1 or 2 pricey bikes vs many affordable bikes

I've often contemplated this idea myself and I decided, there's probably a ton of people who frequent this website that have decades more experience than I do with motorcycling and have truly been there and done that, so, why not see if I can get some of their insight?

Let's just say for arguments sake you have $20,000 cash to blow on motorcycles. Which is the better use of money? Buy 1 or 2 nice, brand new or slightly used bikes OR essentially start a shmorgishborg collection of all types of fun, reliable, tried and true inexpensive bikes?

I love motorcycles, mostly I love riding them. I don't personally think I can have too many bikes but thats not the point here. I'm curious about which would be a more cost effective way to have fun with $20k worth of bikes. That being said, I hate working on them with a passion...

Currently I have a ratty (maybe the most beat-up appearing one on the road) '07 SV650 that I love and have ridden the absolute piss out of the last 3 years (in turn, racking up over 40k miles!) and a recently acquired 2000 DRZ400s. I'm not getting rid of the DRZ anytime soon, it's far too utilitarian (and only has 9k on the clock).

I can't decide whether or not I should:
A. Sell or trade-in the SV (worth $1500 maybe?), get an FZ-09, keep it and the DRZ and just ride the shit out of them, maintain them and farkle them.

B. Keep the SV (lets just call it a given the DRZ is staying) and buy a few great used finds to have fun with. "Grocery getters" or "guest bikes". Personally...I love smaller bikes. Ninja and Rebel 250, KE100, 1970's model "dual sport" 125-350 cc stuff. Good condition dr350's, xt225's, dr200's and super sherpa's. Maybe even a Honda Dream? I'd love a modern Bonneville. I mean, the list of ~$2k motorcycles out there to be had is so incredibly long....
OR

C. Keep both current bikes and get an fz-09 (or some other ~$10k expenditure). Would I ever even look at the SV again?

Which method of ownership yields greater fun per dollar?

If you have actually read this whole thing, I commend you, thank you! You also probably have too much time on your hands

But I'm sure there's many of you guys who have tried both methods of ownership and I would appreciate your 2 cents.

For 20 grand, you could easily buy an adv bike, a sport bike and a cruiser. You might have to buy used, but so what? You'd get the most variety and I would say fun for the buck.

5 grand = Honda CRF250L. NEW
7 grand = Yamaha FZ-07. NEW
8 grand = Triumph Bonneville. NEW


Problem solved.

I love bikes but more than that I love the experience of riding different types and styles of bikes. So as usual, it depends on what you want for a bike.

I would say one nice one for what you use the most and then experiment. You might find that a different style suits you better, a different type of riding, old classic bike that you can take it easy and smell the roses on, rocket bike that you can kill yourself on.

Experience the old and the new and then find your niche. I am still looking for mine after riding for over 59 years.

Marc

I'd rule out 1 bike as an option, if you have the money for two. I bet a lot of guys on here have a backup KLR in the shed .

With $20k, I'd probably go for 1 expensive bike, and a decent backup bike. Don't spend all of it, and you can be free to trade bikes later, too.

If you have the room have a few,

DR800
R80RT
ST1100
CBR1000F
CCM R30
SZR660 (road)
SZR660 (race)
LB50 (race)

I've about £14,000 tied up in the above, I could get a reasonable new 'bells and whistles' but then I would have more room in the garage and workshop, I fear it would all start again...................

Very nice optimization problem in my software engineer eyes.

If I had 20k to blow in California, I would be thinking along these lines:
1. Insurance (really adds up)
2. Garage space (half my garage is woodshop)
3. Time to tinker with old bikes (hardly any, startup job)

Personally I would love to have one long distance tourer. My wife loves to tag along as pillion, so out goes KLR650, and other 650cc category for that purpose.

The second bike could be a KLR650 or any thumper, I just love single cylinder sound. Had an enfield for 2 years at some point.

I had a goldwing before and sorely missed the motorcycle sound and feel. Gonna pick up a 09 gs this weekend and I think I will live with it as the only bike for a few years at least.

Pros...one for any type of riding;

Cons....when you're not riding you're wrenching.

My list of machinery is varied and it is great to have but maintenance, licencing and insurance fees are a drawback. I keep 4 rolling each season.

