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[Schnobel]

As the title suggests, curious if anyone out there uses their bike for reasons other than just for pleasure?

I never used to commute to the office on my bike but this year asked myself why not? I previously only used to take my bike out on weekends with friends or on the occasional road trip but that was it.

This year, I've taken it to work several days when the weather has been nice and have really enjoyed it. Can't for the life of me figure out why I never did before. 

Anyone use their bike for work or have a job that they use one for? Motorcycle police, traffic control for funerals, etc?

What about for other reasons like the Shriner Motorcycle Corps? My dad was in the Cycle Corps for several years. Those guys could really get going on wider streets!

Part two, how many miles a year on average do you put on your bike? For those with more than one, an aggregate total is fine. I can't believe on some of the threads how many people put on 20-30K a year or more!   

Like I said earlier, to date I have primamily used my bike for weekend rides and maybe put on 2-2500 miles a year. My convertible gets about 5k which given our limited season of use is it.

So what about you all?

[donald p]

Three to four oil changes and one tire per year on an average.

[Schnobel]

Three to four oil changes and one tire per year on an average.

And that translates into what for miles? Mostly longer trips or do you ride daily?

[FLSTFI Dave]

 :jack:When I worked on land, I rode to work 56 miles round trip a couple times a week in the warm months.  Did not get much time for trips and could really only do Sunday fun rides, about 8K a year miles.

I have worked off shore since 2006, miles have steadily increased since.  Since 2009 I have been averaging 23~24K a year.  I do not ride to work, I fly.

My wife started riding her on in 07, and her miles per year went up rapidly.  In 09 she did 24K, and has done over 28k every year since, with 2013 being 31K.

We take several 2~3K trips a year, and usually a 5~6K trip.  A local day ride is 250~350 miles.

My 15 SERGU has 12K miles on it.  My car which I have had 9 months longer than the bike has 6954 miles on it. 

Our children our grown.  So some of our trips are to visit grand kids.

[phato1]

I was given a company truck for work a few years ago and I use it to commute back and forth to our main office daily due to being "on call" 24/7  so I no longer commute on the bikes. Prior to that I would ride every day the weather allowed - I didn't intentionally go out in the rain, my car has a roof and stuff which makes inclement weather more bearable  -

An average year while commuting with the bikes was an aggregate 15 -20k per year, which isn't to bad for the northeast's season. For a while I even tried riding year round using heated gear and it was great seeing peoples reaction when they saw a bike going by when the air temp was 15*. The prolific use of liquid de-icer by my home state of CT put an end to that 

Now the bikes are used for recreation and running errands as needed. We take several road trips per year (ranging in length from 1000 to 4000 miles each) and an average years mileage is down to being in the 10-15K range split among my three bikes. Our extended road trips are more frequent as our kids are getting older - the youngest graduates high school next month and is off to college this fall -  and that has allowed us to actually put more leisure miles on the bikes.

[D-N-D]

My Bikes are just for FUN I do about 3000 to 4000 a year, I do not ride the bike to work because I do not want the bike to be come a tool for everyday transportation for work it's all recreation for me.

[muddypaws]

50% work and 50% fum. 25,000 a year...

[RonandJanet]

I ride mine to work and we take at least two good trips a year (1k+).  I ride to work because I want to ride as much as possible. The whole trip is not all traffic (Atlanta) and when I am just riding it is great therapy so that when I get home I am felling much more recharged!  We will usually take a few "get away from it" rides on weekends.  We average a little over 10K a year.  When we went to Daytona this year it was one of best riding trips ever! My better half really enjoyed the trip, the ride and the weather!  It was great and enables more trips!    We are talking about Sturgis next year! That will be an adventure!

[Dr.D]

99% of the miles are for pleasure. Riding to work is inconvenient considering the change of clothes, helmet hair and the fact that is it only5 miles. Not much time to really enjoy the bike or the sports car and the weather we get around here can be a problem.

We do about 15K/year on the weekends and three day trips. We usually do a week ride one time per season but we are loosing some of our riding friends due to their work or economic situation. Honestly the last time we did a big eight day tour tempers got short and words were spoken that made me wary of long trip with others.

Biking is for fun and when the trip is to long or weather to bad it becomes work and I don't get paid to ride so if it ain't fun I ani't going.

[Jswerve]

I've rode to work several times but not much fun as I work 12 hour shifts and I live 2.5 miles away.

Jesse

[Chains]

Used to ride to work when I lived in Ohio and had my own business.  Could park in the shop so bike was always safe plus it gave me an opportunity to make custom parts and fit them on the spot.

In Alabama, not so much. the company I ran had a 5 acre parking lot but all gravel and dust.  Wasn't worth the effort to clean the bike for a 34 mile round trip commute.  I have always ridden because of the freedom from the everyday business world.  No phone calls, no emails just pure riding pleasure  Before retiring probably lucky to put 5,000 miles a year.  Last year in 6 months did almost double that.  This year looking forward to 15,000 or more.  Lot of GTG's to go to.

One thing I never road after having a stressful or bad day at work.  If I was worried about work then I felt I would not concentrate on the ride and could get hurt.  Just me I'm sure as some ride to relieve the stress of a bad day.

[kiro]

In my case it's nearly all recreational. Although not in the last two seasons because I wasn't home much, I generally put about 6k miles on one or both bikes combined, sometimes more if we do extended vacation rides. My commute to the office is eight miles one way, and occasionally I'll ride in. I like to ride my FXR for this as it's fun around town, but as Dr. D pointed out, there can be issues with how you dress, etc. 

[gadgetz]

Don't ride to work much, sometimes on a Friday weather permitting. We ride almost every weekend with the HOG group and combined with HOG group trips as well as CVO GTG's we'll average about 15K per year.


Wife and I work close by our home so we certainly ride more miles on the weekend then back and forth to work.   

[JCZ]

Ride it to work.....for the stress relief.
Ride it grocery shopping.....for stress relief.
Ride it to run errands.....for stress relief.
Ride it on the weekends.....just because I can.
Ride it to from various trips.....just because I can.

I used to put on 20k-25k a year my previous two bikes.  That may be going up this year.....already put 7k on it since I bought it (xmas week).

[naitram]

commute when i can during the summer months, recreational riding when i can squeeze it in, and of course GTG's and vacation trips with the Mrs.

annual mileage could be as low as 6k and as high as 12k.

winter here sucked so i didnt get out until mid Apr but already have a little over 900 miles. ( all commuting mileage so far and all most all of it was one visit to my offices in Ottawa )

i dont have a target goal for annual mileage, i ride when i can and do what trips i can