New (wannabe) biker

[orangepeeleo]

Hey,

I'm 26 yr old and after a lot of problems with my car, and the rising price of fuel! i have decided to take the plunge and get a CBT done and a nice little 125 for commuting on.

Not sure what sort of budget to go for though tbh, ideally i'd wanna spend about £1500, but i obviously need my CBT (£90) and some gear, textile jacket + trousers, gloves, boots, helmet, chain (priced up all of that at my local shop for £380-£400). But then i also need a bike! So looking to probably spend about £1k on the actual bike IF possible.

Been thinking of either, a CBR125 or a YBR125, with the YBR being my first choice i think, its kinda the direction i see myself going in, as in touring/commuting bikes rather than sports bikes but i like the security of buying with a dealer and they seem to come in at around the £1600 mark, which is clearly over budget and with gear and cbt on top would see me spending about £2000, had a look in gumtree and autotrader and it looks like im going to have to go private as they seem to come in at around £1200 tops for a good private one.

Do you think its worth me upping my budget by £500 and going with a dealer or is it just throwing money away, are the ones sold in dealerships for £1600 not far off one that i can pick up for £1k-£1200 privately??

Are there any other bikes that i've not considered that i could get for £1k?

Thanks for any advice,

Neil

[Katier]

Personally I actually got a chinese 125 (the cruiser looking one in my case - which was amazingly comfy) and worked on passing my test as soon as possible. Being honest, that would always be my advice.

Passing test is NEVER cheap, but it's probably the best investment you can do. Raise the budget a bit more, do a Direct Access course, then buy an old 600 when you pass.

looking at the place I learnt, seems even with the new two part test they still offer courses, so that's what I would do. (and did all be it with the previous test). I then bought a Bandit 600-S and haven't looked back.

[orangepeeleo]

Tbh i think the main thing thats attracting me to 2 wheels at the min is the crazy fuel consumption of a YBR125, had a read about and some people say they get 200+ miles out of an £10 tank!! thats just crazy and would save me a fortune in fuel within the first year (live 35 miles away from work)

When first looking into bikes i was going to go for a CB500 but the fuel consumption is about the same as my cars at the min, we've gotta keep the car because i have 2 young children and the main point thats swayed the missus into letting me get a bike is the money we'd save on fuel i think, if i could offer her no other advantages then she'd say it wasn't worth it and it'd just be my toy, which i'd have to agree with her on

So thanks for that but i think a 125 is what i want to go for, purely to save about £100 per month on fuel, definetly in the future i'd be wanting to upgrade to a CB500 or similar but for the next 2/3 years i'd be more than happy to potter about on a 125 of some sort

[MaybeGuy]

cg125
very similar to a ybr
half the price

ignore any fucktard who tells you to buy a chinese bike
____________________
Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[Frost]

£10 gets you about 8.3 liters of fuel, something like a cbr125 has a 10 liter tank, so it's going to be more like £12 to fill up. Then 200 miles to a tank assumes you will get 90MPG. I would say 70 is more likely and that assumes you will be riding at about 55mph most of the time. So it's more like 150 miles for £12. Also please remember that you can't use motorways on L plates.

[Katier]

Regarding a 500 or 600, fuel economy is still a lot better than a car. My Bandit 600, driving to and from University ( 16 mile ride down mainly 40mph roads), does about 100 miles on £10 - or about 54mpg.

In my car ( a 1.8 Rover 25) I'd probably struggle to get over 30mpg as lots of traffic to get stuck in.

[Ingah]

[Frost]

You know the Chinese government actually pays people to post pro chinese and pro government things on the internet. It really would surprise me if said people went on motorcycle forums to post encouraging people to buy chinese bikes. I've yet to see one go more than a week without something falling off or breaking. There is a junlin cruiser at the end of my street on an 09 plate that is COVERED in rust. I'm talking literally orange

[Darth]

[Katier]

[Ingah]

[waffles]

[That_Hornet]

Buy from a dealer if you want the comfort blanket of the 3 months or what ever.

IMO buy private and be knowledgeable on what your looking for. Do some research and if its no good walk away. There are a lot of good bikes out there being sold private and most dealer bikes are ones they've got part ex, then cleaned a bit......

[orangepeeleo]

[That_Hornet]

I pay £800 on a cb600. (18 AND 1 years NCB.)

so would expect 6 - 700 ish


https://www.thebikeinsurer.co.uk/

have a look


BUT REMEMBER!!

don't put true data in. change phone number ect, only a bit so you don't get their crap sales things.

[orangepeeleo]

£118 for the year!

Must be my NCB on my car (5 years)

Sweeeeeet!!

I would say that my decision has been made CB500 and DAS it is Can't wait to get the loan sorted and get on my DAS now!!

I've found my biking forum home too, loads of helpful replys, cheers everybody

EDIT: That was TPF&T, balls, about £270 for fully comp, what do u guys reccomend there?

[Ingah]

[orangepeeleo]

Just had a quick look on autotrader and your spot on about there being more ER-5's and GPZ500's for under £1k, specially the ER-5's theres some quite low mileage ones on there atm.

One question i have though that i've never seen before, ads like the one below, in the ad it says sold for spares or repair, does this mean its fubar'd?? Seen a few cheap bikes with the same kinda advert and just ignored them before.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/200947346680621/sort/priceasc/usedbikes/engine-size-bikes/325cc_to_525cc/model/gpz/make/kawasaki/postcode/nn188dr/page/1/radius/1500?logcode=p

Anyways, 3rd mind change today, it's an ER-5 or a GPZ500S for me now, i'd be quite happy with either of those i think and looks like theres a good choice of decent ones after having a quick scan on autotrader.

[That_Hornet]

[That_Hornet]

GPZ's are awesome bikes.

They chug along for ever......... I get about 120 miles out of a tank, i put in about £16 worth.

A few things you have to be careful of tho. The exhaust is one. I would suggest buying one with a Nexus or motard system already on. That saves a lot of bother when it starts to pepper.

I'm going to strip mine down this summer, and make it into a Rat/fighter


Edit:

As for spares or repair, its essentially not working. Could be a simple fix, or could be a massive rebuild.

[orangepeeleo]

I would say that your car NCB is taken into account in some way, i just got quoted around £250 fully comp for a CB500 and thats with no biking history and licence details as if i'd passed last week. The only way it could be that low is for them to take into account my car NCB imo

[orangepeeleo]

[badas]

when i first got my bike i spend £1100 prety much,

got a 125cc Honda MTX R all the gear and insurance, the bike of course was the most expensive but picked up all my gear for £100 excluding boots, the boots added an extra £45.

i got all my stuff at a bragain price but of course the bike was most expensive, seccondly the insurance

as your older than i am though and maybe with no claims bonuses on your car your insurance should be considerably cheaper.

i would reccomend a 2nd hand first bike, something your comfortable with and take your full bike test when your happy

goodluck

[That_Hornet]

[orangepeeleo]