Cost of riding guide | Discover the cost of a motorbike to keep your ride financially free

Once you’ve learned to ride a motorcycle, you’re finally ready to take the most exciting step — buying one for yourself. But, it can be difficult to know just how much you should expect to spend on riding a motorcycle, and doing all that research can quickly drain all the excitement of riding.

That’s why we put together this guide, to help you break into motorcycling without breaking the bank. In this article you’ll find our breakdown on how much it costs to buy and run a motorbike, and you’ll be prepared for all the extra costs that might otherwise sneak up on you.

Actually buying a motorbike

Let’s address the elephant in the room first — motorcycles cost money. Unless you have generous friends and family handing down their old machines, you could look to spend tens of thousands of pounds on a motorcycle. So what options are available to find your dream ride within budget?

MCN is a great place to start looking for your next bike; we list thousands of bikes for sale from reputable dealers, so you can get an idea of how much you’ll need to budget for the kind of bike you’re after.

If you go for a new bike from a dealer, the PCP repayments can be very reasonable — under £100 a month for a middleweight PCP hero — and all the maintenance will be taken care of for you. But make sure to read up on PCP finance before you lock yourself into a contract with a new bike; no matter how popular PCP is, you might be better off buying used.

The potential bargains to be found on the private market can make it a rather tempting option to buy used too. You have to be careful you don’t buy a lemon, but our bike reviews will let you know if there’s any common issues to look out for.  You should expect to pay less than a dealer would charge, for the same bike in the same condition.

Make sure to stay safe when you’re buying a motorcycle on the used market; never part with any money before you’ve seen the bike in person, and make sure someone in your close friends or family knows where you are at all times when you’re out viewing a bike.

Running costs

How much it costs to run a motorcycle is a big consideration to make before you take the plunge. As with any vehicle, a motorcycle is a responsibility, and you need to be prepared for it if you want to make the most of it. We’ll cover off some general points here, so make sure to check our bike reviews for in-depth stats on running costs and owner reviews for the individual models of bike you’re considering.

This is the part you’ll probably be happy to hear — most motorcycles have rather acceptable running costs, at least compared to an average car. More and more people in the UK are turning to small capacity motorcycles as an affordable form of personal transport, famous for their three-digit MPG and two-digit road tax, but even a performance oriented machine can net you around the same MPG as the average petrol car.

A good rule of thumb is the smaller capacity your bike, the less you’ll have to spend on it. Smaller engines need less oil, cheaper and fewer parts, and take less time for a mechanic to work on. Smaller engines are slower, and therefore cost less to insure. Small bikes pollute less, so cost less on road tax. They tackle more miles per gallon, so you spend less on petrol too. You get the idea. But let’s go over some ballpark figures to give you a better idea:

Category	Average Yearly Cost
Insurance	£611*
Road Tax	£25 – £117
Petrol	£200 – £500**
MOT	£29.65
Service	£150
Total	£1,000 – £2,000

* Insurance costs vary wildly from person to person, this is the average quote offered by Compare the Market in March 2024

** Based on petrol prices in July 2024, and the average mileage ridden per year as found in the National Travel Survey 2016

All told, you could spend less than half as much as a car to keep a 125cc scooter running, or you could spend roughly the same for your hatchback as you do for your sports bike. It depends how much you ride, but on average the cost might be more reasonable than you thought.

Again, these figures are just a guide, and you could find yourself spending a lot more or less than this — maintenance costs alone can easily double the final figure if your bike needs a big job doing, but insurance costs are falling at the moment too.

Protective Kit

It’s a tale as old as time; you blew all the budget on the bike, and forgot about riding kit until it was too late. It’s all too tempting to get caught up in the excitement of riding and forget what’s most important — your safety. We would suggest you budget for the essentials: a decent helmet, riding jacket, gloves, trousers, and boots.

We review all the latest bike kit in our expert reviews, so you can get a good idea of which bits of kit are worth shelling out for.

There is a lot of good budget kit out there, and you can kit yourself out from head to toe for around £500 at the lower end. But, based on our best reviewed kit, we’d recommend around £1,000 for a full set of quality kit that won’t let you down.

Within that budget, you can grab anything that suits your needs. Textile jackets and their matching trousers are by far the most versatile option for multi-purpose and multi-weather use, but nothing can beat the style of a nice leather jacket and riding jeans. The first extra piece of riding kit to consider is a pair of warmer mitts, as summer gloves will be far too cold to use when the temperature starts to drop.

We recommend always buying the best quality kit you can afford, and it really is worth it to get your head around safety ratings, as these will give you a rough idea of how protected you’ll be while wearing your riding kit. Since motorcycles are much more likely to be stolen than a car, it’s seriously worth looking at some security kit to keep your ride out of the wrong hands too.

Tools

Regular motorcycle maintenance is essential to keep your ride safe, and there’s nothing wrong with letting your local garage take care of it for you. But even if changing your engine oil yourself feels like opening Pandora’s box, you’ll always need to clean your bike every so often, and there’s no excuse not to stay on top of maintaining your bike’s chain with our expert guide.

That’s why having some tools on hand is a great investment for small, easy jobs that always need doing, so here we’ll give you an idea of how much to budget for basic maintenance like this.

You should expect to spend around £150 on some basic tools and maintenance sprays to get you started. We recommend a basic socket set and torque wrench, chain lube and chain cleaner, bike cleaner and cleaning brushes for all the basic jobs.

You can invest more as you start to work on your bike more, and MCN’s expert maintenance guides will help you realise it’s nothing to be scared of. Once you’re able to service your motorcycle yourself, you’ll start to save a lot of money on garage fees, so the up-front cost of good tools is well worth it in the long run if you want to keep your riding costs to a minimum.

Other costs

By now we’ve covered all the main costs associated with riding a motorcycle, but there are a few extra little costs that you might forget about. Parking and tolls, for example; they’re almost always half the price of what you’d pay for a car, if not completely free. If you’re unlucky enough to get a fixed penalty notice, (for parking inappropriately, or speeding, etc), you’ll have to pay the same fee as everyone else, so always be on the look-out.