What should I do with my bike?

[MonkReadusuk]

I'm looking for a bit of advice as to what to do with my bike. Its a Suzuki Bandit 600, 95' reg. Has 41k on the clock and is in an 'ok' condition. I have already spent about £750 on it so far, on top of the £1000 I bought it for. My question is, should I keep throwing money at it? or should I get as much as I can for it and get a newer bike?

Thanks in advance,
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-Monk-

[map]

To answer the question please give more information.
Why are you throwing money at it?
Is it to tart it up, or are there mechanical problems?
Why do you want to get a new bike?

If the £750 was to say fix the engine then it will not add £750 to the value of the bike (as any buyer sort of expects a working engine, or a big drop in the price).

Looking at the prices at the moment if it's not mechanical problems making you sell then you'd may be hard pushed to get much over £1750 for a '95 bike. You may want to wait until after Easter when all the deals seem to start and see what trade-in you'll get.

Once I've spent money fixing something serious (i.e. expensive) on a bike I like to get to ride it in order to justify the outlay. However, my friend has a diferent approach, wondering why I don't sell when I can prove the bike is in good order with all the receipts, etc. I can see his point of view. I guess I just don't like waving goodbye to money without getting any benefit from it.
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...and the whirlwind is in the thorn trees, it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks...
Gibbs, what did Duckie look like when he was younger?

[MonkReadusuk]

Well, the money I have spent on it is running costs, and to fix things on it, not added anything special to it. Had to spend £300 on a new brakes, new chain and sprockets and a few other things, now the HT leads need doing, and it just cost me £250 for a service. Just don't want to spend money on something thats not going to last much longer. It was my first big bike and has served me well, but something is telling me I should get a newer one that'll last a lot longer.

If I do get a new bike, a Bandit would suit me well, or maybe an SV as I like the look of those!
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-Monk-

[Sarge-Devil]

The price from Suzuki for the new Bandit is

RRP - £4,299
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2006 Blue Honda Hornet 600

[Chiz]

But you can get 0% finance, and only £1 deposit. plus 2 years free servicing. Sounds like a bargain to me.

[Robby]

Sounds like you should be doing your own work.

£300 quid on a brakes on a bandit is a lot to spend, it would cost me less than that to fit new pads and discs all round, with a fluid change and maybe some new caliper seals.

Likewise, £250 for a service is a fair amount, I assume this was a major service including everything and valve clearances. If your DIYing a major service on a bandit it would cost about £50 in parts, and nothing mechanical on them is that complex.

As for value, a 95 bandit with 40k+ on it is worth a grand. If you've sunk that much cash into it there can't be a lot less to spend money on, so I'd keep it.

[ZRX61]

New bikes till wear out brakes, tires, chains & sprockets etc, so the "running costs" is going to be about the same for any bike of the same size... That doesn't count as "throwing money at it"

[Guest]

Apart from £250 (how much???) for a service, everything else is normal runnings costs and fair wear and tear.

Download the Haynes manual, spend £50 on a toolkit that you can build up as you go along and then never cross a dealer's palm with silver again

[Bezzer]

[bish777]

The bandit is easy to service oyurself, invest in a haynes manual and a some cheap tools.

Save you loads. Ive not spent more than 200 quid on dealer/shop labour in 8 years, and that was two shiim changes (FJ12 and FZR1000).
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GSXR1100J

[the grim reaper]

I'd keep it, why let some other person benefit from the money you've spent? As others have said, learn to fix it yourself, it's not difficult (I can do it, FFS) and it'll save you a fortune.

Cheers

Grim
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Adverts don't always work: Remember that advert, where the army are running across the desert and they have a wounded man on a stretcher. They get to a ravine, the bridge is down and a caption pops up that says, 'What are you thinking?'. I don't know about you but I was thinking, 'Christ, I'm glad I'm not in the f***ing army'.

[Bezzer]