start

it all comes down to how much you want to ride


it gets better when your living at home and working (as i was in my gap year)

so i got the zxr4 and cost me £2600 with alarms etc and £670 insurance

some how i gotta find £450~550 for this years insurance oh dear

[hustler]

[Sadie]

This was the Irish Civil Service. I don't know about here.
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With experience comes age.