Buying new vs used?

[IC3]

Mostly buying 2nd hand was fine for me or my dad, but lately everything that I buy which is 2nd hand breaks... I'm thinking whenever it would be a good idea to buy a brand new bike in winter, could possibly search around for a good deal.

On the other hand I was also considering buying something that has been out on the market for longer and is known for its reliability, I'm not going to buy a fairly new model like my duke as 1) Parts are hard to find, 2) Reliability isn't usually best in the fairly new models. In Duke's from 2011-2012 the stators are dodgy, this is a common issue from what KTM have told me when I called them.

I was thinking of Yamaha MT07, as Yamaha are offering to restrict it to A2 without any additional charges and once you want that restriction taken off within your warranty time you can just simply go to Yamaha and it's out of charge.

My other idea was to get a cheap commuter bike e.g. Honda or other Japanese bike and just pile miles on that and possibly save up for something with more power once I pass my DAS.

What are your opinions on this, how did you choose whilst buying your bike? Would you buy new if you could go back in time?

BTW
Any A2 compatible commuter bikes that are reliable and dirt cheap (to run)? I tried Google but I couldn't find anything that would answer my question fully...

 

[IC3]

I'll be getting a SV650 for my A2 bike when I get the last few bits of cash together; can take off the restriction after passing A and be fine with it unrestricted for a few years after that.

New or 2nd hand? You can still actually get them brand new, shame it doesn't have ABS tho...

 

[IC3]

buy Japanese then it don't matter howmany hands its been through

take my zx6r 65k miles and its still going strong,only one engine/valve clearance check in all that time

I'll, no more bikes/cars which are non-Japanese, I would probably go for a korean bike thou.

But seriously, what bikes which are suitable for A2 would you recommend, mainly to pile miles on as it'll be used for commuting?

 

[IC3]

I have noticed that not a lot of SV650S come with full fairings, why is that?

 

[IC3]

The s is just with the front fairing & no belly pan, isn't it? Then the Sa is fully faired.

I see now, seems strange to me, its usually naked or with fairings. Suzuki went tard and fought lets offer a half-faired bike...

 

[IC3]

Yup, it does look very weird, part faired makes the front look really weirdly skinny. I'd go for fully naked or fully faired

That was exactly my thought when I started looking at them, it just seems like there's something missing from the S, N or SA is the way to go.

BTW

I don't mind getting an older bike, its just like Wazza said that once the bike starts to break or wear out. Once you add up all the costs and possibilities of what can possibly go wrong, adding that 1.5k more for a brand new bike with 2-3 year warranty doesn't seem like a stupid decision. You don't have to worry about anything, somethings wrong? Just get it back to the dealer which will most likely give you a courtesy bike for the time your bikes gets repaired.

I'm not going to do any finance or anything along those lines, so since I could potentially pay with cash and pick the bike up at the same day, this should motivated the sales person to give me a better deal (especially in winter.) Or is my way of thinking wrong?

bikini fairing, works on some bikes.

I personally dislike that kind of look, its either full fairings or none. Although on bikes such as BMW GS this kind of fairing does look ok, but that's not the case with SV...

 

[IC3]

Going jap is a good idea for a reliable commuter - I've done a combined 15000 miles since April 2014 on 2 Honda's and (touchwood) never had anything go wrong that wasn't my fault.

My CB400 is 14 years old and never misses a beat, neither did my varadero 125.

Being your first big bike, you'll probably drop it. I did! And if it's something cheap that you use every day, gets covered in road salt/muck/grime every day, you won't care too much when you drop it and scratch it.

Anything nice will get ruined in a normal british winter I'm afraid. Suzuki's tend to fur up a bit over winter too, or so I've heard.

So, my advice, if you're doing upwards of 5000 miles just commuting and using it year round - get something cheap to commute on. Then do your time (2 years, it'll go fast!) on the A2 licence and put money away ready to buy a shiny weekend/summer bike to keep sparkly and clean

There's loads out there for under £2000, get something 600cc and under the bhp limit and restrict it.

