What garage back up bike

[Matt B]

[B5234FT]

I have a GPZ500.

Cheap tax, cheap insurance, good economy and owes me bugger all just sitting there. Always works and not too bad to ride.

Unless you're minted, the first answer is a cheap reliable one, and that tends to mean something local and well cared for, as opposed to a specific model.

[pompousporcup...]

gpz500 is great as a spare bike, but if you don't already have one i wouldnt go out and get one.

If you have to buy something, buy something fancy. That way it is still good to look at whilst it sits there for months on end.

[Rogerborg]

GPZ500 would be a decent shout if you can still find one that doesn't need anything done to it. Since even the youngest ones out there are now too old to interest Robby, you might have to go on a bit of a quest.
____________________
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

[B5234FT]

I'm not suggesting it has to be a GPZ, my point is my 'spare' bike is an elderly steel framed commuter twin, which owes me very little, but is reliable.

Those are the criteria I'd be looking for

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[G]

A bit boring; but the same bike as your main bike?

That way if you need anything either way, you could swap bits around.

When I was racing in minitwins I had two race SV650s (one of which ended up being a 'parts' bike) and stock one for commuting.

Meant if had any issues; I could easily flip parts around from one bike to another - and I could just stick the old tyres wheels straight on the commuter bike without needing to change the tyres on the wheels.

[Howling Terror]

[Pigeon]

[ZX-7R]

If it was for commuting/local use i'd just get an old PCX or similar scootay.

Though in reality i could actually get by without a bike at all as my commute is so short.Its why i go for a 10 mile blast on the way to work if its not raining so it gets the engine up to temperature once a day.
____________________
Current Bike - 2000 ZX-7R

[pepperami]

MZ 250, I known them to sit for ages and all that was needed to get them back to life was some fresh fuel and a charged battery.
Easy to work on.
Plenty spares, .
____________________
I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[evilzed]

[MarJay]

I wouldn't have a backup bike, I'd just choose another bike I like. Being that I currently have four, there's always at least 1 working.
____________________
British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[TheSmiler]

[stevo as b4]

If your generally looking after your main bike, and it doesn't have any serious issues, then I see the back up bike as only possibly needed for when your doing planned major maintenance, or waiting for parts to arrive, or if your taking the bike off the road to do work on it.

If the back up bike comes out just a few times a year, and with your commute, you could even chance a £500 or less Chinese 125 scooter, as your not going to be packing the miles on it, and if it's really cheap you won't mind if it breaks, gets smashed up or stolen.

Having something you really don't care about too much or would never choose as an only bike, can be good. As it means your more motivated to keep the proper bike on the road, and use it more often. You could have a mint CB500 or GPZ etc, but you might not bother sorting jobs out on your other bike if riding the back up bike was almost as good or capable.

[The Shaggy D.A.]

Or, halve your insurance and tax costs - buy another bike the same as your main bike and use one set of number plates.
____________________
Chances are quite high you are not in my Monkeysphere, and I don't care about you. Don't take it personally.
Currently : Royal Enfield 350 Meteor
Previously : CB100N > CB250RS > XJ900F > GT550 > GPZ750R/1000RX > AJS M16 > R100RT > Bullet 500 > CB500 > LS650P > Bullet Electra X & YBR125 > Bullet 350 "Superstar" & YBR125 Custom > Royal Enfield Classic 500 Despatch Limited Edition (28 of 200) & CB Two-Fifty Nighthawk > ER5

[Courier265]

[biker7]

Back up bike can be:

*Similar to what you got
*Change from what you got
* More appropriate than what you got
* Combination of above

I've had a Harley and a sports bike....maybe too different. I've had an older version ...maybe felt inferior on the earlier model. Had bling for nice days and easy cleaner for wet weather. At the moment I've got a 'posh' sports model with big cc and a 250 for town/wet riding. Having identical bikes can cause mental conflict. Too different can mean you get to hate one. There are no rules except that the more 'pairs of bikes' you have, the better you get at a good mix. What is nice, is when one is off the road the other steps in. 2 bikes is a minimum for me.
____________________
Swansea area
Fat Bob (2019)

[Copycat73]

its horses for courses ...
i don`t keep a bike as a back-up ..
more so depends where goin
or what i`m doin ..

try ridin a naked on the autobahn...
or a sports tourer on a gelato pleb. out

race reps are just a pain in the upper back under 60mph .. whatever road it is.. but on the A68 they are somethin else ....

i`m up to three IL4s now ..
PS...
had a go on a honda crf250 thinkin it would be a good reserve bike ... i`d fcukin kill myself ... he wouldn`t get on me R1 either
____________________
Whatever I post I have no citation and no intention of providing one..
caveat emptor

[G]

[Nobby the Bastard]

[chickenstrip]

[biker7]

[Northern Monkey]

Just buy a single bike made in the last 5 years and you won’t need an array of spares. Forcing 20 year old pos bikes to be a daily commuter is always going to be a pain in the arse.
____________________
Fisty: after polishing the tank with the glistenng beads of sweat from my full hot scrotum, I filled the headrace bearings with 10cc of my manmilk

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

I've got a '97 CB500 with 40k on it, in immaculate cosmetic condition, and needing absolutely fuck all in the way of consumables, mechanical attention or indeed anything else you could think of. I'd want £1250 for it, cash. With regular oil, and oily rag TLC on a semi-regular basis, it'd last another 20 years doing 3k per year. Afaict, at that price, it'd be less than half what you'd be paying for almost anything of comparable size and power made in the last five years.
____________________
"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125