There is some good points here, but its taking the typical US bike as an example too.
http://motorcyclemanifesto.blogspot....oney-myth.html
I fall into the buying used gear/cheap old small bike or china bike category and riding conservatively on budget tires etc.
I only ran out gas twice. Neither time did I call a friend. I pushed.
The filling up every other day gets alittle old, but not that bad. Also when gas is $2.50 a gallon it is much harder to save money.
The dual sports/scooters/250 ninjas, rebels, etc are probably the only types that one could reasonably purchase and get good service and mileage from.
Still looking. I just did a quick calculation and I could save $73.80 a month in gas by riding a 70mpg bike/scooter over a 22mpg ford truck. That is at the current $2.69/gal here. At $4/gal it is much more.
That is $885.60 a year.
So in the US there is not alot of small displacement bikes available. Here anyone good buy a 600cc bike and ride it with no stepped license etc.
In the european countries fuel prices have been higher longer and insurance/parking constrictions make bikes more reasonable too.
A frugal rider can save money in my opinion. It helps that I paid cash for my clunkers too.