First Big Bike

Appleby

Appleby

Appleby

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Joined
23 Jul 2011
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156
Evening all,

I was wondering if I could pick your collective experienced brains! I passed my DAS Autumn last year however work commitments prevented me from getting my own bike (it would have been sat in a garage for 6 months!) but now all that is out of the way and I'm starting to look.

I've done some research but not really chatted to anyone so I wondered what your opinions would be. I've been looking for a naked 600cc ish bike, things like hornets and bandits. Main use is for riding for fun however it would be nice to head to work and back on it occasionally. I did my DAS on an 08 CB 600 which I found comfortable and nice an easy to ride (so hornets are good!). I also got to go out on a 500cc Suzuki (sorry not sure on model) which was much older, more knackered however very much still fun!

What's a good budget to set for a first bike (I know this could vary crazily). I started looking at a couple of grand, but adding a little extra budget seems to get so much more, however threads like this make me a little nervous about buying a newer bike with no experience!

These are the sort of things I've been looking at:
GS500
Bandit
Hornet

I love the idea of something like the newer hornet, should hold its value well, ABS and decent immobilizer, but in head vs heart, head says go cheap until you have some experience!

Also lots of questions about buying a bike! Will a dealer be worried about doing a test ride with little experience? How have you found dealers to be when negotiating prices (any wiggle room)?

Any stories or wisdom from buying your own first bike?

:)
 
Kawasaki er6
Yamaha Fazer 600
Suzuki Sv650

I would buy a cheap used bike for your first bike,aslong as its in decent condition and its been serviced I wouldn't worry about the mileage

older mid/late 90's,early 2000 sportsbikes are decent aswell,cheap insurance and parts
 
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First thing, do an insurance quote on any bike you're thinking about. You may find (depending on your age/location/etc) quite a few bikes are ruled out due to high insurance cost. However, naked 600s should be fine for most "older" new riders.

How many miles are you gonna be doing? All year round/all weather biker? These factors will influence your decision. Also think what sort of engine type you prefer.

At a couple of grand you have the pick of the regular "commuter" 600's - fazer, hornet, bandit, sv650, and so on. You have to be looking at around £3500-4000 before you start seeing nicer bikes like street triples etc. There are a lot of 600 sports bikes out there, srad gsxr etc but insurance on these is likely to be 2x or 3x that for a naked 600.

I was in the same situation as you just before Xmas, I do 10k a year in all weathers and I had narrowed my choice down to an aprilia shiver 750 for about £3000, but in the end I ended up with a rare Honda CB400 super four VTEC for £1700. So I've looked at and done research on most of the regular starter bikes - any questions fire away :)

All being well, I'll be looking at buying a second 'special' bike to accompany the CB for summer/weekend use - currently an Aprilia Tuono Factory Gen2 for about £5k is tickling my fancy :D either around May/June time or in October when bikes are a little cheaper and I'll have my first year as a biker out the way.

Of and test rides - a lot of used dealers (smaller ones) don't do test rides flat out. Some do though, and you should have no issues getting some rides on demo bikes even though you're a new rider. If I wanted to I could have ridden a street triple, ducati monster 1200 with no problems. I did ride a monster 821, which was awesome. A Monster 1200s went on my (ever expanding!) "must own" bike list that day :D
 
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I've got a faired SV650S, had it for a couple of months and commute in everything except ice.

So far, I love it. It's cheap to buy and run, fuel efficiency is pretty good, and it satisfies a small part of my desire to have a sports bike because it's faired. It's also pretty quick and has a lovely v twin noise, which has plenty of grunt low down (handy for commuting as you're not having to change gear much).

I thoroughly recommend it as a first big bike.
 
As the creator of the dropping your bike thread I feel I should add:

The general consensus is you'll drop your first bike... and your second... and third... and most likely all of them. Or you'll never drop one... or you'll hit oil and drop it first week like me.

Basically don't worry about dropping it, It may or may not happen :D

Nah I'm happy with my CBR600F as my first bike. Dropped it first week putting my foot down in a patch of oil. No damage though, so it's all good. All great suggestions above and it does seem that insurance is the biggest factor in the UK.
 
Hornet!! :D (just a shame they put the exhaust down on the side on the later models. Still nice though, but I prefer older models with the exhaust under the seat)

Still got mine. £50-ish tax, £130 insurance (I'm 23, 3 years ncb, 2 year old Cat A licence) and decent on petrol. Cheap parts & easy to repair yourself with a Haynes manual and some patience.
 
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I found a few insurance quotes I had would require them to phone you once they had taken payment to confirm your details, yeah weird. Then they would say "Oh because you're a new rider with little/no experience the insurer has put the price up £xxx, do you still want the policy?".

