Another..Which Bike Thread

[Dan 4RR]

Hi

Well, I've finally saved up enough money for what I should consider to get a reasonably good condition bike that isn't to old either. At this current stage, I have £2900 in the bank, I'm willing to spend around £1500 on the bike, around £1000 on the insurance (pretty high at 17, etc) and around £400 on protective gear, etc. The age is an important issue too, I'd like something from around 1989-1999 so I've got 11 years to choose from.

I have been browsing e-Bay for sometime now and I haven't really narrowed down my range of bikes, I'd like a 400 or a 500.

The list for the 400's is as follows:-
1. Honda CBR 400
2. Honda RVF 400
3. Honda VFR 400
4. Honda CB1
5. Kawasaki ZXR 400
6. Suzuki GSX-R 400

For the 500's:-
1. Kawasaki GPZ 500
2. Suzuki GS 500
3. Honda CB 500

The more practical side of me is telling me to get a GPZ or something similar, but the more dangerous and fun side is saying CBR, etc. (Obvisously you can still have fun on a GPZ, dont get me wrong).

So... anybody got any info, tips, helpfull advice they could give to me about the bikes.

Thanks in advance.

[map]

[iCraig]

For £1500 you'd get a very late lowish miles 90's/Early 00's CB500/GPZ500.

For that you get a very reliable bike, which is good handling, has enough power for the modern world and will be easy to get parts for and insurance should be quite low.

I know the 400's look prettier, but they are most of the time twice the age of the equivilent 500, will have been thrashed to fuck some of their lives and most will have so many mods or bodges then it'll turn into a heap sooner rather than later.

Electrics on the older 400's are shite aswell, reg/rec's go very often.
And most of the 400's are high maintainence machines.

[Adam.I]

I wanted to start another 'which bike thread', looks like I'm going to have to wait a few days.
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Veni Vidi Vici

[froggy128]

theres a yamaha fzr400 not on your list but it might be cheaper to insure .

The vfr is a nice looking bike

[johnsilva]

1990 UK SPEC VFR400 NC30

Jewel


John
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Current Bikes: ZX7R P5; KR1S C2; GPX250R F3
Previously: CBR400RR-R; YQ50 Aerox

[froggy128]

in the cheap bikes thread ive posted a nice cbr400 looks like its had alot of time and money spent on it new chain and sprokets recent service

its in manchester ends in 2 hours theres a number in the listing

https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1988-HONDA-CBR400RR-YELLOW-BLACK_W0QQitemZ4579220046QQcategoryZ9806QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[colin1]

i liked 500's until i tried everything else

i reckon 650 trail bikes will be similar insurance to 500's as they are about the same power.

far more fun.

a 400 is gonna be far more fun than a 500

You could even get a multibke policy and have a £500 500cc and a £500 400 just in case the 400 turns out to be unreliable
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[bish777]

just get a ZZR1100 you wuss. any bike inder 1000cc is pretty pointless.
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GSXR1100J

[instigator]

If I were you, I'd scrub the gsxr400 off my list immediately. The majority of gsxr4's need engine attention at 20k miles (as I found when I considered buying one).

I'd go for either a cb-1 or a gpz myself, just becasue they are known as reliable bikes.

[colin1]

insurance on that zzr1100 might be an issue
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colin1 is officially faster than god

[bish777]

CB1 is a nice 400, and is much easier to work on than a VFR when things go wrong.

Look and sound good.
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GSXR1100J