Please review my shortlist!

[Lupine Lacuna]

Hi All

Just passed my test, live in London bike will be used for short urban trips and once a week commuting (I cycle most days).

Wil also use the bike for trips out of London hauling my climbing equipment so needs to be able to have some sort of pannier attached.

I like the idea of having a hack type bike so I can learn basic mechanics and doing things on it myself, as well as not being too worried about it. I'm also not flush with cash so want it to be cheap to run and insure.

Shortlist as follows:

Honda CB500 S
Honda Hornet
Honda NTV650
Honda NX650

Kawasaki ZZR600
GPZ500

Yamaha Thundercat
Yamaha XJ600 Diversion

Budget is 2k max. I appreciate this list varies from sports tourer, to naked to trailie!

Is there anything else I should add?

What I really want to get is a torquey, possibly half faired 1000c for my climbing trips but it will probably be a bit much for me inititally, and I dont quite know the direction my motorcycling is going to take, so it makes sense to have a hack for 6 months or a get my NCB up and then swtich with a cleaer idea and a but more money....

Your thoughts much appreciated

Thanks

Paul

[pinkyfloyd]

From that list there. You want to be chosing an older model to lean mechanics on.

I'd go for the Divvy or the CB500 or even the GPZ. But make sure its an old bike. Nowdays with these new bikes around you have to plug them into a computer first where the old ones were just wires and engine.
____________________
illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

[UnspeedySam]

Maybe an older Suzuki SV650 would fit the bill? Also take a look at the NTV650's brothers and sisters NTV600 (Revere), NT650 (Bros). You haven't stated a budget so I'm just suggesting bikes I know to be cheap(ish) and solid.
____________________
Riding: BMW R1150RT `02 bought mildly crashed
Fixing: Also the BMW as I get less broken bits
Gone: ZZR600 '00, TRX850 '97, RXS100 '93, JS125-6B '07, BMW R1100RS '93, Kawasaki ZX-6R-J2 '01, Honda Bros NT400 NC25 '88

[27cows]

I'd go for the GPz500, in view of the escalating cost of fuel. And the fact that the GPz is a fantastic all rounder.
____________________
The RXS100: vehicle of choice for Chuck Norris

[Teflon-Mike]

You dont say whether you are on full licence or 33bhp restriction.
If you are on 33bhp restrict, then zzr6, Thundercat & Diversion take a heck of a lot of restriction to make complient, & strangling them to half power leaves you a heavy, frustrating bike.
Others on the list also need restriction to make complient, but being twins, dont need as much strangulation and still work pretty well.
If not on restriction, ZZR6's are a real bargain these days. Lots of bike for your money, and a nice stable ride, a great all-rounder come tourer, but a tad on the bulky side for wrestling with city traffic.
Water-cooled, inline four, covered in plastic, for DIY mechanic, and especially a beginner, daunting. They are getting on a bit now. A lot have been neglected becouse working on them is daunting, so making hard jobs doubly hard.
Thunderace is not so much of a bargain, and much more sports orientated. The poor-mans R6, its actually probably the better road-bike, but still not the easiest to thread through city streets, and again, daunting prospect for DIY spanners.
XJ6 Divvy. Conventional street-bike. As an allrounder, for what you want, a pretty good starting point. Not particularly inspiring in any one area but competant in most. Lack of plastic, and air-cooled engine makes DIY mechanicing more do-able.
GPz500. A middling bike, and popular 33bhp choice. A twin, but water-cooled. Sporty, but not entirely covered in plastic.
Hornet, I'd ignore. Great bike, but over-priced. CBR6 motor is generally pretty tough, but its an water-cooled inline4 and as daunting to work on as a ZZR or Thundercat, fact you can see it, is a bit deceptive, its alost as awkward to get at as a zzrs engine, in practice!
NTV650. Great little bike. VFR derived frame, VT500 derived engine. Sweet handling, durable motor. Air-cooled, reasonably easy and simple to work on. Fans of the model love these bikes, they dont look much, but they just exceed expectations, whether in the way they work or living with them.
CB500... defactor newbie commuter. Will do everything you want. Simple air-cooled motor and conventional twin-shock frame, it's a 'super-CG'. Not at all daunting for the DIY spannerer, or newbie rider, and incredibly competent, but ultimately, it will never really exite. And to be honest, while it gives a lot of 'comfort' by not being complicated or powerful or anything, you can do a lot better with other bikes.
NX650 Dominator..... yeah. Big durable single. Wide bars and upright riding possition, for threading through city trafic, great bike. Single makes it the most easy for DIY spanner twiddling, lack of plastic and dirt-bike ruggedness, very easy to live with. Knobly tyres will get you a long way off the beaten track, and if you want to go climbing, this is a bike that you could probably ride straight past the car-park, up to the cliff face and probably half way up it!
Vibrates at motorway speeds, and wide bars and upright riding possition will make you a human parachute at them, discouraging sustained high-speed riding. People do tour on them though, and other wise a very good choice.
Of your list, its the one that makes me thing, "Hmmm, pottentially"
Chucking two googlies at you, following that thought, SLR650, is the Dominators more street biased successor. Built down to a price on a cost cutting excersize, in spain, I think, the XL600 lump, same as the Domies, is de-tuned from 45bhp to I think 33bhp, making it restricted licence complient out the box. On more street orientated tyres, with slightly narrower bars, slighly less compromised round town, but you could still ride one past thecar-park, and maybe not half way up the cliff, but still to its base! Also a bargain at the moment. You'll get one half the age of a domie for the same money.
Going the other way. Transalp.
CANT say how good this bike is. Its more road orientated than the Domie, but its an adventure sports. Like the NVT650, it has the VT500 derived V-Twin engine, thats as tough as old boots, so its not as vibratory. Fairing is also useful, so a more practical long haul machine, and like the SLR, would take you a long way off the beaten track, and still be a good bike round town, and DIY spannerable.
And I think from your suggestions, thats where I'd steer you.
Its always going to be a compromise some-where, but, Transalp, gives you an allrounder, with the DIY mechanics of an air-cooled twin. Performance thats a bit more useful than the singles, but still has some off-road capability. Its no street-scorcher like the Thundercat or ZZR, but it is still a decent tourer, and it'll take all the kit you want to chuck at it for an excursion, and be comfortable out of town, while maneagable in it.....
Sold yet?
But, end of the day, your call.
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Lupine Lacuna]

