5 Reasons Why Bikes Offer Way Better Value For Money Than Cars

For the record, I want to start by stating that I love four wheels. Cars were my first love in the automotive world and they always will be. And I truly adore the diversity of machines that we review and show you guys. From stunning V10 Audi R8s, to supercharged BRZs, I’m always astonished with the dynamic capabilities of modern performance cars. But all these vehicles share the same problem: they’re too damn expensive!

This was brought home to me at the recent London motorcycle show. 2016 is shaping up to be one hell of year for new bikes, with the majority of manufacturers releasing new and improved models. As a result, a wide range of new motorcycles were on show at the traditionally small MCN event. And do you know what all of these bikes had in common? Yep, you guessed it: they were all relatively affordable, especially compared to their four-wheeled counterparts.

So this got me thinking. Why are so many of my car loving buddies not interested in bikes, especially when you consider that you can buy something like the brilliant BMW F800R for less money than the red paint option on a BMW i8?

Below are the reasons why I think all petrolheads should get into bikes, based simply on the fact that they offer the best bang for your buck. Trust me, you’ll love them.

1. Raw speed

Bike vs car videos make for fantastic content on YouTube, but in the majority of cases, they tend to be a bit biased. Well, a lot biased, actually. For example, a magazine that shall remain unnamed, recently raced a McLaren P1 and a Porsche 918 against a Ducati 1199 Superleggera. Held on a massive runway, the McLaren just pipped the bike before hitting the braking zone. A victory for four wheels? Well, not really. Even though the Ducati was one of the most expensive production bikes of all time, it was still 13 times cheaper than the hypercar (£64,000 plays £866,000). And in the area that counts - 0 to 120mph - the bike had the car over a barrel.

In the real world, bikes are also dominant. Any number of sub-£5000 superbikes would be capable of destroying a supercar on a country road. Granted, the car’s four sticky tyres would theoretically allow the driver to carry more cornering speed through the bends, but as soon as you got to a straight, the bike would have cleared off into the distance. And that’s before you’ve even considered traffic.

2. Craftsmanship and quality of components

Another thing that struck me at the London show, was the quality of components that were standard items on a variety of high-performance bikes. For example, the Aprilia RSV4 RF comes with with factory-spec Öhlins suspension, an advanced telemetry system and drop dead gorgeous forged aluminium alloy wheels. The bike was one of the most expensive machines at the event at £18,135, but it still costs less than a BlueMotion Golf.

3. Performance parts and DIY wrenching

For non-wrenchers like me, bikes are a great place to start experimenting with some simple DIY tuning and maintenance. Everything is super accessible and you can start off small, working your way up to more complex modifications over time. As an example, the majority of stock bikes come with ugly exhausts, designed to meet European environmental regulations. But this doesn’t really bother buyers or manufacturers, because most bikers replace them straight away with sexy new slip-on exhausts - a super simple modification which you can do yourself. Take a look at the basic tool kit in the picture below which I used to swap my colossal factory end-can for a tasty Yoshimura R55. Performance parts for bikes are also significantly cheaper than equivalent car parts.

Bikes are also easier to maintain due to the fact that everything is exposed. Not a ride goes by without most riders checking the state of their tyres, brakes and oil level. Everything is also super sensitive on modern sports bikes, so you can feel every adjustment that you’ve made. For example, adjustable suspension is still a really big deal in the car world, but even my basic GSXR-600 K9 has adjustable preload and damping. This is great for track days and fast road riding, because you can constantly adjust your settings.

4. You can park many bikes in one garage

This is a simple argument, but something that you’ll appreciate if you have limited garage space. Firstly, for the price of a new BMW M4, you could buy yourself a KTM Super Duke R for hooning, an Aprillia RSV4 RF for weekend blasts, a Honda CRF1000F Africa Twin for touring and a Triumph Thruxton R for the daily commute. And secondly, once you’ve purchased all your brand new bikes, you could fit them all in the same garage. Your partner would probably kill you for selling the car, but then again, they’d probably appreciate your space saving ways. Hopefully…

And talking of practicality, you can even justify your hyper fast sports bike to your vegan friends. When you’re commuting in your car, unless you’re pooling, you’ll always be carrying around at least one seat more than you need to. You’ll also be guzzling fuel by sitting in traffic. On a bike these problem are eradicated. One, you don’t need to stop in traffic, and two, even on something like a Honda CBR100RR Fireblade, you’ll be returning around 35mpg. So you can go fast and save the environment.

5. Cheaper to take on track

Doing a track day on a bike is usually much cheaper than doing one in a car, provided you don’t crash. Even when it comes to booking the day itself. A track day at Silverstone in the middle of March for a car will cost you £359. The first bike track day, which takes place a month later when the weather is more favourable will cost £199. So you’ve already saved yourself some cash before you’ve hit the circuit.

Then it comes to track preparation. No matter what car you drive - unless it’s a track day special - it will struggle on track with boiling brakes, overheated diffs and battered gearboxes. Performance bikes, on the other hand, are made to be thrashed, especially stuff like the Yamaha YZF-R1M, BMW S1000 HP4 and Honda Fireblade SP.

So CTzens, have I convinced you to give bikes a go? If you’ve just taken to wheels or even if you’re just contemplating it, let me know!