Forget Four Wheels: These Are The Top 5 Money-Saving Commuter Bikes You Can Buy Today! 

Unless it’s raining or it’s 6-8 months of the year. I live in Florida and I basically get 2k miles a year on my bike. Bikes have their own expenses and few bikes are more than 50 miles a day tolerable. Just a heads up for new riders.

@@tres311 Florida would be my dream motorbike climate

Amen. Morning and 5pm… always look fwd to it. Yabadaba doo time!

@@zeez9053 The central valley of California is awesome for riding all year. No snow, little rain. Mountains nearby.

@@elevationmoto6208 I can't wait to ride around the valley soon. Except for that heat 🥵

I have owned many many bikes in my 50 years of riding and my Versys 300 is the overall funnest bike ever . It is a Swiss Army knife of motorcycles . They started out telling mileage with tiny bikes and then quit . My 300 gets a low of 62 up to about 66 and at 4.5 gallons gives a great range . Mine is equipped with 50/50 tires and skid plate because I adveture ride it , but it still carves up the corners surprisingly well . The ABS works well , saved me from hitting an elk .

Nice!

Yeah, 250s 300s and similar are the best for commuting and eventually going on highways.. super cheap to run, effiicent and easy to ride. i would start on a meteor nowadays. price and mileage are so appealing. great quality bike too

They getting paid to push certain bikes.

For the same price I got the Kawasaki z 400.

I used to ride a KLR 250 that got 65-75 MPG. Much bigger, more rounded use bike than a Grom, I don't understand why those types of bikes would not be considered practical here either. It would do freeway drives where a Grom cannot. lol

RE Him has gone up in price, especially when you add the $500 required service after just a few hundred miles to readjust the valves and flush the oil. Now they are about what a MT03 or the standard Kawasaki is, which are better bikes with more HP (twins) and a more reliable company. The Meteor is the bottom price now and therefore knocked the Him. up in price by a few hundred. It's only 21hp and sluggish at the heavy weight. Comfy though.

I rode one of the first year bikes for a couple weeks in India, it had the chain stretch out so much it needed a couple links removed, the license plate vibrated off and the centered strand broke! Not exactly high quality, but in its defense it didn't have any show stopping failures.

@@GregHuston There’s no doubt that the early Himalayans had issues.

I have one .It's a great machine

I put a down payment for mine nc750x too, I’m waiting for them to built one!!

Bought one in 15, 68mpg overall since I've owned it. Set of side cases and a top box and it's got car like carrying capacity. It's got 40k on it thus far with 0 issues.

Mine has 50k miles it, love it.

68 mpg on average for me. Saves me about 4-5$ a day on gas commuting

Great bike but uncomfortable seat

My CB500f is my favorite bike I’ve owned. So easy to ride and the low down torque makes it more fun around town than my ZX-6R. These 500’s as well as many Hondas are kind of underrated.

In Europe a friend told me that they are paying 11 euros per gallon! I wonder how costly it’s going to get and for how long? I pay 160 monthly for my Honda500fa and pay 16 dollars to fill up after getting 250 miles per tank. For my car I paid $300 monthly plus $150 for full coverage and it has 11 gallon tank. I get 350 miles per tank …

I'm not sure how you got the idea than a CB500 is cheaper than a 300/400 class but I just ran a couple of estimates with GEICO, and the CB500F is much higher than either the Ninja 400 or Z400. I haven't tried the R3 or Mt-03, but I also imagine those will be cheaper. The only way the CB500 will be cheaper is if you're comparing an older CB500 with s newer 300/400 class vehicle. I also looked up the fuel economy and the range seems to be from 50-70, not 70-90. I'm sure the CB500 platform is great but don't spread false information.

