current bike climate

[mullen10]

im going to take the plunge and get my first sportsbike. Im looking for a 600 either a yam r6, a gsxr 600, cbr 600, or a zx6r.

At the moment i have upto £2000 at a push to get a bike. Ive been looking all over for a decent one of the above bikes and so far im finding i can either get a old year 2000 bike private for 2k at a push but it has something wrong with it and thats why its so 'cheap'.

Im thinking about getting a newer bike on finance taking it over 5 years (but changing it after 2.5 yrs) and using the 2 grand i have for deposit and use the rest for the payments for a year or two.

Ive been looking all over the net, mags, and in the bike shops and in the shops they are either really over priced or they dont have the ones im after. I thought this time of the year and this credit crunch meant the bike shops would be giving massive discounts on them but from what i can see its making no difference?

it seems like a new bike is getting better deals on them than a used one- for example this dealer i went to was selling a 2005 gsxr with 5k on the clock for 4000, or you could get a newer 2007 gsxr with 2k for £5000 with a few other things flung in.

they said on the news the other day next year will be a good year to buy a new car cos they cant get rid of them so there will be massive deals, is that the case also for bikes?

Should i hold on for a few weeks or months till this current climate means they reduce them loads or get one now?

[Villers]

For my first 'big' bike I bought the CBR600F. It was a 2000 reg with 6k miles on it and I paid 2300 at the time (this was about 4 years ago). It had been kept by useless owners who basically hadnt serviced it or looked after it or anything. It had been kept outside and had even been written off once before as a CAT C. The bloody thing was fantastic, I had it for a couple of years and apart from tyres, a chain and an oil change (CCT aswell) it was as sturdy as could be. They are fantastic bikes, thats why I wasnt too bothered about crashing it in the end. I had to sell it on in a terrible state but still got 1200 quid for it.

Somehow I dont think a GSXR, R6 or ZX6R would have held up against that kind of abuse, so if your looking at getting an older one Id definately reccomend the Honda.
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RS125 > CBR6 > SV650S > ZX636R > GSX1300RZ Hayabusa > 06 RSVR Mille > SV1000S > Street Triple 765 RS

[swiftb]

???? In the current climate you should get a decent example of various 600 supersports for less than 2k. I did. Around model yr 2000 with average miles should be easy achievable in a private buy. Look harder!

[mullen10]

the nearest deal i was going to get was a s reg '99 blue r6 with 32k on the clock and it was up for £1850 and i couldnt get him to budge- is that a good deal?

[swiftb]

Ive just been looking at all the same bikes you mentioned. From my experience CBr was by far the most expensive, then the r6 and gsxr and finally, the best deal and cheapest deal your likely to find is on a zx6r. Do a search on autotrader, theres a couple on just under 2k now, one of them with really low mileage. Remember. most people will accept upto a few hundred quid less than what they have advertised it at, particularly on at. good luck

[Seb]

Unless you especially want an R6 I'd lean towards no, but then it depends on the condition, if it's been looked after and not thrashed everywhere then yes.

You can get nice examples of slightly more old school sports 600s for sweet fa if you hunt around, one guy on one of the local forums was recently selling a Thundercat of similar age for a whopping 900 quid, it'd have been miles cheaper to insure too. Plenty of stuff like that floating around on forums and ebay at the mo given the double whammy of season and economic climate.
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[The Tot]

Post 1996 600cc bikes make cracking road bikes, have probably got about 26k miles average on them and go for at least 900-1000 quid in the winter. Well worth a shout. You'd make a saving over the current crop and whilst they might not be modern technology, learning to cut your teeth on one will make you appreciate simpler technology - when you go around the outside of a sunday rider on their 2008/2009 bike with your 96-00 machine, you'll realise what i mean . In all honesty, don't limit yourself to the obvious years/model choices.
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[mullen10]

are the 0% deals really all they are cracked up to be?

i was working out a deal on a used £4000 bike and over 5 years i was paying £800 for the interest over the 5 years. But to get a new bike and take up the 0% deal i would have to get a new bike and spend at least £5500 so i would end up paying more per month?

[Seb]

Depends on if you can see yourself sticking with the bike for the duration of the finance.
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST