Please help me to pick a bike?

[Karl]

Hello!

Recently passed my test, currently riding my Dad's Kawasaki KLE 500 which is covering the commutes quite nicely. It suffers on the motorway due mainly to a tiny screen.

I have a budget of anything up to £4k, and as I completed my training on a CBF600, I'm not adverse to a slight forward lean but do also quite enjoy the upright nature of an adventure bike. The seat on the CBF gave me a dead arse, but the riding position was fine.

My dad's Triumph Sprint 955i feels quite squished for me at 5'11" with a 32" inside leg, and I've sat on a Triumph Tiger which was very comfy, but at the top end of my budget.

Base requirements:

- Not too squished or led on the tank
- Some protection from motorway winds. Doesn't have to be a 6ft-high screen, just more comfortable at around 75 - 80mph.
- Fairly comfy seat
- Bit of poke to it. 47bhp feels distinctly non-pokey.

Bikes currently looked at:

- Tiger 800
- CBR650F
- SV650
- GSX650F

All help's appreciated!

Cheers,

K

 

[Karl]

I do love street triples, but how does it deal with motorways? Looking at 20 minutes of motorway each way at around 75 - 80mph.

 

[Karl]

I had no problems doing 100+

The speed is not in question

 

[Karl]

Thanks for your suggestions all, much appreciated!

Sorry did mean to say I had no problems doing 100+ down the motorway, you’ll always feel it more with a naked but honestly it wasn’t a problem.

Fair enough! I think it might be the screen height on the KLE causing the amount of wind turbulence I have, and perhaps a naked might actually help with the issue. Can't tell unless I've test-ridden though.

Is this for a year round commute? If it's just in summer then a naked bike will be fine but if you're commuting though winter you'll want a decent fairing and screen.

Also, how many miles a week on the commute?

It is for a year-round commute, yeah. Whenever I can ride safely, I'd like to. A fairing and screen are on my list because of this. The commute is roughly 22 miles or 45 minutes each way, with 13 miles or 20 minutes of it being motorway.

I friend of mine picked one up from Birmingham and rode it down to Southampton on motorways. He did say it was a bit windy but was happy that he had done it.

If you are looking at a CBR get a 600 not a 650. The 650's are down on power and just seem a lot softer than the 600's

Nothing bad to say about an SV650 either. I did find I wanted a bit more power after a while though

Thanks for the advice. What did you opt for instead for more power?

How about a Honda NC750X?

I have looked into these, because I really like the tank storage. RJ's review was quite good actually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-0kd9TPltI

VFR?

Looked into these, they look a lot like the Triumph Sprint to me in terms of forward leaning, higher pegs. Looking for slightly more upright than that. Mind you, people usually post threads like these saying this sort of thing, and then opt for ZX10Rs

I commute 20 mins on an SV650 at motorway speeds. Wind isn’t really a problem at the speeds you’re talking unless you hit some open ground and it’s particularly gusty. 100mph+ though and it’s like someone pushing your head backwards

Street triples look a great bike but they’re also one of the most-stolen bikes, so you need to consider that imo.

I won't be going above 80, so that's promising. Was it the SV650F/S? (Fairing, screen, naked?)

I would recommend the XJ6 and FZ8 ahead of the GSX650F.

The XJ6-N gets rave reviews from MCN, so that's interesting. I think it's mostly marked so well for its value for money. Definitely one for contention!

 

[Karl]

I'd want a faired bike for that commute, or a decent screen at the very minimum.

I've done a 180 mile a week commute with barely any DC on a naked bike for nearly 2 years, and in this weather you want the weather protection, especially if you're doing 25+ miles a day on the motorway.

I hope you've allowed for at minimum heated grips, or better - heated gloves. The windchill at 70mph at 3 degrees is huge. After 45 minutes in the mornings for me, without heated gloves my fingers were in pain.

Yep, heated grips are a must, as I'm used to having them on the KLE, and heated gloves may be on the shopping list. I bought this month's copy of Ride magazine, and there were decent pairs in there for around £160.

If you want to see just how upright/leant over you'll be, look at http://cycle-ergo.com/ that will give you an idea.

I was using that to determine how leant over I'd be on the VFR actually. How tall are you? I'm 5'11", so looking for a frame of reference from similar-height people.

So, NC750X is a very good shout, it's an excellent 'tool' to do the job.

Triumph tiger 1050 might be worth a look too.

A BMW F800ST (or even a cheap F800GT) would be another very good tool for the job, belt drive, 60+mpg.

Thanks, I'll look into those.

Don't discount a VFR800, get the 5th Gen and they're good for 100k miles, mine cost £1900 and had 23k on the clock, barely run in. It's done 8000 miles since April and not missed a beat. The battery died but I think it was the original one! Yes they're heavy when stood still but perfectly balanced when moving. They don't have ABS but the linked brakes are pretty good. 200 miles to a tank too, and they're slightly leant over but they're also dead comfy, I did 500 miles from Switzerland to Kent on mine in a single day, no issues at all.

How do you tell which ones are 5th Gen? What year do they start at? Something like this?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classi...price-asc&radius=1500&postcode=bs232sr&page=1

See if you can get a test ride on one, you'll be surprised how comfy they are.

