Need a commuter hack bike

Rilot

Rilot

Rilot

Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
23,788
Location
Wargrave, UK
I'm sick of my 8 mile commute from Twyford to Reading taking 45 minutes every day, each way so I'm going back to commuting by bike. I'm not going to use my RSV though as it's not nice in heavy traffic and TBH, I don't want to ruin it. That is my weekend transport.

What I want is a cheap to buy, cheap to fix bike with a bit of grunt that won't cost the earth when I lob it up the road. Preferably a twin or a single. Maybe air-cooled. Hopefully with some kind of a fairing or screen.
I don't want to spend any more than £1200 as the thing is going to be ridden in rain, ice, salt and generally abused.

I've thought about:

Suzuki GS550 - Very old but air-cooled and bomb proof
Kawasaki GPz550 - Decent hacks but are they reliable?
Kawasaki Zephyr 550 - They turn to dust fairly quickly from what I remember
Kawasaki ER5 - Popular with learner schools so I guess they're OK
Kawasaki KLE550 - Big trailie but a bit rare
Yamaha Divvy - Most of these are abused ex dispatch bikes
Honda NTV650 - Same problem as the Divvy

Then there's the option of a vintage sports bike. I've seen FZR1000s, ZZR1100s and CBR600s for that sort of money in reasonable nick.

Has anyone got any experience of buying hacks in this sort of price range? What would you recommend? Remember that I'm a halfway decent spanner-monkey so there isn't much I can't DIY.
 
Honda CB500. These appear to last forever!! Parallel twin, air cooled if I remember rightly.

Surely you should be able to pick up Suzuki Bandits 600cc for about that price these days too?
 
I bought a 78k miles NTV650 last year for £500 off ebay. Tatty looking, but no problems yet. Economical and is cheap to insure. Nice in town and the riding position is easy on the arms. Mine is naked so 90+ is an arm ache!!! Shaft driven too, so no chain to worry about maintaining. Plenty of parts on ebay should you need to replace any.
 
GPz500, the twin.
Supposed to be able to do around 250 miles on a tank full.
Pretty bullet proof motor. Has a fairing as well.
 
another vote for the CB500

solid bikes.
used by couriers all over london because they are cheap, reliable and easy to maintain.

other options would be a Suzuki bandit 600 or the 400 (import) which as just as bullet proof and easy to maintain.
 
I love commuting on my Mille. :D

I don't often have the time available to go out on it at weekends for fun, so using it a couple of days a week for the commute helps keep it all ticking over nicely rather than just sitting still at home on the stands.

I can see your reasons for not commuting on your one though. Mine has racked up around the 20k mark as far as mileage goes and most of that has been via the commute. I stay away from the motorways so the tyres dont get squared off and stick to the back roads, its about a 36 mile round trip for me.

Nothing better than arriving at work feeling refreshed and ready to start after a good blast in on the way on the bike!!! :cool:

Anyway, as to your shortlist, I've had a KLE before and it was a good bit of fun to ride, only thing I didn't like on it was the slanted seat which tends to force you to slide down towards the tank and means you have to keep adjusting your position a lot. Nice little bombproof engine and fun in the twisties.

You can also grab a half decent GPZ500 for the kind of cash you are looking at although they are a bit wheezy and slow ( especially after coming off an RSV ).

To keep the "fun" part of the commute, I reckon your "plan B" idea is a good one - grab an oldish superbike.

Something like an FZR1000RU ( one with the single projector beam headlight ) could be had for little cash and as long as you buy wisely, would be a great tool for riding to work on. Not sure, but I think you could just about get classic insurance for something like that nowadays. There are a couple of good 'uns on fleabay just now.

Or what about something a bit different?. Early Trumpet T595 perhaps?
 
FZR Thou' does sound tempting. Early non-usd forks one with a few miles on it would do me nicely. Plenty of grunt and they're dead easy to work on. Crash it? Fine, rip off the fairing.
I know I should go for something like a CB500 but they are just so damn soul-destroyingly bad. I mean, other bikers don't even nod when you own one of those. At least with a Thou' I'll retain some of the hairy biker image :P

Shimmy said:
8 miles? Use a pedal bike, even cheaper! :p
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What do I look like to you? Fit?
I'm bald, I smoke 20 tabs a day and drink too much. Not going near anything without an engine. :)
 
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