How much do you spend on bikes & farkles?

[The GOAT]

Ok so I've been riding about 10 years, although not many miles covered.

I never tend to keep bikes long, I get itchy for different things and I'm too weak to fight of my lust for a new steed

In them years I've had and added the following bits on them.

This is a pointless exercise but alarming how much bikes and bling cost really.

Yamaha R6 (2004)

I paid £3,500 for this as it was worth every penny, kept it for 4 years and added a Power Commander plus remp, blu Flame can & carbon stuff, Pazzo, Levers & DB Screen.

Best value bike to date and I miss it immensely. Total Farkles = about £800

TOTAL = £4,300

SOLD FOR = £2,500

Yamaha R1 (2013) Bought new

£9,080 inc Akrapovic cans & Alarm.

Farkles, DB Screen, GB Racing Engine covers, Pazzo Levers, Ventureshield, Bobbins = £700

TOTAL = £9,780

SOLD FOR = £8000

BMW R1200GS Adventure (2010)

£9,000 inc Panniers

farkles - Sat Nav, Touratech low seats , Givi Screen, Toolbox & Bags = £1,100

TOTAL = £10,100

PX'd = £8,000

BMW R1200GS Adventure TE (2015) Bought new

£16,510 inc Panniers

FARKLES - BMW Exclusive Seats, NAV V, Ventureshield, Mudslinger, Fender Extender, Vinyl Wrap, Headlight Guard, Radiator Guards = £3050

TOTAL = £19,560

SOLD = £12,800

BMW HP4 (2014)

£15,500

FARKLES - Sat Nav, Helibars, Pillion Pack, Quickshifter = £1280

TOTAL = £16,780

I've really enjoyed all of them apart from the R1, didn't gel with it.

Only the GSA let me down after a trip from Germany but thankfully was covered under warranty.

[Arwen]

Lol I'm not sure I really want to do this. Percentage wise mine is rediculious!

Msx - bought new for £2500

Bought over the past 4 years:

Seat =£70

Indicator drl mod =£35

Gear shifter mod =£12

SS braided lines =£85

Akrapovic end can (and titanium header pipe) =£360 (+£240)

Total farkles = £802 (or 32% of initial purchase price )

And if you want to count them

Rack and top box I got free due to delays with delivery =£150

New tyres, chain and sprockets cause stock are crap = £110

Edited January 29, 2019 by Arwen

[learningtofly]

Hmmmm... wasn't sure if I was going to respond to this initially, but given that I've kept a detailed account of what I've spent I thought it may help others understand how the cost of an adventure like this can mount up without you realising quite how expensive it's become. So, this is all costs I've incurred (ignoring the bikes themselves) from the moment I decided to take my CBT/DAS. A few points worthy of note:

1) In the long list of items bought, knowing what I know now I could probably have saved about £4-500 pounds; this includes a jacket, boots, gloves and locks that I'd not have bought if I'd had a little more knowledge at the outset. However, I started out with absolutely nothing, and needed all the essentials.

4) Insurance was a killer too, with zero no-claims and a couple of recent knocks in the car. In fact, the premium more than doubled when I went from the Twin to the Triple!!!

What it does show is that it's easy for costs to escalate way beyond any notional budget that you may have set yourself - the relatively small costs soon mount up! As for the bike, trading up after a month ensured that I lost any benefits of discount that I achieved on the first bike, so... well, it wasn't very clever, really.

Edited February 1, 2019 by learningtofly

[Bianco2564]

I had to Google what a farkle was.

Only accessory I've fitted is a scottoiler on the R1.

All my bikes are pretty standard I don't go in for any blingy tat.

[Tango]

God knows!.......memory isn't that good......but whatever it is, it was worth every penny......

[Tankbag]

God knows!.......memory isn't that good......but whatever it is, it was worth every penny......

 

Can't take it with you

[SometimesSansEngine]

So I had a guesstimate in my head of £10k since myself and [mention]Magpie84[/mention] did our CBTs in March. Obviously for us there was double of many costs (bikes, training, insurance, clothing) and some shared (tools and maintenance).

I grabbed as many receipts as I could easily get my hands on, which due to our modern world a lot was easy. Other costs would involve trawling bank statements but I was able to estimate them as I pretty much know what they were. Totted them all up.

I included buying a shed and the costs of laying out the base for it, security, lighting etc because we weren't going to get one until we got the bikes.

I was close enough I guess, £12k-ish.

Breakdown:

44% of that on bikes

20% on clothing

16% on training

5% on insurance

14% on storage and security

The last little bit on maintenance, tools and luggage.

I'm posting this because like [mention]learningtofly[/mention] has said it might help people getting into it figuring how much they may spend.

If it was just me I'd estimate I'd instead be looking at about £7.5k because a chunk of the 'shared' costs is stuff I still would have needed to get, although I guess the shed might have been smaller

On the bike front, I was relatively lucky (IMO) as I only lost a couple of hundred on my 125 for well over 1k of use (and that was after buying from a dealer and selling privately), and when I bought my big bike the previous owner had already put on a lot of extras like heated grips, bobbins, crash bungs, gear position indicator and a multi position windscreen.

