Cars Kinda Suck RN 2/3: Two Wheeled Fun

Something dawned on me when researching EV trade offs: while more efficient on fuel than gasoline cars, batteries work best between 60-80F (15.6-26.7C), and experience degraded performance below 40F/4.5C or above 85F/29.5C. You know what else works best between 40F and 90F? Me on my motorcycle or ebike. The best times to use an EV also happen to be the times I’d enjoy being on two wheels instead of four. Beyond that, in the next post I’ll ramble on about the state of tech in cars; from over corrective lane assists to pending government mandated kill switches. You know what my motorcycle - manufactured in 2019 - still has? A kick start and a carburetor.

Small displacement motorcycles and mopeds are also cheaper, often by a considerable margin, than charging an electric car. My motorcycle, which gets 70 something MPG (~0.05$/mile), is still nearly a cent cheaper per mile than a small EV (~0.06$). Mini motos and mopeds often exceed 100 MPG (~0.03-0.04$), and cost slightly over half per mile what an EV would . Something like my ebike¹ costs $0.08. Not per mile, but to charge the battery from 0%-100% - costing 0.0016$ per mile on the claimed range, or $0.00267 per mile on what I’ve observed as real world range on assist lvl 2 in a hilly area. A new motorcycle, moped, or ebike can also be bought for 2k USD (although the selection of new 2k motorcycles are rather limited).

I bought both my motorcycle and ebike for fun, not to save money. And, just like with the math in the EV calculations, it takes a lot of miles for fuel efficiency to recoup a couple grand in upfront cost. But if gas prices stay elevated for a while, I can’t help but wonder if I’ll wind up ultimately breaking even. While there are a number of other considerations inapplicable to gas vs electric (e.g. safety, comfort, licensing restrictions, and fun factor) I wouldn’t be surprised if rising gas costs combined with an economic downturn boosted interest in various forms of two wheeled transport.

If I were the CEO of a vehicle manufacturing company, I’d be betting on the growth of electric² mopeds. A motorcycle license is a bit of a hassle to get, but at least in NY state, anyone can hop on a moped with a standard drivers license. Mopeds here - gas or electric - are limited to 30MPH before requiring a motorcycle license, allowing you to keep up with city traffic and carry more cargo than ebikes. They’re fun, cheap (to buy and maintain), and would probably be the go to for ebike riders looking to make a legal power upgrade.

Types of two wheeled transportation

Setting aside ebikes without trottles (banned in California the the EU), as well as ones 250 watts and below, there’s quite a bit of overlap with what’s what. They’re all two (or three) wheeled vehicles with a throttle that you can drive. To share another FortNine video, this might be a great demonstration on the topic. A lot of what puts each machine into what category comes down to laws about engine type and how much power/speed each category can have, so I’ll mostly just be focusing on what New York defines each category as.

Ebikes

Ebikes are the cheapest and least hassle of the group. In NY State, ebikes are limited to 750 watts and 19 MPH (27 in NYC), and are otherwise regulated like bicycles. There’s (currently) no insurance, registration, or licensing needed - you can just buy an ebike and hit the road. There’s a whole bunch of different types of ebikes for different use cases - tiny folding ebikes, road ebikes, mountain and farm ebikes, cargo ebikes, trikes, and sitting/standing scooters. Basic cheap ebikes from semi reliable brands can often be had for $500 and under³, with more premium ebikes costing 1-2k. Though like anything else, there’s really no price cap - I’ve seen people online talk about how they’re saving so much money by replacing their car with an ebike, then proceed to spend 7k on a cargo ebike ($100 less what I paid for my car).

My IsInWheel G4 folding ebike cost me $380 + tax. It’s got a smaller 500 watt motor with a throttle + cadence sensor⁴. The motor is enough to get to the top speed (19mph) on throttle alone if the ground is flat, but requires peddling on hills. It claims a range of 20 miles on throttle and 50 with peddle assist, although in my experience, it’s 12-16 on throttle and ~30 on L2 (250w/12MPH) peddle assist. I’ve seen cheaper bikes for sale by IsInWheel, including the G1 Folding bike for $260, and I think Walmart recently started carrying ebikes in store for a hair under $500. Still, for serious commuters, a more expensive option with a more powerful motor and longer range would probably be a good idea.

Range is somewhat limited, especially if you’re relying on the throttle. Smaller low powered bikes can only carry so much battery mass, and cheap ebikes usually have smaller batteries to keep the price in line with regular bicycles. That being said, ebikes can be charged in a lot of places. Since batteries are removable, and nearly free to charge, you can take the battery out of an ebike and charge it at work, a coffee shop, or just about any place with an outlet you’re allowed to access. At my old job I commuted on my ebike a couple times, and while the 22 mile round trip would have been too much to do on Lvl 3 (500w/19MPH) using the throttle heavily, it was rather easy to go 11 miles to work, charge during a shift, then return home.

Speed is also rather limited. Riding in suburban/commercial areas, or city traffic with higher speed limits, can get really sketchy really fast - and from my experience - tends to really annoy people⁵. Ebikes aren’t legal on the sidewalk in NY or OH (the two states I’ve ridden ebikes in), so in a lot of cases you’re stuck to the road⁶. That said, the sketchiness goes away on bike paths or multi use pathways, and mostly goes away on regular city roads and rural roads (people are going faster, but in my experience, they’ve always given me plenty of space while passing me on the shoulder). Outside of sketchiness, however, slow speeds also add a lot of time to a commute. On my last job my commute by car was 40min round trip, while my ebike commute was 2 hours. I worked 12 hour shifts at that job, so that turned a 12.67 (haha 67) hour day into a 14 hour day.

“E-motos”

“E-moto” is a colloquial term for ebikes that exceed power limits for street use. They can often do 30-60 MPH, and many are styled like dirt bikes. Many, like Surrons, are just standard electric dirt bikes - complete with VINs listed for off road use only and no peddles. Some are styled after electric mini-bikes, motorcycles, and mopeds. Others are just regular ebikes with a more powerful motor, intended for non road use (e.g. mountain biking) or just intended to be used on road in jurisdictions that allow them (or, just as likely, in jurisdictions that don’t allow them).

