|
New or used for a starter bike?
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 23:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 10:40 |
|
|
Splizwarf posted:New or used for a starter bike? Always used.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 23:14
|
|
|
PlasticSun posted:A lowered F650 GS has a very low and comfortable seat height if you prefer to get both feet down, also older R100 GSs have fairly low seat heights as well. Moral dilemmas aside, I would kill for an f650gs; that's what I'd have to do to afford one, too.
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 23:15
|
|
|
you will drop it sometime, not because you're stupid but because it happens to all of us. Question is, can you handle scratches and/or tears on your 100% pristine bike because of a goof?
|
|
#
?
Jan 18, 2012 23:20
|
|
|
Well, the bike I want and can't afford is a Ural, so... yes. Also, I expect to paint it fairly regularly because I am a nerd and once was a miniature wargamer. In fact, specifically not looking to have any plastic because I'm not interested in painting it. Maybe my outlook would be different if I'd ever owned a car less than 15 years old or worth more than about $4k US. My daily driver has ~318,000 miles on it. I was more asking from the perspective of "what's the value of being sure everything is correct and good on a new bike, while not knowing good from bad on a used prospect". With a used car the stakes are a lot lower for just about every subsystem, even if the suspension collapses or a wheel flies off in a 50 mph curve, my odds are still a lot better than the same problem on a bike. Not really sure how to shop for a used bike, I guess. Splizwarf fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Jan 19, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 03:28
|
|
|
Post your local craigslist in this thread or bikes you're looking at. Someone will tell you if it is bad or good and why.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 05:13
|
|
|
Dutymode posted:Moral dilemmas aside, I would kill for an f650gs; that's what I'd have to do to afford one, too. Lowering links are pretty drat cheap, as an owner of a F650GS (single) I'd say buy a DR and just lower the thing until you can get a foot or two down. Or get an XT 225 and avoid the freeway. XT225s actively compete with 80s UJM bike prices.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 05:55
|
|
|
Splizwarf posted:With a used car the stakes are a lot lower for just about every subsystem, even if the suspension collapses or a wheel flies off in a 50 mph curve, my odds are still a lot better than the same problem on a bike. That's half the fun of riding right there!! Best is to bring an experienced rider with mechanical ability when your check out some wheels but that's 99% of the time not feasible. If you want to sperg out on your own you can always follow this guy's advice but meh. Better to post whatever ad/bike you're looking at so we can tell you what stuff to look out for.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 10:28
|
|
|
So I couldn't think of a better place to put this, but about how much should I save up for my first bike and appropriate gear? Is there a good price point that I could get a decent bike and a full face helmet/jacket? I was looking at ~1250 for a bike and 200 for a helmet jacket, is that reasonable or should I save up longer?
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 17:38
|
|
|
areyoucontagious posted:So I couldn't think of a better place to put this, but about how much should I save up for my first bike and appropriate gear? Is there a good price point that I could get a decent bike and a full face helmet/jacket? I was looking at ~1250 for a bike and 200 for a helmet jacket, is that reasonable or should I save up longer? Depending on where you live, you can probably find something not terrible for 1250. As for gear, I don't think 200 is enough. Did you mean to say 200 for a helmet and jacket? What about boots, gloves, or pants? I spent like 150 on my helmet alone and it's just a regular old HJC.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 18:27
|
|
|
Zubumafoo posted:Depending on where you live, you can probably find something not terrible for 1250. That's what I figured. I was looking at helmets today and saw prices that were about $200 more than I had budgeted- so for a good helmet and jacket, plus gloves and boots, I'm looking at another $500-600?
