What bike for a noob to do motorway commutes?

[herulach]

So assuming all goes to plan I should have a shiny new bike licence this time next week. I also start a new job in december, that will mean the commute changes from 8 miles into town, to about 15 miles on the motorway, with occasional jaunts to offices all over the place up to 150 miles away. Surprisingly enough I don't fancy it on the YBR, so, what bike for:

Decent motorway performance
Easy Filtering (there will be some town riding when I'm off to other offices)
Bit of weekend fun.

A bit neccesity is the availability of hard side panniers. When I'm not at head office I need to be able to fit everything on the bike as there will be no where to keep gear - unfortunately this seems to rule out the usual 500 twins etc.

Things I've had my eye on so far:
TDM 850
900 Diversion
Aprillia Caponard
Aprilla Pegaso (assuming I can source panniers)
K100 RT (possibly a little bit on the tank like side for a first bike)

Budget is around £2k depending what i can trade mine in for, but I can afford to stretch it a bit if someone suggests something awesome.
[/list]
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YBR 125>FZS600

[pinkyfloyd]

Out of the list I would surprise even myself and chose the Divi.

Cheap as chips with bags enough power to get you from a to b on the motorways and a sit up position that wont break your back. shaft driven so low maintainance.
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[Ingah]

[CaNsA]

Get a bike you want to ride when you are not commuting.
Remember, a bike is a toy aswell as a mode of transport.

Therefore meladdio i suggest a nice...

CBR600f

Great for long trips and short commutes
Fun enough to go out and play with the lads on a sunny day.
Will take a nuclear blast to kill it

Dont choose a bike purely for sensible reasons, you will only regret it.

my pp

[CptBlack]

I've been looking at Triumph Sprints over the last week, but can't ride one on my licence. Might be worth a look for you though, depending on the insurance.
I've seen a few from the 90's go for under a grand on eBay.

[CaNsA]

Insurance, good point there matey.

If you are over 25, and the bike is over 15 years old you can get classic insurance.

My cbr600f3 1995 costs me 130 a year fully comp with 50 quid excess

[herulach]

[CaNsA]

we will see what you say next year.

Ive seen so many people go out and buy bandits, tdm's, etc etc cos they are sensible bikes.
Only for them to sell it a few months later for something a bit more fun.

BTW a CBR600F is different to a CBR600 matey.

[Ingah]

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

My duke is slim, comfy, has a fairing and waterproof luggage, will do motorways all day all weather. Has good cycle parts and the cans can be raised for weekend scratching...so i'm told.

Out of your choices(not ridden any of them) i'd look at the TDM.

Pat
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[c_dug]

Agree with the above, I'm more than happy to put up with a little less comfort in exchange for tons more fun.

But each to their own. To me, there is only one bike for your needs:

Honda Dullsville! (Deusville or whatever the real name is) Faired NTV650, comes with hard luggage as standard. Engine is absolutely solid. Shaft drive for ease of maintenance. All day comfort.

Downside would be that you can't remove the luggage but they get used pretty much exclusively as commuters/couriers bikes so I can't imagine it impedes filtering.
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[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

A good tip given to me was filter with your knees out, if you're unsure how wide your load is.
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Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[herulach]

I meant a KTM Duke, as opposed to a ducati, although an ST2 is a good idea, always assuming I can find one for sale.
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YBR 125>FZS600

[Paxovasa]

Any bike over a 250 will cope with long motorway riding.

Just get yourself to some dealers and sit on a few bikes and narrow the list down
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Suzuki GSF600 K3 (in the fastest colour, black).

[The Tot]

I'd shy away from singles if you're mile munching! My mate did London - Edinburgh on his and it was vibey and needed a rest every 80-90 miles or so.

I haven't weaned myself off inline 4 supersports from when I was 18 and since most of my bike's I've purchased were around1.3-2.3k including the blade, I have to say that mid-late 90's supersports will be more than capable of decimating the miles on the motorways (Do it all the time on the Blade and did it on the Ninja too).

Most sports 6's will cruise at about 6.5-7.5k rpm in top whilst staying at 75-80mph. Evidence would suggest that ZX6R's are very economical at this sort of speed. I used to get +45mpg on mine and the instigator (being a tight jock!) regularly got 50mpg on his Ninja 6 (we're talking F-J series bikes here).

Fitting gear on a sportsbike is an absolute doddle! Depending on how much that is. Office-gear, I just shove my clothes (weeks supply of shirts, trousers and shoes) in my Kriega rucksack or US20 tailpack and leave it at the office for the week. The upside now being that on my return journey, I can load up with 3 days worth of groceries.

But I'm on Cansa's boat. Sports 6's if you want a mixture of both. A grin on the weekend and not so much of a slog on your commute.

My managers thought I was a total nutcase believing that a FireBlade was a suitable london commuter! But as I've said, I've never had any other style of bikes so any non-supersports bike will feel alien to me. I had an 07 hornet as a hire bike. Whilst it had a smooth engine, that was it really! I seriously could NOT get on with it's ergonomics or ride. But since you're a new rider, there are endless selections. Just my two cents.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[CaNsA]

[map]

[Feasty]

I've just started motorway commuting this week, so my journey has gone from 10 miles on dual carriageways to 40miles up the M1 every day.
In preparation for this I sold my Honda SLR650 thumper and got a 900 Divvy - I've not looked back yet!

Already the weather for the past couple of days has been pretty bad, strong gusts of wind, hard rain, drizzle, stop-starts on the motorway, etc, etc. One constant for me is the bike, it's been brill. Not missed a beat and hardly gets blown around at all, very solid and stable. My SLR650 would have broken down by now as it was never that good in big puddles and heavy rain, plus I got seriously blown about on it!

The Divvy is 10 years old, has nearly 40k on it now and I got it for £900. I can just remove the luggage on it and easily keep up on a countryside spin. And if I really want to let rip, I just keep it in the upper half of the rev's and it leaves 99% of cars standing.

Get one!
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Previous: Aprilia Habana Retro 50cc (beauty), Yamaha SR125 (fell apart), Honda XR125 (nippy little commuter), Honda SLR650 (Geewhizz), Yamaha Diversion 900S (Smoooooth) written off courtesy of a stupid escaped horse.
(7 year gap), BMW F650 (Relaxing ride). Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 (Big and bold). Yamaha FZS600 (got me in trouble too quick!).
Current: Yamaha TDM 900 (Comfy, light but big, power when needed).

[chris-red]

I'd go for a TDM900 rather than that 850 £2.5k will get you a nice one, £2k will get you a high mileage jobbie.
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