Love,
Daniel

Yamaha tmax per prestaxioni
Yamaha xmax per qualita’
Piaggio Beverly 500 per agilita’ nel traffico
E last but not least piaggio Mp3 to be cool

You can copy-paste it a year after year ….I know that if you want it, you will do it…

Love,

Aba

1. There is so little rain in Israel – I simply take my car when forecast says 'rain'.
2. I agree that 50cc bikes are not safer per-se, but statistics show a strong bias towards injuries and death of riders of heavy bikes, mainly due to speed-related accidents. Take a look at the tables here (direct link to a Doc file in Hebrew: http://goo.gl/jKLMB).

The Suzuki Burgman looks good. I'll make sure I call you for advice before I purchase my next bike.

– Arik

I discovered however that bikes are cheaper and superior to public transport. Instead of gearing up for a short trip to the train station and then spending time and money for the train (it’s expensive) – just riding to my destination makes more sense.

In Sydney, bikes have access to high occupancy lanes (called T2/T3 in Australia or Car Pool Lanes in the US) and access to bus lanes – which are a plenty in and around Sydney. I spend most of my daily ride to work on one or another.

Parking in North Sydney is free in designated areas, one of which is adjacent to the our office. In Sydney, it is free everywhere a car can park (although time limited) and free with no time limit in designated areas which are quite plentiful.

So here is my quantitative analysis:

Cost of registration and insurance: about $500/year
Cost of the bike: $5000
Depreciation: About $700/yr
Alternative cost: $1240/yr (annual train ticket)
Difference in rent: $1300/yr (yes I live with house mates)
Cost of safety+weather gear: $1000
Cost of maintenance: $500/yr
Cost of petrol: $700/yr
Cost of a top box: $500

So, the total cost of the bike comes out to $700+$500+$700+$500=$2400/yr. It saves me $1240+$1300=$2540/yr. All in all doesn’t seem like a smart investment.

However this doesn’t take into account the ability to go anywhere I damn well please at any time and fast. I ride the thing a lot, for my commute obviously but also practically anywhere else. The top box is big enough for most shopping expeditions and the free parking is a definite saving. Sydney domestic airport parking is also free – and I park in the shortest term parking available, 20 metres from the check-in gates. All things considered I have ridden 20K KM since I got it, in September 2009 (2 years and 3 months).

Weather is a problem here as it rains year-round. I take weather gear with me and I can get completely drenched on the outside while staying dry on the inside. Changing clothes can be annoying but not overly so.

One thing I would like to recommend is that you wear a full helmet and use an armoured gear. I know it’s a pain, especially in the heat. I did get myself splattered across the road one time and examining the damage to the gear and knowing it could have been my skin turned me into a believer. Death isn’t the only risk when riding a motorbike – you can lose a portion of your skin and flesh and still be in the “surviving” statistics although somewhat disfigured, crippled and in a lot of pain. At least get Kevlar-lined jeans and an armoured jacket.

– Arik

Bottom line – do get a bike, but prefer a larger one. A slightly higher price, perhaps higher insurance (yeah the israeli bike insurace story is ridiculous), but much more fun.

btw the thing that was annoying for me on a bike was to get geared for rain. You do not have much rain in Israel, but when it comes, it is pouring from the skies like a bunch of crazy shoppers on Black Friday so to avoid walking in wet jeans all day, you'd want a nylon suit. This is much worse than accidents actually as the chance to get a wet-jeans scenario once a year is 100%.

Didn't really understand the last piece in your calculation –
the 150K divided by 0.1%. What's that?

Actually two more points:

- The yearly depreciation value for a new car is not really an average $4K, unless you're driving an Audi maybe. Plus you need to either spread it over 10 years, or take into
consideration the purchase of a new vehicle after say every 3 years, since over 10 years the depreciation value gets much lower then $4K.

- 2nd point is regarding winter times. Not that frequent in Israel, but still account for 10%-20% percent of the year, making it almost impossible to ride a bike, hence adding to yearly cost, once you switch to other means of transportation.

Guess bottom line would remain the same though. Bikes are more cost efficient over time. Unless you get married, start having kids and then nothing is really efficient over time. Nothing probably at all.