[geofferz]

In the 1 year since passing my das and getting my mt10 and putting 6k miles it's cost me:

£11,000 for the bike - now worth £8,000 so £3,000 depreciation

£300ish on farkles (pretty stock)

£200 tools, paddock stand, cleaning fluids, gloves, rags

£600 petrol

£300 service

£200 tyres

£1200 insurance

£300 new lid (I already had a perfectly good one)

£900 leathers, boots

Total £6,900ish

Total monthly cost: £560ish a month ouch.

Obviously the tools, lid and leathers will last me a good few years, but I'll still be paying for petrol, services, tyres, depreciation (less moving forward admittedly) and new lids every year or so let's be honest.

Expensive.

[fastbob]

This is beginning to look like financial dick measuring.

[trcooke]

£1200 insurance

dang! I passed my DAS about 6 weeks ago and my insurance is £152. I'm guessing you're young?

[Throttled]

The last bike I bought was around £5k and then nothing on farkles, as it had the screen, seat, panniers, pegs, crash bars, fender extender etc I add to my bikes. All farkles are for making touring more comfortable.

[learningtofly]

This is beginning to look like financial dick measuring.

 

That certainly wasn't my intention, Bob - I thought it might be helpful to demonstrate how easy it is to overspend (and render yourself broke in the process!).

[geofferz]

This is beginning to look like financial dick measuring.

 

That certainly wasn't my intention, Bob - I thought it might be helpful to demonstrate how easy it is to overspend (and render yourself broke in the process!).

 

Yes. I got paid yesterday and I'm overdrawn - I'm not bragging about my finances...

Probably shouldn't have spent so much on bikes

[geofferz]

£1200 insurance

dang! I passed my DAS about 6 weeks ago and my insurance is £152. I'm guessing you're young?

 

33 but my bike is insurance group 17 (top). Thankfully it came down to £500 this year.

[Tiggie]

Is this a trick of some kind? have you conspired with everyones Wives/Girlfriends, Significant others? I'm not telling!!

[MikeHorton]

Here is the rough cost for me bought my RE Himalayan last year for £4100 on the road £499 for the hard alu cases.

Since then I have paid £5.99 for a mobile phone holder and case, £39.99 for handlebar protectors, £7.29 for an iridium plug, £10 for some royal Enfield wheel logo transfers £200 for supply and fit of heated grips and optimate smart USB charger.

The only thing extra I'm looking to purchase are £20 mirror risers £80 custom screen and £250 gel seat.

I plan to keep the bike long term as its a real war horse and the stuff mentioned is to Improve comfort really, the mirror risers and screen will reduce wind buffeting the grips seat and protectors are a warmth and comfort thing the usb charger practicality and let's me connect the optimate charger too. The iridium plug makes the bike marginally smoother on low revs and less warm up time.

I try to justify the cost as I plan to keep the bike for many years, it's affordable and adds to the pleasure so I'll be using it more!

I think you have to base it on cost affordability and if you plan to keep your bike. But I guess if I was stinking rich I'd just buy whatever made me happy

[anth_85]

bike 1900

insurance 300

mot + tyres + small fix £350

stator 100

r/r 90

phone mount 20

voltmeter 5

fuel 513

total: £3178 since June last year but I've got absolutely no thinking of selling it.

[SometimesSansEngine]

This is beginning to look like financial dick measuring.

 

Trust me, as the skinflint of the office nothing would have giving me greater joy than to discover I'd spent a fifth of what everyone else had

[Piggy]

Right so...

I've had the XBR roughly 12 years. Initial cost was £35 (van hire to rescue it). Since then, its probably had about £600 spent on it in consumables, plus new cdi, cam chain + guides, stainless brake pistons, chain + sprocks and a few minor bits and bobs. Total probably around £1500. Told you I was a tight-fisted farkle.

[SometimesSansEngine]

I look to the right [mention]Piggy[/mention] and spy a mk1 gsf600 and a xl600rmg in your profile, so do they make up for it?

[Throttled]

I have quite a specific set of accessories needed to make the bike comfy and suitable for touring. My spend depends entirely on what the bike comes with in the first place. My most recent bike, the accessory spend was a superb £0, helped by being able to take some of the accessories off my old bike and transfer them to the new one.

[Piggy]

I look to the right @Piggy and spy a mk1 gsf600 and a xl600rmg in your profile, so do they make up for it?

 

Ssshhh! We don't talk about those. You're ruining the illusion of self-righteous frugality!

[xMachina]

More than I should and way more than the Mrs knows about!

[skyrider]

that sounds about right and keep it to yourself

[Muttly]

Cannot remember if I responded.

Lexmoto Falcon 125 cc £2000 otr

Cbt £120 I think

Textile Jacket and trouser from EBay <£100

Helmet ~ £50

Gloves for summer -£15

Gloves for Winter £20

I already had and use some other gloves that work as liners, a thin balaclava, warm and waterproof coats and trousers to use with the cheap stuff from eBay. I also had a pair of steal toecap docs from 20 years ago that I wear including as work shoes when I arrive.

I have done about 1500 work miles so been paid back about £750 in expenses, after the petrol costs that would be about £650 and my insurance was about £400 I think.