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Comment by taeric | Hacker News Reader

I said it sounds like it. Meaning that, on my priors of every other experience I have with folks that have a motorcycle, it sounds like this.

If you are putting the same number of miles on a motorcycle as a car, you either don't have to drive much, or are in some other very fringe situation. Pretty much period. Yes, it can and does happen. It is in a minority of cases though. Happy to be shown data that this is not the case, of course.

Edit: I got mixed on some other posts, I didn't say this one "sounds like it." Apologies for the odd rephrasing in this post. I stand by everyone that has every pushed this idea forward to me does so in what feels like a post-hoc justification.

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I use my motorcycle as my main commuter vehicle. It's safe to say I drive it 3-4 times as much as my car, which only leaves home for grocery shopping and long (2+ hour) drives at this point. If you live alone, or even with just a significant other, it's a really convenient way to get around. Plus it's more fun.

What are you doing so much driving for that requires a car?

Personally, I don't drive much. Bicycle as much as I can, largely for commuting at a personal level. At a family level, we build miles on our car because kids and groceries.

But getting at a "how much do you personally drive" is silly. My point wasn't that some folks don't exist. It was that the norm is very very different. A google search claims: "The average annual mileage of a motorcycle is about 3,000 miles." Compared to: "The FHWA states that the average person drives around 13,500 miles per year. It equates to well over 1,000 miles every month."

Not quite an order of magnitude, but still highly skewed. Even in "commuting" miles driven, you lose the utility of merging your commute with a grocery run. Or dropping kids off at school. Very real limits for many.

To me, operating a motorcycle requires 3x the effort of a car. In the case of a sport bike, multiply again by 2, and triple if you have a passenger. Along with motorcycles being more weather dependent, I would not travel as many kilometers. Having driven a car for 10 years, then motorcycle exclusively for the past 3, I much prefer a motorcycle over a car.

And I'm right there with you, but with my road bicycle. Even in cars, I prefer my aging 100% manual (even the windows) truck. Which is far more effort than our minivan. We still use the van far more, because family.

Which brings it back into the realm of hobby. Note that if you are taking "hobby" as some sort of derogatory claim against it, that is not my intent. My point is pretty strictly on the fact that it is largely maintained for the pleasure of the activity. The utility of the alternatives is typically undeniable.

I agree with both points, fair statement!

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