I have a full licence.

Thanks for responses so far, very interesting. As I implied in my first post, the decision is made so hard because I dont actually know what I am going to end up using the bike for, except in the first instance short trips at the weekend of less than 60 miles, for example, and most of the time, less than 15.

Budget is ideally no more than 2k, the closer to 1k the better!

Would quite appreciate ABS though but never going to get it at this price.

[imanupstart]

ZZR600 is a very underrated bike, can pick them up pretty cheap,roomy and they can still go like the clappers

[Lupine Lacuna]

Incidentally for a while I wanted a Bandit 1250 as it seemed to offer everything I wanted, but they're big burly buggers and more expensive to buy. Although also expensive I read about the CBF1000 that I thought might be idiot proof biking as well.

[Lupine Lacuna]

Could this little chap be the answer?

knock down to 1500?

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/bikes-for-sale/searchresults/detail/Kawasaki/GPZ500/2003/_/R-NXGN-2079636

or

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/bikes-for-sale/searchresults/detail/Honda/CB500/Sport/2002/_/R-NXGN-2069301

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/bikes-for-sale/searchresults/detail/Honda/CB500/500-S-1998/1999/_/R-NXGN-2023088

[UnspeedySam]

I'd have the GPZ, however I'd be worried about perished seals amongst other things on a bike that's clearly been sat for a while. Take someone who knows their stuff to check the fork seals, tyres etc before you buy. And definitely haggle. £2k is too much, even with that mileage...
____________________
Riding: BMW R1150RT `02 bought mildly crashed
Fixing: Also the BMW as I get less broken bits
Gone: ZZR600 '00, TRX850 '97, RXS100 '93, JS125-6B '07, BMW R1100RS '93, Kawasaki ZX-6R-J2 '01, Honda Bros NT400 NC25 '88

[Teflon-Mike]

