Buying a motorbike

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fez

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Right, im 21 and I need somthing to be able to get about on. I work about 13 miles away from home and the route is mostly b-roads. How dangerous are motorbikes through the winter. I dont want to be worrying about falling off all the time if the weather is poor.

I have done all my driving lessons but honestly I cant see myself affording a car in the near future and the cost of it makes it pointless for the use I would get out of it.

I have always loved bikes of all types since I was young and have wanted a motorbike for a good while. Im going to do my CBT once my new provisional comes through.(old one expired)

So if you kind folk could answer a few questions that would be great.

1. How much will it cost to get all the stuff I will need such as leathers etc.
2. What bike should I look to get and how much will it cost inc. insurance.
3. How dangerous are motorbikes in winter?
4. Any other nuggets of useful info would be great as well.

Cheers
 
1. If you're doing it on a budget, with a view to just practicality, you could get kitted up for about £200. You could easily spend £1000 though - just depends how fashion concious you want to be!

2. A good CG125 would be about £1000, maybe cheaper, and would do about 80mpg and cost £15 a year in road tax. You'd only need a CBT

3. Depends a lot on the rider. I know people who have crashed loads, and people who have never crashed. My dads just hung up his helmet after commuting to work on his bikes for about 40 years - never had an off. Its fair to say he's very cautious. Bikes aren't inherently dangerous or unstable. Tyres these days are superb in the wet. Diesel, dopey car drivers and impatient filtering are the biggest risks when commuting, especially in bad weather.

4. Buy heated grips and a one piece waterproof suit - its more hassle to put on but stands a better chance of actually keeping the water out, and also reduces wind chill massively
 
Winter is obviously going to harder, but aslong as you keep your eye out on the road surface you will be fine, id recommend using something sit up maybe a trials or supermotard for B roads and winter use, they will take the weather abuse and if you do go down bugger all will break usually :p
I have used sports tourers and a sportsbike for the last 3 winters and only came off due to diesel and being a noob basically, never come off when its raining/icy/snowy lol
But I have noticed last winter was this new grit they are using, its worse than the rain :/
 
Sagalout said:
2. A good CG125 would be about £1000, maybe cheaper, and would do about 80mpg and cost £15 a year in road tax. You'd only need a CBT
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My old CG did about 100mpg quiet easily, but then it struggled downhill with backwind to get to 70m/h on it. But it was perfect in town, down B roads though? Only time I went down them was on for fun rides so no idea how nice it is to commute down them. My commute was through town in all weathers (other then snow) and with waterproofs it is really nothing at all. Generally only my gloves got wet if at all.

But agree with what Sagalout said.
 
the CG125 love on this forums scares me..

yes it's a sensible reliable bike, but I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than ride one.. they are underpowered, unexciting, bad handling piles of dog poo :D

26 miles a day is quite a way for a tiny bike... prolly best off just getting a 125cc twist and go scooter unless you plan to get into biking properly in the future in which case the CG would be a ok quick stepping stone to something better. (a 4 stroke machine would be best for the milage I guess)

not sure there is any 125 4t scooters ?

winter is ok, just pay big attention to the road surface, but your not going to be pushing traction limits on a 125 much, but it's easy to slip off if inexperienced.... heated grips are for old men (though I'm starting to like the sound of them lol)
 
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Depends if the OP is wanting something fun or practical. You cant beat the CG as a cheap form of reliable transport, and it would be much more capable than a scooter, not least because I wouldn't want to be going along 13 miles of B roads with those tiny wheels! Plenty of people have done proper touring distances on a little CG!

Thinking about it, Stormer on here had a nice little 125 - a Honda trials style bike.

Of course the best solution is to pay the money for the test and get a proper bike, but thats starting to get relatively expensive.
 
fez said:
1. How much will it cost to get all the stuff I will need such as leathers etc.
2. What bike should I look to get and how much will it cost inc. insurance.
3. How dangerous are motorbikes in winter?
4. Any other nuggets of useful info would be great as well.

Cheers
Click to expand...

I’ll try to add some input:

1. This is going to be pretty costly, anywhere from £400 to £500+ at rough estimate – the lid being the most important bit, when I picked up my first set of kit it cost me:

AGV S4 helmet, Ixon textile jacket and gloves - £250 after chatting up the woman working the clothing section of a local bike shop.
Frank Thomas textile trousers and Sidi Vertigo boots - £260

This was all pretty cheap kit in comparison with my crashed kit and my recently bought kit, the former being ~£1,000s worth and the latter ~£1,300+), but I still have all of the above and used to use it on commutes to work.

2. Do you have an idea what bike you would like? As you are 21, you have the choice of taking a restricted test, thus limiting you to 33bhp, or go for direct access, meaning you can have any cc bike you wish – this is the route I took.

