?The best things in life are free,? so said Coco Chanel. She also said, slightly less famously ?The second best things are very, very expensive.? I?m not entirely sure what she considers ?the best  things in life? and quite frankly, I don?t want to know. I think it?s safe to assume though, that when she talks about ?the second best things? she means motorcycles. Because as we all know, motorcycles can be very, very expensive. But they don?t have to be, nor does motorcycling in general. It?s never going to be free, but there are ways to do motorcycling cheaply, and here are a few.

Learning cheaply

Unfortunately, this is part of motorcycling that you?ll struggle to do cheaply. It?s also something that, over the years, has become more and more expensive; that?s thanks to there being more and more hoops to jump through before you?re given a license. By the time you?ve done your CBT, theory test, mod one and mod 2 tests, as well as all the training that goes with it, you can quite easily have chucked the best part of a grand at it. Or more.
The best way to keep the cost of this down is to make sure you pass all your tests first time. Because even though the test fees themselves aren?t massive, if you?ve had to take a day off work, hire one of the training school bikes and squeeze an extra riding lesson in for good measure, it?s going to hit you where it hurts ? in the bank account.

So don?t get pissed the night before any of your tests and turn up late. Don?...