Food for thought...:P

Vespa GTV Navy 125 (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article4963194.ece)

Reviewed by the famous "bikes are for homos" Jeremy Clarkson :lol:

However, many people are making the switch because they imagine that having a small motorcycle will be cheap. It isn’t. Sure, the 125cc Vespa I tried can be bought for £3,499, but then you will need a helmet (£300), a jacket (£500), some Freddie Mercury trousers (£100), shoes (£130), a pair of Kevlar gloves (£90), a coffin (£1,000), a headstone (£750), a cremation (£380) and flowers in the church (£200).

In other words, your small 125cc motorcycle, which has no boot, no electric windows, no stereo and no bloody heater even, will end up costing more than a Volkswagen Golf. That said, a bike is much cheaper to run than a car. In fact, it takes only half a litre of fuel to get from your house to the scene of your first fatal accident. Which means that the lifetime cost of running your new bike is just 50p.

This would be funny if it were not true.

When you are riding, you speak of your next accident in terms of "when" not "if."

wow...I had no idea Clarkson was so against biking......I personally dont think of " when " I will be in an accident rather " when" will some one stupid not check thier blindspot or cut me off.....Being a biker has made me a better driver by leaps and bounds. You are no more likely to be in an accident on a bike then if you were driving a car.....just you have protection in a car and a better chance of avoiding injury.

I have to disagree after I got nearly run down by cagers numerous times during the past few summers...with no fault of my own...bikes are just too small for those mafakas - they cant see a 3000lbs+ sedan, they have a hard time seeing a tiny bike even if its bright orange....

hmmm.....well I guess the chances are higher for an accident on a bike.....I am contradicting myself.....I am tired. I guess I just expect to be cut off so I drive defensively?? but there is less protection and there are a lot of bad drivers.

hmmm.....well I guess the chances are higher for an accident on a bike.....I am contradicting myself.....I am tired. I guess I just expect to be cut off so I drive defensively?? but there is less protection and there are a lot of bad drivers.

yeah...and the insurances is unregulated too doh...

but i miss my bike stilll...theres something special about riding a machine instead of inside it...

word!

Clarkson is too funny, Kenzie also likes making fun of bikers, calling us organ doners... :rant:

But they're right on one thing; when you factor everything in, having a bike to save on gas makes little sense, especially when you still have own a car in this climate. Plus, atleast two of my bikes have worse mpg then some cars.

Anyways, I've fallen off road and on track, but never yet (knock on wood!) on the streets in 14 years of street riding. You CAN be safe if you remain alert and don't do things (ie. ride in someones blind spot) that 99% of cagers do.