From my limited experience, I found that the DAS 500s were very good first ‘big bikes’ and seen as I passed on one, I’d recommend a lovely yellow Suzuki GS500E :D

Insurance will greatly depend on bike and the area you live in, me for example, I had an 06 Kawasaki Ninja 636cc, cost me just over £900 fully comp, whereas a friend of mine insured his GSXR600 for about £700 f/c (better post code!).

3. I rode a ‘track focused’ bike throughout winter, with little experience, and never had any issues, other than getting a bit cold. Common sense will prevail on this one though, as you will know when it’s not suitable to ride – i.e. in snow or ice, maybe wet with lots of leaves too.

4. Whatever you do, do not go for a 125cc bike, I personally see no point to them when you can legally ride a ‘big bike’, they are just complete tosh by comparison. A nice 500cc will do everything better than a 125cc, you also feel safer on them too, only thing they do get beat on (usually) is MPG.

Scort.

P.S. On the subject of bikes, I wish I was fit to ride, I'd buy this in a heartbeat :(
 
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Get a car.

Riding a motorbike in winter is no fun, its also not safe , I used to do it years ago, and although i am currently going to work on a ratty ZZR 600, as soon as it starts getting cold, i'll be in the car.
 
Sagalout said:
Thats really cheap! I literally (well, last week) just sold my bike which was identical to that one but a bit more standard, and got £4350 part ex!
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I'm sooo tempted, I have the money for it, but can't physically ride it just yet :(

[Eddie from Bottom]I wonder if they do a delivery service[/Eddie from Bottom] :D

Scort.
 
I have driven a car for 7 years. Only recently (2/3 months) passed my test.

Bikes are awesome. I have yet to experience REALLY bad weather but with the proper gear the only thing that is really going to stop you is:

High Wind
Frost/Ice/Snow
Extreme Rain

Depending on your dedication to riding ofc, however, when it starts getting cold I can imagine it getting to the point where I will use my car. Although again, there are many people who ride a bike all year around, they just got balls.

Essentially from my experience of doing a similar commute ever day to the OP - 650cc is £15 to fill up to full. I get 150 miles on that.

Bike avoids traffic which is amazing and generally I enjoy the experience of travelling on a bike a great deal more than driving a car through ****ing traffic.

Also, although I'm nearly 25, my insurance for the year was just UNDER £200 and the road tax was I think around £60 FOR THE YEAR.

Cheap, fun + easy. Just don't buy any old heap of a bike, and spend some money on decent riding gear and don't act like an idiot on the road. (In a car if you mess up you are still caged/secured, on a bike its your ass and the tarmac :))
 
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Flukester said:
not sure there is any 125 4t scooter?
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Virtually all new 50 and 125 are 4-stroke now, 2t's can't pass the strict emission laws very easy.


If i was you i'd get larg-ish 125 scooter that way you get some fairing and big screen to protect you a bit a comfy seat and can almost have your legs straight. A Yamaha majesty or something. I would'nt get a Supermoto or off road type bike as you get absolutly no protection from the elements on them plus you'd have to keep washing it every few days to stop the road salt eating the damn thing alive.
 
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My first bike (back in 1988) was a CB100N and on that I rode 30 miles to work. My commute included 10 miles motorway and 10 miles B-roads. However I started work at 6am so traffic was light.
Motorway riding wasn't a problem, but B roads were. Biggest problems on the B-roads were mud and cow dung. Fog can be a problem as well, as the inside of the visor can get misted. Riding through freezing fog with the visor open is not a pleasant experience. I also rode when through the winter and occasionally had sheets of ice falling off me.
 
DIABLO said:
Bike tax is £15 a year
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Not really true.
My GSXR 750 is £66 for the year, I believe that a 125 is around £15 but then it jumps up in stages.

I would take your CBT then do the DAS course, otherwise you will waste £100 every couple of years re-qualifying.
If you just want sensible commuting with all the thrill factor of a garden pea, then opt for either the Suzuki GS500 mentioned earlier or a Honda CB500. Both will take loads of commuting abuse and shouldn't cost the earth to run / repair.
Otherwise, something like a Yamaha 600 Thundercat, Suzuki RF600, Kwak ZZR600 would give you some form of practicality with a bit of fun built in for when the weather gets warmer.
 
I ride my gixer to and from work pretty much all year, only days i wont go out is when i wake and theres snow on the ground.

Most of my driving to and from work is motorway so ice isnt a problem its just a big fall of snow which they dont expect which will keep me off the bike.

BTW thats only rougly a 20mile trip for me to work, a good warm jacked and bottoms and you wouldnt even notice the winter :)
 
DIABLO said:
Bike tax is £15 a year
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As pilfered from the DVLA:

Not over 150cc = £15.00
151-400 = £33.00
401-600 = £48.00
Over 600cc = £66.00

All prices are for 12 months tax.

I was a bit miffed when I first got tax for the Ninja as the extra 36cc put me into the same tax bracket was 1000cc beasties :( But it's still cheaper than my car - £185.

Scort.
 
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