I'll try, although I'm not comfortable with riding a bike without 3rd party insurance, and I'm currently a named rider on my dad's KLE, so don't have a policy option on that yet Dealers might have a waiver I can sign instead.

Sprints look remarkably similar in terms of riding position though, and I noticed that I have to work my neck differently to use the mirrors with that style of riding that may not be conducive to my slightly dodgy neck.

 

[Karl]

Answers:

Gerbing xr12 heated gloves - £170

6ft 3in.

Yep that's a 5th gen, they're 1999 to 2001, pre the different VTEC model.

Top man, thank you. One final question that sounds quite personal now I think of it. What's your inside leg measurement?

Coming off a KLE500 and nobody's thrown in the option of its natural successor, the Versys 650? Tut tut

Thanks for including this as an option, it's a reasonable alternative to the Triumph and BMW offerings, although it does seem to (as the Tiger did) tip the top of my budget.

The latest ones do look really cool, and I have always been fond of that Kawasaki green! https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201709129211698

Edit: Ultimately, you're in a great position in buying your first bike. I remember plenty deliberating but it was exciting. All of the suggestions appear decent to me. Enjoy the process and especially the bike that you end up with.

Thank you! I'm overwhelmed by the choice, and feel like if I could walk into a showroom somewhere and test ride a shortlist of 6 or 7 bikes, I'd be a lot happier. Cycle Ergo only goes so far for me to understand what a bike really feels like, as does perching on one with a sales person spouting figures at you!

 

[Karl]

Update. I went to a local dealer last night and sat on a couple of bikes. Thoughts:

CBF600 naked, but with a screen. No fairing, but there was a screen, and I could add a larger aftermarket one to deflect some of the wind, so not written off. Extremely comfy for me, and a known quantity as it's the bike I passed my test on! Comically done 4,500 miles since 2006

VFR - Sat on it, felt a lot lower than other bikes, knees are fairly bent which I didn't see as much of a problem, but a problem I did notice was that the slightly forward leaning angle meant I was looking in blind spots closer to my arm pits than over my shoulder. I have a slightly dodgy neck at times, so this angle is less preferred for me. Not out of the running though, as it wasn't uncomfortable to sit on at the time, was very reasonably priced, and sounded amazing when started.

TT 600 - Tried for the sake of it. Very uncomfortable. Incredibly short brake and gear levers. Meant I had to form an unnatural position to get to them.

SV650 naked - Comfy to sit on, nice and high, the model I sat on had definitely seen better days though, so not keen on that particular item.

They didn't have any adventure bikes of note to sit on, so didn't get a chance to try any out, although I know I'm pretty comfy on adventures, just looking at other models to get a balanced view.

 

[Karl]

Wind becomes an issue over 100, closer to 120. 70-80 is fine, I could easily do 150 miles at that speed no probs.

Cool. Is your SV650 the S version or N?

Personally I'd go for the SV650S rather than the naked if you decide to go that way, it's a little less sat up but I can happily do my 50 mile motorway commute at a touch more than 80mph without wind or generally getting battered by the weather being an issue.

Yeah, being a bit more leant-over than the VFR would do me no favours. I may end up going back on this one day! My neck is causing me problems as we speak, so if I was in that sort of riding position, I probably wouldn't be able to be on the bike at the mo.

If you found the VFR800 leant forwards don't go for the SV650S (check cyle-ergo.com for me it's a noticeable 6 degree difference). VFR800 also has a lot more wind protection on it than SV650S. One is a small sports motorcycle the other a sports touring bike and that's pretty noticeable imho.

The VFR800 is what i'd go for but it's also likely the heaviest, most powerful and most costly in that list... and you'll have to get over the seating position. I don't remember the mirrors being too bad but that's easy to fix it with mirror extenders, they are pretty much invisible but add 1-2 cm which helps loads, i did it on my SV650s to clear my shoulders.

Cool thank you, I'll bear that in mind.

Are you averse to a slightly older bike? If not I'd suggest looking at the Aprilia ETV 1000 Caponord, I'm the same height as you and the dimensions are nearly spot on. Upright seating position, very good weather protection and seat (post-05 may need wind deflectors to stop buffeting at motorway speeds though), ABS, ~100bhp gives it plenty of poke and it's lighter than a lot of adventure bikes. There's a few common issues, mostly electrical but there's lots of info on sorting them if it's not been done already. Main problem is finding them, particularly the facelift version with ABS, but when they do come up it ought to be well within your budget.

Not adverse to a slightly older bike, no. Some of the bikes I've looked at are circa 1999. I've recently spotted a nice example of a GSX650F for under £4k that is a 63 plate and has 3,000 miles on the clock...

 

[Karl]

Picked one!

Suzuki RF900R.
- Not upright riding, but comfortable to feel like I'm not really squished. Got used to the position quite quickly, and found the bike very nicely balanced.
- Plenty of fairing for protection from the elements, 80mph feels like 50mph, and thanks to an aftermarket screen, the wind goes right over my head.
- Extremely cheap.
- Goes like stink when you're considering I've moved from 47bhp to 120bhp.

Pleased!

Thanks very much for all your advice guys.

 

[Karl]

That looks neat, never even seen one of those. Looks pretty fast generally - how much did it set you back?

£900