Over the last few years, motorcycle travel has increased in popularity. With more people realizing it is not as expensive as they assume, the number of people deciding to try it has grown. However, the question on each person’s head is the cost. Can traveling by motorcycle be cheaper for your family? Below is a breakdown of motorcycle travel that can help you keep costs at a minimum and still have a good time.
Get A Motorcycle
This is the first and obvious step, since you will be traveling via motorcycle for the better part of the journey. If you do not own one, consider renting one or a few for the people taking the trip. Also, you will realize that renting a motorcycle is affordable compared to a car or a utility trailer. At the moment, it is projected that by 2024, the revenue from renting and leasing utility trails, trucks, and RVs will amount to about $22.1 billion. This is not just because more people will be renting and leasing, but because the cost is gradually going up. However, the cost of renting and leasing motorcycles is not as high, making them a favorable alternative means of transport.
Accommodation
A big worry when traveling on a motorcycle is accommodation. Obviously, you cannot sleep on it, meaning this is something to think about. The costs of hotels and Airbnb are high, meaning you have to think of affordable accommodation. You can consider camping as this is the cheapest way to camp. Check out official camping sites along your route to have a safe place to camp. Another alternative is wild camping, meaning you just camp anywhere. Most travelers have no problems with this as long as they find a good spot to camp. The bigger challenge could be security, and so you need to be careful. A favorable alternative is Couchsurfing, which ensures you do not have to pack a tent or worry about bad weather. Couchsurfing is free, meaning the host will not charge you a dime. However, be polite and a respectful guest, as someone has offered you their space.
Practice Safety
Safety can be most people’s concern when traveling on a motorcycle. You do not want to be on the road with a damaged motorcycle as that slows down your journey, and worse off, you can get into an accident. Therefore, it takes time to learn how to change tires, tubes, cables, filters, oil, and basic servicing. It will come in handy. Also, you will not have to pay a mechanic to do things on the entire trip, saving you some cash. When on the road, drive carefully. Remember that your motorcycle does not have a body, meaning you have nothing to shield you in case of an accident. That being said, the number of fatal motorcycle accidents has gone down, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2017 there were 5172, which is a 3% drop from the previous year. As much as this is positive news, motorcycle travel still requires a high level of keenness.
Motorcycle Shipping Fees
If you are traveling all over the world, at one point, you will need to ship a motorcycle to travel the world. Shipping often depends on the weight of a bike, and so this is something you will have to consider when choosing a bike. Fortunately, modern bikes are not as big as in the past, yet they are even more effective at traveling. For instance, you cannot compare a modern motorcycle with the quadricycle built by Henry Ford. It was completed in 1896 and had four bicycle wheels, a gas-powered 4-horsepower engine, a tiller, and a gearbox. In this day and age, such shipping would have been costly, but today’s motorcycle is easy to ship as long as you find a reasonable shipping agent.
Motorcycle travel is fun, exciting, and flexible. By nature, it is a minimalist trip, meaning it is cheaper. However, it also depends on the size of the family and how far you are traveling. All those are factors to consider when choosing this form of travel.