E-motos aren’t legal for on road use in NY at the moment, but if New York State Senate Bill S5532 passes some e-motos and/or Class 3 ebikes might become legally registrable as mopeds⁷. Outside of NY, some states (and probably other countries) allow vehicles with ATV VINs to be registered for on road use, some allow e-motos to be registered as mopeds, and some have more permissive laws that permit e-motos to be classified as ebikes.

Mopeds

Note: the term ‘moped’ and ‘scooter’ are often used interchangeably. In this post, though, I’m going by the legal definition, which honestly makes more sense anyway. A moped, in NY, is defined as a limited use motorcycle. There’s multiple classes, but the most relevant one would be class B mopeds - limited to 50cc (for combustion engines) and 30 MPH - which can be driven with a regular drivers license. There’s also class A mopeds, which don’t have those limitations, but require a motorcycle license to operate. This is mostly going to focus on class B mopeds, since class A mopeds are effectively regular motorcycles with slightly different paperwork. Other jurisdictions have different regulations, but most jurisdictions have some sort of laws classifying lower speed/power machines differently. Most mopeds are scooters, although there are occasionally mopeds that break the mold like the older Honda Odyssey mopeds (bicycle with an engine), Bentelli Beast (Grom style minibike), and some ‘ebikes’ are now coming with VINs and paperwork to be registered as mopeds.

A scooter is simply a style of motorcycle with a step through design and an upright seating position, usually with plastic or metal covering the front to provide some leg protection from wind/rain/mud. Scooters, at least in the US, are most common in moped form. There are, however, scooters with larger engines that are classified as standard motorcycles.

The exact definition of a moped varies a lot from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions, however, have some form of definition for a motorcycle with an artificially limited speed and/or displacement that can be driven by people who don’t have or wouldn’t qualify for a motorcycle license. In NY the most relevant portion of the law would be a class B moped - as mentioned in the long winded explainer above - limited to 30 MPH and that can be driven with either a motorcycle license or a drivers license. Although, in NY state, it’s important to note that vehicles have to be certified and approved to be a moped, and not all vehicles that qualify based on that alone can actually be registered⁸.

The biggest draw to mopeds is that, as long as you have a drivers license, you can just go and buy one. To get a motorcycle license you either have to pay for a private test via an MSF course, or you need to jump through the Byzantine hoops of trying to schedule a state test. Especially if you’re an ebike rider looking for a modest power upgrade, the ability to just do something without a mountain of paperwork is nice. And, while there is a speed limit, if you did a lot of city driving on ~30 MPH roads your ability to travel will probably be near identical as doing it with a motorcycle (especially if you mod the moped a bit after getting the registration sorted out).

Beyond that, as a likely underappreciated fact, mopeds are pretty unassuming. If I took my motorcycle down a bike path, they’d probably send the swat team after me. But I’ve seen scooters zipping down bike lanes, weaving through traffic, and driving along sidewalks. While I’m not saying you should be doing that, you can probably get away with a lot on a small scooter style moped. What I am saying, however, is: be like scooter man - become ungovernable.

Motorcycles

Motorcycles are quite a bit broader of a category. In a sense, the above three are just hyper specific types of motorcycles. To keep it simpler, and because this behemoth of a post was spun from a tangent that was along the lines of “well my motorcycle also gets good gas mileage,” I’ll just skim over a few displacement sizes haphazardly thrown into my own categories.

There’s mini motos, which are usually 100cc-150cc. To an extent, you could argue they’re standard motorcycles; the Honda Supercub - the most popular vehicle in all of history (not most popular motorcycle, the most popular motor anything) - is within those ranks. But that’s enough “Um acktchually 🤓” with semantics. Most are mini bikes, a few including the Hondas (Grom, Supercub, Navi, Trail, Monkey, & Dax), the Kawasaki Z125, or the CF Moto Papio. There’s also some dual sports like the Honda XR150L and the Yamaha XTZ150. And, of course, scooters like the Honda PCX 125 & ADV 125, as well as the Yamaha Zooma.

The more reliable ones like the Supercub and the XR150L can supposedly be expected to make it to 40k miles without issues, occasionally going way past that, though some like the Navi and Papi won’t make it quite as far. Most of them can reliably get 90-120+ MPG in the real world, with official ratings much higher. Most of them run $2k-4.5k new, and just as much or more on the used market.

There’s also smaller displacement bikes, usually in the 200cc-400cc range. There’s a LOT of motorcycles in this category and larger. There’s smaller cruiser style motorcycles like the Honda Rebel 250 and the Yamaha Vstar 250, or slightly larger cruisers like the Rebel 300 and the Royal Enfield Meteor 350. There’s entry level sport bikes like the Kawasaki Ninja 250 and Honda CBR250 or the newer CB/CBR 300, and plenty of Dual sports like the Yamaha TW200 or the Honda CRF300L. There’s also a few scooters, such as the Suzuki Burgman 400, and scramblers/cafe racers like the CSC SG250.

There’s a lot of variation in price. Older models like the Rebel/Vstar 250 are often dirt cheap, found for 1.5k-2k on the used market. There’s cheaper models like CSCs that are 1.8k-2.5k new, and 1k-1.5k used. Most of the rest of them can be found for 2k-3.5k used in good condition, and new for 4k-6k. Reliability is a mixed bag. My CSC SG250 is expected to last only about 12k miles, and if I’m lucky, more like 20k⁹. That said, most of the more reliable Japanese brands should allegedly last 40k-60k miles depending on the model, with cruisers being especially long lasting with engines tuned to be more chill. Most of the the bikes this size will get 70-80MPG, with the more modern Royal Enfields and Hondas close to or exceeding 80MPG, and the sport bikes more in the 55-70MPG range. Most 250s top out at around about 65/70MPH, though the sport bikes and 350s can do a fair bit more.

Mid sized displacement bikes, 500-800cc, are again a fairly broad catagory. Still, there’s plenty of bikes that stand out as long lasting fuel efficient modes of transport. There’s a plethora of sport bikes, although it’s worth pointing out that the Suzuki GSX-R has specimens that have exceeded 200k miles. I pity the man who did 200k on a sport bike, but it’s rather impressive. There’s a ton of older cruisers, though they seem to be most represented by the Honda Shadow 750 and Yamaha Vstar 650 variants. There’s also plenty of newer cruisers like Royal Enfields, modernized Honda Shadows, and Yamaha Vstars that are made with the exact same components as they were in the 90s. There’s do it all street bikes like the Honda CB500F, larger dual sports like the Kawasaki KLR 650, ADV bikes like the Honda CB500X/NX500, and light touring bikes like the Honda NX700 and the Suzuki V-Strom 650.