I'm now waiting to get a refund from said insurer/broker as it was ridiculous to take money then ask for more.
 
My first bike was a Street Triple, very closely followed by an SV650S, and both are great bikes for a first time rider.
 
tsinc80697 said:
I found a few insurance quotes I had would require them to phone you once they had taken payment to confirm your details, yeah weird. Then they would say "Oh because you're a new rider with little/no experience the insurer has put the price up £xxx, do you still want the policy?".

I'm now waiting to get a refund from said insurer/broker as it was ridiculous to take money then ask for more.
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That's weird, never had that before. I've always just gone onto Confused or GoCompare, picked one that suits me and went for it.

I'm with BikeSure at the moment who have been very good. They guarantee to beat another provider's quote and stuck to that promise for me and even went below. So every year I just get onto the comparison sites, get the cheapest one and ask them to beat it, which they do.

The legal company they used when I got hit was also very good.
 
wazza300 said:
Kawasaki er6
Yamaha Fazer 600
Suzuki Sv650
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Thanks for this! I will add these to the list to look out for!

TallPaul_S said:
lots and lots of good stuff
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I've run quotes on the bikes I put up, all pretty reasonable. I don't have to worry about running up massive mileage as I've already got cars for my daily commute. (Although yes I will be running the bike up to work and back occasionally).

robin7 said:
As the creator of the dropping your bike thread I feel I should add:

The general consensus is you'll drop your first bike... and your second... and third... and most likely all of them. Or you'll never drop one... or you'll hit oil and drop it first week like me.

Basically don't worry about dropping it, It may or may not happen :D

Nah I'm happy with my CBR600F as my first bike. Dropped it first week putting my foot down in a patch of oil. No damage though, so it's all good. All great suggestions above and it does seem that insurance is the biggest factor in the UK.
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I already dropped one of my bike schools bikes :( First time out on a big bike, doing a U turn I panicked a bit grabbed the clutch and killed all momentum, bike was already leaning and I wasn't ready to catch it. I ended up just laying it down in slow motion.

tsinc80697 said:
I found a few insurance quotes I had would require them to phone you once they had taken payment to confirm your details, yeah weird. Then they would say "Oh because you're a new rider with little/no experience the insurer has put the price up £xxx, do you still want the policy?".

I'm now waiting to get a refund from said insurer/broker as it was ridiculous to take money then ask for more.
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Which insurer was this? One to avoid for everyone!

Kreeeee said:
My first bike was a Street Triple, very closely followed by an SV650S, and both are great bikes for a first time rider.
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Street Triple is one of the reasons I wanted to learn to ride! (Used to live very close to a Triumph dealership when they first came out!). I have a feeling insurance may rule this out as a first bike though!
 
Appleby said:
Street Triple is one of the reasons I wanted to learn to ride! (Used to live very close to a Triumph dealership when they first came out!). I have a feeling insurance may rule this out as a first bike though!
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You'll be surprised, a street triple was roughly the same price for insurance as most other naked 600s for me, that's around £500 fully comp. 10k a year, not garaged, 0 NCD, new rider and inc. commuting. SV650 was a little cheaper but only by 50 quid. CBR600F was the same but go to a 600rr and the cost increases by 3x, same for the Daytona vs the street triple.

Doing quotes for me on the tuono factory (a 130bhp 1000cc V-Twin naked supersport) comes out under £500 fully comp, commuting, 4k a year, garaged, 1 years NCD - and that's with me not having had my licence for a year yet. :cool:

Even as new rider a cb1000r was only around 700 quid fully comp doing the same 10k a year. Most naked bikes are pretty reasonable for insurance for new riders.

Oh and I'm paying £98 a year TPFT on my CB400, 10k a year, 0 NCD as above :D
 
you can go for older bikes aswell,thats where you save a lot on insurance

they are still powerful machines

EDIT: wanted to mention a faired bike will tend to keep you dryer than an unfaired/naked bike,esp with the large screens they have so worth bearing in mind
 
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RCIB was the broker that takes the money then phones to "confirm" details and increase the premium.

I ended up going with Devitt as I struggled to get anything half decent having an 800cc bike as my first bike.
 
Lots of good info guys! Keep it coming. I had started looking at cheaper bikes (bank account breathes a sigh of relief) till you came along Paul. Street triple £450 fully comp so not much more than a hornet!

Where do you guys look for bikes? I've tried the usual suspects that I would for cars (PH, Gumtree, auction sites etc.) however not so clued up on where to look for bikes?
 
I set up saved searches on AutoTrader and eBay so I was notified instantly of new bikes. I didn't find many, if any, on MCN that weren't on AT/eBay.
 
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