How we worked out your savings

We tried to include everything that is involved in owning or renting a bike.  These are the assumptions:

• The miles per gallon for petrol motorcycles is very rarely what the manufacturer states.  We used real world figures from https://www.fuelly.com/ and selected the median value, excluding outliers (e.g. figures which exceed those provided by the manufacturer).
• For maintenance costs, we checked the maintenance manuals for the most popular models and looked up the cost of keeping a motorcycle serviced to MOT standard throughout its life.  Poorly-maintained motorcycles either suffer catastrophic issues (ceased engine, etc.) requiring expensive work, or put the rider in danger.  Our motorcycles are well-maintained with the best tyres, pads, etc. so we compared like with like.
• For depreciation, we took a sample comprising the two most popular models, the Honda PCX and the Yamaha Nmax.  Then we determined the decrease in value from new to between 10,000 and 20,000 miles.  We took an average of this to work out the depreciation.  Our figure is probably on the conservative side, as it produces a lifetime mileage of over 55,000 miles, which very few small motorcycles achieve (yes, we know that there are some examples, but they are the really lucky ones…)
• Cost of electricity is the current UK price cap of 25p per kWh.  We didn’t include the standing charge as you would be paying that anyway.
• None of the major petrol rental companies include insurance, so we didn’t include this option.