Buying an ex-school bike as my first bike?

[daverave999]

My instructor is upgrading his bikes and is selling the bike I'm actually learning on.
It's a 2003 Bandit 600 with about 40k on the clock, for £925. It seems like a reasonable price to me - does anyone disagree? Is it a bad idea buying a bike that has been used for instruction?

Got Mod1 booked for within the next week so hopefully not too far off getting my licence. My thinking is that I know that it will have been kept in good nick during his ownership and I've had chance to give it an extensive test ride! I think I'd be pretty happy with any of the usual suspects as a first bike, so is this an opportunity worth taking?
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2007 Versys 650 2001 Yamaha XJ600S Diversion
HT: Imagine a bike......A bike designed by way of crude polls, assembled by cretins using the finest hammers that Lidl had on offer.

[Wonko The Sane]

If you trust your instructor to have checked it over and repair it properly when it's been dropped by someone getting it wrong then go for it,
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[j.silvs]

Sounds like a good price to me.

Most at the price will be either a 2000 year or older.

As long as he has maintained it right and kept it mechanically sound then I would go for it.

[Benson_JV]

I personally wouldn't. My best friend bought an ER5 from a training school and it turned out to be more or less a bag of rusty nails.
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Willson - "If you go out on that CBR600 in the winter, you're going to do more miles on your side than on your wheels."
Riding: CBR600FW Driving: Audi A6
Previous Bikes: '96 Bandit 600, '96 GPz305

[Amber Phoenix]

Sounds good. Almost certainly would have been dropped a few times, but as other have said, so long as it's been repaired and maintained well, it should be good as a first bike. At the end of the day, it's inevitable you'll drop it a few times too... so no point getting something super nice.
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Beginner Biker Adventures Blog
Yamaha FZ6 S2 2007

[map]

If you accept it for what it is then there should be no problems.

It's a school bike so it will have suffered some abuse with the engine and gears. It will have been dropped.

With that in mind as said if the price reflects this then ok.

Also if you're prepared for no comeback on any faults and prepared to sort yourself.

After all you can buy a lemon from a dealer as a private sale.
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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
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[Wonko The Sane]

I'd imagine that while bigger bikes are going to get dropped as people get used to the extra weight and power compared to the 125 tiddler they did CBT on, surely most bike places have you on a 125 for CBT then have you do a mod1 practice run on the 125 before stepping you up onto the bigger bike?
____________________
Looking to pass your CBT / Bike tests in Bury Lancashire? try www.focusridertraining.co.uk Would recommend.
They're also on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Focus-Rider-Training/196832923734251

[daverave999]

He's an individual rather than a 'school' as such so does all the maintenance himself, and to my untrained eye all his bikes are in lovely condition. Seems to be a fastidious polisher on all the exposed metalwork (his CG125 looks brand new!) and I don't recall seeing any areas where I could even see any rust. I'm not looking for some superhoonmobile as my first bike, just something that lets me learn the ropes once I've passed. I've enjoyed riding it so far...

I have noticed a slight rhythmic clunk that develops by my left foot after it's been running for a few hours. Any suggestions what this might be? Something to worry about? I did wonder if it just needs a new chain/sprockets...

I trust him to have looked after it, and it's got crash bars on so hopefully they should have prevented the worst of any damage. They certainly helped when I dropped it on Sunday.

My gut instinct is to chat with him about this clunk, and probably go with it. Hopefully I'll pass first time on each module so it's not sitting around too long.
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2007 Versys 650 2001 Yamaha XJ600S Diversion
HT: Imagine a bike......A bike designed by way of crude polls, assembled by cretins using the finest hammers that Lidl had on offer.

[Shinigami]

my hornet (my first big bike) was a couriers bike THEN belonged to a bike school, however they did not use it for lessons, one of the instructors used it to take people on the road while doing cbt's though but most of it's miles were done in it's first 3 years.

Runs ok however needed new tyres/chain & sprocket and the front brake is seized, though this could well have happened in my ownership due to riding through the bad weather and road salt.

Still waiting for the brakes to be sorted stuck with blimmin busses til it is (hopefully fixed today, pick up tomorrow)
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Current: Honda City Fly CLR125 2003 Honda CB600F Hornet 2008 Yamaha FZ6 S2 + 1991 Kawasaki GPZ500
"Once you realize what a joke everything is, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense.

[radicalrabit]

It will be used to being dropped by now so ought to be quite good at it,,,,, but on a serious note that bike has had a hard life,m mis used clutch etc etc gears used and abused,,,,etc so It depends on the Instructor,,,, If you know him well or her, it might be a good bike that has had to be well maintained for them to earn a living from it, on the other hand by now is could be a bag of nails, People will tell you anything in order to get a sale and remember people lie..... so unless you 100% trust the guy not to sell you a lemon ,,,. look for a bike with lower miles, and not a school bike ....
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VF1000 F2F, BLACKBIRD with carbs, 2nd VF1000F2F just need somewhere to go now..

[Ingah]

Having bought 2 ex-riding school bikes my opinion is to steer clear if repairwork isn't your bag / you can't afford to have fairly significant off-road time whilst you source parts / tools etc. I've surmised the type of use they get put to basically shags them out, and the riding schools generally know just when to get rid of them (yes, just before they start to fall apart piece by piece). Obviously you may have an exception if he keeps the bike immaculate, as riding schools seem to bodge their way through (not so it's unsafe, but definitely not looking after it the way you'd want it looked after).

Example of 'shagged out' stuff you could expect: Clutch on a CB500 needing replacement at ~48K miles. Crappy shocks and fork springs. Brake calipers where the pad pins have seized in place, the pistons are at the end of their life, etc.

TLDR: Price isn't too bad, but if i was wanting to put some good miles in/keeping it for a while i'd pay more for a better bike from an individual.
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-- Ingah

[daverave999]

Thanks very much for the replies folks.
The decision has been made for me however, in that it's already been sold. I was excited for a few hours at least! I'll wait until I've passed before I look again.
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2007 Versys 650 2001 Yamaha XJ600S Diversion
HT: Imagine a bike......A bike designed by way of crude polls, assembled by cretins using the finest hammers that Lidl had on offer.

[kiddakidda]

Shame

I would have bought it.

If I think about how I rode my DAS bike, I would have happily rode off into the sunset when I got my Mod 2 certificate on the bike I passed on.

[jeddy11]

You snooze you lose
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[anthony_r6]