FR-S vs Motorcycle. There can be only one...

[Resolute]

Originally Posted by JoeC

I would think if there's room in the garage for a car, there's room for a car and a bike...

Yeah, that's what I thought too when we bought the house. However, since the HOA doesn't allow sheds or outbuildings on the property, I had a lot more stuff to keep in the garage than I did at our last house. As it currently is, with all my tool chests, lawn equipment, bicycles, and camping gear stored in the garage, I cannot have a car longer than 170" or the door won't close. The FR-S takes up almost exactly that much space.

Once the kids move out and we don't need a minivan or 3-row SUV, then we could have smaller cars and move some stuff/tools around to make more room. But right now, it's tight, and both the motorcycle and car won't fit. It's actually another plus for keeping the motorcycle, since it would leave me with a lot more room to work on things in the garage.

[Surok]

I have a 2010 CBR1000RR and a 500HP toyota 86.
I would never get rid of the bike, so i guess i would get rid of the car. i ride to work, and its often peak hour traffic in like a 50mph zone.
the bike is so fast through traffic and filtering through the traffic at the stop lights that i would never consider driving to work. especially with a temperamental twin plate clutch.

If i had to drive to work and could not ride (i refuse to take the train or bus), i would get something like an A8 or an S-class to make it bearable.

[Ghost of Akina]

Sounds like you have made your decision op. Best of luck on however things turn out.

[Surok]

or just keep both, i have race leathers for the bike and stick tyres for bike trackdays, and i have race tyres and do trackdays in the 86 too..
get a better house. the first thing i look at for any new property is the garage/driveway etc its the most important thing for me.

[SCQTT]

I once owned a house with an inclined driveway. It was not crazy steep, but you certainly never wanted to park on it. You could in a car, but it would be impossible with a bike. There was no landing. The street was level and the garage floor was level, but everything in between was a slope. I HATED it, it made everything outside of your garage a PITA. Even washing cars, it just sucked.

I'll leave it at that. I've had at least one motorcycle since I was 16 and work in the motorcycle industry so I will never be without a motorcycle as long as I can ride.

I think you are going to be VERY unhappy with your driveway, but each to his own. Best of luck.

[Roth]

I would probably choose the motorcycle over the car if I could, but at least ONE car is necessary in my life. Plus, I live in Norway, where it's cold or rainy for at least 200 days/year, so I keep a fun car AND a motorcycle, for those (rare) warm sunny days. There was not enough space in my garage, I just built one more, and I will re-do the old one. Place for 3 cars and 2-3 motorcycles. it's expensive, painful, time wasting, but to have the house that fits your needs is vital

[Resolute]

Well, the day of reckoning finally came. I sold the car, and kept the motorcycle.


If I had a longer commute on the highway, or was closer to a racetrack for SCCA/NASA track days, I would have kept the car. But it's 2.5 hours to High Plains Raceway and I wasn't making it out there regularly enough for time trial or track night events to justify keeping the car as a track toy, and the motorcycle is much better for commuting around town. Plus it's cheaper to insure and own.


But selling the FR-S was hard. Even driving it to the new owner's place, I reflected on the perfect seating position, how well it shifts, the good visibility, excellent steering feel and feedback, and appreciated the pleasing exterior lines as I walked away and took one last look back at my car. I might own another one someday, if I ever outgrow my current fondness for what is arguably the ultimate expression of lightweight and direct-feeling sports machinery.

[atomicalex]

I hear you. I have both and the driveway is really a deal breaker.

Enjoy the ride!

[TofuJoe]

Both.

[86 South Africa]

Originally Posted by Resolute

And I don't expect that I will ever buy full leathers and take it to the track, so goodbye track days.
..

Now that the car is sold... you have cash for leathers and a track day.
Do it. It’ll be the best experience you’ve ever had and you will learn a lot about your bike and your riding skills!

[Resolute]

Originally Posted by 86 South Africa

Now that the car is sold... you have cash for leathers and a track day.
Do it. It’ll be the best experience you’ve ever had and you will learn a lot about your bike and your riding skills!