@@joemann7971 Insurance for me in Ontario, Canada (which is always high) was C$700/yr for brand new CBR500R... the Ninja 400 was C$1,150/yr. When I asked why, they said it was due to the number of claims, which is higher with the Ninja. Either people are riding them more dangerously, or newer riders are choosing the N400 while people like me are choosing the Honda 500s as a second bike, thus less likely to have beginner crashes. In any case, those were the numbers for me and they kind of made sense when they explained it. In the end I chose the 500R. As for fuel econ, my best tank was 2.6 L/100km (90.5 USMPG), worst 3.4 L/100km (69.5 USMPG), average of 3.1 L/100km (75.9 USMPG). This is on regular fuel in Ontario which has 10% ethanol blend. I don't know what else to tell you -- that's what I get. Now it depends a whole lot on how you ride. Freeway above 110 km/h and it plummets towards 3.6 L/100km. Putting around town and commuting I've even seen as low as 2.2-2.3 L/100km. These are real numbers over 15,000 km of riding (two seasons). Looking on Fuelly, all the Honda 500 variants show about 10% better fuel economy compared with the Ninja 400 and R3. I have yet to see many other bikes that have the combination of performance, longevity, and low running costs as the 500R/F/X. I can tell you with certainty that bigger bikes like the Tracer 9 that are more expensive to buy and run shouldn't be in any list of "top 5 money saving commuter bikes" while the Honda 500s are omitted.

@@joemann7971 I don’t want to dispute any of your claims, and you’re right on with the mpg estimate, I am getting 59 mpg. But I want to mention that the quote I had with Geico was awful, way overpriced for the cb500f. Another provider had me insured very affordably.

For small people like me, the SV 650. Same great motor and fast enough to feel comfortable on the german Autobahn.

A lot of guys buy Shadows fin decent shape for like $500. (IDK how they find them, but they do)

And very low centre of gravity makes it super easy to Lane split!

Light to medium adventure bikes are great for a commute. 👍

Even though it doesn’t get much love, the Vstrom 650 is a bike I’m definitely interested in.

@@matsmith5937 I started with a '00 SV and moved up to an '02 Vstrom 1000. 60 thousand miles later, it's still my go-to.

Agreed. I've had many different bikes throughout the years and the one I miss the most is my virago 250. 80+ mph and 80 (rated) mpg.

I bought the cbr650r last year and I ride to work daily. I kinda wish i had got the 500 for economy though

Alot of comments about this class. I agree, it's the most fuel efficient class that you can still ride on ANY high speed American road. My Baby Njnja 300 is the perfect combination of sprightly acceleration, fuel economy, corner-carving goodness, reliability and looks. They didn't even mention the best class of bikes for fuel efficiency that's still freeway capable! They could've changed the title to "Commuter bikes we like the most", and left the false "Most fuel efficient" premise out of the title.

Any of the Honda 500's would be ideal.

My girl got a Svartpilen 401 and I got the 701 last year we love them.

CJ Totally agree with you. I also bought a 2021 Monkey & I echo your feelings. I also have bigger bikes, but that Monkey makes it harder for me to get on them. That's unless i'm going 2 up.

@skkss I agree

Bro, right?! I got a Honda cub and it's the same thing for around town. I barely drive my Indian because of this gas economy

The Monkey reminds me of my youth.

The SSR 250cc V-Twin Buccaneer, needs to be mentioned.

If you like squished legs.

@@joecamel6835 I’m 6’3 and have no issue with leg space. Unless you ride with your heels on the peg (which you shouldn’t) you won’t have an issue with leg room

If u can find one, they are hot sellers.

Don't you just wish they'd sell an identical trail 125 except with the rebel 300 engine crammed into that sucker?

I'm sure you're getting at least 35 or so MPG. You're still getting the performance of a gas guzzler with the fuel economy of a small sedan. That's still not bad.

@@joemann7971 exactly right! Definitely no complaints from me.

If you don’t start…..In Europe a friend told me that they are paying 11 euros per gallon! I wonder how costly it’s going to get and for how long? I pay 160 monthly for my Honda500fa and pay 16 dollars to fill up after getting 250 miles per tank. For my car I paid $300 monthly plus $150 for full coverage and it has 11 gallon tank. I get 350 miles per tank …

In Canada we are at or close to $2/l or over $7 a gallon. Driving my DRZ 400 which gets 50mpg vs my F150 which gets like 15 will add up quick. Costs my like $15 to drive to work and back in the truck vs like $4 on the bike.

