At 17 is it worthwhile to have a 125cc as only transport?

[snaredrum678]

Hey I'm 17 and very interested in buying a motorbike when I'm 17. I have a budget of around £4000 for the bike and equipment needed. I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of what it would be like to use a bike as my only method of transportation , bare in mind that I would be using this year-round. It would also be good if anyone could suggest suitable bikes , to fit my criteria. Sorry for asking so many questions however they are problems that I am having trouble figuring out by myself.

[Pjay]

Having any transport at 17 is wonderful.
A bike is great in the summer and not terrible in the winter, as long as you protect yourself from the elements.

My advice would be to go do a CBT and decide what bike to get, then buy decent gear that would last you well into your 20's. Look to spend about £600 on gear and locks/security, this will leave you around 3k for a bike, which in all fairness is plenty.

Most popular is the scooter for the younger crowd, they are hip, cheap and plentiful. The sensible choice though is a nice geared upright bike.

Steer clear of buying new, steer clear of anything chinese that needs 'tlc', and most of all buy something you like and can see yourself on until you are 19.

[Andy_Pagin]

A lot depends on where you live, down south biking all year round is definitely doable, in the middle of an icy winter in a remote part of Scotland though? different story altogether.

Start with a Jap bike, not a chinky, reliability will be important, Chinese bikes are notoriously unreliable.

Don't spend a fortune on a 'sports' 125, it won't perform any better than say a YBR125, and will be hellishly expensive to fix if you drop it (which you almost certainly will at some point).

With your budget, which is fairly big, I'd buck the trend and buy a new Ybr125, at least then you know it hasn't been abused and with proper maintenance it should be a good reliable main transport. Scooters are great from a pure practicality point of view, bit dull to ride though.

More info please, roughly where do you live, what sort of riding are you planning on, commuting?, town, country? Average annual mileage?
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Yamaha Vity -> YBR125 -> FZS600 Fazer -> FZ1-S Fazer

[mkjackary]

with a budget like that you could get an awesome 125. Your CBT will be about 100, insurance 250-600 depending on the bike. And you can spend as little or as much on a bike as you want.

The Honda Grom is a brilliant little bike, 65-70mph, and about 100mpg, and doesn't look too bad.

For your helmet have a look at this website it is an independent government body that rates the safety of helmets. Don't listen to people that try to convince you to spend 500+ on a helmet for safety, as some of those helmets score worse than a £60 helmet.

I just went on there, chose 5* only, system (flip up) and sorted by cheapness. Ended up with the caberg duke, only downfall is wind noise.

For the rest of your kit you can go for textile, or leather, and for bottoms you can get denim lined with kevlar as well. a quick google search will tell you the pros and cons of each. But for a new rider I would recommend leathers if you can afford it.RST are great, you don't want a one piece, but a two piece would probably be good, then on really hot days you can wear just the jacket(use sportsbikeshop to find the ones you like, then search ebay and amazon and such for it cheaper elsewhere), if you want kevlar jeans instead of/as well as leather trousers, there are some great UK made ones called hood, they have G30 armor which is great because it isn't bulky until it has a force exerted upon it, plus they are truly kevlar lined, a lot of the cheaper ones only have kevlar on the but and knee area.
For a cheaper set of kevlar jeans you have rhok jeans which are pretty good, don't go for the aldi ones, they are cheap, but not that much of a step up from plain old jeans IMO.

Don't think you can get away with any old shoes either. Bend your trainers, if you can make them bend at all with your hands, imagine what hitting something at 70 mph will do to them. Also no steel capped shoes, go for proper motorcycle stuff.

It might be worth getting a big top box, not a safety feature, but if I didn't have one I would be less inclined to wear as much safety gear as I do because I would have to walk around all day in it. My current top box, I can fit gloves, helmet, leather trousers, all as well as a bag with a load of my clothes and other stuff in.

Lastly get a ground anchor, a chain, disk brake and disk brake reminder cable. You can spend loads or almost nothing on all of this. I use a decent chain for when it is at home and in a dodgy part of town, ground anchor doesn't need to be expensive £15 maybe, Disc lock is always more of a deterrent than anything, but worth getting a decent ish one but at the end of the day if you are in town with just a disc lock, that will be a lot more than a lot of other bikes, so you will be less likely to have yours stolen, even if it is a cheapy £7 one. And make sure you get a reminder cable, they cost about a quid, but will save you hundreds potentially.

[NJD]

[M.C]

[rhys99]

Personally i don't think YBR's and commuters are desirable bikes at all, i see them as more of a tool than anything. With a budget like yours i'd be looking at Yamaha wr/mt/ yzf 125's depending on the style you like. If you want something a bit different you can pickup an Aprilia RS4 125 for 3k brand new, which is the price of a used Yamaha. All depends on the style of bike you want though.
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[Andy_Pagin]

[rhys99]

[Pjay]

[snaredrum678]

My alternative would be getting a car , with the same budget. I find this option a little boring however , as most of the cars with this budget lack personality. Id be doing around 6 miles a day , mostly through country lanes. When 'Maintenance' is talked about , what exactly is included in this?

[snaredrum678]

[Pjay]

[Azoth]

[Pjay]

125's dont fly through tyres and chains like bigger bikes and tend to need very little maintenance in comparison.

[Pete.]

[snaredrum678]

I have two questions from this.

1. How the aprilia's compare to a yamaha for example?

2.Im very interested in this maintenance work , as I can imagine I would enjoy it , however I was wondering how to learn all of this (Just seems slightly complex , to someone who doesn't have a clue).

[Pjay]

[snaredrum678]

Ahh alright all sounds good. Just one more thing which I'm still slightly worried about. Would these be alright for all year round commuting?

[Pjay]

Of course not, buy a car.

Motorcycles are not ideal on those cold mornings, you will at times wonder if its worth it. Then it warms up a touch and you forget all about it and love it.

Swings and roundabouts.

[M.C]

[stevo as b4]

A £4k budget at 17?
And to use it to buy a car?

Fuck me I'm lolling so hard it hurts now! WTF is any 17year old going to be able to buy and insure for £4k exactly with four wheels?

You do have options tho:

1, buy cheap bike save cash and tough it out until 19 when a bigger bike or a car looks like something feasible.

2, buy an awesome top of the budget 125 that is hardly going to be used on a 6mile commute and is going to depreciate and get tatty more quickly than an unfaired honest but basic 125.

3, buy a cheap bike and keep your spare cash for trains, taxis and buses so that you have more than one useable option to get A-B depending on the conditions etc. A travel pass might be worth more than a sports 125 that's 10-15mph faster and flasher than a ride me to work job.

Or as alternatives on the above, you could still get cheap bike or scooter, and use the spare cash to learn to drive now but save yourself the world of pain at 17 of owning and running a car.

Or you could buy a trophy 125 secondhand and also a real cheap Chinq 400quid scooter as a back up, or winter bike or if your Flash 125 is a 30bhp one, for when it blows up and your waiting for parts or cash to rebuild it etc.

This would be my preferred option, but then again if all else fails I'd cycle 6miles to work easily anyway.

Consider the options before blowing all your savings and having wisdom in hindsight maybe?

[snaredrum678]

Thank you for the responses. Was wondering what the problems of owning a car at 17 would be and also probably i failed to mention this before but if I was to get a car then I could keep the 4k solely for the car and my parents would support me in lessons and insurance. Fuel would still be down to me to pay for however

[M.C]

[ninja_butler]