It's very tempting, but I'll just admit it- I'm worried about breaking my body at the track.

Flogging a car around a track is so much fun because when my talent runs out, I just spin the car, maybe get some nicks in the paint from gravel or grass, and then after checking the car over in the pits for serious damage, I can just get back out there and try to improve. It's great, and one of the best hobbies I've ever had. I've only done about 20-odd HPDE or TT events over the last 12 years, and I wish I could have done more of them. I wish I could run at the track every weekend. I would have kept the car in a heartbeat, especially this car, if I could be at the track more regularly.

But on my bike, as much as I love flying through corners leaned over, the potential damage of exceeding the limits is high. I'm not bragging to say that my chicken strips are almost non-existent on the street touring tires I run, it's just the natural result from my love to lean hard through turns and tuck inside of the tank. And every time I do, I know that the bike and tires still have more to give. Exploring what is left of the limits at the track is therefore very tempting. I imagine that the wonderful feeling of nailing a perfect lap while on a bike is even better than doing it in a car, just because the man-machine interface is much more intimate. But, I've broken my collarbone twice doing other activities, and I'm in no rush to break it or any other bones at the track. If I run out of talent at the track on a motorcycle, it's not a simple spin through gravel or grass and then back onto the track with some nicked paint. I've seen riders wreck at speed when motorcycles have had a run group during a HPDE, and it SUCKS. Twice the local PMP track had to close because of fatal motorcycle crashes during open lapping days (albeit one of the deaths was a spectator hit by a motorcycle flying off the track at speed). For me, the risk seems too high. John McGuinness I am not.

[Lincoln Logs]

Definitely in the both camp. I love cars but riding motorcycles is therapy.

[bmxr]

Originally Posted by Resolute

It's very tempting, but I'll just admit it- I'm worried about breaking my body at the track.

Flogging a car around a track is so much fun because when my talent runs out, I just spin the car, maybe get some nicks in the paint from gravel or grass, and then after checking the car over in the pits for serious damage, I can just get back out there and try to improve. It's great, and one of the best hobbies I've ever had. I've only done about 20-odd HPDE or TT events over the last 12 years, and I wish I could have done more of them. I wish I could run at the track every weekend. I would have kept the car in a heartbeat, especially this car, if I could be at the track more regularly.

But on my bike, as much as I love flying through corners leaned over, the potential damage of exceeding the limits is high. I'm not bragging to say that my chicken strips are almost non-existent on the street touring tires I run, it's just the natural result from my love to lean hard through turns and tuck inside of the tank. And every time I do, I know that the bike and tires still have more to give. Exploring what is left of the limits at the track is therefore very tempting. I imagine that the wonderful feeling of nailing a perfect lap while on a bike is even better than doing it in a car, just because the man-machine interface is much more intimate. But, I've broken my collarbone twice doing other activities, and I'm in no rush to break it or any other bones at the track. If I run out of talent at the track on a motorcycle, it's not a simple spin through gravel or grass and then back onto the track with some nicked paint. I've seen riders wreck at speed when motorcycles have had a run group during a HPDE, and it SUCKS. Twice the local PMP track had to close because of fatal motorcycle crashes during open lapping days (albeit one of the deaths was a spectator hit by a motorcycle flying off the track at speed). For me, the risk seems too high. John McGuinness I am not.

IMHO it's highly ironic that you sold your car in order to ride a motorcycle on the STREET and then cite safety as why you refuse to ride a motorcycle on the track. There is nothing inherently more dangerous about a track than the street other than the lack of impulse control of the rider. In fact, if you keep your ego in check, I think the track is safer than the street given that almost all of the things that tend to murder motorcyclists on the street, are absent from the track.





And maybe I missed it, but does the HOA forbid you from parking any vehicle at all in your driveway? No parking in the street is common; no parking in your driveway is comically draconian.

[Resolute]

Originally Posted by Lincoln Logs

I love cars but riding motorcycles is therapy.

This. Riding the bike is the best kind of therapy.

Beautiful Triple.