Commuter motorcycles... What would you choose and why...?

[mboy]

No real rules to this, other than I am looking at a job that would see me doing a 55 mile round trip daily with no car park at the other end (but I could just about store a motorbike in the yard there), and though it is near the train station that end I am not at my end... So commuting by bike would really be the only feasible option.

Not necessarily going to buy a bike to commute on, just interested to hear what people's priorities would be and why...

Road is fairly open, mostly 50/60 limit with occasional drops to 40 or 30 for a couple of built up areas... Not the most interesting road, but plenty of overtaking opportunities at times... But 275 miles per week commuting is £40 in juice on my KTM, not to mention the tyre wear...

So your thoughts, and your justifications please... Go...

[KungFooBob]

Panigale.

[Taff]

Middleweight adv style bike with cruise and heated grips as a minimum, I've been on a tiger 800 and now 900 for 10 of the last 12 years, the other couple of years I was on a cbf 1000.
Around 100 bhp is plenty for commuting, they've got the ergonomics of a tourer, the 900 does 55 mpg and you can fit chunky tyres without them looking out of place, my choice is the Michelle anakee which will last about 10k miles / about a year.

The downside to the tiger is that it needs servicing every 6k with valve check every 12k and the cost at a triumph dealer is criminal.

[weeksy]

One of those Taipan super scoot transformer Honda things. I actually quite like them and think they'd be ace at it.

[Count Steer]

All year round? How close is a railway station that does link to the one near the new work-place? (If you aren't forced to use the bike in winter it doesn't have to be a sacrificial corrosion victim).

If the £40 is an issue I'd be thinking electric.

[weeksy]

All year round? How close is a railway station that does link to the one near the new work-place? (If you aren't forced to use the bike in winter it doesn't have to be a sacrificial corrosion victim).

If the £40 is an issue I'd be thinking electric.

£40 a week or £7000 on a new bike

[Noggin]

All year round? How close is a railway station that does link to the one near the new work-place? (If you aren't forced to use the bike in winter it doesn't have to be a sacrificial corrosion victim).

If the £40 is an issue I'd be thinking electric.

£40 a week or £7000 on a new bike

That's proper ManMaths that is, love it

[Noggin]

I'd probably go for a dinky KTM, 390Duke.

I've done short commutes on litre sports and the KTM and a longer commute on the BBird

Honestly, if I'd had the Baby Duke for the longer commute, that would have been a lot more fun (similar sounding roads and distance). The BBird was amazing but also only my second bike, so I didn't see the issue of commuting on it.

In hindsight and having had a Baby Duke - the 390 would have been freaking awesome for that route

[Count Steer]

All year round? How close is a railway station that does link to the one near the new work-place? (If you aren't forced to use the bike in winter it doesn't have to be a sacrificial corrosion victim).

If the £40 is an issue I'd be thinking electric.

£40 a week or £7000 on a new bike

~£2k a year? Pays for itself in 4* if used all year round and has a s/h value at the end. (Don't use it through Nov, Dec and Jan and the s/h value is higher).

+ you get a new bike. 🏍

* ignoring service costs, tyres, insurance, tax etc. Obvs.

[Pirahna]

First choice would be car to the railway station. If it has to be a bike then pick whatever you think will make the commute interesting. Or maybe a different car to make the drive to the station more interesting.

[Rockburner]

All year round? How close is a railway station that does link to the one near the new work-place? (If you aren't forced to use the bike in winter it doesn't have to be a sacrificial corrosion victim).

If the £40 is an issue I'd be thinking electric.

£40 a week or £7000 on a new bike

~£2k a year? Pays for itself in 4* if used all year round and has a s/h value at the end. (Don't use it through Nov, Dec and Jan and the s/h value is higher).

+ you get a new bike. 🏍

* ignoring service costs, tyres, insurance, tax etc. Obvs.

Riding a bike every day is expensive, unfortunately. Also remember you may need new gear more often.

But it does make life worth living.


If I was riding that sort of journey every day I'd probably be looking at something easy to maintain myself (10X cheaper than dealer servicing), so that tends to rule out anything brand new; capable enough to be fun, but not too thirsty (so a middleweight: 500-800 cc); and comfortable that could be fitted with an aftermarket fairing for winter, if it's unfaired, (or all year if it prooves easier), so nothing with low bars.

As an aside - you'll have more offs (statistically), simply because you're doing far more miles per year, so crashability is also a consideration. (engine bars or an adventure style bike) Less plastic is betterer.

Re the Riding - you need to remember that you'll be riding the same roads every day, so you WILL get complacent about risk-management, and that WILL bite one day. The semi-blind corner that's always clear will one day have a parked up SUV just around it because some dopey person has to let their kid take a piss (or some other equally idiotic reason). If you have started to become blase about the roads because they're very familiar, that's when you'll have the accident that changes your life. Not to be negative, just fair warning.

[Taff]

All year round? How close is a railway station that does link to the one near the new work-place? (If you aren't forced to use the bike in winter it doesn't have to be a sacrificial corrosion victim).