FortNine did an excellent segment on buying a motorcycle to save transportation costs. Rarely does it break even when you own an otherwise working car. If you love riding bikes, I'd say that's reason enough.

I like how i can fit 4 motorcycles in my single car parking spot. 😋

My FZ-1 gets about 42mpg, but it’s 87 octane, which amazes me that a bike with almost 150hp can run on cheap gas.

Yeah the list is more of a "Here are some random motorcycles that are being sold new." It gets into Zero price range with no mention of electrics at any price. If it's really a Top 5 money saving commuter bikes, they should either not cost so much to buy, or make up for it by removing fuel and engine maintenance costs. A $15k bike (Tracer) that doesn't get phenomenal mileage really has no place on a money-saving list.

I love the look of the TU250, but the rest of those all look like dirt bikes and most people over 20 don’t want to be seen riding one on public roads

I have a 2016 Suzuki TU250X. I’ll never get rid of it. I can ride it all day and not feel fatigued and I look cool riding 😎

@@Cologne_Trooper Awesome little bike! I'd love to pick one up, but they're darned hard to find!

could not agree more. id say the pcx is better than the mini motos. cvt make it easy to ride and that storage is what i want in a commuter plus 50cc larger engine

I get over 50 with my Heritage with the 114 as long as I keep it at 55 or less.

@@CraigSmith568 yeah, I haven’t had too many rides where I was under 80mph interstate. I remember my Dyna lowrider 103 would get into the 50s on the back roads

Been commuting on a Monkey and it is perfect for me. Then again it’s only 6 miles and 45 mph limit tops.

188 mpg, more green than those electric machines.

I agree if you don't commute on the freeway. Honda should put the heel-toe shifter and enclosed chain on more bikes.

That's a bike and interesting. How much do you pay for yours? Here in SoCal I was quoted for a 2022 at $7,200 OTD. I'm aiming at a husqvarna svartpilen but there are none in my area.

@@davidzavala337 I just bought a 2022 Vitpilen in MA for 6700 OTD. I wanted the Svart but there was only one within 4 hours, in NJ for 8200 OTD. There was a Duke for 6900 an hour away, but I personally like the look of the Huskys more. If you can find either of the huskies, there's very minor differences between the two and either can be converted to the other pretty easily.

@@davidzavala337 I lucked out and found mine used just a few months old and still within the 600 mile break in period. It's pretty rare to find them on the used market because of their popularity but if you can obviously you will save on the dealer prep and whatever ridiculous markup they are charging. Mine has been great, over 3200 miles now and it still looks brand new.

This is criminally underrated. You have to be driving something awfully thirsty to have a motorcycle actually save you money as a commuter.

125's produce so little power that the heat output is negligible.

Hear me out, we beg Honda to make the next gen Grom like the new rebel and you can buy it with a 125 or with the lowest rebel engine, the 300. Then that sucker could go on the interstate across the country at 85 if you wanted. I think they should put belt drive on the 300 version for easier maintenance tbh. I hate chains and I never want to clean one If I don't have to. But I'll adjust a belt once in a while. A belt on the 125 wouldn't be worth it because it would reduce power to the wheel too much. But a 300 engine crammed in there with a belt might be a whole different story

underrated bike👍 how do you like it?

Was it was a soft comfortable ride... But it only gets about 45 mph but it only has 5 mi on it I'm I'm really excited about getting it broke in and getting the 50 to 53 miles per hour All the RU-vid guys are getting..

Then I nominate the KLR250. Love mine and there’s no electric starter to break! JK 😎

How about something even older design that most of the rest of the world rides, the pushrod Honda CG engined based Lifan 230 cc dualsport?

Yes. Add the XT250 as well.

Sounds good to me. I have a 1670 cc MT-01.