I currently have 1 bike, a VFR800. I don't mind performing basic maintenance or farkling, but would rather ride than spend my time in the garage. I can see adding a dual sport and something collectible to my garage. I've had my eye on two stroke street bikes lately. Maybe an RZ.

i've had multiple bikes, riding all of them is pretty cool.
owning multiples is another thing, not for me any longer.
the more you have, the more they own you. i'm finally down to 1 & loving it.
so much easier on the mind

I'd have a hard time buying a new bike off the showroom floor, even if I had $20k to spend. Too much fun to be had in variety vs putting all your resources into a single machine. I guess what I'm saying is, for my purposes, a $10k new bike is not more desirable than a $5k used bike.

How I'd spend it would probably be to pick up two late model "nice" used bikes around $5k each, and use those as reliable, enjoyable every day riding machines. Probably one touring oriented and one smaller and sportier.

Then I'd blow the second ten grand on random, old, cheap, broken bikes and have fun wrenching on them.

for me 2 bikes are enough. time & cost for maintenaince, insurence,tires, parts & farkles add up really quick and since you are not a fan of wrenching even quicker. also the more bikes you have the more space you need. take the 20k, quit your job for a year and travel through america / south america. your current stable is not bad at all - if things break, fix it or replace it :

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I think you've answered your own question right here:

"That being said, I hate working on them with a passion..."

Unless you have a lot more than $20,000, you can't afford to have someone else work on your fleet of old(er) bikes. Much less a pile of old shit heaps!

I'm in the process of getting rid of my fleet. At present, not including a pair of 50cc my kids have out grown and a 65cc that will soon be too small, I have 7 bikes:

1988 883/1200 Sportster - my first bike and currently configured as a road racer.
1986 Guzzi SPII
1981 Honda Passport
2002 Speed Triple
2001 Aprilia Futura
2005 Husqvarna TC250
2000 KTM 640 Adv

5 of them run but 2 of those 5 need work and are mostly sitting till I have the time to work on them. The Guzzi SP has sat for 10 years with a charging problem. The Sportster sits exactly as it has since it's last roadrace in 1998.

So basically, I have a bunch of bikes that I either ignore or am slave to. There really isn't much time left to just ride the ones that don't need work and even with those, it's just a matter of time before you have to change the oil, change the brake fluid, adjust the valves, fit new tires, etc. Even doing it myself, this gets expensive.

Since I actually sold a 50 last night, I'm on the way to cutting the fleet in half. I intend to sell at least 3 of my 7, keeping the Honda, the Husky, either the Guzzi or Aprilia since they really cover the same ground, and the Sporster for purely sentimental reasons. Much as I love the Speed Triple and the 640 Adv, they have to go.

My advice is this: unless you want to be a cranky old bachelor who never has a wife, kids, or a demanding career, don't get a bunch of bikes. Get two well running used bikes and a dirt bike and call it a day.

And what TravelR6 said above really makes a lot of sense.

i have one bike atm but will get another, and another. most likely a good idea for a daily rider. one goes down or is in the shop you have another to ride. plus cost of maintenance can be divided among the three. i mean you can ride one bike 12,000 miles a year or three bikes 4,000 miles a year and not touch any one of them much for....three years. at least concerning maintenance, tires, etc. i mean of course some things will need to be done, but if new enough and modern enough....meh. the cost / benefit ratio is pretty good imo

pretty sure i'll own used / affordable for pretty much as long as i ride. the FZ09 calls, but that will be gotten used pretty soon, too. these are bikes, not cars. don't care for the latest or newest or nicest, just something good and reliable and low(er) maintenance to ride on a daily and have fun on. don't care how it 'looks" much, either. so far as styling. but it must be in "good condition"

so yeah, i'd rather have two or three "affordable" bikes then one pricey one. not sure what the pricey one would do the affordable ones would not? at least for my purposes

I've got four bikes, down from 7 a few years ago. I bought them all new. Total cost Out the Door + accessories added afterwards was still less than $20,000. There is no one bike or even 2 that will do everything I want although I could probably get by with 3.

I have six bikes. I do the routine maintenance on them, all the maintenance on some of them. But I was really pretty happy with four bikes:

1997 DR650
1997 ZRX1100
2007 ZX-6R
2008 V-Strom 1000.
All purchased new.

But then it seemed the V-strom just wasn't my cup of tea, for whatever reason and with only 17904 miles on it I traded it on a new 2012 KLX250S.

And then I realized the ZX wasn't getting any track and little road time so with only 9871 miles on it I traded it for a new 2013 FJR1300.

And I was happy. Well, then the SR400 came out and I thought that would be a nice addition. But what I really wanted was a GB500 Tourist Trophy and I found one locally and bought it on April 15 of 2014.

