tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post1091674646120388779..comments2024-03-22T18:01:20.065-05:00Comments on Geezer with a Grudge: Motorcycle Miles TraveledT.W. Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-68681578192070653332013-03-02T10:58:24.686-06:002013-03-02T10:58:24.686-06:00Alright, I get it now. It's max miles/year, no...Alright, I get it now. It's max miles/year, not max miles.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-28051652278624005932013-03-02T07:23:43.085-06:002013-03-02T07:23:43.085-06:00No, it's right. The big mileage bike in the li...No, it's right. The big mileage bike in the list is a 2007 Harley Davidson FLHTCUI that supposedly went 100000 in 6 years, or 16,206 miles per year. T.W. Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-20358305812256423162013-03-01T21:17:12.396-06:002013-03-01T21:17:12.396-06:00There appears to be a problem with the max. miles ...There appears to be a problem with the max. miles number. Just a glance at the data shows higher numbers than reported in the summary box.<br /><br />Is the comma, or lack thereof, messing it up? (10000 vs. 10,000)Brian Hnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-15609739861242346622013-03-01T08:39:22.248-06:002013-03-01T08:39:22.248-06:00It seems like every state's motorcyclists clai...It seems like every state's motorcyclists claim to be the mileage kinds. Minnesota has made that brag for longer than I've been here (17 years). I can't find any evidence that motorcycles are regular or important transportation anywhere in the US. T.W. Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-29662885858259247702013-02-28T13:17:29.391-06:002013-02-28T13:17:29.391-06:00I've added a few charts to the spreadsheet to ...I've added a few charts to the spreadsheet to better visualize the distribution. Three quarters of CL bikes have accrued less than 2000 miles per year. There's definitely a long tail of high-mileage motorcycles being sold, and the bikes with the highest mileage generally look like they've been treated better than the low-mile specials.<br /><br />Of course the big caveat is that this is all based on ads which actually list mileage. many omit it, possibly because a high mileage number might dampen interest in the bike, or (and this seems to be the case most of the time) because most craigslist ads are crap. This method probably underestimates average mileage a bit, but it seems unlikely that it underestimates it by an order of magnitude.<br /><br />On a tangentially related note, I've looked at bikes in Atlanta, Sacramento, and Portland, and Portland by far has the most interesting bikes for sale on craigslist. Portland bikes also seem to get ridden more than the others, for whatever that's worth. I should probably add some socal data for better comparisons.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14955228832631794012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-57804454220873392452013-02-27T17:34:15.809-06:002013-02-27T17:34:15.809-06:00Most anyone who reads your blog is a big mileage g...Most anyone who reads your blog is a big mileage guy. We're not the average two-wheeler.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-23912210335792348702013-02-27T11:32:17.452-06:002013-02-27T11:32:17.452-06:00With or without a patch, tattoo, or whatever, you ...With or without a patch, tattoo, or whatever, you and I are in the same club.T.W. Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-88178648299130549552013-02-27T10:22:01.571-06:002013-02-27T10:22:01.571-06:00The cars will continue to win (with or w/out drive...The cars will continue to win (with or w/out drivers) if two wheeled action is recreation only. For my situation, riding gives me the best of everything. Work needs jacked my mileage over 10,000 miles. If it wasnt for that it would have been much less. Certainly not going to ride around in circles to compete w/the BMW club.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-17629008969656293882013-02-26T15:45:29.463-06:002013-02-26T15:45:29.463-06:00There is definitely some lost data. However, I'...There is definitely some lost data. However, I've sold all of my <br />big mileage bikes, including several with more than 100k miles in 5-10 years. They are not worthless. <br /><br />Pat Hahn objected to my approach as imperfect. I could care less about perfection, but I object to the crazy wild guesses we're getting now. I wrote him:<br /><br />"We can only get the data when the bikes are sold, so why not get what we can? I don't think any data is meaningful unless it gets large enough. I wish I could collect, automatically, eBay and Craigslist's advertiser information. Someone who has some computing capability could probably do that. He ain't me. Honestly, I'm trying embarass the states and/or feds into doing useful work to get credible miles traveled data. I think the fatalities-per-mile guesstimates are grossly optimistic for motorcycles and are being kept dishonestly low to come up with any excuse to allow motorcycles access to public roads. I think that is a wrongheaded approach and one that will bite the industry in the ass when someone produces real numbers. <br /> <br />"A lot of the inspiration for this came from our trip west in January. Excuses aside, if Oregon and California riders weren't out that week, there aren't enough practical riders in the two states to amount to a good weekend of bicycling commuting. Of course, the fact that bicycles contribute to more commuting miles every year than motorcycles is just more proof that motorcycling is just a recreational activity in the US and that is not a good thing. If a bike is just a toy, why should the public bear the cost of access and liability? Bikes like Honda's NC700 are a good step in changing that perception, but pretty much everything Harley/Polaris does is the same old garage candy song. Andy Goldfine thinks the winds are changing. I wish they were, but doubt it." T.W. Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-39078135022844470632013-02-26T14:52:40.191-06:002013-02-26T14:52:40.191-06:00While I agree that the avg miles per year is proba...While I agree that the avg miles per year is probably very low, there are a lot of bikes (unsubstantiated supposition) with big miles that do not end up in 'for sale' adds. They're parted out or privately sold or put up wet in the barn. What do you do with a bike with 50,000 plus miles in 5 years? You might sell it on a forum or in your club or to someone you know. I just don't think these bikes will show up in your data set.Chunk Norrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16525580793420008289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-5418189713933121562013-02-26T09:00:41.408-06:002013-02-26T09:00:41.408-06:00William,
Great idea. I'm going to revise the ...William,<br /><br />Great idea. I'm going to revise the blog entry to send folks to your spreadsheet. I'll add my data to your pile, too. Thanks. T.W. Dayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04078254371483458356noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5950664143576637249.post-46411083682016353512013-02-25T19:06:26.889-06:002013-02-25T19:06:26.889-06:00Great idea to check craigslist and ebay to get ave...Great idea to check craigslist and ebay to get average mileage numbers! If you get tired of merging people's updates to the spreadsheet, you can import your spreadsheet to google docs and let people add their own updates. I grabbed the first two pages of Atlanta craigslist ads (including scooters) and put them into your template, and <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqCkvq460Nn-dGppd0loNHQ0MjhacTU1QkJOMWJOV2c#gid=0" rel="nofollow">here's what I got</a>.<br /><br />It looks like the average mileage on an Atlanta bike is also ~1000 miles. There seems to be an inverse correlation between dollars spent on upgrades and miles ridden, but that's just my general impression so far.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14955228832631794012noreply@blogger.com