Why You Should Buy a Honda Ruckus

The Ruckus I had bought had a few modifications including a Yoshimura exhaust, a dropped down seat frame, foot pegs, an NCY suspension/chrome kickstand, among a few others. I bought the used moped with 800 miles on it for $1800. I couldn't be happier with my purchase for the following reasons:

To illustrate how cheap a Ruckus is in comparison to a car, I'm going to estimate the cost per mile to drive each. I'm planning on doing my own calculations on the cost per mile for a couple different car brands/models, but for now I am just going to use this website (http://www.commutesolutions.org/calc.htm) to estimate it. Just keep in mind that this is probably a gross overestimation, which includes ALL aspects of cost related to travel. For example it even includes a 0.13 cent cost per mile with the assumption that sometime over the course of your driving career you will get in an accident. This might not always be the case, but just keep it in mind.

The simple little four-stroke on a Ruckus can run for an easy 30,000 miles, so I'm going to calculate the cost per mile to drive 30,000 in one year with the cost of driving site. Sure, the website probably overestimates a bit, but at the same time calculating the mileage over the course of one year and not several somewhat offsets this overestimation as only one year worth of insurance is included in the calculation.

At 30,065 miles driven the cost of driving calculator estimates the cost of driving per a mile to be $1.39 for a car.

To calculate the cost of driving for a ruckus we assume the price of a brand new ruckus at $2149, determine the price of gas it would cost to drive 30,000 miles, and then tack on the $96 dollar insurance premium. To determine the price of gas, we determine the amount of gallons needed to drive 30,000 miles (30,000 miles / 100 MPG) which comes out to 300 gallons. Then, based on the $3.95/gal price of gas used by the cost of driving calculator we determine the cost of 300 gallons of gas ($3.95 * 300) to attain $1185. Finally adding the three costs ($2149 ruckus + $1185 gas +$96 insurance) yields a total cost of driving of $3430 that we divide by the number of miles ($3430/30,000 miles) to attain an ultimate cost of driving a Ruckus of $0.11, or 11 cents, per mile.

So every mile you drive in a car costs well more than 10x what it would cost to drive in a Ruckus! Think about it.

With nominal payments on insurance and gas and virtually no upkeep nor mechanical work required, it is safe to consider the Ruckus a fixed cost. In other words, assuming the cost of insurance and gas can be ignored due to how insignificant they are, you make one payment for a Honda Ruckus and it is yours. It does NOT cost $10 to run to the nearest CVS, you do NOT need an additional part-time job to pay for the insurance at $2000 a year, it will NOT need thousands of dollars worth of mechanical work, you will NOT need to borrow thousands of dollars of money to finance it and you WONT even need to drop the occasional $30 for an oil change as it is simple to do yourself. A ruckus is man's good friend, but a broke-a#s college student's best friend.

You're not going to be moving couches with a Ruck anytime soon, but shopping.. sure! Don't estimate what you can do with it so far as everyday life goes. I took the above picture after one trip to the grocery store on my Ruck... gallon of milk goes under the seat, a lot of stuff in my backpack I bring, and I can rest a bag or two on the gas tank between my legs (also, I've moved more than this on my ruck but this is the first time I thought to take a picture of it). What single college kid is going to need more than this from the grocery store?? As far as everyday life goes, there is nothing you can't do with the Ruck.. actually, I even had my friend on the back of the Ruckus when I made the above trip to the grocery store and had no problem making it home with her on the back along with the 40 or so pounds of groceries. So.....

190 pound guy
130 pound girl
40 pounds of groceries
No problem.

A brand new 2009 Honda Ruckus has an MSRP at $2149. If you're looking to spend this much on a vehicle it can be assumed that you're probably tight on cash. If you're tight on cash, the thousands of dollars worth of mechanical work you're going to end up having to pay on the Jalopy you bought is only going to be that much more painful to bear. Save yourself the trouble, your money will go further with a Ruck.

The insurance premium on the Ruck comes out to $8 a month, or $96 for an entire year which is just incredible. What state you are in along with other factors can influence this, but generally for a car or truck insurance will come out to $1400 a year on the low end and can easily eclipse $2000 per year. I paid the $96 in full without breaking a sweat and don't have to worry about this for another nine months. Worry free mate!

The Ruck has a fuel capacity of 1.3 gallons, where the fuel light turns on after the first gallon is used (85-100 miles), leaving 0.3 gallons, or 22-25 miles worth of gas. I've had mine for about three months now and have spent a measly twenty or so dollars on gas.

Point to take home: Help the environment while you help your wallet.

Take a screwdriver, unscrew the screw in the image above, and... BAM.. secret compartment! Maybe you won't be keeping your physics textbook here, but this is an ideal spot to store any insurance information, important papers or little trinkets that you might want to keep with you on the road.

Also, you can see here how the seat flips up for a little extra storage. You can put a storage basket/netting down there to keep things a little neater, but either way it is the perfect size for a gallon of milk or a six-pack.

Forget slowly going lane to lane as you slooowly build up road rage, looking for an empty spot, only to have a spot finally open up RIGHT as you pass it and some guy driving a smart car snags it from right under your nose. You can park your Ruck on sidewalks, bike racks or in normal parking spots if you so choose. Do NOT underestimate this aspect as you haven't actually taken a 'quick trip to the store' until you bomb over to CVS on your Ruckus, pull right up and park next to the door, walk in, walk out, and jump back on your Ruckus , and take off. I'm just saying, it's quick, I haven't tried it yet but if you wanted to literally jump to your Ruckus from inside the store you could probably pull it off.

My roommates have cars, but they can't afford to pay the $10 to park on campus every day and so it is a real hassle for them to get to school (waiting on busses, bumming rides, etc). I don't pay money for a parking spot, waste time looking for one, or spend time walking from the parking garage to where I actually wanted to be in the first place.

Ruckus: 1
Car: 0

Another great thing about the Ruckus is that in most states, unless the bike is over 50 ccs, you only need a basic driver's license and not a motorcycle license which can take time and money to attain. Also, double check on this, but I'm pretty certain that because the Ruckus is not over 50 ccs you do not necessarily even need insurance either (if anyone knows for sure let me know and I'll update this).