There was a good graph showing the 150bhp mode and the 100bhp mode on the multistrada - the graphs were nearly identical up to halfway up the rev range, on a restricted bike it's only top end that is affected, you'll still get most of the bottom end power.

ATM I can only afford to buy 1 bike, still studying... So it's either buying a brand new bike or going 2nd hand which I don't mind as long as it'll be reliable.

They originally never supplied a full faired, that's only 2007 onwards or something like that.

The fairing lowers were originally aftermarket then Suzuki cottoned on that they were missing a trick, and began producing their own fairing lowers for the Pointy model.

They released a SV650 Sport with full fairings, seat cowl etc.

You always learn something new, Suzuki should have done it since day 1 imo.

I wouldn't worry about putting a new bike through winter. It's not going to fall apart on you and standards are higher these days. It's just a bike at the end of the day, it's meant to get dirty

Buying something and not using it because it'll get wet and dirty just seems mental to me

That's exactly my thought, its not a HP4 or some other fancy looking bike. It's only a budget MT07, I could probably get one brand new for 4400 if paid by cash in winter! Possibly could even pay less than that...

I love my SV 650S great commuter, nice enough place to spend 3.5 hours on a motorway or 5 hours round Wales.

Have a look at http://forums.sv650.org/forumdisplay.php?f=113 for used bikes, quite a few with the lower fairings included seem to pop up on there.

Hows the seat? On my KTM after 40-50min your bottom feels like you were sitting on a piece of wood.

BTW How tall are you and how well are those fairings doing during higher speeds?

if only you'd have bought a jap 125 to begin with,you would still be rolling

If I could only go back in time, the bike was looked after though. I don't blame the bloke who sold it since I've done over 1500 miles since, so if something was about to go wrong, it would have came up earlier than that. right?

But yes wazza you won't see me on anything else that's not Japanese for a very long time.


Edit

Going back to the older bike and being able to tweak around with it, the tweaking wouldn't be such a problem if I could leave the bike overnight in a 'garage' which I don't have. Last time when I took side panels apart it took me 50 min to take them off and 35-40 min to put them back on, but the amount of time I've spent looking for screws between those stones that are in my garden is ridiculous... I was thinking of spending 4.7k on KTM Duke 690 anyways, so I might as well go for the MT07 which just seems like the right bike for me apart from it doesn't have fairings.

 

[IC3]

Thing is a Japanese machine wouldn't have burnt its stator out like that

I like the Yamaha wr125's could have seen u on one of those

In KTM's burning a stator seems like a normal thing...

You'll most likely see me on a MT07 or MT07 Tracer (should be out when I pass A2.) I actually prefer tracer's front, the naked MT07 front lamp reminds me of an orcs 1 eye (ugly af.)

 

[IC3]

I like the look of the MT09 Tracer but pointless as I'm more than happy with mine for the next few years.

Buying a new house in a couple of years so once that's done I'll look at new bikes

The MT-09 Tracer is like a mixture of a sporty naked that has the positives of a tourer. I don't usually like tourers, but the Tracer series looks alright its like a cheaper version of the S1000XR.

I'm still young and most people at my age sometimes even older don't have a job and ask their parents for cash. I'm quite lucky with my job, as I do what I like, the pay is good for my age. Previously I've worked in shops, warehouses at the age of 16-17... it was horrible. I could probably be another teen spending all that money on a car, but I really don't want to as the car would most likely not be used as often. With the age the priorities change, so in your case its buying your own house is the higher priority. I'm planning on saving up for a house when I get into the profession I want, once I get the qualification and experience. So for now, its time to have fun and spend money on something enjoyable. Most of my mates spend their income on alcohol, expensive clothes (spending £200-300 on a jacket or £150 on jeans is a bit stupid imo.), holiday (sitting next to a pool drinking alcohol)... That's just boring, I would rather go on a euro trip on a bike.

 

[IC3]

It's rare though,all the bikes I've owned havnt done that,Inc a crappy cagiva mito

Current bike 17 years old and stator is fine

Well... have a look on KTM forums and see how many burn stator threads you can find! hahaha

Haha someone with some brains

Thanks,