Help and advice please BIKE NEWBIE

[Shrek1609]

Hi folks

Ok I need advice please...

Just moved to Cornwall, a rural village and looking to get a bike, I'm 43 never had a bike... Driven cars since 17 years old, currently hold full HGV Class 1 license...

Ok now here is the issue, I have a very limited budget ATM of £1,000 for bike and license...

Insurance, helmet etc not included in that budget...

Right so I have no interest in speed, my boy racer days are long behind me

I have done some research and ruled out anything Chinese lol...

So far I have looked at things like, the honda CBR NSR etc... I know people will say get a CG125 but I don't like them tbh... Now seen the CBR NSR at around £900, leaving £100 for CBT...

or...

Would I be better off paying out for full licence at around £500 and have a budget of £500 for an older more powerful bike . If it's even possible to pick anything decent up for £500

Also as an ageing goth, I do like the cruiser bikes, for example the pioneer ks125 (I know it's Chinese and rubbish) but any advice or help would be most appreciated.

[ninja_butler]

TBH getting a full license is an expensive business, by the time you are finished and you have the license in your hand your £1000 will be reduced to loose change.

Not all Chinese bikes are bad, but there are only three or four brands I would consider buying and I wouldn't bother with anything over three years old because they've only just started to get their act together and start making bikes that don't fall apart 5 minutes after coming out of the crate.

[Shrek1609]

Hi ninja, thanks for the reply, tbh I have seen a lot of mixed reviews on the lexmoto xtrs which I believe you can pick up brand new for around £1,100 really unsure about these though. Not sure if I am correct or not but wouldn't an older honda NSR CBR hold the value better?

[ninja_butler]

The Japanese bike will hold it's value better than the Chinese bike but it also costs more money to begin with. Truth is most of us just don't really know what to make of Chinese bikes yet, I can only go on what I've read on the internet and MCN.

[Spireite]

[Rogerborg]

£1000 is barely achievable.

Think £120 for a CBT. Another £100 for helmet, gloves and waterproofs. Insurance will run you maybe £180 or so, 125s are surprisingly expensive to insure.

So that's £400 gone right away. So you can either get a license or a bike with the other £600. Assuming that you go for a 125, you'll have to be patient, quick and decisive to get a good 'un. The good news is that if that's all you're paying, then as long as it keeps running, it can't depreciate much, no matter what brand it is.

I wouldn't entirely rule out Chinese branded, and agree that Lexmoto sell the bikes that give the least trouble. You're paying for the plastics on the XTRS, but underneath it's essentially a hybrid of CBR and CG125 mechanicals. You'd be as well on something like the Lexmoto Arrow or Vixen, both of which come out of the same Dihao Motorcycles factor. The Vixen is the same bike as the fairly well regarded Houniao HN125-8, and I'd expect the Arrow to offer the same basic budget practicality.

If you can find a cheap AJS Eco around, that might be worth a look. It's made by Jianshe, aka Jianshe-Yamaha, and is credibly a domestic version of the YBR125.

But really, if you can find a YBR125 in budget, that'd be your default starting point.
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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

[MartQ]

There are loads of used Yam SR125s around for reasonable money if you prefer the cruiser look. Reliable old workhorse, easy to work on and are a bit cruisery (new word, probably not in any dictionaries - yet) in design. Quick search on fleabay brings this up among others:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YAMAHA-SR125-1993-/331079443213?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item4d15df630d

[pinkyfloyd]

I dont get it. You are not interested in speed but like the looks of the CBR and NSR which are modeled after the fast bigger bikes?

To be honest, all the Honda CBR is, is a cg125 with plastics around it.

My best advice would be get the full license, You will find the insurance is better, the riding is better and bigger bikes feel a lot more safer on the road.
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illuminateTHEmind wrote: I am just more evolved than most of you guys... this allows me to pick of things quickly which would have normally taken the common man years to master
Hockeystorm65:.well there are childish arguments...there are very childish arguments.....there are really stupid childish arguments and now there are......Pinkfloyd arguments!
Teflon-Mike:I think I agree with just about all Pinky has said.

[MC]

CBR & NSR are very different bikes. The CBR's a 4-stroke, not a lot more powerful than a CG, the NSR's 2-stroke so less reliable but a lot more powerful if de-restricted (which isn't legal as a learner but...)

Personally I wouldn't touch a chinese bike, a jap 125 bought for the right price can be run for a year without losing any money, a chinese bike is going to depreciate heavily. I wouldn't get a SR125 tho, unless it was extremely cheap (maybe a couple of hundred), as even by 125 standards they're slow & shite.

Getting a bigger bike (and license) isn't going to be easy on your budget, but it's possible and maybe cheaper in the long run. For example I'm paying £370 third-party only on my 125, when a Hornet would be £430 TPF&T.

Running a bigger big will cost more in terms of parts/servicing/fuel etc. but as your in Cornwall & mainly on country roads might be a good call, assuming you find a relatively cheap DAS course (it's winter so they're discounts out there), and your happy with the kind of bike you'll be getting for £500ish. Something like a xj-600 diversion.
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Yamaha MT-03 '08 (crashed)
Honda XR-125L '04