slice.

Gas is outrageous, today I filled up and it was over $70! I couldn’t believe it.

I did a quick cell phone calculation of my mileage, and I’m getting about 18.5 miles/gallon. Seems a little low, but considering the way I drive, is probably correct. So it got me thinking, how much am I spending a month on gas? According to google, I drive 18.4 miles a day to and from work. I’ll average that out to 20; sometimes I’ll go to target after work or out to lunch. On the weekends I have no idea how much I drive, sometimes I’m all over the place, other times I’m all over the couch, so I’ll just keep it constant and say I drive 140 miles a week…150 to make the math easier

At 150 miles a week and 4 weeks a month, it comes to 600 miles. Take my average of 20 miles/gallon if I ease off a bit and we get 30 gallons a month (I fill up my 15.something gallon tank about once every two weeks, so these numbers seem correct.)

Ok, lets get the allmighty dollar involved here. I just paid $4.50/gallon, so that comes out to ….$135/month. That is actually less then I was thinking, but I’ll go on with my analysis…what if I start driving a motorcycle that gets 40 miles/gallon?

It’s pretty easy to see that that will cut my bill in half (600miles/40miles/gallon = 15gallons). Now I would be paying $67.5/month. What I was really hoping to do here was prove to myself that buying a motorcycle would save me lots of money. Turns out it will save a lot of money in gas, but it will still take me 60 months to recover that initial cost. Yikes!

But what about maintenance you say? Well, I don’t have any numbers for that, so I’m going to do what I do best. Ignore it, much like I do the check engine light that is always on. Besides, the benefit from that is probably outweighed by the fact that I won’t drive the motorcycle to work every day.

The fact of the matter is, I don’t really want a motorcycle for the gas savings, I want it because my car is boring to drive. Ideally, I’d probably just get a fun to drive car, but lets just say the math on that would put me deep in the red. At least the motorcycles are reasonably priced!

In an attempt to spice things up, I’ve started looking at bikes again. I’ve had my eye on a Triumph Speed Four for some time now, but they can be somewhat hard to come by.

They were only available in the US for five years (02-06) and I don’t really think the distribution was all that widespread. Bike hunting should provide to be an ample distraction/hobby for the next few weeks.

I’ve got a lead on one that might coming on the market soon. Nothing certain though. If I can’t get my hands on the S4, I’ve also been looking at Ducati Monsters. I’m being patient and trying to find what I want without impulse buying something. I’ve been without moto-transport for some time now though, so I don’t have any need to have something immediately… I imagine I’ll even be a little shaky the first few times back in the saddle.

Yes, I know its green. As anyone who has known me for a while can no doubt point out, I have a history of oddly colored vehicles. At least with the bike, making me more visible is a good thing.