Hit the magic 40 yesterday

[FrugalNinja250]

Yep, hit 40,000 miles of riding experience, not too bad for 37 months since my first ride. I actually didn't start riding regularly until May 2009. Looking forward to many more miles.

[TnNinjaGirl]

Congrats! That is a lot of miles in a short time.

[Jiggles]

Originally Posted by FrugalNinja250

not too bad for 37 months since my first ride.

Let's just call it three years.

[drac]

13k a year.....not too shabby....well done sir.

[KawiKid860]

Well the frugal in your name obviously doesn't stand for how much you ride *bad joke drum sound*

[FrugalNinja250]

Originally Posted by KawiKid860

Well the frugal in your name obviously doesn't stand for how much you ride *bad joke drum sound*

The "frugal" refers to my ownership experience with the lil' Ninja, lol. Every mile I ride is a mile I don't drive the old beater cage, and lately that's saving me around $130/month in just fuel costs. Last year I drove just a hair over 3,000 miles, this year I should drive even less. I bought the bike used and pre-wrecked, my initial gear used for the most part, and the savings of riding paid for all of it in about two and a quarter years. Even counting extra insurance and registration costs I'm still way ahead every month.

Yeah, I'm frugal.

[bud_44]

That's a lot of miles for three years. I live in Michigan and we have a short riding season. Sometimes I think i should move to Texas and ride all year. Ride safe my friend.

[FrugalNinja250]

Originally Posted by bud_44

That's a lot of miles for three years. I live in Michigan and we have a short riding season. Sometimes I think i should move to Texas and ride all year. Ride safe my friend.

I've ridden in temps down to 16F, up to 110F, in thunderstorms with hail, winds over 50mph, and light snow.

[Miles_Prower]

holy moly! That rocks! I think I'm trying to shoot for 7-8000 miles a year. Im the same way..Id rather ride this when I can than drive the car..which uses twice the fuel, three times the oil, twice the rubber (or 4x if you look at the price..) and is only less than half as fun.

[cuong-nutz]

@FrugalNinja250 how long is your daily commute?

[Stingray1000]

Grats bro!

[FrugalNinja250]

Originally Posted by cuong-nutz

@FrugalNinja250 how long is your daily commute?

Averages out to 30 miles per day to and from work. Checking my logs, I've ridden about 10,150 miles so far this year, of which approximately 2,430 were road trips. Taking the remaining 7,720 miles divided by 8.5 months I get a monthly average of 908 miles/month. I haven't driven my car since early July, and I last refueled it back in mid-March.

[Skid]

That is awesome.

I don't know how you manage grocery shopping and trips to the hardware store though. I still need the cage for stuff like that, and picking up people from the airport etc. I strongly doubt my grandma would want to ride 2 up haha.

[cuong-nutz]

Originally Posted by FrugalNinja250

Averages out to 30 miles per day to and from work. Checking my logs, I've ridden about 10,150 miles so far this year, of which approximately 2,430 were road trips. Taking the remaining 7,720 miles divided by 8.5 months I get a monthly average of 908 miles/month. I haven't driven my car since early July, and I last refueled it back in mid-March.

I think I average about that as well. My round trip commute to and back from work is about 35 miles.

[FrugalNinja250]

Originally Posted by Skid

That is awesome.

I don't know how you manage grocery shopping and trips to the hardware store though. I still need the cage for stuff like that, and picking up people from the airport etc. I strongly doubt my grandma would want to ride 2 up haha.

I got a full set of saddle bags and a nice tail bag on sale, Nelson-Rigg, plus a large tank bag. The folks at CostCo look at me funny when I wheel a cart load of stuff up to the register with my riding gear on and the helmet in the cart. I've had people watch me load it all up on the bike, apparently not believing I can make it all fit. One key, a lot of what sells at places like CostCo and Sam's is air; removing it from packaging, like the cans of soup and boxes of pouches, allows a lot more stuff to fit in a much smaller space.

[FrugalNinja250]

Originally Posted by cuong-nutz

I think I average about that as well. My round trip commute to and back from work is about 35 miles.

Yeah, but isn't 35 miles in Houston like 75 miles everywhere else?

[cuong-nutz]

Originally Posted by FrugalNinja250

Yeah, but isn't 35 miles in Houston like 75 miles everywhere else?

Fortunately, my current place and work are close to major freeways and HOV lanes so I'm pretty lucky. Otherwise, you're statement is true

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by FrugalNinja250

Yep, hit 40,000 miles of riding experience, not too bad for 37 months since my first ride.....

Congratulations!!

Cost of maintenance, like tires and brake pads?

[FrugalNinja250]

Originally Posted by Motofool

Congratulations!!

Cost of maintenance, like tires and brake pads?

There's some iffy history on the bike. Though I got it at 2K miles showing on the odo, it had been wrecked hard several times and had an aftermarket chain on it. I replaced the original Dunrocks at about 3,000 miles with Kenda K671 touring tires, the front lasted over 27K miles and the rears seem to be lasting 22-25K miles. They run around $65-75 shipped off ebay. The chain that was on it got replaced at 20,700 miles, the replacement (EK XSO) crapped out at 30K, replaced it at 32K, the current one (RK O-ring) is starting to require frequent adjustments (adj. interval <1K miles) whereas before it would go 2-3K before needing adjustment. The EK XSO chain ran me around $70 shipped, the RK O-ring I put on ran me <$40 shipped. Oil changes every 3K runs around $15 including filter.

I'd been putting used pads on it from other parts bikes I bought and was happy with the braking quality, but finally ran out of used pads so put some new Volars on the front. Spongy. Don't know if it's the pads or somehow I got air in the lines. It'll still brake hard on the front, but now it takes all four fingers and most of the travel, whereas before it was two fingers with much less travel. If bleeding and flushing doesn't fix it I'll put the old pads back in to see if it's the Volars or something flaked out in the caliper/master assemblies. The Volars were like $10 shipped off ebay.

The main problem now is the motor's got a regular RPM-related noise, don't know if it's valve-train or big-end related. When I got the bike I discovered it had a significant oil leak due to a faulty clutch cover gasket, which leads me to think it may have been run very low on oil. Since I've got spare motors in good condition I'm just going to run this one until it fails.

The maintenance cost comparison vehicle, my old beater, has nearly 300K miles on it and needs a ton of work (new clutch, oil pan, top end refresh, suspension work, etc.), so my cost savings with the bike are doubly enjoyable.

[azimmer11]

Originally Posted by bud_44

I live in Michigan and we have a short riding season.

It's not too bad. I ride almost 9 months of the year.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by FrugalNinja250

...........my old beater, has nearly 300K miles on..........

Thanks for the explanation, Frugal.

You really squeeze the service out of your machines!!