A2 Motorcycles help

[Wr125Help]

Hello, I recently passed my A2 License, I'm looking for any sort of motorcycle which will be on the cheaper insurance brackets, Just trying to find a bike on the cheaper side to run until I build up some no claims.

Does anyone know of any "reliable" bikes that would do the job?

Not looking to spend anything over £2,000 for the bike

This will be my first "big" bike other than the 125 I have had I'm looking for anything from a 250 to a 500, I'll be doing maybe around 4000 miles a year just SD&P

[ThunderGuts]

A 500 twin of some sort. Or maybe a Honda NC700 might be just in budget.
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TG.

[Freddyfruitba...]

You're going to need to provide a bit more info than that, or you'll get as many suggestions as you do replies. What size of bike? What will you be using it for? How many miles? What style of bike?etc etc
If it helps, here's a listing of insurance groups which might help you with your shortlist:
https://www.bikerandbike.co.uk/motorcycle-insurance-groups/
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KC100->CB100N->CB250RS--------->DL650AL2->R1200RS->R1250RS

[Wr125Help]

[Wr125Help]

[ThunderGuts]

These days circa £1200 seems to be the bottom end of the market; £2000 will get you something "working but worn" I expect in the category you're after. Problem is that category is particularly popular with two groups; commuters (who will pile on the miles irrespective of weather) and until the licence changed to the new A/A1/A2 system, bike schools (the bikes will not be getting the easiest life and probably get dropped once a week). I wouldn't get too hung up on cosmetics. MOT checker online will give you an insight into how the bike has accrued miles over the years - be wary of something that's barely gained any miles at all over the last few MOTs as it's probably spent an awful lot of time sitting somewhere - then you've potentially got a load of time-related maintenance issues to deal with straight away.

Don't be too specific about capacity; A2 compliance is key and that's all about power/weight (47bhp AND 0.26bhp/kg are both limits) not capacity. Unfortunately for you, many older 500s (CB500, ER5 etc.) are actually over the A2 threshold (mainly because at the time these restrictions didn't exist, these days manufacturers design the bikes to sit at or below the threshold, which is why the modern Honda 500s are 47bhp, the old CB500 was 50-something I think), although can be restricted in theory.
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TG.

[arry]

With that sort of cash I'd be half tempted to buy a CBR300 / Ninja 300 just for the lolz. Because they're not that popular you might be able to squeeze one into budget by haggling hard.

Worth a thought, anyway.

[Wr125Help]

[Wr125Help]

[arry]

[Wr125Help]

[TravisBickle]

Don't bother faffing around restricting a bike as you said (although I never actually considered this before you mentioned it) a power restriction may be counted as a modification you must declare. And anything over 47 ponies is likely to be more expensive to insure than anything under 47 ponies anyway, restricted or not.

There's a wealth of options out there but hitting your budget is going to be a squeeze. You state 'reliable' as one of your criteria. IMHO that equates to something Japanese, less than 10 years old and with EFI. Ticking those three boxes is going to be a struggle. Cheap to buy/run/insure probably means you're looking at the naked bike category also.

A quick search on AutoTrader produces these results:

NC700 start from £2500+

MT-03 start from £2700+

CB500F start from £3100+

Z400 start from £4000+

If you are willing to look at something a bit older you could consider a late model GS500 which can be found for as little as £1500 but these will be carb-fuelled.
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2024 BMW M1000XR
2021 Honda CMX500 Rebel S
2016 Triumph Tiger 1050 Sport