Once you exceed 500cc, just about anything is capable of doing highway speeds (65-85MPH here in the US) without breaking a sweat. However, prices start going up and MPG starts going down. The older Japanese cruisers are often listed at $2k-3k, simply because they last forever and people take good care of them. Older used sport bikes seem to run 3k-6k, and newer cruisers and ADV bikes seem to run 3.5k-6k; with new prices in most categories running 6k-9k. Sport bikes usually get 35-50MPG, and the older mid size cruisers often hit 45-60MPG. That said some newer cruisers and ADV bikes do occasionally up into the 60-70MPG range. Most bikes this size made by reliable manufacturers can be expected to last 80k-120k miles, with some specimens going considerably higher.

Once you exceed 1 liter (1000+cc), the bikes tend to get a lot less relevant to this cheepskate tries to justify his hobby practical and informative frugal transportation thought experiment. These are the Goldwings, Harleys, and larger Honda Shadows/Yamaha Vstars. They usually tend to get 30-40 MPG, trending towards the efficient car MPG range. And, to be fair, 1 liter of displacement is give or take what cars tend to start at. They’ve usually got quite a bit of power and quite a lot of comfort, and usually last as long as meh quality smaller displacement cars at 100k-150k and beyond.

Cons of two wheeled transport

When comparing gas vs electric cars, while there was a lot to compare, ultimately they’re more similar than they are different. That’s not the same with anything that has two wheels instead of four. Ultimately, while gas vs electric can theoretically be an entirely practical choice, there’s a lot more to consider here.

Risks

With anything two wheeled, it’s worth bringing up that it’s a riskier form of transportation. I’ll start with motorcycles, since there’s a lot more data on them than ebikes or even bicycles. Motorcycles as a whole have 22 times the fatalities per mile when compared to cars and trucks¹⁰, which is rather high¹¹. There are, however, some statistics that might start to put that into perspective.

More than half of all fatalities occur from riders who were not wearing helmats¹². Nearly half of all fatalities on motorcycles involved drunk riders ¹². Over a third of deaths were from motorcycle riders who didn’t have a valid motorcycle license¹⁰. More than half of all crashes occur within the first 6 months of riding (fatality % unknown)¹³. And finally, motorcycles with a displacement of under 500cc make up approximately 10% of fatalities¹⁰, with sport bikes making up a very large percentage of the per capita fatalities¹⁴.

That information starts to paint a bit of a picture. While anything without a layer of steel surrounding you is going to be inherently more dangerous, it also probably causes the amount of risk takers to be over-represented in that particular form of transportation. The IT guy mitigating the risks he can (but still accepting higher risks) headed to work on a 250cc motorcycle, wearing a full set of gear (including a backpack with a built in airbag¹⁵), is going to be in one risk bracket. The 17 year old who used his summer job to buy a motorcycle off Facebook Marketplace, which accelerates faster than super cars that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, is going to be in a very different one.

Ebikes are a lot harder to compare, I’m not aware of any US agencies or studies that track per-mile fatalities for e-bikes or standard bicycles. The only source I’ve ever seen that gets close is this five year old video from FortNine, a Canadian YouTuber quoting UK commuter statistics. Best guess from that is that bicycles are approximately as dangerous as motorcycles, with e-bikes likely being more dangerous.

Again, though, risk brackets. Over the summer of 2025 I did just about all my grocery shopping on my e-bike. I’d leave my apartment and go about a half a block on some side streets, a few miles through a multi use pathway that cut through a nature reserve (not part of a road), then hop off that right across the street from the nearest Walmart’s parking lot. I’ve been riding bicycles all my life, always wear a helmet, and installed a mirror on my ebike as well (although it fell off and I never replaced it). It’s also a 500 watt ebike, both making it road legal and slower than I can sprint on a single speed beach cruiser.

E-bikes, in most jurisdictions, are regulated like bicycles. People who don’t know the rules of the road, and who are going faster than they could peddle on their own, are likely in much higher of a risk category than other cyclists (of both the electric and caveman peddling variety). There’s also the issue of e-motos - “ebikes” with power that exceeds the legal limit, many legally classified as unregistered electric motorcycles and dirt bikes. If I gave my 11 year old brother the keys to my motorcycle and told him to take it for a spin around the block, that would be a “what in the heck are you doing” scenario. At the same time, there’s a lot of kids being given illegal¹⁶ “ebikes” that can do similar speeds as my motorcycle, and when that goes wrong it ends up in the “this is why ebikes are dangerous” category of news reports (and likely statistics once those are eventually tracked).

Drive Time

Like I touched on briefly in the ebikes section, drive times go up if you’re taking a two wheeled vehicle. It varies a lot, but I can guesstimate some drive times to better demonstrate things.

I don’t exactly have a ‘standard’ commute for my current job since I’m regularly at different locations, but my one way drive to our main regional office is about 45 min and 30 miles by highway, or about 55 min and 25 miles through back roads and side streets. Taking either route, there’s some rural roads with a speed limit of 55 MPH, some in between roads with 40/45 MPH limits, and some city roads limited to 30 MPH. The highway is 65 MPH, and most of the side streets that can be taken instead of the highway are 30MPH. I default to the highway when taking my car, which gives me a pretty standard 45 minute drive.

When I take my motorcycle, it usually adds about 15 minutes to my commute. It can theoretically go highway speeds, but it struggles to do so - and Buffalo highways are often a little chaotic - so I take the side streets instead. That adds about 10 minutes to my commute for actual driving, and give or take 5 min to put on my gear that I wouldn’t be wearing in a car. Motorcycles can do car speeds, but taking a slightly different route and managing gear can still add some extra time for a trip.

While I haven’t driven a moped, I’d be willing to bet that same trip would take more or less 1.25 to 1.50 hours. Many of the roads I take on my motorcycle have a speed limit a moped can do, so the only time lost would be on higher speed roads; plus of course the same gear to contend with as a motorcycle. 25 miles, even at 30 MPH¹⁷, could still be done within an hour; there’s just the time at stoplights/stopsigns and gear to contend with. If you were only doing city/suburban roads, a moped and motorcycle would probably have similar commute times.

