Which motorcycle is cheaper to maintain?

Question

Hello, by your own personal experience or opinion - which bike do you think is realiable and affordable to maintain? If you currently own that bike - how much on average you are paying for the oil change and generail dealer maintenance?

Answer 1

Kawasakis are the cheapest ATVs to maintain so I assume that would go for their motorcycles too.

Answer 2

All of the Jap bikes are made well. You can't go wrong and they have very little maintenance.

just treat you bike well and don't ram it into anything and the maintenance on a jap bike it not much at all.

The cost of parts is usually the hondas are the highest priced. But the resale of a honda is good.

Speaking for sportbikes I like suzuki because the are easier to work on and the parts are much less than the Honda. The CBR1k is still a rocken bike though and I would buy one.

If you are buying a jap bike worry more about picking the size, color and style of the bike. Maintenance is not a big issue.

Answer 3

On any bike you should be able to do your own oil and fluid change, spark plugs, etc. If you ever go touring, you should know the basic stuff in case there isn't a shop nearby.

The older Japanese 2 cylinder 'cruisers' are the cheapest to maintain, and you can do most routine work yourself. Two cylinders means only two carburetors to sync, less valves to adjust. The newer computer controlled bikes require specialized equipment to tune and diagnose.

I have a low miles 1981 Yamaha virago now, after owning and riding a '82 virago for twenty years. It has self adjusting carbs, self-tensioning cam chain, 'no maintenance' shaft drive.

Answer 4

If you're looking for lowest maintenance costs, then look for these things on the motorcycle...

1) Go with shaft or belt drive. Don't buy a bike with a chain final drive, as the chains require lots of care and they wear out fairly rapidly.

2) Look for an engine with self-adjusting hydraulic lifters, rather than solids that need to be adjusted all the time. You'll save a ton on maintenance costs over the life of the bike.

3) Choose a bike with liquid cooling. The engines typically last longer because they're built with tighter clearances.

4) If you plan to have your bike serviced at a dealer's shop then buy one without a lot of fairings and body work. It takes time for the mechanic to remove and replace plastic body parts before and after actually servicing the motorcycle, and you'll pay hourly shop rates for this labor! (My BMW K1200LT typically takes three hours just to remove and replace the plastic!)

5) Once you decide on which bike you want to buy, invest in a good shop manual for that specific bike, and learn to do most of the maintenance yourself. You'll not only save money, but you'll get a much better understanding of the way your motorcycle works, and if you ever break down on the road away from home, you'll have a better chance of fixing it yourself!

Good Luck!

Answer 5

Any of the modern stuff from the major manufacturers will be fine as far as reliability goes. All of them make some great bikes, and all of them will have the occasional clunker.

For simpler maintenance I do most stuff myself, oil changes, brakes, tires, chain & sprockets. On our older bikes I handle pretty much everything myself. For our modern bikes they occasionally have to go to the dealer because there are some things I am not willing to tackle on my own. The money I save by doing the lightweight manintenance myself easily pays for the occasional trip to the dealer.

Answer 6

I would have to vote Honda also. I've owned pretty much every brand and have been riding since 1972. All 4 Japanese bikes are solid and you should be able to do any general maintenance yourself. I've never paid a dealer to change oil or anything like that. There's nothing to it, just follow the manual.

Answer 7

The metric bikes I've had have been the cheapest. Kawasaki and Yamaha. Two of my current bikes are Triumph & Ducati which aren't cheap in anything when it comes to routine maintenence.
Oil changes.....cost of the oil & filter.

I've never let any dealer touch my bikes. General dealer BS...no way Jose'. I get my hands, arms and everything else dirty doing it myself.

Answer 8

coverage is more low priced because they fee a lot less to pay out and the upkeep is more low priced because of a heavy provide of aspects for an older motorbike, although a no longer hardship-loose or genuine previous motorcycles are extra intense priced to maintain via none attainable aspects. The sellers workstation says NA. I had complications getting aspects for previous Kawasaki's and Suzuki's,

Answer 9

I seem to remember the dealer got about 300 bucks for the 1,000 mile service. He won't see it again until 15,000 miles, when I have to bring it in for the inner primary bearing to be replaced. Old fashioned HD R&D. They're taking them back to the factory to check wear patterns and "make sure they hold up".
This is the first year they used the 6-speed in the Dyna.
I do the rest of the regular maintenance. Oils and filters are about 50 bucks. All my Japanese stuff was used, and never went to the dealer. I bought used parts and did the maintenance myself. I was cheap, aftermarket filters, etc.

Answer 10

Oil change & filter..under $10 and is performed by myself. Insurance: Full coverage year round is less the $300 for my new 2000FI Vulcan. my 1500 was shaft drive and the 2000 is a belt drive.

Answer 11

I have owned every kind of Japanese motorcycle, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha. None of them have ever been a problem mechanically speaking. I rode a Harley Davidson Road King at work, which I loved, but it didn't work with the stone reliability of the Jap bikes. In fact, before it had 8,000 miles on it they had to do recall work on the engine.