£1500 for a second bike...

[Az]

Once the Blade is sold i'll be taking £1,500 of the sale money and putting it a side for a second bike...

The second bike will be accompanying the bonkers K5 GSXR 1000. The idea is for the K5 to be my garage queen. A bike i'll only use for sunny rides out, weekends away, long rides to Wales etc. The K5 is not a bike I want to be riding inner-city or in winter.

So, what do I want from a second bike?
A wheelie friendly, comfortable, economical (but not a necessity) & a bike which won't lose me my my license stupidly easily... which screams 690 Duke (to me at least), but unfortunately £1500 doesn't get you a 690 duke. So I thought, what about a 640 Duke... I then read about how temperamental they can be and that put me right off.

So my plans for a big single may be out the window, so what am I left with...

Suzuki Bandit 1200
Honda VTR1000 Firestorm
A 600cc sports bike with a generic headlight and straight bars (aka a "street fighter") or buy a Cat D or C and do this myself.

Besides the three choices above I can't think of anything else. What do people recommend, I must have more of a choice than just 3 options surely.

I'll be doing circa 6k miles a year on it, it'll be used throughout winter & be my main form of daily transport. It'll probably get sold when eventually replaced for a car, which in reality won't be until I'm 25 (3 years from now).

[Beehive Bedlam]

FZS 600/1000. Fantastic bikes.

[lifeisforlivi...]

What about zx9r or zzr600, you could go supermoto with a husky or similar or drz 400. You could look at adventure bikes for thumpers.

[stevo as b4]

Do you really want two sportsbikes though? Or are you an Albigularis in that it's only sports bikes and big ones at that that have enough ability and capabilities for you?

Is your 6k a year all commuting? And do you do motorways and or need a fairing? I can't help thinking that if I had a 170bhp GSXR that for a second bike I would want something as different as you can get?

Are you sure that KTM 640's as rare as they may be, are so unreliable? I expect they need alot of looking after build quality wise, but I don't remember Iain having too many issues with his?

But as suggested if you don't need a supermoto or a big twin sports bike, then a bike like an old Fazer 600 offers a huge amount of do everything daily hack ability for less than your budget. For a daily commuter personally I'd want something cheap with a bucket load of cheap spares available and unless I was doing mega miles, I'd want as little plastics to damage and have to replace as possible.

[Az]

[Az]

[talkToTheHat]

A bandit with a screen on is mightily comfortable on long trips. Plenty of room for pillions too. Handling is soft and relaxed, but they're really stable in slippery conditions. 1200 appears to be regarded as some kind of legendary wheelie machine but they're quite smooth with the delivery rather than giving you nothing followed by a big surge like a sportier bike. This is probably good for controlled wheelies.[/i]
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Bandit. does. everything.

[Mawsley]

Second bikes say to me something different. How about something that'll do your commute but, with a swift change of tyres, take you down green lanes and through mud?

XT225s now command ridiculous money but you can still find XT600s and a range of DRs around your budget. Simple to work on, cheap to run and a hoot to ride at legal speeds. I love my XT, wish I'd bought one years ago.

[Snowdonia Rider]

I always fancied an XT660X as an alternative to KTM SM's. They're dipping to near £1500 in price too.
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I want your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle.
Suzuki GP125 Suzuki GSX600F Suzuki SV650S KTM EXC250F SkyTeam Bongo 125
My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/SnowdoniaRider

[wr6133]

[Conzar]

A down geared hornet 600 isnt shy from some back wheel action
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Current ride: ZX6R 636 ------- Previous:KTM EXC 450 Supermoto --- ZX6R B1H --Hornet 600--CBR 600--SV650
11:05:35 Rob Fzs: i just wanna own an rd350 valve before they send us to war with durkadurkastan

[Pjay]

I'd hunt down an old but loved Africa Twin.
Those look like they'd go on forever and be fun as fuck, no matter what the ride. I'd happily commute on one and take it continental.
Plenty of options for storage too, so for me as a second work horse it would be a no-brainer.

I've seen a few going for about 2k, maybe find one and offer 1.5k?

[secretagentmo...]

[tom_e]

[el_oso]

CBR600F or some kind of fazer.

Would imagine the FireStorm to be a bit of a laff.
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[Conzar]

If you're wanting cheap wheelie fun, get a B1200
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Current ride: ZX6R 636 ------- Previous:KTM EXC 450 Supermoto --- ZX6R B1H --Hornet 600--CBR 600--SV650
11:05:35 Rob Fzs: i just wanna own an rd350 valve before they send us to war with durkadurkastan

[Hahadumball]

vtrs are fun as fuck, but long a roads are boring and droney as fuck
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Fin: no matter how much I look at It I can't understand what was going through my head, all I remember is going about 80 and redlining it to stop it seizing.
360 Deg... Five 1/4 turns. :- Teflon-Mike 18 Jan 2015

[rhys99]

Big single thumper? something like an XR or XT?
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21:16:02 Fin: I got a girl to believe I have a huge dick today, she's going to be so disappointed
K̶5̶ ̶S̶V̶6̶5̶0̶S̶ K3 SV650N

[J4mes]

When I was changing bikes the Husky 610 always looked quite appealing.

Seemed to come up in the £1500 range in SM form.


I ended up with an A1P ZX6R instead though!

[Billy Balthorpe]

Fazer 1000 Gen 1.

Upright seating position, half fairing, wheelies, comfy, cheap, reliable, fast enough, grunty engine. Nuff said.
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M.O.B. Successfully taking the piss since 2014.

[hmmmnz]

ive got a mint vtr1000 that you could have for £1500
but its really too nice to be a winter hack,

it certainly isnt economical,

i wintered a ktm640 supermoto, and that was great, crashed super well in the snow, i wouldnt call it a wheelie machine, but you could do one if you wanted too.
my current winter hack is a bandit 600, and its pretty damn good, easy to work on, cheap to get get spares for.
all round fun bike.

dont think id ever sell it, its just too reliable and requires minimal love.
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the humans are dead
I kick arse for the lord
Wiring Diagrams BIDNIP it bitches

[Kentol750]

CCM 644 ds or an r30 (with suzuki freewind engine)...great fun, and good for miles. Any yam 660 engine based bike or honda xl600 variant. Easy to fix and won't spoil the fun you get from the other bike.
Imho....once you get a bike that does everything, 4 cylinders are Redundant!
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Some bikes.

[talkToTheHat]

[Alpineandy]

[hmmmnz]