E-motos would probably be the fastest, mostly because the kids who don’t care about unregistered vehicles also don’t care about speed limits or stop signs. But seriously, a more powerful electric bike would probably be in the same boat as a moped; keeping up with city/suburban traffic, but being unable to drive the speed limit on rural roads or highways.

On the other hand ebikes start to add quite a bit of time to a trip. Based on trips I’ve done in the past, and cross referencing them with the estimated trip time on GPS apps, the same trip on an ebike would probably take 2.5 to 3 hours. This assumes you’re holding a constant 19 MPH, if you were to drop down the peddle assist to conserve energy it would take longer. This won’t matter as much on shorter commutes (a 5 min car commute turned 10-15 min), and high traffic commutes might actually allow you to save time by bypassing it via a bike lane, lane splitting, or sidewalks. But for long commutes, ebikes add quite a bit of time to a trip since you’re always limited to below the speed limit.

Weather Limitations

The weather is always going to be a much bigger factor on two wheels instead of four. Rain is probably the universal weather to deal with, and you can read my realtime ramblings from the first time I intentionally rode in the rain. Honestly, rain gear is pretty impressive, I was able to drive in some very heavy rain with only my socks and the collar of my shirt getting wet. Still, it’s less enjoyable than driving on a sunny summer afternoon. Rain also decreases your ability to brake more than it does in a car, and there’s always some ‘adventure’ to be had in the rain. For example, one of the days around when I posted that, there was a dip in the road where water was rushing up through the asphalt that I effectively had to drive through like I was crossing a stream - all the meanwhile going “please don’t be sewage, please don’t be sewage.” Thankfully, it was not sewage. But the water was above my feet sitting on the pegs of my motorcycle, and there’s always some sort of sketch like that when riding in the rain.

The cold, at least in WNY, is also a pretty big limiting factor. Motorcycles - at least mine - do not do well in the snow.¹⁸ I generally never take it out when there’s snow and ice in the roads, and anytime the roads are clear but there’s snow in certain spots (like a driveway) I usually need to get off and push it through. It does, however, let you do some Le Epic Burnouts without roasting your tires.

Similarly, cold temperatures make for bad rides. At 55 MPH the windchill usually drops what you experience by ~20F (7C). Even with some warmer gear, I’ve done my fair share of scraping ice off the inside of my helmet and doing hand exercises at stoplights to keep my hands from going numb, then getting hit by the aftershock of cold blood going from my extremities to the rest of my body once I head inside.

My general rule of thumb is I usually don’t ride anything two wheeled any distance when there’s a chance of black ice (generally anything below freezing, though the roads are often clear slightly below freezing because blacktop heats up faster in the sun and the roads are salted in NY). I don’t do any long trips below the mid 40s F, since that’s usually when my helmet won’t fog up as much and when my gear will keep me warm¹⁹. In WNY there’s usually occasional freezing temperatures between mid October and mid May, with consistent freezing temperatures from November to mid April.

Carrying Capacity

Another limitation is carrying capacity, although it varies a lot from machine to machine. Smaller motorcycles generally have very limited carrying capacity, don’t have the power to propel a rider and a passenger, and often don’t make for easy installation of storage compartments like saddlebags. Airbag jackets often shouldn’t be worn with backpacks, and my backpack with a built in airbag has fairly limited capacity. On my SG250, I’m limited to about 20 liters of storage; combine that with my inclination to carry a lot, and the fact my job often has me transporting laptops, and I fill up those 20 liters pretty quickly.

That said, it varies a lot. Utility focused ebikes like my IsInWheel G4 often come with big sturdy cargo racks. Combine the cargo rack with the fact I’m wearing a 50L regular backpack in place of my 20L airbag backpack, and I can carry quite a lot (I did most of my grocery shopping with it last summer). Scooters are often built to be a lot more utilitarian as well, and usually come with built in storage and hooks to hang grocery bags; larger cruiser/touring motorcycles often coming with (or easily accepting) storage. Still, no matter what, the cap on two wheeled cargo space is generally never more than the trunk space of a small sedan.

Price (as a second vehicle)

While prices of budget/practical motorcycles, ebikes, and mopeds are cheap when compared to cars, they still cost money. For most Americans, lifestyle or weather restrictions are still going to require you to have a four wheeled vehicle - leaving you with the upfront cost of buying a second two wheeled vehicle, as well as having a second insurance policy (with the exception of ebikes) and a second maintenance regiment.

From the original perspective of practical transportation (what my original post was about, before I got sidetracked on several posts about EVs and two wheeled vehicles), anything two wheeled isn’t inherently more practical when you have one combined with a car. While you will be getting much lower per-mile costs, just like EVs, you’ll actually need to put on a fair number of miles to make up for the upfront cost and increased insurance premiums.

Repair/maintenance

I could probably create a whole post about the cost/frequency of motorcycle vs car maintenance, and there’s a number of pros and cons to it, but overall I’d slot it in the cons section. It varies a ton from model to model, but in general, motorcycles are going to require more frequent maintenance. For example, more frequent oil changes (wet clutches wear oil faster than dry clutches), and more frequent tire changes (smaller tires have less rubber to wear). Delving deeper into oil, because my motorcycle needs more frequent oil changes (3k, instead of 5k for my car) and it takes motorcycle specific oil (different additives which are more expensive thanks to economies of scale), I’m actually paying slightly more per mile of oil than I am on my car despite my car taking more than double the amount of oil per change. Mopeds are motorcycles with different paperwork, and share similar maintenance requirements, though of course ebikes/e-motos are closer to maintenance free.

Overall, maintenance on a motorcycle is probably cheaper than a car since parts are generally cheaper (and simpler, so there’s less to go wrong). But it’s certainly more time consuming to lubricate a chain and handle more frequent wear items. Again, though, it varies a ton depending on what you’ve got and are comparing it to. I saw someone online saying that motorcycles cost more to maintain on tires alone because his sport touring motorcycle (which likely had an engine larger than some cars) kept burning through his top of the line tires²⁰. Alternatively, a small Honda like the trail 125 could probably run forever with a bucket of motor oil, a couple spare chains and sprockets, a tube of JB weld, and tires that cost barely more than bicycle tires.

There’s also longevity to consider. Again, it varies a ton, but motorcycles generally don’t last nearly as long as cars do. You could probably get 40-60k miles out of a high quality smaller displacement engine, although there are exceptions. That might make a Stellantis vehicle jealous, but even a Nissan with a CVT could do double that if treated well. Larger displacement engines in reliable cruisers and touring bikes can often break 100k miles, but still, the longest lasting motorcycles often last as long as subpar cars.

Pros of two wheeled transport

The pros and cons of two wheeled vs four are a lot more complicated than fuel type.

Fun factor

Again, as I mentioned above, as much as this post was a spin off from me trying to talk about practical transportation, two wheeled vehicles (at least here in the US) are often not bought for practical money saving reasons. That was the case with my motorcycle, bicycle, and ebike - I never got them with the intention of saving money. Now, of course, I’m a cheepskate frugal so they all cost me less than an Iphone Pro max, and now that gas prices have doubled I am looking at them wondering if I’ll end up saving money²¹. But the intention was to have something fun.

Take commute times for example, turning a 45 min commute by car into a 1hr commute by motorcycle sounds impractical, but I would much rather take the longer commute by motorcycle because it’s fun. Instead of getting off work to stare at a highway and hope afternoon/evening rush our traffic doesn’t turn my 45 min commute into a 1hr 15 min commute, I’ve got a 1hr commute on a motorcycle that I’m looking forward to. Same goes for the ebike. Though I didn’t commute with it too much on my last job since 12hr days becoming 14hr days was rough, the few times I did were a blast for those 2 hours. For shorter trips like going to the grocery store it was still a blast to ride (especially since I got to take a nature trail instead of the regular road), and had I a shorter commute and shorter shifts I would have done a lot more ebike commuting than I did.

Price

Two wheeled things are cheaper than four. A decent ebike can be had for $500 or less, and even a premium ebike can usually be had for $1.5-2k. Mopeds and a handful of cheaper motorcycles start at around 2k²². Cheaper dual sports, Honda mini-motos (Grom, Trail, Supercub), more powerful scooters, and cheaper cruisers by companies like Royal Enfield often run $3-5k. E-motos and electric motorcycles/mopeds tend to run 4-6k. Many Japanese manufacturers offer cruisers, adv, and light touring bikes for 6-8k.

And then, of course, there’s the used market. Ebikes are a bit hit or miss, and some things like mopeds²³ and Honda mini motos seem to hold their value a lot²⁴, but motorcycles in general are very cheap to find on the used market. Especially in the cruiser market, Honda Rebels and Vstar 250s can often be found between $1.5-2.25k in good condition with fairly low mileage. Older cruisers like the Honda Shadow or VStar 650/1100, and even older Goldwings, can often be found in great condition for $2-3k. Smaller sport bikes have often seen a lot of abuse compared to the near pristine older cruisers, but finding a Ninja 250 or Honda CBR 300 in the same price range isn’t a hard task. Dual sports tend to hold their value more, but you can still find $3-5k TW200s and KLR650s, and even more modern street bikes and light touring bikes (CB500F, NX700, Vstrom 700, etc) can still be found for 4-6k.

And, beyond the initial purchase price, insurance is dirt cheap. I get my car insurance through Progressive, but when they wouldn’t insure my SG 250, I got a little worried about what I’d gotten into - until I went to Geico who quoted me $100 per year, and Allstate then beat them at $80. This was with no bundling (I don’t have any other insurance policies through Geico or Allstate), without having any motorcycle experience, and (at the time) having not gotten my motorcycle license or having taken the MSF course. I wound up going with Allstate, and after adding more than 10x the state minimum liability²⁵, I’m paying $100 per year for insurance.

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Long story short, if you were looking to replace a car with something two wheeled the cost difference is rather stark. If your lifestyle, geography, and climate supported it; replacing your car with something with two wheels (or going from a two car family to a one car + ebike/moped/motorcycle family) would be tens of thousands of dollars cheaper.

If you’re looking to have one in addition to a car, however, that price is added onto the price of your existing transportation costs. That said, a car + two wheeled vehicle may still make sense. Comparing the EVs of my previous post: the cheapest gasoline car is $20k, and the cheapest EV is $27k. For less than the $27k Chevy Bolt you could by a brand new Hyundai Venue, an ebike, a moped, and a motorcycle. The ebike, moped, and motorcycle would also be cheaper per mile in fuel/energy costs than the Chevy Bolt - and insuring the Venue, moped, and motorcycle would likely be cheaper than insuring the Chevy Bolt.

Fuel Efficiency

Speaking of fuel efficiency, just about anything with two wheels is going to be a lot more efficient. Ebikes are pretty much free; if you rode three miles to the grocery store and found a penny in the parking lot you’d have made money on the trip. Electric mopeds, e-motos, and small motorcycles are considerably more expensive: you’d need to find three whole pennies on the same trip to cover your cost. Switching over to gas, many mopeds and mini-motos can exceed 100 MPG. Now we’ve gotten into the big bucks - you’ll need to find nickles and dimes for your trips.

Still, mini motos and electric bikes are somewhat limited in what they can do. Moving up into ‘larger’ motorcycles, modern 125-250 scooters can often get north of 90 MPG, and carbureted 200cc-300cc bikes often get an MPG in the 70s or 80s. Cheap older bikes like Honda Rebels/Vstar 250s, or even newer carborated bikes like a CSC SG250 - spraying unburnt fuel out like a sprinkler - still require less energy costs than an efficient electric car.

Larger midsized bikes in the 500-800cc, such as cruisers, larger dual sports, adv bikes often get between 50-70 MPG. On the upper end they’re around what it costs to run an EV, on the lower end, around what a hybrid can get. Once bikes surpass 1000cc they usually drop a fair bit more, usually below 50 MPG, and often below 40 MPG. Although usually 1000cc+ motorcycles aren’t usually purchased for the goal of being economical (although to be fair, most in the US aren’t) - mostly consisting of large touring bikes and very powerful sportbikes. I know a guy with a Honda NTX 1800 which gets an MPG in the 30s, which is worse than my Fiesta - but then again, the NTX’s engine is larger. Still, even in a case like that, it’s still more fuel efficient than the average vehicle on the road (26 for cars and 18.5 for trucks).

Low Tech & Repairable Options

If you’re lucky and have a decent car made in the last few years, but a taillight goes bad, you get to spend $600-1,400 to replace an entire stupid headlight assembly. If you’re unlucky you might need to do that AND have a dealer pair the new part to your car (for a hefty fee of course). If you’re really unlucky, that failed light might very well short out your cam bus and brick the entire vehicle.

And then, of course, there’s the tech. The latest round of tech in modern vehicles includes potential federally mandated kill switches, always online cellular connectivity that tracks and sells your data, and increasingly invasive driver ‘aids.’ Tech that’s creeping into motorcycles includes ABS, digital displays, and fuel injection. While there’s a small selection of expensive, over-engineered, cam-bus controlled motorcycles out there; many motorcycles have no more tech than a car from the 1980s or 90s. If you’re looking to escape iPads on wheels, it’s not that hard to find a 2026 motorcycle that works like: you pull throttle > throttle pulls cable > cable opens tube > open tube = more fuel and air > more fuel and air = more vroom - no computer or remote connectivity in between anything.

Most ebikes and some electric mopeds/motorcycles also share the same simplicity, despite electric cars being synonymous with iPads on wheels. You effectively have three main components: battery, controller, and motor. There’s a rudimentary computer in the controller (and some batteries), but they’re rather simplistic and interchangeable. There’s no miles of wire and sensors to go bad, vibe coded vehicle OSs to malfunction, or part pairing that prevents you from just swapping out the motor, controller, or battery with something else of your choosing²⁶.

Speaking of swapping things out, both most motorcycles and ebikes are very easily repaired and use fairly standardized parts. You want to know what I did when I wanted to upgrade to larger mirrors, or when I needed to replace a clutch lever/mount after I knocked over my motorcycle because I forgot to put up the kickstand?²⁷ I went on Amazon, purchased a random well rated generic part, and installed it²⁸. Not only can you fix or replace parts instead of swapping assemblies on most two wheeled vehicles, but you can usually replace parts with interchangeable generics instead of being locked into a very specific OEM/aftermarket part.

Misc Benifits

Anything two wheeled becomes a cheap second vehicle if it’s purchased without replacing a car. With the caveat that my motorcycle is not going to do well in a blizzard, and is uncomfortable in the cold, it’s rather handy to be able to get anywhere even if my car is in the shop.

As a bonus, my ebike - since it folds - fits in the back of my car. A regular sized bike would usually fit in most hatchbacks and SUVs, and most ebikes/e-motos/mopeds/smaller motorcycles would fit in the back of a pickup truck. In some cases you can drive to a mechanic in your car/truck, then take a two wheeled vehicle out of it to get you back home. I found that especially handy when I had moved out of state after college and was unable to bum rides from family members to get to/from a mechanic; the fact my old Nissan fit a regular bike (with a removed front tire) was rather handy.

And, finally, having a second vehicle lets you specialize purposes a little more. By owning a fuel inefficient work truck or sports car, and pairing it with a more fuel efficient two wheeler, you’d gain the benefits of the car/truck while offsetting some fuel efficiency issues. Alternatively, having both a gas and electric vehicle offers redundancy. This could take the shape of having an EV for fuel efficiency, but motorcycle/moped that could take longer trips and be refueled in a power outage. Or, if you had a normal gasoline vehicle, having an ebike and solar panels would allow you to travel even during a gas shortage or disaster of some kind.

They are also very maneuverable, with the exception of large motorcycles. It’s rather easy to go around stopped cars, jaywalkers, or debris in the road - and if you’re rather brave (and don’t mind breaking the law in some jurisdictions) you can lane split and filter as well. Ebikes take it a step further than motorcycles/mopeds, often being able to zip down a bike lane (or sidewalk if you don’t mind breaking the law in some jurisdictions); completely skipping traffic altogether. You can also take shortcuts. A smaller motorcycle can be turned off then walked down a sidewalk or through some grass, skipping a busy intersection if you just want to get from one neighboring parking lot to another. Ebikes can take it a step further: I doubt you’d get into trouble if you jumped a curb and rode across a strip of grass to go between parking lots.

Parking is also a lot easier in some circumstances. Ebikes can be parked at bike racks, which are usually emptier and closer to your destination than empty parking spaces. There’s not a lot of motorcycle/moped specific parking spaces here in WNY, but I’ve heard there are places where there is dedicated parking spaces. Though of course there’s usually places you can put a motorcycle where you can’t put a car, such as taking up less space in an unpainted lot or by parking someplace a car can’t get (like behind the gate’s card reader at my job). And, of course, you might be able to save a buck if you need to pay for parking. Ebike parking is likely free, and I’ve heard some places charge less or let you park for free with a motorcycle (though I’m yet to see that in person).

Finally, they offer exercise. Nothing powered - outside of motocross or racing - is going to offer more exercise than using caveman power (a regular bicycle or a jog) during a regular commute. Still, ebikes and e-motos/mopeds/motorcycles provide exercise while you’re riding them. Most westerners, including myself, could probably use to have more activity.

So, are they practical?

Like everything in life, it depends. I could sort of come to a more objective conclusion on EVs - that they are practical in select circumstances - by focusing on purely cost & practicality. While cost & practicality can be considered here, issues like safety, climate, range (ebikes), licensing requirements (motorcycles), speed (ebikes & mopeds), cargo capacity, passenger capacity, and physical disabilities all have to be considered in just about every case.

That said, from a simple cost and practicality standpoint, yes. If you replace a four wheel vehicle with a two wheeled vehicle - by going car free, or by reducing the amount of vehicles in your family - you’ll save quite quickly. A practical two wheeled vehicle is always going to cost less than a four wheeled vehicle by a wide margin, and will near universally get better energy cost per mile.

However, if you’re in the rather lucky state of being able to afford both something two wheeled and four, in that case, it may still be a practical cost decision in certain circumstances. Lets break down some napkin math:

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My car has a few different numbers depending on how you look at it. I’ve used the 11c per mile figure a few times in this set of posts, having seen it go above 40MPG repeatedly on mostly highway trips (where I do most of my miles). Apparently I’m good at hyper mileing it, because the 4 cylindar 2017 Fiesta is only rated for a combined 30MPG (27 city/35 highway), although the manual transmission is probably going to give it a leg up compared to the older DCT automatic transmissions of the time. I expect to get ~80-100k miles out of it, having purchased it at 45k miles for 7.1k. Say I put 90k miles on it, that’ll cost me a clean 17k or 19c/mile in total purchase price + fuel on my very lucky highway driving figure, or 20.3k & 22c per mile with normal driving at it’s combined city/highway MPG.

As per average vehicles, using some light research and guesstimation, the average used vehicle in the US costs 29.1k and has 14k miles. The average car will get 25MPG or 18c/mile (trucks getting 18.5 or 24c/mile), and be scrapped at 144k miles. This comes out to a total of $55k or 38c/mile (63.7k or 44c/mile for trucks) in total purchase price & fuel costs.

Maybe you’re looking at EVs. The slate truck is shipping this year with an MSRP of 24.9k. It uses NCM batteries, which will probably give you 2k cycles if you treat them well (no public charging, no extreme temperatures, and cycles of 80%-25%) - giving you around 226k miles before it degrades. This works out to 39.5k in purchase price + electricity costs, or 17c per mile.

Or, maybe you have a budget EV. Let’s say you spend 15k on a used Chevy Bolt, which costs about 6c per mile in electricity. Since LFP batteries are likely to be hit by calendar degradation before you hit their max cycle life, the total cost will be different depending on how much you drive. The national average is 10-14k miles per year, and the already used bolt might last you ~10 years total before calendar + usage degradation sets in. If you drive 12k per year, you’ll run into total purchase + fuel cost of ~22k or 18c per mile. At 2x the national average it’ll run you about 29.4k or 12c per mile, and at 3x the national average it’ll run 36.6k or 10c per mile.

Now, lets say you purchased a used Honda Shadow 750 at 15k miles for $2k - which will get ~50MPG. Lets say it lasts for 90k miles before it needs major engine work, meaning you get to put 75k miles on it. That costs 8.6k in price + fuel, or 11c per mile.

Or, lets say you purchased a Honda SuperCub, which runs 4k brand new and gets ~120MPG based on real world testing (it’s rated for 1.5 L/100km or 156.81 MPG in Europe, but somebody was sniffing too many fuel fumes when they calculated it). The engines in a modern SuperCub will likely last at least 40k miles before needing a rebuild/replacement. At 40k miles, the vehicle would cost 5.5k or 14c per mile.

On the ebike side of things, my IsInWheel G4 ebike cost me $396.11 after tax, although they’re currently listed for $329.99 on Amazon (pre tax). It costs approximately 8c in electric every full charge, and can make it ~15 miles on Lvl 3 using the throttle (19 MPH) and ~30 miles on Lvl 2 in peddle assist mode (12 MPH). Given the NCM battery will likely last approximately 1000 cycles²⁹, that gives a total mileage lifespan of 15k if you primarily use the throttle on Lvl 3, and 30k if you primarily use peddle assist on Lvl 2. Either way, that’ll run me a whopping total of $80 in electricity over it’s lifespan, costing $476.11 in total ownership cost or 2-3c per mile.

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The TLDR on those numbers is that a practical two wheeled vehicle is cheaper in purchase price + fuel per mile than a car/truck (even a new two wheeled vehicle compared to a used car/truck). Every mile put on a motorcycle/ebike/moped, at least one purchased with practicality in mind, will save you more money in car wear/fuel than it’ll cost to acquire & operate said secondary motorcycle/moped/ebike. This even extends to EVs with NCM batteries (the most common at the moment); while they cost less per mile in energy than some larger displacement motorcycles like the Honda Shadow, their higher purchase price causes the overall cost per mile to be considerably higher.

Now, this doesn’t take into account maintenance or insurance. However, insurance is really cheap: I was quoted $6.67 (haha 67) per month by Allstate without any form of bundling on my motorcycle, and ebikes don’t require insurance. Similarly, the per mile service/repair cost of most four wheeled vehicles will likely be much higher than for two wheeled vehicles, assuming you use them both until they hit a point where it’s more responsible to scrap them than repair them.

There are exceptions to this, however. If you’re driving so few miles on a gas car that it’ll wear out from age rather than usage (e.g. a rusted frame from salted roads) then getting a second vehicle to eat up miles isn’t likely going to save you any money. Similarly, an LFP EV is likely going to die from calendar degradation or frame rust unless you’re driving upwards of 4k miles a month. Assuming you’re driving something very efficient like a smaller Chevy Bolt - even though many two wheeled vehicles might cost less per mile in fuel - it’s going to be much harder to extract the original two wheeler’s purchase price from the lost miles you could have gotten on the EV. That’s not to say it can’t be done, a regularly driven budget ebike will save money no matter what else you have.

Finally, it’s worth pointing out that - just like in the EV post - this comparison was done using Western New York gas, electric, and new/used vehicle prices. Fuel prices vary a bit across the US, with electricity prices varying quite a bit. Fuel, electricity costs, and vehicle costs vary wildly across the globe.

Misc Ramblings

Random things I’m sticking at the end because I couldn’t fit them elsewhere.

Gas vs Electric

Like four wheeled electric vehicles, two wheeled vehicles also have some drawbacks - although the drawbacks are much more pronounced here. For smaller ebikes, you can run into a bit of a battery size death spiral. If you want longer range, you’ll need a bigger battery. If you want to climb hills, you’ll need a more powerful motor. That more powerful motor consumes more power, so you’ll need an even bigger battery. Batteries are heavy, so now you’ll need a more powerful motor to power it. Next thing you know, the ebike is way more expensive and the motor probably exceeds the legal power limit. More powerful e-motos, electric mopeds, and electric motorcycles can all have larger electric motors to support a heavier battery. However, when compared to their gas powered counterparts, the range and price differences have a much higher spread compared to cars. It mainly comes down to three things: cost, range, and fuel efficiency.

Cost differences are rather stark. As far as budget options go, a brand new Honda Navi has an MSRP of 2k. The cheapest³⁰ electric motorcycle for sale is the Eahora Bad Boy M8S with an MSRP of 4.5k. Both are rather small bikes with a top speed in the 50s. If you wanted something more mid budget (plus a bigger range and more widespread brand in the case of the electric one), a Honda Shadow Phantom would run you 8.7k and a Zero Z-Force 7.2 would run you 22.5k. The Phantom is a mid size cruiser with a 800cc v-twin engine and a fair bit of power, as well as the capacity to carry a fair bit of weight beyond yourself. The Z-Force is Zero’s cheapest motorcycle - an electric dual sport - but it has a high enough speed to hop on the highway³¹ and enough range to cover a longer commute.

Some of the cost probably comes from the lack of incentives that hit the car market. (To my knowledge) there were no rebates or CAFE standards to subsidize the market, so road legal electric motorcycles are a lot more niche and probably due for some economies of scale discounts if/when they become more popular. However, at the same time, batteries are expensive. It’s easier to add expensive batteries to a more expensive vehicle like a car than it is to add them to something much cheaper like a motorcycle. Even something like the Surron Light Bee X (the cheapest adult sized electric e-moto by Surron), which benefits from popularity and no need to have safety features or certifications like a motorcycle, still runs about 4k with similar specs to the Eahora bike.

Range is also a fairly large limitation. Most budget electric motorcycles, mopeds, and e-motos have a range of 35-60 miles. While that would be perfect for around town errands or local commutes, it’s a rather limiting factor for a lot of people who live in more remote areas and/or have moderate to long commutes.

Fuel efficiency of gas bikes, particularly smaller budget models, also comes into play when figuring in price. The Honda Navi, rated for 110 MPG, would cost $0.04 per mile at NY Price on June 6th 2026³². While the Eahora costs just over $0.01 per mile, the 2.5k in extra upfront cost would take a rather long time to make back in fuel costs - 84k miles to be exact. Unlike cars, however, electric bikes in that price range have limited miles. While EV cars may be beneficial for someone who drives a lot of miles, but can stay within the max range of their EV (generally 250+ miles), a ~40 mile range on an electric bike is often a lot more limiting. If you drove a 20 mile commute on the Eahora 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, you’d break even part way through your 16th year of doing so. And that assumes the Eahora would last 16 years and 84k miles, which I’d be surprised if it did.

Insurance also looks a bit iffy. When shopping around for motorcycle insurance last year I saw several insurance providers warn you they don’t offer coverage for electric motorcycles & mopeds before you begin the process of requesting a quote. I assume, especially if you’re limited on options, it’ll cost above the $80-100 yearly insurance cost that appears to be standard on most motorcycles & mopeds.

The biggest benefit that small two wheeled vehicles bring is probably the experience. They’re simple to operate - no transmission, or use a choke when starting on a cold day. They’re nearly silent at low speeds³³; at least in the case of my ebike the birds are probably going to be louder, making a relaxing ride with no noise whatsoever. They’re also pretty hassle free when it comes to maintenance: there’s no chains to lube (if you have a hub motor) or oil to change; just take it for a spin, then plug it in to charge when you’re done.

Everyone’s going to prefer different things. Revving up gas motorcycle, and I don’t mind working on them occasionally. But I’d be willing to bet if you took 100 random people and let them try a CSC SG250 and an Electrified Vespa, you’d probably have more people interested in the electric Vespa. I’m not sure I’d trade my bike for an electric Vespa, but if they were free, I’d certainly be using one every so often even if I had my CSC SG250 setting next to it.

Additionally, like I mentioned when talking about cars, you can generate power at home. Unlike cars, however, you can charge an ebike with a $100 harbor freight solar setup. Buying solar to charge an ebike or electric motorcycle/moped is probably not going to save you money; even at $0.01 per mile, you’d need to drive 10k miles on the Eahora to break even on the solar panels. Still, the idea of free self sufficient fuel forever (or, at least, for the life of the vehicle & panels) is a rather neat concept that makes me think I should be getting an electric motorcycle or more powerful ebike/e-moto at some point if I can find one for an affordable price.

Shared batteries

Speaking of batteries being expensive and increasing the price of smaller electric things, I caught an episode of the Revzilla podcast a little while back and one of them brought up the concept of having some sort of universal battery that was shared across multiple things. That concept has kinda stuck with me as a hope for future electric things, and makes quite a lot of sense.

Batteries are expensive, especially NCM batteries built to fit an ebike/motorcycle/moped frame. E-motos like the Surron Ultra bee, with a 4.4kw battery is rated for ~70 miles at 50MPH. While that’s decent capacity for a moped, it’s really the minimum I’d be hoping to get out of a motorcycle, and yet the battery alone costs 1.6k-3.8k depending on how much capacity you want and how much you trust a no name battery manufacturer. The fact you could buy a brand new gas motorcycle with higher top speed and infinite ‘range’ as long as there’s gas stations around, for less than the battery itself, is probably the main contributor to electric not being competitive on fuel.

If you take battery costs out of the equation, a battery free electric vehicle or piece of machinery would probably be a lot cheaper to produce than a gas equivalent. If you could buy one expensive battery for around 2.5k, then get a really cheap BYOB (bring your own battery) electric motorcycle, dirt bike, lawn mower, and backup power supply that all share that one battery it might suddenly become a lot more cost competitive. And, with more compatibility, you get more options. Maybe I’m cheap and want to use an $860 Power Queen LFP battery that has 5.1kw of storage. It’ll have a worse power to weight ratio, but it’ll be a ton cheaper and last way longer. Not to mention that economies of scale, if there were a couple universal batteries instead of a million highly specific batteries, it’d likely take the price much lower.

Homemade stuff

Speaking of interchangable batteries, for the jank tolerant, there’s not a lot stopping us. During the prime day sale Power Queen has a 36V 45Ah (1.1kw) battery listed for $305.99. There’s, theoretically, nothing stopping me from sticking that on the back of my ebike and getting incredible range. I’m fairly tempted to pick that up.

As far as ebikes go, there’s really nothing stopping me from buying a cheap 48v 1000w motor and detuning it to 750 watts, then sticking a ~400$ Power Queen battery on it for some more power and incredible range on a legal homemade ebike. Getting a VIN, registration, and insurance for a homemade vehicle is a bit difficult in NY³⁴, but it’d also be possible to do the same but get a much more powerful electric motorcycle. It’d be more costly, but simpler, to also convert a broken but titled regular motorcycle into electric by simply removing the motor, replacing the back wheel with a hub motor, and jankily mounting the battery somewhere.

There’s also the more ambitious ideas that sound great in my head until they’re put in practice. The invasive thoughts in the back of my head have been telling me to learn to weld, then make a three wheeled vehicle of some sort (probably electric since it’s simpler), and register it as a homemade motorcycle.

Footnotes: