Bikes are higher maintenance.
That being said, a lot of people neglect their cars and have no idea you have to do more than just change the oil.
+1
I get the impression that a lot of people get surprised when a car requires maintenance. I used to do all of my own maintenance on my cars, but the fancier the car, the more there is to do. Now I farm it out to a mechanic.
Another +1.
I believe an average car needs just as much maintenance as an average bike.
You lube the chain on your bike; your car needs balls joints and stuff lubed too.
Oil change on a bike with wet clutch is a 2-in-1; your car's transmission needs some attention too once in a while.
Tires, brakes, brake fluid, cables, checking torque on critical bolts, wheel alignments....both bikes and cars need these at different intervals.
Personally I will admit that I have neglected my cars/trucks when it came to proper maintenance. I would normally wait until it needed my direct attention before I did something about it.
Heck, I was given a 95 Jimmy for free because the owner said "it's only gonna last about 3-4 months and then its gonna die, and I just bought a new car and my son doesn't need this truck".
Based on that I simply put gas in it and went where I needed to.
Ended up lasting 18 months, went through 2 sets of cheap brake pads (the 20$ sets lmao) and flipped the odometer past 400,000 kms.
Eventually the transmission went and I lost 3rd and Drive (big surprise, an S10 tranny failed...netorious little buggers) but since I live 2kms from work I still drove it in 2nd there and back. It's a 50km/h zone all the way and it was winter, didn't feel like walking and freezing my butt off at 6am.
Lasted like that for about 3 weeks until one day the alternator fried on me.
Scrapped the truck for metal and got 400$.
On the bike it's different. I check most of the stuff listed above everytime I lube my chain. I recently flushed my brake fluid system and I already have new pads for the front, even though they still have 80% life remaining (gonna wear em down to 40% or so and then change them). The clutch cable is next on the list and then new brake lines. I know it's a waste of fluid (it's cheap anyways), but i didn't have the extra funds for lines a few weeks ago. My fluid was disgustingly brown and i felt like my lever was squishy, thus unsafe. It's much better now.