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 18:37
|
|
|
That's a bit more realistic. For comparison sake, my daily gear consists of: KBC helmet - $120 on sale A* stage jacket - $250 on closeout AGV track pants - $140 on Craigslist Held Score gloves - $100 on sale Sidi Fusion boots - $160 on sale Troll your local CL for used stuff (be mindful of damage, and never buy a used helmet), and check gear sites daily for closeout deals. You can nearly cut the total cost in half buying this way.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 18:51
|
|
|
What's the deal with boots, anyway? Am I going to be alright with the 9" work boots I have? I wear a US 13 EEEEEE so it's going to be downright impossible to find stiff plastic boots.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 18:56
|
|
|
Generally, hiking boots and the like will provide good abrasion resistance, but next to nothing when it comes to preventing your ankle from being snapped in half when you decide to kick the ground in a crash. If you hold a pair of good 12" riding boots, you'll see that it's nearly impossible to bend the foot portion side-to-side or twist it, and there is limited front-to-back movement as well, not to mention the armored areas that absorb impact energy. I know you can find up to size 50 UK (I think that's 14.5 US) in most boots, but I'm not sure about the width availability. Most gear sites will have a "hard to fit" search or somesuch.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 19:04
|
|
|
Ok. I would be comfortable with adding shovel greaves to these boots, that should take care of it. Thanks for the explanation.
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 21:08
|
|
|
Welcome to the dark side, Spliz. You won't look back. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 19, 2012 21:39
|
|
|
 I think I'm going to go look at this tomorrow. It's being sold by a local bike mechanic. Anything I should look for? It's kind of an old bike. He's asking $1500, is that reasonable? If I buy it, this would be my first motorcycle.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2012 20:03
|
|
|
Looks pretty solid from here. If it's in pristine condition you might not get him to budge on the price, but being that he's a mechanic I'm guessing he priced it high on CL. I'd try to talk him down a few hundred, but assuming everything is as he says and it looks nice when you check it out, that seems like a good bike. Obviously went thru some engine trouble but that's not a deal breaker. I'm not sure what he means about the valves tho.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2012 20:06
|
|
|
I wouldn't based on the fact that there's been engine work done. A solid 90% of mechanics have no idea what the hell they're doing, and the guys who have skills aren't making 10 bucks an hour at a dealership. This is even more true when you're talking about home "mechanics". I wish it wasn't true, but the good mechanics I've ever seen anywhere have been few and far between, and the chances of one of the few good mechanics out there doing your valve seat job is low. Not to mention the question of why it needed that valve job and rings at that mileage. Points to abuse. At that price, I'd pass and wait for a solid, stock engine. At half the price, I'd go for it. I have never had anything but issues from any bike where someone besides the factory got deeper than a valve adjustment. Z3n fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Jan 20, 2012 |
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2012 20:35
|
|
|
Z3n posted:I wouldn't based on the fact that there's been engine work done. A solid 90% of mechanics have no idea what the hell they're doing, and the guys who have skills aren't making 10 bucks an hour at a dealership. This is even more true when you're talking about home "mechanics". Thanks for the feedback. I did a little research on the guy and found his blog - http://rdrcr150-motorcycletech.blogspot.com/. He owns and operates a local shop that is, as far as I can tell, one of the only bike shops in town. But if the bike's only worth $750 I'm going to hold out for something newer/less risky.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2012 20:50
|
|
|
Aren't you a home mechanic, z3n? Where do the good mechanics work, if not at a dealer and not in a small operation? I mean by your post it sounds like you don't trust anyone to do...anything.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2012 20:52
|
|
|
A MIRACLE posted:
I'm shopping for the same bike right now and that seems like a terrible deal. $1500 can get you an 00s 250 with fewer miles and equally good if not better condition. Of course it might be area-specific, I'm mostly looking near the DC area.
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2012 20:57
|
|
|
Different markets really aren't comparable unless they're close, and DC to Knoxville is not imo. I don't know why you treat 1500 like it's the real price either...Its the start point for haggling. I'd be they'd easily take 1250 and you could work to a 1000 if you hem and haw enough and he's not getting any bites. If we're going to compare markets, around here ninja250s are either 08+ models for 2700 and up or mid 90s models that are heavily (poorly) modified and (maybe) running with about 1000 bucks worth of work ahead of them, at a price tag of 500-1000 bucks. Go check out the bike. You don't have to keep it forever and if it's solid enough, learn on it then off it. http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/search/mca?query=250+ninja&srchType=A&minAsk=&maxAsk=
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2012 21:06
|
|
|
nsaP posted:Aren't you a home mechanic, z3n? My experience is that most home mechanics do lovely work because they don't know any better, and dealership mechanics do lovely work because they're under a time crunch, trying to turn over too many bikes at once, or their boss pushes them to recommend work that doesn't actually need to be done. The good mechanics generally work at small independents or for themselves, which is a notch in this guy's favor. Most large dealerships make their margins on parts and basic service, anything getting in beyond a valve adjustment is likely out of the normal range of work for their mechanics. They also tend to pay their mechanics lovely, lovely wages, meaning the best mechanics don't stay in it for long. Furthermore, I don't know why an experienced mechanic would take on that bike in particular. There's not a lot of money in those bikes, and unless he got the bike for 20% of what he's asking, it wasn't worth putting the time and effort into it. It's not a money maker, and trying to make it one just means someone's getting ripped off. There's no reason that this bike needs to be the one. If it's the only bike that comes up in his area, it might be worth checking out, trying to bargain the guy down, etc. My expectation is that any work done on a bike listed in ad is going to have been done incorrectly, simply because the odds of having someone who knows what they're doing in a position where they can take their time and do the job right, are against you. As to me? I only work on my own bikes, and occasionally friend's bikes. I don't get paid to do what I do, I do it on my own time, and I don't have anything stopping me from asking for help when I get in over my head. Over the years, I may not have picked up enough knowledge to know how to do everything, but I have picked up a good sense of when I'm getting in too deep for my experience. The joys of not actually being a real mechanic...no rent to pay, no overhead to worry about, no mouths to feed, no time crunch, and no barrier to saying "I don't know why it's broken".
|
|
#
?
Jan 20, 2012 22:27
|
|
|
A MIRACLE posted:Thanks for the feedback. I did a little research on the guy and found his blog - http://rdrcr150-motorcycletech.blogspot.com/. He owns and operates a local shop that is, as far as I can tell, one of the only bike shops in town. If tires, chain and sprockets are reasonably new, it's probably worth a bit more than $750. Piston rings and a valve job isn't really an indicator of previous rough use on a EX250 with almost 20K miles on it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 21, 2012 14:14
|
|
|
Ok I'm having a dilemma here. I have a 97 Shadow 600 VLX that I got in April as my first bike for $2,200 off a coworker. Only had 4,500 miles on it, one owner and runs great. Fun bike, tons of compliments and rode it whenever I could from June through December and put about 1,200 miles on it. Only issue I ever had was on the highway or country roads (Ohio here) and getting blown all over the place. A good friend of mine has a neighbor selling his Honda VTX 1800 due to a bad back and his wife wants it gone. I took it out for a ride and fell in love with it. It's a 2000ish model (can't remember the exact year) with about 9,800 miles on it and he wants $4,000 for it. Great condition and he's including the saddlebags, helmet and windshield. I've got a friend that will give me 2,500 cash for my shadow and just got a nice commission check so money isn't the problem. The problem I'm having is I haven't been riding that long so is it wise to make the jump to a bike that size. Price wise it's a great deal, just wanted some input from someone who knows more than I do.
|
|
#
?
Jan 22, 2012 23:55
|
|
|
It's not just the power to worry about, the VTX 1800 is an enormous and heavy bike. I'd make good and sure I can stand how heavy it is - and that I could lift it myself if it falls over - before thinking about owning one.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 11:02
|
|
|
I've just put a deposit on a suzuki m109r second hander from a dealership. During the first test ride I found that the 2nd gear wouldn't stay in place at all. I had already read about problems people where having with the bike and transmission, the dealer wasn't to happy when he rang me back to tell me they would be fixing the issue and the mechanic had quoted him 20 hours labour. Am i making the right decision by waiting for them to fix it (got it dirt cheap and the price is locked in now including repair) or should I grab my money and run? The rest of the bike is in great condition and I figured I could buy another one and end up having the same issues at my cost. The dealer told me his boss wanted to rip up the contract and add another 500$ (which isn't legal) I assumed he was fishing for me to agree to that which I didn't, and he has now said the price is staying the same, well no poo poo! It also seems like I was the first one to ride it after the last bloke traded it in as they had no idea about any of this.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 11:51
|
|
|
Fast forward a week or two and you have the bike. Second gear dies. Do you trust the dealer to help you? Sounds to me like your decision has been made already. It's nice they're working to fix it but there are plenty of working bikes out there.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 13:59
|
|
|
I wouldn't do it, simply because if second gear is toast at 4k its pretty obvious the PO had no idea what they were doing and I bet there's other issues waiting to pop up. How cheap is "dirt cheap"? Cheap enough to replace the engine if it pops and still come out ahead?
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 19:11
|
|
|
I would be asking for warranty on any work they have done for an extended time or no deal, and the bike has done close to 40k but these problems seem to pop up in the m109r's as soon as 5k. I would be paying about 4 grand cheaper then anything else for sale private or dealer around my area.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 19:28
|
|
|
So I've been saving, and checking out CL for a deal, and what in the hell is with people completely and totally disregarding logic when it comes to pricing their shithouse bike? Take this ad for example: http://austin.craigslist.org/mcy/2803894155.html For god's sake, the bike on blue book retail is like 1000, and that's for "excellent" condition, which I'm pretty sure doesn't include a busted kickstand and "didn't have full power". Am I off-base, here, or is this guy nuts? How long do I have to wait to see a reasonable deal?
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 20:38
|
|
|
Kaiine posted:I would be asking for warranty on any work they have done for an extended time or no deal, and the bike has done close to 40k but these problems seem to pop up in the m109r's as soon as 5k. I would be paying about 4 grand cheaper then anything else for sale private or dealer around my area. Oh ok, at 4k less than any other bike in the area, get a warranty on the work and go to town. Contagious, people always start off as highballs. Don't get something with issues as your first bike and patience is a virtue on CL.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 20:42
|
|
|
areyoucontagious posted:So I've been saving, and checking out CL for a deal, and what in the hell is with people completely and totally disregarding logic when it comes to pricing their shithouse bike? it's a touch overpriced. you can't give those things away around here.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 20:43
|
|
|
Yeah, I'm just bitching. I don't have a ton of money and thus am stuck with the is it nice/is it cheap balance. I'm just going to keep saving until I've got enough to buy something worthwhile.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 20:45
|
|
|
Triumph Daytona 675. Why would anyone want to not buy one if they've got the money? They've been the best in that class for 4 years now. Only make sure it's an 09 model or newer - they're the new build and they've got a dedicated setup for a quickshifter. It's just plug and play.
|
|
#
?
Jan 23, 2012 22:54
|
|
|
Is it mootmoot to want a quickshifter on a street bike? Because part of me does. 
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2012 01:52
|
|
|
He's looking at an old cruiser/standard and you recommend a Daytona? And as a (I'm assuming) first bike? Jesus Christ.
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2012 03:12
|
|
|
I was considering a Triumph for my next bike (not a Daytona) but mootmoot is turning me off the whole brand
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2012 03:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 21, 2024 10:40 |
|
|
I want to get a scooter fairly soon (as in within the next few months) for my own personal transportation for when I don't need to do anything particularly intense or go too far, and I've been interested in the Honda Metropolitan. I found what I think is a deal on craigslist (http://houston.craigslist.org/mcd/2803088048.html) and I contacted the dealer about it and he said that it the original owner brought it in for a tune up but sold it back to them instead, so they're selling it with warranty and it's more or less new. I'm fairly new to this and want to avoid making any sort of dumb mistakes if I can help it, so I was wondering if there's any advice to be given?
|
|
#
?
Jan 24, 2012 04:32
|
|