OK, you want 'idiot-proof' and you want 'cheap', and you want something 'like' a CBF1000 or Bandit 1250
Taking that last bit with a pinch of, what your saying, is your erring more towards bigger, conventional, 'street-bikes' style wise.
Thats no bad thing. Street-bikes work bludy well on the street, they dont have the 'ultimate' capability of a sports-bike, or the duel-purpose off-roadability of a dirt bike, but for normal road use, they work bludy well. They are comfy, manageable. They are compromised, but nearly all the compromises are in your favour.
SO....
Bandit 6, then would seem to start ticking a lot of boxes. But they were something of a 'budget' model, and are now getting on a bit.
Divvy 6, would be a good alternative, but was somewhat less inspiring than the Bandit.
So, I'm going to chuck two more googlies at you.
Honda CB750F2N
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/upload/825/images/012HONDA-CB750X3-0655-01.jpg
This is what I have. I bought mine in a ratty state five years ao, taxed and tested for under £500.
These days, 'good' examples, and I mean near show-room, rarely fetch more than about £1500, and you can get a VERY tidy one for a grand.
Read the report on them. It's as close to idiot-proof biking as you can find.
It was sold in the US as an 'Entry' bike, basically it did for fat burger-munchers what the CG125 did for us limeys! Its big, its soft, but its manageable. Proven air-cooled motor, is pretty tough, and has self adjusting tappets, so is pretty low maintenence.
Its ride can be a bit 'soggy', and its accused of being a 'bit bouncy' but, I can say first hand that with hagon progressive wound springs and heavier fork oil up front, and a pair of stiffer Hagon shocks on the back, the handling is VERY different, and its a very inspiring bike to ride.
For what you want, its a bit 'more' than you'd get from a CB500, while still as idiot-proof, and its right down there in the bargain basement.
Other googlie is Kawasaki's equivilent, the 750 Zephyr.
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/upload/802/images/01KAWAZEP750X6-01.jpg
In terms of virtues, much the same as the CB750, they were direct rivals. Kawasaki is slightly sharper styled and slightly sharper handling, out the box. Second hand, not so many Kwaks about, and not in 'as' good a nick, but prices good.
Either would be worth a long hard look. For under a grand, as your first 'Big-Bike', just to get some miles under your belt, before deciding which was your interest is going to take, you, I think it could be a good way to go.
I got my CB750 purely as a 'stop-gap' bike, but, you know, it does everything you can really want of a road-bike, and doesn't give any major worries along the way. If you find a good one, you may not want anything more, or you may choose to hang on to it as a second bike after, if its good enough and cheap enough, its THAT kind of machine.
____________________
My Webby'Tef's-tQ, loads of stuff about my bikes, my Land-Rovers, and the stuff I do with them!
Current Bikes:'Honda VF1000F' ;'CB750F2N' ;'CB125TD ( 6 3 of em!)'; 'Montesa Cota 248'. Learner FAQ's:= 'U want to Ride a Motorbike! Where Do U start?'

[Lupine Lacuna]

Thanks Mike, another fascinating learned post!

They look like they might work. I am a bit worried about small bikes like CB500, they just dont have any prescence, and I like the idea of being lazier with gears. Those bikes also look so much more attractive.

Out of interest, where do you find such bikes? Right now, I have been looking at only two sites: mcn and biketrader. Where else should I be looking?

Cheers

Paul

[Lupine Lacuna]

These look quite cool:

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/bikereviews/searchresults/Bike-Reviews/Kawasaki/Kawasaki-ZRX1100-1997-2001/Kawasaki/ZRX1100/_/R-EPI-291

[Polarbear]

[Teflon-Mike]

[Lupine Lacuna]

Thanks again Mike.

I was hoping to pounce on a winter 'bargain' but hadn't thought about (though your point makes total sense) that these kind of bikes dont fetch a premium a Ninja does when the sun comes out (if it comes out).

Where are you based? I'm in London

[Lupine Lacuna]

After clearing my head from all things bike related for a few weeks I have returned to the question hopefully with less saturation.

I had an excellent conversation with a very honest guy in a shop and we talked at length about the Transalp...

I'm sold. It will do everything I want it to and then I can tell what direction I want my motorcycling to go in. They look good value, idiot proof.

My only concern is, it it comfortable two-up touring?

I'm only 11 stone, my wife 8 stone, so we're not heavy. I still thought the Versys could be sensible but you can't carry the same amount of luggage and not great for pillion. I just hope the Transalp can handle it.

Can anyone suggest if it can?

[Clanger]

[UnspeedySam]

[Slacker24seve...]

Out of those I tried the Divvy, CB5 and Hornet. Sat on a GPZ.

I ended up going for the Hornet, it felt right, looked right and is rapid and easy to handle. Only a few gripes with it; the suspension is basic (yet is still very forgiving if you overdo it) the brakes are merely adequate and the tank range is pretty poor; ~100 to reserve. Its not the most torquey of things but isn't gutless either.

Contrary to the posts above I have found it very easy to work on, its a doddle to change the fluids and filters and change wheels & tyres. For the more in depth stuff I am now finding it fairly easy to work on after my track day crash (clocks, headlight and petrol tank smashed to smithereens, dammit).
____________________
Triumph Daytona 675 track bike + girlfriend's Honda Hornet 600
Selling a hack/winter bike for less than a grand? PM me.
Banger rallies are ace

[Slacker24seve...]