Cheap commuter

agnes

agnes

agnes

Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2006
Posts
16,865
Location
Amsterdam, NL
It's going to run me from home to a train station, I don't care for fun or speed, cheaper the better. But needs to be reliable (yes, let's crack jokes about it not being a Ducati then... Although I'm tempted by a Monster!). It's a 8.7 mile trip each way. So I think a jap IL4 is much more suited to this.

Anyway, that's mostly irrelevant. The point is, I need a cheap as F jap commuter, if I can stick a back box on it, epic. But I've got a car that I can use in that situation. This is simply to save me over £1,300 a year in parking fees as we all cut down commuting costs. 20mpg is tiresome on such short trips.
 
agnes said:
I don't care for fun or speed, cheaper the better. But needs to be reliable
The point is, I need a cheap as F jap commuter, if I can stick a back box on it, epic.
20mpg is tiresome on such short trips.
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Honda CG125 - Tank range measured in continents rather than miles, cheap to both buy and insure, lightweight and easy to fling around in traffic, solid build, nippy enough, can take luggage, parts are plentiful and loads are for sale.

Unless you really need something bigger than a 125, for some reason?
 
suppose you could go for the monster provided you treat it gentle?

seen a zx6r on ebay for £750 41k but needs top fairing as its cracked

Yamaha fazer? maybe
 
Buy something on condition rather than price - 9 miles is still a decent commute, pretty normal for a lot of people.

A 125 might not be ideal due to them being more expensive, and do you really want to be doing 90 miles a week on a 125? :D

CBF500 or something like that. Cheap enough that when it gets dented in the car park you won't care, 40-50+mpg, pick one up under a grand easy. Oh and probably couple of hundred a year to insure, if that.
 
 
With the brief that you don't care about fun or speed and cheaper the better, I'd go for a 125cc moped. You can pick a good one up for around £600. Cheap to insure, big mpg, etc. It won't be much fun, but it meets your requirements.

Otherwise something like a mid 90's CB500, I found one after about a minute on biketrader, looks ok and is going for £750. In fact I'm tempted to buy it myself for a winter hack.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201503292170364
 
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TallPaul_S said:
Buy something on condition rather than price - 9 miles is still a decent commute, pretty normal for a lot of people.

A 125 might not be ideal due to them being more expensive, and do you really want to be doing 90 miles a week on a 125? :D
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I do 150 miles a weeks on my Suzuki van van


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I used to do 200 miles a week on my varadero 125, did about 7000 miles in total. After 5-6 months though, the lack of power for overtaking etc. got annoying. If agnes is just doing 9 miles through town then a 125 is perfect, but if it's open A/B road or anything faster than a 40 limit I'd get something bigger. It'll be safer, faster and cheaper to buy (no 125cc premium).
 
After the bikes agnes has had I can't imagine a 125 would be sufficient. I still remember him shooting past me on his 1098s during the Hinckley meet and I wasn't going slowly.
 
I just pootle...The bike will do 60mph and its costs me 6 quid a week to get to work.

Its only when the weather is really bad ICE and snow when I go in the BMW...Paying fuel cost's to get work depresses me...The BMW cost around £50 per week....:(
 
GPZ500, ER5, GS500, CB500. All cheap, simple and economic commuters with a reasonable turn of speed if you really can't face using a 125 (especialy the GPZ and the CB, they will cruise forever at at 85-90mph on a motorway).

If you are going to leave it at a train station all day, you definitely don't want anything too nice otherwise It'll probably go missing.

I hate to even mention the poxy things, but wouldn't a scooter be a more appropriate vehicle? More weather protection, loads more storage etc, and they are very handy in traffic.
 
Dogbreath said:
If you are going to leave it at a train station all day, you definitely don't want anything too nice otherwise It'll probably go missing.
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Not if it's the underground parking area of Reading station - There's enough people going in at any moment that a theft will be noticed and there's probably a number of cameras, as well as a guy who goes round slapping a ticket on any car that overstays its welcome (bikes park all day for free, cars are limited to 30mins)... and if that's not enough, there's usually at least one marked car full of cops sat on the side, to boot!!

easyrider said:
The BMW cost around £50 per week....:(
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Holy HELL, man....!!!
Even at my current town mileage, that'd fuel my FJ for well over a month!!! :eek::(
 
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