And I was really happy, but then when attending the Spyder fest in Durango (my wife has a Spyder RT) she took advantage of a deal on Spyder trailers and we were at the local CanAm dealer - also dealing in, among other things, KTMs - and there was a Duke 690 on the floor. As I was looking at it the owner said he'd take $800 off the sticker. And then the totally unexpected happened. My wife says "You want that? I'll buy it for you." At which point, after picking my jaw up off the floor, I said that I'd have to ride home (I was on the FJR) get the pickup and drive back and get it, which didn't seem like that great a deal. But, I said, did her offer still stand if I could get that good a deal in Denver? She said yes and Fay Myers beat the deal by good bit so now I have six bikes.

I'm very, very happy and I don't think I need any more bikes. Although a big adventure . . . .

I don't mind riding ratty stuff if it runs well.

I say keep the current stable and use the some of the money to go on an adventure. As the bikes get worn past their useful lives, upgrade that bike only to something awesome that fills that niche. For example: if the SV is starting to have problems, sell it for $1K and get a $5000 used Aprilia Shiver or something. That still leaves $16K in the bank.

It's much easier to have multiple bikes if you like working on them. Otherwise, it gets real expensive real quick. Been there, done that, and am still kind of doing it with cars.

I've gotten down to two slightly more expensive bikes that do everything I need. The only thing I might change would be to get a trials bike, but for now the 950 adventure does all the street and trip stuff, and the 200 xcw fills the dirt bike and cross training role.

I used to always be on CL looking at bikes for sale, but since settling on these two, I've not actually been tempted by anything else. I don't even look anymore. It's a really strange thing for me. the 950 is such a do-it-all bike and is so much fun that even if I had something else, I'd always end up pulling the 950 out when it came time to ride.

20k wouldn't be enough for two bikes for me.

First vehicle is the main bike that I'm using every day and for holidays and trips. Therefore she has to be as perfect as possible. I spend too much time riding her to go for something cheap that doesn't fit right.
Second vehicle is for winter, doing errands and off road use. For me it's my ATV and I always think of her as well when I talk about my bike.

That's already ~28k€ (~32k$) and if I would want to add another bike, a sport bike and a small Duke come to mind. However, with the third and fourth bike it would happen more and more often that I take one bike for the way and when reaching my destination I would think "shit, now the other bike would be great, but it wouldn't have been fun to ride her the way to here".

I see it this way: If I put the 20k$ in one bike, I have 20k$ fun every time I ride. If I put 10k in one and 10k in another bike, I only have 10k$ fun every time I ride. So while a cheap bike most probably provides more fun per dollar, the expensive bike provides a larger absolute amount of fun.

P.S.: Of course it's easy for me to say this, because my sister has a naked and a Smart and my father just got himself a cruiser. I can take every one of them for a ride if I ask any time. However I very rarely do, maybe once or twice a year.

I'm up to about seven and a half bikes, I think. (Only one of which I bought new). I hardly have any free time to ride or wrench, so I've started the process of downsizing.

My buddy used to joke he had one bike for every day of the week. One bike for every application. But then he downsized to one, and now he's really happy owning and maintaining two-- a 1200GS do it all commuter tourer and 450xcf dirt/dual sport/supermoto/track day bike.

That being said, even if you only wanted to have one or two bikes, there's nothing saying you have to spend $20g on them. A 1500 Goodwing can be found for under $4000, a Voyager or Cavalcade for half that. I saw a ZX14 for $6000 on Craigslist. I've seen decent track bikes and nice dirt bikes for 2k. And just cuz it's cheap doesn't mean it's crap.

I disagree. I believe the pleasure comes from a) being able to do what you want to do, and b) using the right too for the intended application.

I have way more fun on my used 950adv than I did on my brand new tiger 800 that cost twice as much. Blitzing the local back roads is better on my $5k supermoto than my buddy's $15k superbike. I don't think my work friends with $20k cruisers enjoy the ride anymore than I did on my $7k Valkyrie, thought I know they enjoy the scratches and paint chips a whole lot less. Same goes for track bikes. I've seen dudes cry after causing more damage to their late model track bike than I spent on my 2003. If we were racing for a purse, I could see spending money on supposedly better equipment, but for a track day where the prize is not having to fix a crash at the end of the day, anything is fast enough.

I admit, spending a certain amount of money can buy you piece of mind, in terms of a warranty, or known service history. But I do not believe for a second that pleasure is proportional to $$.