600cc Sports bike running costs?

Ollie's Gadgets

Ollie's Gadgets

Ollie's Gadgets

Associate
Joined
28 Sep 2005
Posts
569
Location
Surrey
I am wondering how difficult it would be to run a bike aswell as a car. How much does a bike like this cost to run per year when it is only being used as a "weekend" bike? Considering the cheaper car + bike option to be able to get good performance at a younger age.

Insurance/Tyres/Servicing/Fuel etc.

I did some googling but couldn't find any information.
 
Depends on the bike i think also, ive got a SV650 and usually does me 130 miles a fill (well before the light comes up can go abit further :p) and costs me £13 a fill, tyres dont exactly remember, around £80 i think i paid for back and dont remember the front, but i use mine almost everyday and only had to change both tires once and that included a 1000+ mile trip around france, and for service i think around £150ish or abit less a year i pay

Oh and insurance just paid £400ish with bennetts, but if you want a sportier 600 will obv be more or not depending on your age (im 19 and thats with 2 years no claims)

Sorry for the £ish's lol im crap at remembering what i pay for stuff
 
It isnt that bad.

I expect you'll get anywhere from 100-180 miles per tank (£13-15) depending on bike and usage, my old ZX6R used to get anywhere from 130-180miles before reserve. Newer ones dont seem quite as good.

Tyres will be around 4,000miles for a rear (and about 8k for a front) for your average decent rubber, get some super stick race rubber and expect about 1,500-2,000 miles but thats overkill imo, you dont need rubber as sticky as that for the road. I'd recommend Pirelli Diablos.

Servicing aint to bad if you do it yourself, generally I replace oil every 4k miles (4l @ £25), then spark plugs/oil filter every 8k miles (Spark plugs are anywhere between £4-£10 each depending on bike and filters are between £5-10 depending on pattern or originals) generally valve clearences will need checking every 16k miles but check the manual, this could be anywhere from 3hours labour if ok to £400 worst case, but very unlikely it'll cost that much!

Insurance will depend on your age, NCB, area, accidents etc etc. Get online and do some quotes.
 
That'll depend largely on how much of the 2500 you spend on the insurance.

Bike off ebay £1000-£1500 wont lose much in a year unless you get a dog.
Routine maintenance DIY <£200
Insurance for me £120 :D (old git!)
Does about 110 on a full tank (£11)
Should see around 4-5000 on a set of tyres £120-180 a pair
Clothing fit for the job sub £500 if you shop well.

If you dont have a full license yet then budget for that too, may cost around £400 for an intensive jobby, best bet is too look at whats on the bay for a price guide on both bikes and clothing/helmet and have a bash at bennetts online quotes.
Try and avoid the high performance sport bikes (GSXR's, Fireblades, ZX's as even if it's quite old the insurance may be quite high for a new/young rider.

HTH
 
Last edited:
I just bought a new 600 and the insurance was £550 :( and that's me being 30 with bike garaged in very low insurance rated area. Sadly my no claims had expired from a few years ago, but I'd reckon for a young chap expect £1700 - £2000 for a 600 sports bike if you aint got any NCB and experience. I know back in 98 my first zx6r was £1700 fully comp in year 1 albeit my insurance was free with the bike, but that's what Norwhich Union charged the policy at :eek:
 
Recently done this myself. These were my costs:

DAS - £300 (I actually had a full license but had to retake to DVLA mistake so thats only actually 1.5 days training + test fee - you will probably need more if you havent been on a bike before)

Clothing - Helmet £100, Jacket £100, trousers £90, boots £90, gloves £30, Total £410

Bike - 1994 CBR600F, 18k miles, FSH, £1600. Sounds a lot but the bike was genuinley mint, low mileage and I got a warranty. You can get similar bike for under a grand though if you put in the legwork and buy private.

Insurance, Aged 32, 0ncb, technically less than year on full license, £185 TPFT

Tyres - nothing yet, but Bridgestone are about £160 a set I think.

Fuel - hhmm, I get about 60mpg commuting and about 35-40 when having some fun

Road tax £45 for the year I think.

So in total this year its cost me £2540 + petrol at between £5 - £25 a week on average, depending on if I'm just commuting or going out for weekend blasts.

Next year I'd guess it should be about the same in petrol, plus a service which should be about £100 all in, probably a set of tyres, road tax and insurance (which will reduce). Peanuts really for the amount of fun it gives :)

All I'd say is if you go for an older bike (which by your budget you probably will) I'd recommend a Honda for reliability and cheap running costs.
 
Assuming you have the gear (then again if youdont ride, why would you!!? - so ignore that bit!) insurance is the only major wounder, that and tyres/brakes, but buy a good example and with light riding probably wouldnt need replacing every year (18 months say).

Set of decent tyres, ~£130 fitted (for both). Disks quite pricey, but only an issue on older bikes, pads pretty cheap - about £20?

if you buy Japanese, they require next to NO servicing really, tho you may still want to.
 
Ive found biking surprisingly cheap tbh, the initial outlay was quite a lot but since then its been ok.

DAS - Around £500 in total, first time biker, no experience.
Bike - £2600 - 1999 R6 10k on the clock, great cond :)
Insurance - £500, 21 at the time, with no experience and a fairly bad area
Clothing - Got some Dainese Leathers on ebay very cheap and brand new condition, Sidi Vertigo boots cost £130, Alpinestars gloves were £100, helmet I was given a pretty much new AVG for free from a friend although im about to buy a new one for about £200.

The bikes been perfect since and not cost a penny except petrol costs, which isnt much anyway. So bar the big initial costs its cost next to nothing to keep on the road. Temptation to buy lots of biking related goodies can be expensive though.
 
Pug said:
Assuming you have the gear (then again if youdont ride, why would you!!? - so ignore that bit!) insurance is the only major wounder, that and tyres/brakes, but buy a good example and with light riding probably wouldnt need replacing every year (18 months say).

Set of decent tyres, ~£130 fitted (for both). Disks quite pricey, but only an issue on older bikes, pads pretty cheap - about £20?

if you buy Japanese, they require next to NO servicing really, tho you may still want to.
Click to expand...

Ah yea forgot about break disks, they can be expensive and you want a decent make lol
 
I got a GSXR 600 this year.

I guess it does cost about the same as a normal car. However unfortunately my car costs a fortune to run, so every mile I do on the bike saves me money. :p

This year I've paid £250 for insurance (ebike), £45 for tax..And thats it. I will be getting a new rear tyre, chain and sprockets soon, which I expect will be around £200. £15 gets me 150 miles on petrol.
 
Well, that doesn't factor in the cost of the bike in the first place. Plus you always have to think of the potential for problems, which fortunately I have none of at the moment.

The there is your own equipment. That all adds up a fair bit. Especially this time of year when you've got to have all the wet and cold weather gear.
 
Yea you need abit of savings in case of problems lol, mine was in was month, new tire, chain and sprockets, and this month i need a service and tax lol, the month before was insurance, it all seems to come at one usually
 
moss said:
Ive found biking surprisingly cheap tbh, the initial outlay was quite a lot but since then its been ok.

DAS - Around £500 in total, first time biker, no experience.
Bike - £2600 - 1999 R6 10k on the clock, great cond :)
Insurance - £500, 21 at the time, with no experience and a fairly bad area
Clothing - Got some Dainese Leathers on ebay very cheap and brand new condition, Sidi Vertigo boots cost £130, Alpinestars gloves were £100, helmet I was given a pretty much new AVG for free from a friend although im about to buy a new one for about £200.

The bikes been perfect since and not cost a penny except petrol costs, which isnt much anyway. So bar the big initial costs its cost next to nothing to keep on the road. Temptation to buy lots of biking related goodies can be expensive though.
Click to expand...

who did you go with for insurance mate?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom