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| Alxco904 |
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Alxco904
L Plate Warrior
Joined: 20 May 2018
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| Rogerborg |
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Rogerborg
nimbA
Joined: 26 Oct 2010
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 Posted: 23:02 - 20 May 2018  Post subject: |
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I'd recommend at least 300cc for a new rider. Once you're good and experienced, you might consider a 125.
That sounds backwards, but you'll figure out why as soon as you ride anything bigger than a 125.
Either way, CBT first, see if biking or scootering is for you, then decide.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike |
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| grr666 |
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grr666
Super Spammer
Joined: 16 Jun 2014
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Posted: 00:53 - 21 May 2018  Post subject: |
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Allow a large budget for locks and chains plus some Krav Maga lessons. You'll need both. Don't mean to be a party
pooper but I'd be buggered if I'd use a bike regularly anywhere inside the M25. Its a sure path to disappointment.
And especially into E1!! The armpit of London. Fuck that for a game of acid ducking.
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Currently enjoying products from Ford, Mazda and Yamaha
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| Ericck |
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Ericck
Scooby Slapper
Joined: 21 Jul 2011
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| Posted: 08:03 - 21 May 2018 Post subject: |
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If you're using the A13 then the apart from the bit from Basildon to Lakeside and a smidgen between Wennington and Dagenham. The whole journey is a speed restricted camera ordeal.
So even when the traffic is moving : ) you will never be above 50mph.
Therefore you might get away with a shitty 125, that even acid hurling chavs might not want to steal.
But more powaah does gives you more options.
____________________
Current Bikes: 2006 Suzuki Bandit 1200, 2008 Suzuki SV650N.
Previous Bikes: Yamaha FS1E, Mobylette Moped Thingy, Suzuki GS125, Kawasaki Zephyr 550, Kawasaki Zephyr 750, Kawasaki ER500, Suzuki Bandit 600, Honda CBR600F, Triumph Street Triple 675, Suzuki V Strom 650. |
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| Rogerborg |
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Rogerborg
nimbA
Joined: 26 Oct 2010
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| Teflon-Mike |
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Teflon-Mike
tl;dr
Joined: 01 Jun 2010
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| Posted: 09:04 - 21 May 2018 Post subject: Re: Looking to commute Basildon(SS15) - East London(E1) |
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| Alxco904 wrote: | I want to ask what do you recommend for a 26 miles one way commute? |
Yeah... forget the miles, forget the money, forget the commute!
Work aint supposed to be 'fun', why should getting to and from be any?
Peak times, a world full of half awake homacidal maniacs all more worried about the boss, or the awkward customer or what the wife wanted them to pick up on the way home, gnashing on steering wheels, wishing they were some-where else and NOT looking out for motorbikes.... It is NOT a great place to go.
L-Plating!!!! Yup the L-Plate is for LEARNERS not test dodgers. IF you have what it takes to do an hours worth of tests, 15 minutres of them off-road with no other vehicles about, and the rest not at peak times, in peak traffic.. no lead to be a 'Learner'... takje tests, earn your road roon, show you know a thing or two and have the very basics of survival and MIGHT just might be able to cope with them homicidal steering wheel gnashers in the morning....
If you cant pass tests... you have VERY little good reason to try dodging them riding something with L-Plates on through THE most hazard fraught road conditions we have....
It's not the 'smart' choice, its not the 'cheap' choice, its pushing your luck, and pushing it unnecessarily further than you need to.. its an accident looking for a place to happen... and it usually does, and almost always costs money and pain in the process, so you neither save money, nor time, nor hassle, nor hurt.....
Think about it.... would you push a toddler into the Shark infested Indian Ocean and say "You'll learn! Just waver your arms a bit! You'll get it!" Would you? Or would you take them top the local swimming baths, council chlorinated, a life guard sat in a high chair at the side, and a tiled bottom you can stand on, and NO SHARKS... maybe even buy them a lesson!
BIKES!
125's.. wonderful things, thier greatest asset is cheapness... maybe. Unfortunately as they are all any-one under 19 might ride, and almost any-one can ride with bog all but sending a form off from the post office and slapping an L-Plate on it.. they tend not to be all that cheap to buy. Once bought though, the limited power does tend to limit how quickly they can wear themselves out, and normal service spares like tyres and chains can last remarkably well. Other wise they do like maintenance quite often, but that maintenance tends not to be too daunting. Insurance on the other hand can be, comparatively.
My 125, costs me more a year to insure than my 750, like for like cover, same rider, same value bike, etc etc etc..... and quite significantly more; the 750 is just under £100 a year, about £90 at last renewal... the 125, as said same level of cover, same rider, same storage etc, was I believe £145 a year...... that's around 50% MORE to insure per year than the big bike. Old git premiums mean that they are both pretty low, though, so the difference is easy to eat... if I was 17 however, be a very different story, and £1000_ premiums are not uncommon, and only go up with miles, go up with bike newness, and go up with adding, notably your entire motivation for wanting a bike, "+Commuting" into the proposal.
750 costs £90 a year to tax. !25 just £17. That almost £75 a year saving basically covers the extra 'I' have to pay on the 750's insurance.... if you have more real-world commuter quotes, it probably wouldn't even scratch it!
TYRES.... 125, weighs about 125Kg, delivers about 12bhp, and can just top 70mph... 'decent' tyres for it cost, some years ago, about £90, and have yet to wear out.... tyres for the 750.... 200Kg, 75bhp and 125mph or so, cost at least £200 a pair.... and last maybe 3ooo miles.... so typical commuter miles would beg at least a couple of pairs a year.... and unlike the 125's rubber, they cost £200+ a pair.... and now, the big bike is starting to cost big money....
And THAT is unfortunate fact of bikes; performance costs, and the bigger the bike, so the more it costs to run, and when you are limited by law to a 70mph speed limit, and on real roads, by other traffic to an awful lot less... the swings and roundabouts start to make big bikes a big burden just to massage the ego of having one, instead of something ridiculed as a kiddie bike..... if its worth it to you, though, what the heck..... could spend that money just as easily trying to loose a plastic ball down a rabbit hole or out-wit a fish... B-U-T battling them homicidal maniacs on the way to work? Is it the best value you can get from that cash?!
Somewhere there is an optimum... and its probably closer to 125 than 750... a 250 ish cc bike should have that little bit 'extra' oomph in traffic to get with thge program and maybe stay with audicoch's hogging the outside lane of the duel carriageway, but be light enough and un-powerful enough they don't need much more heavy duty or expensive service spares as a 125... but they do beg getting that licence....
AND here, you can get a full licence for a 125, the A1 entitlement. pretty cheaply; you can take tests on the 125 you buy to 'practice' wobbling around on L-Plates on your own time; you can self book the tests for about £150, and get the licence with it, often for as little as the price of a repeat CBT you'#d need to continue pretending to be a learner, trying to take on them homicidal steering wheel gnashers every day, never actually learning much, exept that falling off hurts, and costs, and them maniacs is all out to get'choo!
A 125-A1 licence, obtained DIY can make a lot of sense... but it dont give you access to the big bikes.... They pretty much demand an expensive DAS course, because you have to take them on a big-bike, you cant ride unsupervised before you have passed test, and hardly any-one will even insure or lend you to take the tests unless you do thier course first....
Courses start from maybe £600 for a three day course... if you are a fresh off the blocks absolute beginner, you likely need CBT first, and your theory test, and unlikely you will get a licence in just three days, when one day of that will be just the tests.
More realistrically, £1000-£1500 might get you a licence; and if you are London local, more likely the more expensive end, and more likely still, that you'll have to pay even more to get a course, or wait longer for one to come up..... especially right now when the sun is shining so temptingly so early in the year and every dog and thier appendagfe are sing bikes about and thinking "That looks Sooooo Cooooool!"
That upfront cost to get a licence, then can start to make the 125 option look more do-able. Fact you probably have to take a week off work to do a DAS course more so... and the notion you may dave a few 100 on the buy price of a bike, after, seem small potatoes....
BUT end of the day, that training is for LIFE not just LICENCE.. only has to same you one pretty minor spill to have paid for itself in the crash damage you dont have to pay for, let alone the hassles of pushing bent bike home, or doing it whilst bruised and bleeding!
A-N-D just cos you have taken a course and got a higher A2 or A licence, doesn't mean you HAVE to ride an A2 or A bike.... as said, I have a full ride what you like licence, and still keep a couple of 125's knocking about for variouse reasons... of which I HAVE to say, 'cheapness' isn't chief among them.... but when O/H was doing house-calls, and cranking up quite high daily miles, did make some ecconomic sense.
125 vs 500 or whatever....
First off you need the licence, thats the keystone. After that? 125's CAN be cheap...er. Big bikes Expensive.
I find the 125 is most at home round town, its light its agile, its easy to park, and the city snarl and speed limits mean that point to point its no slower, and often faster than taking the big bike that's so much more unwieldy.
On a longer run, big bike is definitely more comfortable. To hold a decebnt road speed on the 125 it begs a lot of cog stirring, and effort, and its not so nice in buffety side winds and stuff, and its saddle is smaller and harder, while it is that tad more cramped for my 6ft frame....
B-U-T more swings and roundabouts; I believed that the 125 was best about town, and horrible on longer runs. A couple of 20+ ish runs to and from the then G/F's home town, sort of confirmed that idea to me, and after a cup of coffee at her mums, I REALLY did not want to go get back on that little bike and ride another 20odd miles or more. When I was 20... that was a different matter! I toured the length and breadth of the country on a little 125, when I was on a student grant and it was best I could afford..... I was a lot younger, number and dumber then, I guess... B-U-T.... pressed to do some rather heavy duty town work on the 750.... revised my ideas, and trying to hustle that through stop start traffic, and keep 200odd Gk of iron upright and rolling.... took its toll, and it wasn't the bike that was tiring, I realised, but the riding. 250 miles at a stretch heading to a rally or meet? No problem.... you aren';t working it that hard, you arent dealing with idiots avery few yards... and THAT is what makes the difference as much as anything, NOT the size of fire hole in the engine.
26 miles each way, is going to be a chore which-ever way you try tackle it... from taking bus or train, to a moped, to a 125, to a big bike, to doing it in a limousine, with a chauffeur!!!
If that the distance twixt where you live and where you work... suck it up! There's no vehicle that will make that trip any shorter, or easier.. you just have to live with it.... and I have to say when I was commuting that sort or more mileage 3x a week... the TRAIN was wonderful..... sit back, read a book, catch up on z's, whatrever... you dont have to deal with the dolts, or wrestle a machine around... but, ultimate solution is to make the distance shorter... move or get another job... your call.
Which is where we get to on the bike issue.... 125's have merit on money.... big bikes cost big, and TBH dont offer an awful lot for that extra, no matter how much you inflate the ideas of what they should do better to justify one.... it does so much depend on your mind-set, and the route and your own aspirations, NOT on the bike.
BUT.... the critical thing in ALL of it, is whether or not its a particularly great idea, to try dodge the tests riding around on L-Plates, essentially untrained, unqualified and with only half a clue what you are about, in THE most hazard fraught road conditions, at THE most hazardouse times of day, when you ARE chucking the toddler into the shark infested waters, and hoping they'll learn to swim before they get eaten......
Get the licence... all things are possible, and ytou have got some basic know how along the way, to know better what may or may not t=be the better way to go after....
ITS YOUR CALL
But, many a slip twixt cup and lip.... the dangers are every where, you cant avoid them, its a case of managing them, AND managing them most effectively.
Doing CBT hanging and L-Plate off the back of a 125 and thinking that's job done, really just isn't.....
...get some training, get a licence....
THEN a 125 may make some sentence over a big bike, a big bike may have advantages over a 125, either way you'll be spending more money than you expect, to suffer more hassle than you imagined, and probably not getting all the enjoyment you hope for, one way or another.... welcome to life!!!!
I say it timje over time, but when you want to start biking, 'the bike' really is pretty much the last thing oin the list you need worry about.. the LICENCE is far more importrant and should be top of the list. In between, riding gear, locks chains, and other security all have a place... and when you get to the bike... it matter not an awful lot! Some may be better or worse for a certain job, but few are ever even close to ideal, and its the compromise that you, and ONLY you can decide on that matters.
____________________
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?' |
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| Rogerborg |
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Rogerborg
nimbA
Joined: 26 Oct 2010
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Posted: 09:17 - 21 May 2018  Post subject: |
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He types a new version every time.
He types a new version every time. 
Mike, not everyone is a Poor. We're not all looking for the cheapest solution at any cost.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike |
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| ThatDippyTwat |
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ThatDippyTwat
World Chat Champion
Joined: 07 Aug 2016
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| Andy_Pagin |
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Andy_Pagin
World Chat Champion
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| Rogerborg |
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Rogerborg
nimbA
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| chris-red |
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chris-red
Have you considered a TDM?
Joined: 21 Sep 2005
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 6 years, 164 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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