If the £40 is an issue I'd be thinking electric.

£40 a week or £7000 on a new bike

I would love an electric bike, it's 100% the perfect bike for my use case, 45 miles a day 4 days a week. But....

There's very few viable electric bikes out there with reliability and spares backup to keep you on the road all year. Think 2000s aprilia level of backup.

The Zero DSR/X and SR s were looking good a couple of years ago but their sales haven't grown like ev cars have, there's only a couple of dealers in the country and the web suggests only 36 dsrx have been registered in the UK since 2022 (34 in the link below and 2 of the other variant), that doesn't give confidence that spares are going to be available off the shelf.

https://share.google/yiFn1nV8ObB2EDTBL

[Supermofo]

For pure commuting something like a Forza 350 or Tech Max 300 or similar. It's a tool that'll do the job as well as, if not better than most bikes and be cheaper in almost every way, along with practicality like large under seat storage.

[MrLongbeard]

Year round commuting? I wouldn't do it again, although granted mine was a 180 mile round trip.

It's fine in spring / summer, but going out in the cold, wet and dark every morning come autumn / winter is sole destroying, getting back home with wet clothing covered in road grime, salt and stinking of diesel also sucks ass.

[Supermofo]

Actually @MrLongbeard post makes me remember something else aside from how shit winter commuting is. Whilst my longest commute wasn't anywhere near 180 miles a day, it was 300 odd miles a week, and I did it on my only bike. By the time the weekend came around the last thing I wanted to do was ride the bastard thing again, and my pleasure riding became very infrequent. So hence I'd want something totally different like a scooter to hopefully keep my mojo for my main bike. My other issue was as my main source of riding was weekly commuting I couldn't help but want to play/enjoy the ride, which led to some questionable riding at times as otherwise I knew that the next 6 miles say I'd be stuck behind a train of slow moving cars with no overtakes on the best section of road, hence I'd end up doing some iffy (not bad just not the wisest) overtakes to get to the front before then. And commuting traffic isn't a good playground.

[roadster]

Another factor for this kind of distance is fuel tank size. For example my ADV 350 does around 70 mpg and has a realistic range of 160 miles. So every three days would be another stop to refuel. In contrast cars typically have a 400 to 500 mile range these days and several of the modern smaller ones achieve 60 mpg or even better for hybrids. Pity the parking issue can't be solved in some way.
I often commuted year in and year out but over much shorter distances. Dark winter rides in the early morning with freezing fog and poor visibility though a visor are no fun at all. Not to mention frequent punctures on dirty commuting roads littered with metal objects!

[Taff]

Year round commuting? I wouldn't do it again, although granted mine was a 180 mile round trip.

It's fine in spring / summer, but going out in the cold, wet and dark every morning come autumn / winter is sole destroying, getting back home with wet clothing covered in road grime, salt and stinking of diesel also sucks ass.

With good kit you stay warm and dry and my jacket & trousers will be dry a couple of hours after riding in rain, even down to zero degrees I don't wear any 'warm' kit other than the jacket and trouser liners, so it's just a shirt underneath.

I save so much time riding Vs driving a car that I wouldn't consider driving unless I really have to. I could even lift share with a person that lives at the end of my street to save us both cash, but the state of the traffic queues knocks that idea on the head.

[MrLongbeard]

Year round commuting? I wouldn't do it again, although granted mine was a 180 mile round trip.

It's fine in spring / summer, but going out in the cold, wet and dark every morning come autumn / winter is sole destroying, getting back home with wet clothing covered in road grime, salt and stinking of diesel also sucks ass.

With good kit you stay warm and dry and my jacket & trousers will be dry a couple of hours after riding in rain, even down to zero degrees I don't wear any 'warm' kit other than the jacket and trouser liners, so it's just a shirt underneath.

I save so much time riding Vs driving a car that I wouldn't consider driving unless I really have to. I could even lift share with a person that lives at the end of my street to save us both cash, but the state of the traffic queues knocks that idea on the head.

I had good kit, Hein Gericke, and stayed warm and dry myself, but getting home at 18:30 and needing to leave at 06:00 the next day doesn't give kit long enough to dry in the depths of a cold wet winter, and even if it did dry there was always the crust of road salt and diesel stink.

I did it for about a 9 months, it totally killed by biking mojo, each to their own but I'll never do it again.

[Supermofo]

I save so much time riding Vs driving a car that I wouldn't consider driving unless I really have to.

Yes that's another factor. When I started at my place the hours were 9-5 ,5 days a week. In the car it took 1.20 to 2hrs depending on traffic. On the bike it was 40 mins so a bit of a no brainer. Now I go in 1 day a week and do 7-3 and in the car the commute takes about 50 mins in and about 1hr back. The bike is still 40 mins but only if I go the dull main route, if I go the nice route it's 50 mins. Add in kitting up/down the car is quicker. But yeah I have a parking space so that makes all the difference.

[v8-powered]

Commute duties - budget shonker that you give zero shits about.
Sv650, Dullville etc, then spend rest on decent waterproofs.